Since ancient times, China is a patrilineal clan, the status of women has gradually declined, and "women without talent is morality" is widely spread. In the family life of the entire feudal era in China, women have always been in a position of dependence, Cheng Yichuan once said: "The starvation death is extremely small, and the loss of temperance is extremely large", it is this amazing statement that makes posterity feel that the status of women in the Song Dynasty has taken a sharp turn.
However, is the status of women in the Song Dynasty really like this in China? Is it really "everyone shows the door not out of the second door"? In fact, in the Song Dynasty, women had their own unique social status: non-male appendages, independent property rights, protected by the laws of the time, etc.; and in the Song Dynasty, women had different social roles due to their different social hierarchies, and there was no shortage of people who made great contributions to society.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the status of women in the Song Dynasty</h1>
01. Women have a position in the family that cannot be ignored
"No rules, no squares" is a phrase that is popular in China to this day, which shows that rules are crucial in any period. From ancient times to the present, there is a saying that "the state has the state law, the family has the family rules", which fully explains the role of the rules in the family of the country, and when talking about the status of women in the family during the Song Dynasty, it is necessary to mention the binding force of the family law on women. There are many contents involved in family law, mainly including family sacrifice, property management, marriage, child-rearing and other aspects, and from the family law of the Song Dynasty, it can be seen that the status of women in the family in the Song Dynasty is higher.
Sacrifice is a major event of the country and a major event of the family, and it is highly valued. Sacrifice mainly refers to a ceremony in which the male head of the family presides over the ceremony in which the women of the family and everyone else should participate. "Li Ji Di Yi" Yun: "Marriage is good for two surnames, and it is better to go up to the Temple of the Sect of Things and to inherit the future generations." Therefore, the gentleman is heavy. It can be seen from this that the importance of women in the sacrifice is unquestionable, and it is their duty to participate in the sacrifice of the temple, and it can be seen from the poem that participating in the sacrifice is the right of women.
In addition, the family law also gives corresponding affirmation to women in family management, and there are many examples of women governing the family in the Song Dynasty, for example, Yuan Cai once wrote in his "Yuan Shifan" that "women have the foolishness of their husbands, but they can take care of their own household chores, calculate the money valley in and out, and people cannot deceive; And those who can raise their sons, dunmu internal and external in-laws, take care of housework, and as for the prosperity. Yuan Cai gave a detailed discussion of women managing families, which also shows that women have been successful in managing family affairs. Female housekeepers were also more common in the actual life of the Song Dynasty, such as Huang Zhongyuan once said of his widowed mother Zheng: "A woman holds a portal and wins a big husband." "Such a high rating shows the outstanding contribution of women in family management.
In today's era, "wife control" is synonymous with men, and this term is not exactly a derogatory term. In the Song Dynasty, there was also no shortage of "fear of the inside", leaving aside the well-known Wang Dan, Zhou Bida and other important courtiers, some socialites such as Yan Shu, Shen Kuo, Lu You, etc., were all given the title of "fear of the inside, well known to all". The phenomenon of "fear of the inside" was also relatively common in the Song Dynasty, which fully enabled women in the Song Dynasty to have a certain position in family life in addition to interfering in domestic affairs.
In addition, the Song Dynasty was very lenient on the issue of women's "remarriage", not only allowing women to remarry, but also allowing women to initiate divorce, giving women the opportunity to pursue freedom and a better life. Li Qingzhao, a well-known female model who opposes domestic violence, is not only not criticized by the world, but has been praised by the world; the granddaughter of Princess Qin Guo, the princess of Qin Guo, the mother of Fan Zhongyan, the Xie family, and Yue Fei's ex-wife Liu Shi, although their endings are not the same, they all have the experience of remarriage. Even later, Wang Anshi helped his daughter-in-law to choose a son-in-law, which can be seen that the Song Dynasty allowed women to remarry. With the progress of the times, the late Song Dynasty paid more attention to "chastity", but the government did not explicitly stipulate that women could not remarry.
In summary, the status of women in the family in the Song Dynasty was relatively high, and there was no situation of "women without talent is morality", nor did they restrict women from managing family affairs, and there was no explicit provision prohibiting women from remarrying. It can be seen that the women of the Song Dynasty did not reach the situation of low status, low quality or even the bottom of society.
02. Women's status in life is not at the bottom
The Song Dynasty law maintained the higher status of women not only from allowing women to remarry, but also from the criminal law. The criminal law of the Song Dynasty did not consider women to be vassals of men, reflecting respect for women's independent personality. Moreover, the laws of the Song Dynasty protected women's right to own property, whether it was an unmarried woman at home, or a widow who had married a human woman, or a widow who had lost her husband, all enjoyed the right to own property according to law, and the property was protected by law.
In addition, the Punishment for Women in the Song Dynasty was relatively lenient. Flow law - the first punishment in the Song Dynasty, and the flow law is also more tolerant of women. In the Song Dynasty, there was a law that clearly stipulated that "the law of women's flow is different from that of men, although they are old and small criminals who increase the flow of service, they also collect redemption and levy 100 catties of copper." It can be seen that in the Song Dynasty, women who committed crimes were "opened up", which shows that women are protected by law, and the law is relatively tolerant for women.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, the social role of women and their historical contributions</h1>
It is often said that "people are divided into three, six, nine, and so on, and wood is divided into rosewood", which has been the case since ancient times. In China's Song Dynasty, women were also divided into ranks, but no matter what level of women, they all had their unique social role and corresponding historical contributions.
01. Civilian women play an outstanding role and contribute a lot
During the Song Dynasty, ordinary women in China, like most people now, need to be busy for life, so most women in addition to engaging in housework, child-rearing, husband and child-teaching and other activities, with the vigorous development of Song Dynasty commerce, Song Dynasty women also extensively participated in social production, making positive contributions to the development of agriculture, handicrafts and commerce. "The big woman's waist is sickle out, the little woman has a basket, the upper ridge is first covered with green, the lower one has become a bunch, and the Tian family takes pleasure in suffering, and dares to be afraid of the dry face and scorched black." It is a vivid description of the women engaged in agriculture in the Song Dynasty in China. The biggest contributor is in the handicraft sector. The technical school Ofe-Do-Po, known as an ancient scientist by later generations, improved textile tools and textile techniques, improved the living standards of the local people, and even left her name through the ages.
With his amazing appearance and outstanding talent, Li Shishi, who became an emperor woman from a generation of famous women, can also be called an outstanding representative of the civilian female Chinese art industry at that time. I still remember the world's evaluation of Master Li: "Make up and stand in the spring breeze, and smile a thousand gold." When I returned to Fengcheng, I said with Qinglou Road: Looking at the Yingchuan flowers, it is not like a teacher. Although the evaluation of Master Li by later generations is different, good or bad, it is undeniable that Master Li has a unique position in history and exudes a unique brilliance in the long river of the same history.
In today's era, women advocate three independences: ideological independence, emotional independence, and economic independence, and such ideas were widely spread among women in the Song Dynasty. During the Song Dynasty, women enjoyed a relatively independent economy, enjoyed the right to dominate family property, and civilian women could go out to make money due to the compulsion of life, which showed that Women in the Song Dynasty played a certain role in the social development of the Song Dynasty at that time, and this idea profoundly affected tens of millions of future generations.
02. Women of gentry families promote virtue
China is a big cultural country, epitaphs for all kinds of benevolent people to do reverence, throughout the tens of millions of epitaphs, the comprehensiveness of women in the gentry family is relatively high, the main characteristics include traditional role positioning, the needs of real social development and the combination of conventional moral norms, of course, in the Song Dynasty. Therefore, when some large families choose a daughter-in-law, they not only require women to be able to teach their husbands and children, but also need to assist their husbands and children in their studies at a higher level, be able to manage family wealth, and also need to have good moral character, be able to provide disaster relief, cure diseases and save people, etc. It can be seen that officials and gentry women are not easy to do.
In the Song Dynasty, there were many examples of women in the official gentry family who taught their husbands and children and assisted their husbands. The wife of the famous Song Dynasty poet Su Xun, Cheng Shi, is a model admired by posterity, and Su Xun once said in the "Sacrifice of the Dead Wife Cheng Shi Wen" when recalling the deceased wife, "In the past, when he was a teenager, he wandered and did not learn." Although Yu did not speak, he was not happy. I know the heart of the Son, and I am worried that I am destroyed. Since the death of his son, he has lost his good friend. Alone all day, there have been who's been. It can be seen that the role of the Cheng family in the Su family and Su Xun's gratitude to the Cheng family.
When Sima Guang wrote an epitaph for Lady Cheng, he also wrote: "Women are supple enough to harmonize their clans, and their intelligence is enough to qi their families. ..., now Lady Yu yi see the credibility of the ancients also. "It can be seen that Mrs. Cheng also had great prestige in the society at that time." Jiangshan generation has talented people, each leading the way for hundreds of years", su xun, Su Shi and Su Rui alone can be ranked in the "Tang and Song Dynasty Eight Masters" can be seen in the father and son of the three people's literary style, insight and ability, the folk widely circulated a sentence "a successful man behind there must be a supporting woman", not to mention the success of the father and son trio. It can be seen that women such as Cheng's at that time were admirable.
During the Song Dynasty, limited to the social level at that time, there were often famines and disasters, and there was no shortage of women who provided disaster relief, "doing their best to save the land, known as porridge, hungry people" saved countless hungry people at that time. A considerable number of people have also devoted themselves to the ranks of curing diseases and saving people. Cao Xun's mention in the Song Yin Collection that Liu Congyuan's wife Tang Shi and Zuo Zhao's wife Li Shi (李氏), the mother of Xia Bosun, the Grand Master of the Zuo Dynasty, "are in an acute illness and will be rescued, lest they be rescued later," are examples. Zhang Xiaoniang, a folk female physician in the Northern Song Dynasty, was one of the four famous female doctors in ancient China, who not only treated most of the people, but also treated women in the palace, and was also a powerful figure.
In summary, it can be seen that women during the Song Dynasty also made contributions that cannot be ignored. The family material conditions of Song Dynasty officials were relatively good, and there were no fixed requirements for wives to participate in charitable activities, but because of their virtues. It is precisely because they carried forward virtue at that time that it has always affected the inheritance and development of this virtue by people today.
03. Unusual harem interference
Women of different classes have contributed to their respective positions, introduced civilian women and gentry women, and should also introduce the "three thousand beauties" of the harem. In the Song Dynasty, there was no shortage of examples of harem interference, and in the Song Dynasty, there were 9 empresses such as Empress Zhenzong Liu, Empress Renzong Cao, Empress Yingzong Gao, Empress Shenzong Xiang, Empress Zhezong Meng, Empress Gaozong Wu, and Empress Ningzong Yang. Among them, Empress Liu of Zhenzong is the most prominent, and posterity has given Empress Liu the title of a rare female politician in The Chinese feudal era, and there are few people with such a high title. It can be seen that not all those who listen to the government are arbitrarily interfering in the government affairs, nor are they all negative evaluations. As the saying goes, "No diamonds, no porcelain work", the women who intervened in the government of the Song Dynasty truly reflected their unique talents.
04. A scarf hero with eyebrows on the shoulders
"Don't let your eyebrows be shaved" is an inspirational language that has been passed down to this day in china. The Song Dynasty also did not lack this kind of model, the famous anti-Jin hero Mu Guiying, known as one of the strange women of the Song Dynasty, this heroic female soldier, from a female bandit to an anti-Jin hero, had to be admired. At this point, I have to mention the Yang family general, often said "the door of the tiger", and the family is not so simple as the tiger, Yang Paifeng, Cheshire Lord and other outstanding women are also famous female Haojie. In addition, Liang Hongyu, a famous anti-gold general, and Yang Ying, depicted in the novel, are all models of women who do not let their eyebrows be shaved. It is these outstanding female heroes who have made women's status have been improved to a certain extent, and women have bravely jumped out of the limit.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > third, summary</h1>
On the whole, the Song Dynasty was not a turning point in the rapid decline in the status of women, on the contrary, the women of the Song Dynasty had a certain status, and there was a corresponding social role, and even made indelible contributions in all aspects of social life. Unlike the Yuan and Qing dynasties, women had a certain status in the Song Dynasty. Because the social status and social role of women in the Song Dynasty are relatively high, women in the Song Dynasty can occupy a place in the long river of history and contribute to future generations.
bibliography:
"Sacrifice to the Dead Wife"
On the Status of Women in the Song Dynasty and Their Social Role
A Study on the Historical Contribution and Status of Women in the Song Dynasty