收继婚是原始社会先民最古老的婚俗之一，在我国历史上存在了几千年之久，从上古传说时代到新中国成立以前，收继婚现象在历朝历代的文献中都不乏记载。在元朝，收继婚从习惯法逐步上升为国家制定法。对收继婚法律规定的变化，反映了蒙汉两种法文化不断融合的过程。从收继婚制探讨元代统治者对汉地的管辖和治理，对揭示元代法律思想特征，探究草原法文化与中原法文化的冲突与协调，分析收继婚现象存在的社会历史根源，具有积极理论意义和较高学术价值。本文正文有四个组成部分。第一章收继婚的历史沿革。主要分为三个部分，第一部分从上古传说时代中有关收继婚的记载中寻找收继婚的源头，第二、三部分别介绍元朝以前我国少数民族地区和中原汉地有关收继婚俗的记载。收继婚基于少数民族尤其是北方游牧民族的生存和生活状态而出现并长期存在，逐渐由习惯上升成为习惯法，甚至被法律所明确予以肯定。在汉民族中虽然自汉朝以来历朝历代法律均对此加以禁止，但收继婚现象仍未根绝。第二章元代收继婚制度的变迁。选取元代典型的收继婚案例，从其判决结果可以看出，元代统治者对汉人中实行收继婚的态度经历了初期鼓励、中期限制、后期禁止的过程，对“依本俗”实行收继婚的少数民族，在元代中后期统治者的态度也是由限制到禁止，在民间也出现了妇女抵制收继婚的行为，蒙古族和其他少数民族中也不乏以实际行动抵制收继的烈女。第三章收继婚制的法理分析。从社会、经济、文化等不同角度分析收继婚制在蒙古族能够得到承认并且长期存在、元代汉人逐渐接受收继婚、元代中后期收继婚制衰落的原因 ，并进行了探析。第四章元代收继婚对后世婚姻制度的影响。明代统治者在建明之初，希望根除元朝所遗留的“胡俗”，《明大诰》《大明律》中都对收继婚行为明文禁止，其处罚之严厉也是前所未有。尽管如此，民间收继婚现象还是屡禁不止。满族人虽然有收继婚的传统婚俗，但清朝统治者为了推崇儒家礼教、巩固统治基础，自皇太极起就禁止民间收继婚的实行。《大清律》关于收继婚的法律规定与《大明律》如出一辙，历朝皇帝更是颁布法令不断加重对收继婚的惩罚力度。但清代皇室中仍存在收继婚的行为，民众对收继婚的态度较为宽容，民间收继婚现象也较为普遍，官府对此基本持默许态度。

Levirate marriage is one of the oldest marriage systems in the primitive society. It exists for thousands of years in Chinese history, and has been recorded in the documents of past dynasties back to the legendary era. Yuan dynasty saw the transition of levirate marriage from a common law to a statute law, and this change reflected the mutual penetration of the legal culture of Mongolian and Chinese-Han. It is very meaningful to discuss Yuan’s government in the former territory of the Hans from the angle of levirate marriage, which is also of positive importance as well as academic value when it comes to the unfolding of the characteristics of legal thought in Yuan dynasty, and the exploration of the conflict and coordination between legal cultures of grass land and central plains.This paper consists of four parts.The first chapter is the historical evolution of levirate marriage. It is mainly divided into three parts. The first part searches for the source of levirate marriage in the documents of legendary ear. The second and the third part respectively introduces records about levirate marriage in Chinese minority areas and the central plains before Yuan dynasty. Levirate marriage conforms to the actual condition of the ethnic minorities, especially the northern nomads, so it gradually rose into a common law from a custom, and was even affirmed explicitly by law in some nations. The phenomenon of levirate marriage also existed in Han nationality, however since the Han dynasty, it had been strictly forbidden ever after.The second chapter is levirate marriage’s transformation in Yuan dynasty. The author chose typical cases of levirate marriage in Yuan dynasty, the judgment of which revealed the change of attitude of Yuan’s rulers towards the Hans’ levirate marriage from encouraging gradually to forbidding. What’s more, in its middle and late period, Yuan dynasty tightened its belt of levirate marriage of the nations who took such marital institution as their own custom. There were women who resist levirate marriage in folk society, including paragons of chastity of the Mongolian and other ethnic minorities.The third chapter is the legal analysis of the levirate marriage system. The author analyzed why such a marital institution could be admitted and lonely existed in the Mongol nationality, why the Hans in Yuan dynasty gradually accepted it and why it die down from social, economic, cultural and other different angles, and tried to make a systematic summary of this marital institution.The fourth Chapter is the influence of Yuan dynasty’s levirate marriage. At the beginning of the Ming dynasty, rulers hoped to eradicate “bad” customs left by the Mongolians. So levirate marriage was clearly forbidden by Ming Da Gao and the Law of Ming Dynasty, and the severity of the punishment was also unprecedented. However in folk society it was still practiced. Although there had been the custom of levirate marriage among the Manchus, in order to promote the Confucian ethical code and to consolidate its rule, levirate marriage had been forbidden in folk society since Huang Taiji. The part of levirate marriage in the Law of Qing Dynasty echoed which in the Law of Ming Dynasty, and the later laws also set heavier punishment. But levirate marriage still existed among the royal members, and even was widely practiced in folk society.