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It should not be supposed that this is a common Chinese practice.  It may be a local custom of which Schlegel heard in Amoy or its vicinity, where he derived his knowledge.  The Chinese marriage and divorce laws (comp. P. Hoang, Le mariage chinois au point de vue légal, Shanghai, 1898) make no reference to such procedure.  J. Doolittle (Social Life of the Chinese, London, 1868, p. 75) has the following: “It is not necessary for the husband, in giving a bill of divorcement to his wife, to do it in the presence of an officer of the Government as witness in order to make it legal.  He does it on his own authority and in his own name.  It is often written in the presence of her parents and in their house.  Very few divorces occur in China.”  In a recent work (Dr. L. Wieger's Moral Tenets and Customs in China.  Texts in Chinese, translated and annotated by L. Davrout, Ho--kien--fu, 1913, on plate opposite p. 193) is illustrated a divorce bill stamped with the hand and foot of the husband in black ink.  It is remarked in the text that the impress of a finger is sometimes used as a seal, that the paper would be invalid without such a stamp, and that in case of contestation the document thus stamped proves the divorce.