Divorce

Divorce (or dissolution of marriage) is the termination of a marriage or marital union, the canceling and/or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the bonds of matrimony between a married couple under the rule of law of the particular country and/or state. Divorce laws vary considerably around the world, but in most countries divorce requires the sanction of a court or other authority in a legal process, which may involve issues of alimony (spousal support), child custody, child visitation / access, parenting time, child support, distribution of property, and division of debt. In most countries, monogamy is required by law, so divorce allows each former partner to marry another person; where polygyny is legal but polyandry is not, divorce allows the woman to marry a new husband.

Divorce should not be confused with annulment, which declares the marriage null and void; with legal separation or de jure separation (a legal process by which a married couple may formalize a de facto separation while remaining legally married) or with de facto separation (a process where the spouses informally stop cohabiting). Reasons for divorce vary, from sexual incompatibility or lack of independence for one or both spouses to a personality clash.

Divorce (novel)

Divorce (simplified Chinese: 离婚; traditional Chinese: 離婚; pinyin: Líhūn) is a 1943 Chinese novel by Lao She, written in Chongqing, the temporary Chinese capital during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

It was translated by Helena Kuo as The Quest for Love of Lao Lee.

English translations

It was translated to English 2 times in 1948:

King's translation, no longer widely accessible, was unauthorized and heavily altered and abridged. Lao She who was in the United States from 1946 to 1949 had wanted the publication blocked, but his efforts were circumvented when King (pen name of Robert Spencer Ward) established his own publisher "King Publications" for the book. Lao She eventually took the matter to court and won the case. Meanwhile, he worked with Helena Kuo for an "authorized" translation, which also differed from the original but presumably with his approval. Kuo's translation was named The Quest for Love of Lao Lee to distinguish it from King's version.

Christian views on divorce

Christian views on divorce find their basis both in biblical sources dating to the giving of the law to Moses (Deut 24:1-4) and political developments in the Christian world long after standardization of the Bible. According to the synoptic Gospels, Jesus emphasized the permanence of marriage, but also its integrity. In the book of Matthew Jesus says "Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery".Paul the Apostle concurred but added an exception, known as the Pauline privilege. The Catholic Church prohibits divorce, and permits annulment (a finding that the marriage was never valid) under a narrow set of circumstances. The Eastern Orthodox Church permits divorce and remarriage in church in certain circumstances, though its rules are generally more restrictive than the civil divorce rules of most countries. Most Protestant churches discourage divorce except as a last resort, but do not actually prohibit it through church doctrine.