《說文解字》女部共收238字，是全書中較大的部首之一，其中涵蓋與古代女性相關的歷史文化，本文即就其中與姓氏、婚姻相關的字群，探討古代女性的婚姻和地位概況。如「女」字表現矜莊和順的女性特質。「姓」字群12字，含古代的11個姓，表現上古母系社會，知母不知父，從母而姓，依所居地而姓，崇拜女始祖的歷史文化。婚姻、生育、親屬稱謂字群共28 個字，正表現女性的一生經歷及其身分的相應變化。其中「姪」、「娣」二字更顯示古代姪娣婚的特殊現象。先秦時代的儒家典籍《禮記‧昏義》說：「婚姻者，合二姓之好，上以事宗廟，下以繼後世。」對於婚姻的解釋顯然強調的是奉祀祖先、傳宗接代的家族利益，女性地位的低下自屬必然。

The female radical of Shuo-wen chieh-tzu “Explaining Simple and Analyzing Compound Characters” totally collects 238 words, so this radical makes a greater part of the book. And it includes the history and cultures related to ancient females. This article explores the general state of the marriage and status of ancient females in terms of the word groups related to surnames and marriage. For example, “female” shows the womanly characteristics of seriousness and deference. The twelve words of the surname word group consist of eleven surnames of ancient times, which shows that in ancient maternal society only mothers are known while fathers are unknown. So the kids use the surnames of their mothers, and are called according to their location, worshipping the history and cultures of female ancestors. The word groups of marriage, birth, relatives’ titles include 28 words, which manifests females’ life story and shifting process of their status. Among these, “cousin” and “younger concubine” these two Chinese characters further show a special
phenomenon of their marriage union in ancient times. The Book of Rites,
Whenyi, a Confucius classic of the pre-Chin dynasty times, says,
“Marriage is a good union of two surnames. It can function to serve the
temples and produce following generations.” Judging from this, the
explanation of marriage stresses the importance of worshipping ancestors
and producing children. So the family advantage is more important, and
the female status is certainly mean and low.