Charitable activities have existed since ancient times, but any act of benefiting the weak can be called charitable activities. However, among the charity activities of successive dynasties, the charity activities of the women's group in the Song Dynasty were particularly special. The two Song dynasties were the origin of feudal ritualism, compared to the previous Tang. Boudoir women can't even go out to enjoy the fun, but they can have the courage to do good, which is really a book.
First, charity activities are a good platform for women in the Song Dynasty to show themselves under the shackles of feudal etiquette, and by participating in charity activities, Women of the Song Dynasty can effectively improve their family status and social prestige.
It is unbelievable to say that in the five thousand years of ancient Chinese history, the dynasty with the largest number of peasant uprisings is the Zhao Song Dynasty, which is known as "the culture of the Chinese nation, which has evolved over thousands of years and was created in the world of Zhao and Song". According to modern scholars,
The peasant revolts of the Song Dynasty reached 433 times, ranking first in ancient China.
A large number of peasant uprisings naturally created a large number of displaced people and disaster victims. Displaced people and disaster victims will be regarded as flood beasts by those in power at any time, because they can start a war at any time and become the end of the dynasty. Therefore, the rulers of successive dynasties have not been very friendly to the displaced people and the disaster victims.
But in essence, these displaced people and disaster victims are just poor people who have lost their hometowns and loved ones, and if properly appeased, they will also burst out of boundless productivity and enthusiasm. Philanthropy does that to a large extent.
As we all know, the Song Dynasty was a dynasty with extremely strict feudal etiquette. In the last two Song Dynasties, women were far less free than their predecessors. Not to mention the "stepping on the southern outskirts and visiting the lamp city at dusk" like the Sheng Tang Dynasty, even ordinary people and things must be disciplined, and they dare not take a step beyond the thunder pool.
However, although the women of the Song Dynasty have always lived in the cage of etiquette, the yearning and expectation for freedom has always been imprinted in their souls. Therefore, women in the Song Dynasty often seized every opportunity to contact the outside world. Among all the acts that can be exposed to the outside world, charity activities are undoubtedly the most dignified ones.
After all, the revival of doctrine and the living of the hungry people are absolute good deeds in any dynasty, and even Confucian etiquette cannot be blamed. In addition, the widespread charity not only gave the women of the Song Dynasty who had been imprisoned a chance to contact the outside world, but also greatly benefited their family status and social prestige.
It just so happened that the high number of displaced people in the Song Dynasty also put a lot of pressure on those in power, so that they would strongly support any action that could alleviate this pressure. Therefore, in the Song Dynasty, although women's good deeds would be criticized by some ordinary old Confucians, they would be respected by the mainstream values of society.
The Southern Song Dynasty theorist Yao Mian once recorded in his book "The Collection of Snow Slopes" that a woman of the Tan clan who was famous for her widespread charity was called her
"He who will be persuaded to pay a low price to relieve hunger, and if he is concerned about the people's little money, and if he cannot have more chaff, then the valley of miqi, as he pleases with the number of chaff, or if he cannot be chaffed, he will give him food, and those who rely on it will be hundreds of days, and the whole living will be many."
The same as Tan's wife is also a bedridden, still worried that the price of rice will rise and encroach on the people's mother. In her epitaph for Xu's mother, Yuan Fu, a famous minister of the Southern Song Dynasty, recorded in detail her efforts to lower the price of rice during the famine, saying that she:
"Persuade the division of the flat, the neighbor xiang, the yi half straight"
It can be seen from the examples of Tan's wife and Xu's mother being praised and sung by the celebrities Yao Mian and Yuan Fu of the time, and in the Song Dynasty, women's charitable activities were very accepted and recognized in society. For Song Dynasty women, who had long been vassals, charitable activities were one of the very few social activities that could gain fame and status.
It is based on this social background that the enthusiasm of women in the Song Dynasty to participate in charitable activities was generally higher. Moreover, with the extensive participation of women in social charity activities in the Song Dynasty, the social philanthropy of the entire Song Dynasty has also made great progress.
Second, the way women in the Song Dynasty carried out charitable activities was generally to persuade their husbands and sons to do good deeds, and women who believed in religion could also carry out charitable activities through religious activities
However, although the enthusiasm of women in the Song Dynasty for charitable activities was very high, the way they carried out charitable activities was often more euphemistic.
Lu You's grandfather, the literary scholar Lu You, once recorded such a past in his "Tao Shan Collection":
"The Northern Song Dynasty Was Old, Shan Yu Wu, Great Hunger, Lady Jiang Lingzi for food on the road, and the hungry in the Li, and the land to cover up thousands of bones, gentlemen smelled it, not many of their sons but more of their mothers.
The "Mrs. Chiang" here is obviously carrying out a charity activity, and whether it is from Mr. Lu Tong's explicit description or the world's wind comments, the leader of this charity activity is "Mrs. Chiang", but her way of acting is "Lingzi".
This example actually reflects the status of women at that time, under the social background of the prosperity of feudal etiquette and religion at that time, women "showing their faces" outside the home will inevitably cause criticism, even if it is a good thing to help the victims of disasters, they cannot do it themselves. Therefore, the euphemistic way of "lingzi" and "begging for husbands" has become the mainstream of promoting charitable activities.
However, women in general need to take into account the negative effects of personal good deeds and have to resort to their husbands and sons, but believers in some religions have more options in this regard.
Since the Wei and Jin dynasties, Buddhism has developed very well in China, and even once affected the country's financial revenue. Although it has since experienced four extinctions of buddhism in succession, after each extinction of Buddhism, Buddhism has always revived and developed better than before.
By the time of the Song Dynasty, Buddhism had firmly occupied the name of orthodox religion in the land of China. After the establishment of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, rebelled against the "extermination of Buddhism" policy of Later Zhou Shizong Chai Rong and began to protect Buddhism. Not only did he stop the demolition of Buddhist temples, but he also sent people to India to seek dharma in order to show his respect for Buddhism.
After Song Taizu, Emperor Taizong agreed to be interested in Buddhism. Not only did he personally write the "New Translation of the Three Tibetan Sacred Teachings" to show his Buddhist achievements, but he also set up a court of transmission and translated and disseminated a large number of Buddhist classics. In addition, Song Taizu also rewarded the monks with a large number of fields and mountains, exempting monks and Buddhist monasteries from taxes and servitude. So, in the Song Dynasty, Buddhism almost reached its peak.
With the prevalence of Buddhism, Women of the Song Dynasty could perform charity activities by participating in specific Festivals or events of Buddhism. Although this is not a charity activity in person, it is also an extra way compared to ordinary women who can only "ask for a husband" and "order a son".
Third, the charity activities of women in the Song Dynasty were not only to help the victims of disasters, but also to help the low-level civilians who had no money to marry and mourn
There are many charitable activities carried out by women in the Song Dynasty, although the influence of relief for disaster victims is the greatest, but "do not do nothing with kindness", for women who are really enthusiastic about charity, they do not care about the form of charity activities, as long as they can help others, they are willing to participate.
As we all know, due to the song dynasty's laissez-faire development of the commodity economy, the degree of commercial marketization in the Song Dynasty was particularly high. In this highly market-oriented business environment, many necessities of daily life will be hyped by speculative businessmen to varying degrees. Therefore, from the middle of the Song Dynasty, the cost of marriage and funeral began to increase gradually, and finally it was completely reduced to a means of showing off wealth.
However, the ability of the rich and powerful to make a big fuss about these procedures does not mean that the low-level commoners can also do the same, and the low-level people who cannot afford the cost of marriage and funeral can only choose to postpone the date of marriage and funeral repeatedly. For example, if men and women of the right age cannot afford the cost of marriage, they can only choose not to marry, and eventually become widowers or old aunts, and the rest of their lives are miserable.
It is precisely because so many tragedies have been staged that from the middle of the Song Dynasty, the low-level people who had no money to marry and mourn in Zhou Ji became a well-known charity activity for women in the Song Dynasty.
Compared with the surviving historical data, the best in this regard is lady Wang, the wife of the Song Dynasty minister Fan Gaoping. According to the History of the Song Dynasty:
"The Duke of Gaoping is expensive, and there are gifts from Lu, and the lady pushes the wealth to redeem the inside and outside, and all the men and women are lonely and have no return, and there are dozens of people who praise the Marriage of the Duke of Gaoping, and there are women in the Luoyang Yiguan family, because their homes are broken, and they are slightly sold by others, and the lady hears of it, and urgently pushes the gold to redeem it, and dresses it up for the sake of clothing and clothing to marry."
According to this historical record, Madame Wang not only bought the funds needed for the marriage of the poor people, but also ransomed the women who had been sold and bought them, and funded their marriages so that they could have a good home. Although these actions cost a lot of money, Madame Wang's unremitting efforts in funding the marriage of others also earned her the nickname of "Virtuous Woman".
In addition to funding marriages and funerals, there were many ways for women in the Song Dynasty to perform charity activities. For example, in the cold of the day to buy clothes and charcoal for the poor, in the summer for the poor to distribute herbal tea, build a pergola and so on. These various charitable activities, although they vary in form and consume different amounts of money, demonstrate the benevolence of women who do good and are celebrated by the world.
The Song Dynasty was an important period for the rise of feudal etiquette in China, and a large number of speeches and doctrines aimed at women continued to emerge from all walks of life in the Song Dynasty at this time. From Cheng Yi's "starvation is small, loss of control is big" to Zhu Xi's "saving heavenly reason, destroying people's desires", although these ideas were not as popular at that time as in later generations, social influences have already been produced, and they have also had a confining effect on women.
However, it was in such a harsh environment that the women of the Song Dynasty, with a loving and brave heart, continued to promote the development and growth of charity activities.
With the popularization of these various charity activities, the sharp class contradictions and bad atmosphere of the entire Song Dynasty society were also improved to a certain extent. It can be said that the charity activities of women in the Song Dynasty were a social activity that really improved people's livelihood.
Reference: History of the Song Dynasty
"Song Hui Wants"