[766] The agreement, however, must be in good faith. Should the wife plan the divorce so as to form a punishable relation with another man, it is void, and the husband may retain the woman or sell her to another as in the case of unfaithfulness: KOHLER, "Aus dem chin. Civilrecht," _ZVR._, VI, 376.
[767] MÖLLENDORFF, _op. cit._, 32; HELLWALD, _op. cit._, 380, 381; ALABASTER, _op. cit._, 182 ff.; GROSSE, _Die Formen der Familie_, 225 ff.; KATSCHER, _Bilder aus dem chin. Leben_, 90 ff., _passim_.
[768] If he puts away his wife without just cause, he is to receive eighty blows with the bamboo and take her back: WAKE, _Marriage and Kinship_, 232; KOHLER, _loc. cit._, 375; WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._, 523; LETOURNEAU, _op. cit._, 300, 301; DOOLITTLE, _Social Life of the Chinese_, I, 106, 107.
According to TSCHENG-KI-TONG, _China und die Chinesen_, 55, barrenness is the only serious ground of divorce in China, and even of this little use is made, particularly by the aristocracy; but this view is not sustained by other evidence, divorce being frequent among the lower classes: HELLWALD, _op. cit._, 380, 381.
[769] KOHLER, _loc. cit._ On the other hand, the interpretation of these rules may often be "too elastic" in favor of the man. In one of the old Chinese books, according to WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._, 524, 525, "when a woman has any quality that is not good, it is but just and reasonable to turn her out of doors.... Among the ancients a wife was turned away if she allowed the house to be full of smoke, or if she frightened the dog with her disagreeable noise": citing NAVARETTE, _An Account of the Empire of China_ (London, 1704), 73.
[770] According to ALABASTER, _op. cit._, 190, "it would seem that the husband can claim no marital rights, if he has been for five years in exile, without writing to his family, and his wife has in the meantime married again, although the law is not clear."
[771] KOHLER, _loc. cit._, 375, 376. The woman has also the right of divorce when the husband is a leper or becomes such after marriage; when he is impotent; and either party may claim the right when deceived by a false allegation in the marriage contract: MÖLLENDORFF, _op. cit._, 32, 33; ALABASTER, _op. cit._, 182.