If you want to ask the majority of male compatriots what is the greatest ideal of life, I think most of them are nothing more than promotions and wealth, three wives and four concubines. In particular, the three wives and four concubines in ancient times have become the dream of the majority of contemporary men. Whether it is a costume TV series filmed now, or an ancient novel, the men in it are multiple wives, and they are not happy to hug each other on the left and the right. And these also seem to be legally recognized. But is that really the case?
The truth is that in ancient times, "three wives and four concubines" referred to the marriage system of "polygamous concubines", not that men could have three wives and four concubines at the same time. That is to say, in ancient times, it was also a "monogamous" system, but it was just a legitimate possession of concubines. Some people may say, isn't this all the same, but the titles are different, I want to say that the difference is big, the wife is the wife, the concubine is the concubine, the different titles, the identity between the two is very different.
First of all, we need to know what concubines are mainly used for, that is, to have children and pass them on from generation to generation. Some people may ask, don't you have a wife, can't a wife have children? In fact, it is to prevent the following unpredictable factors.
First of all, fertility, ancient people are very very valued for incense, but if the wife of the wife is not fertile, what to do, the ancient medical technology is not as advanced as it is now, can not be checked in advance, there is no current IVF, if there is really no fertility, it is really the end.
There is also the survival rate of children, ancient medical conditions are not as good as now, not to mention some difficult diseases, that is, a little high fever may take the life of children, coupled with the ancient world is not very peaceful, war, natural disasters will have a great threat to children's lives. Therefore, in this context, the legal existence of "concubines" has arisen.
Therefore, the white concubine is for the sake of men to pass on the generations, but these are also to give men a reasonable excuse for concubines, in fact, the concubines are more of a man's pleasure, so the requirements for concubines are not high, as long as they look good.
However, the choice of wife is not the same, in ancient times there was a very strict hierarchy, marriage is particularly particular about the door to the door, and some of the children of some ancient family nobles are married for the purpose of marriage, seeking to be beneficial to their own in-laws, so if you want to become a wife, you must first have a good family lineage, followed by personal conduct, and finally appearance.
Therefore, if the daughter of a poor family wants to marry a powerful and rich family, she can only be a concubine, and if she doesn't look good, she can't even be a concubine. And the daughter of the noble family, as long as the family has power and money, no matter how the daughter is, she can marry someone to be a proper wife.
In history, the emperor's harem and the concubines of the princes, none of them had a prominent family lineage, such as the Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu, who initially married Yin Lihua, and later in order to win over Liu Yang, the king of Zhending, he married Liu Yang's niece and made her empress.
In ancient times, the status of concubines was very low, and the word "concubine" originally meant "guilty woman" in the oracle bones. During the period of slavery, concubines were female slaves, and later in feudal society, concubines were little wives.
Because they were slaves, the concubines had no personal freedom of their own, and their life and death contracts were in the hands of the master of the family. Sometimes it's like a cargo, without any dignity to speak of. Men can casually scold their concubines, and they can also trade at will, rich people send their own concubines in order to appease powerful people, and superiors also send concubines in order to reward their own meritorious subordinates, which is a very common thing.
Take the ancient anti-Jin famous general Yue Fei, his good friend Wu Jiu once saw that Yue Fei's life was too simple, and there was no one around to serve, so he proposed to give him one of his concubines, but Yue Fei refused. In addition, there is the well-known great poetry immortal Li Bai, it is said that Li Bai had a friend who took a fancy to one of his concubines, and Li Bai did not get angry but was very generous to give his concubine to his friend.
In addition, concubines can not be on the family tree, dead can not be buried with the male master, can not participate in the family's major occasions, the children born of concubines are concubines and daughters, there is no family property inheritance, even their own children can not be called their mother, can only be called aunts, sometimes unfavored concubines are not even as good as the servants of the family.
But if you say that if you sell your wife, you really hate your own life and live enough. First of all, not to mention the status of the wife itself, that is, the maternal forces behind her are also not easy to provoke, and there is pressure from public opinion in society, even in ancient times, the matter of spoiling concubines and destroying wives is also despised by the people of the world, which has a great impact on reputation.