The difference between wives and concubines is like cloud mud, which is also reflected in:
Even if a man takes a concubine and has children, the legal marital status is still unmarried
。 After all, concubinage has always been the patent of male aristocrats in China's feudal society, and the Book of Rites has clouds: "Princes have wives, there are wives, wives, and concubines." "It's just that the status of concubines is humble, and men have more concubines as long as they haven't yet married, they are unmarried."
This situation was also common in the Tang Dynasty: there were concubines in the family, and even these concubines had already given birth to many children, but men still claimed to be unmarried and unmarried. For example, the Yunqi general Wang Hengfanming gave birth to two concubines with concubines or maids who were waiting around him, but he still claimed to be unmarried for life, so that after his death, he was "in a coffin without ordering the main mourning room", facing the embarrassing situation of not having a wife to help him handle the funeral.
Although a "servant" maid in Henan Gave birth to a daughter for him, Yuanxiang's cousin still used "no marriage" as a coffin when writing his epitaph. Coincidentally, with Yuan Xiang's illness and pity for Li Huichang, a lieutenant in SongZhou's single father county, there were only two daughters born to the servants and a son and a daughter born to the concubine Jia Shi, so Li Huichang was still "not married as an official" when he died in the war; Li Liang, the sixth grandson of King Zheng, although "the marriage was not completed, the family road was not established", he still did not prevent him from having two sons and two daughters under his knees.
Although he had three sons, their birth mother's identity is unknown, and lu Quanjiao's epitaph is only mentioned as "from all the mouths", which shows the contempt of the Lu clan people for these concubines, completely disregarding the contributions made by these women to the inheritance of the family incense in October.
The official Zhi Yongguan recruited the judge to try Zuo Qingdao to lead the soldier Cao Cao to join the army, and Cui Huan was also "unfortunate not to marry", but this did not prevent Cui Huan from having a concubine Zhang Shi and three daughters under his knees. It's just that Cui Huan's situation is slightly special, that is, Cui Huan and Zhang Shi actually held these wedding festivals, but why did Cui Huan's nephew still say that he did not marry when writing the epitaph?
Originally
The Tang Law stipulates that "the order of the parents and the words of the matchmaker" are the necessary conditions for the establishment of marriage
And there is also a clause in the law: "All the lowly and the young are outside, and after the elders are married, they are betrothed, and the lowly and the young marry themselves, and the marriage is as the law." The unfinished, from the elders, the violators of the staff of a hundred. This means that if the elders are not around and there is no one to marry, then the law of the man marrying his wife is recognized; if the elder marries and the man marries his wife, he will be punished with a hundred rods.
Therefore, even if Cui Huan and Zhang Shi had a natsai ceremony, but without the consent of their parents, this marriage was still not recognized by the Cui family, and they avoided talking about Zhang Shi, and even regarded this matter as "unfortunate".
The heroine in "The Silver Bottle at the Bottom of the Well" is obviously also in violation of the orders of her parents, let alone the words of the matchmaker, which leads to being betrayed by the husband's family, "unable to bear the lord's worship", so that she does not even have the right to preside over family affairs and sacrifices.