In ancient China, it is very normal for men to have three wives and four concubines, and concubines are even a symbol of social status and wealth and power. In ancient times, rich men took concubines for the following reasons. For the husband to increase offspring, there are also because of love. The famous Shang martingales and Yuan Shao in history are all Shuzi identities. Does the concubine have any other role besides opening branches and scattering leaves? Yes, this one effect highlights the shamelessness of men. A large proportion of the women in captivity were labeled "concubines" and treated as slaves to the victorious side to vent their sexual desires, similar to the women captured in the shame of Jing Kang. Concubines at this time did not even have basic human rights. The role of concubines is far more than just giving birth to children, and it also has a special role, that is, giving people away, and even exchanging things, which completely exposes the ugliness of human nature!
Of course, not all people are like this, but there will certainly not be many people like that at that time, after all, marrying concubines has become a social trend at that time. Of course, there are some other reasons, such as the inability of the family's wife to have children, and in ancient times, it was a very hierarchical society, with the lowest status of farmers, farmers, industrialists, and merchants. However, merchants had money, so they often raised a lot of concubines, and then gave them to the high-ranking officials and nobles they wanted, so as to obtain the resources they needed. Most of them are due to the lack of a wife in the house. However, the same woman, the child born of the concubine is the "Shuzi", and the shadow of the Concubine will accompany the child for the rest of his life. For example, Shen Yishi and Yunniang in the TV series "Daming Dynasty", the two concubines given to Hezhen by Wang Rulong, the two Huai salt transports of the Qing Dynasty, and the famous Su Shi once gave others his own concubines, and even used to change horses. Unexpectedly, rich men still feel that they do not have enough money, and in addition to satisfying their own selfish desires, the concubines can also be given as gifts to the family at critical moments, or for money or for the future, so as to get more resources.
On this point, ancient and modern are the same, and now there are many men who coax their lovers to "charge forward" for themselves for money and power, and smooth out all obstacles to the rise. Of course, this is only a few cases in history, and most of the concubines still live in the main family. However, the life of a concubine living in the main family may not be satisfactory, and daily labor and rough labor are indispensable. Once the husband dies, he may also be expelled from the house by the wife and be destitute. In order to show their respect for their friends, some ancient scholars would give their concubines to their friends, and other scholars would pass on the matter as a beautiful talk. Such a role was recognized by the ancient scholar-doctor class, and this kind of behavior also exposed the ugliest side of human nature. He not only gave his concubine Zhao Ji to Qin Shi Huang's father Yiren, but also helped Yiren become the king of the Qin state, and he eventually became the minister of the Qin state. Even the famous poet Su Shi used his concubines to exchange horses.
We know that in the winter, when it is cold, people need to consider the problem of keeping warm, at which time the master will let two concubines warm his feet on the bed. His cold feet were placed on the concubine, and the concubine did not dare to resist and gave her concubine as a gift to others, which was really too hateful and shameless. However, in ancient times, people like Lü Buwei were a minority after all, and most of the concubines still lived in their husbands' families. Some fates are indeed very good, such as Zhao Ji, the birth mother of Qin Shi Huang, who later became the emperor's mother from a concubine, and it can be said that "flying branches have changed into phoenixes". In ancient times, there were also some men who were very concerned about concubines, Shi Chong's concubine Luzhu, Shi Chong's death for her, she was also martyred; Xiahou Shang's pet concubine, although he did not know the name, after the pet concubine was given death by Cao Pi, Xiahou Shang was sad and overly depressed. Not only are they of low status, obedient to their husbands, tolerant of the main room, not good at eating and wearing, but also responsible for the dirty and tired physical work at home.
Not only that, the child is based on the mother's lowly, and the child born of the concubine has no status in the family, and even the next person can not be seen, in case the husband has a three long and two short, the first thing the wife has to do is to expel the concubine. In ancient times, they were all male superior and female inferior status, women were suppressed by male power, their status was becoming more and more humble, some even had the most basic dignity of human beings, they were just blindly obedient to men, there was no little freedom, so concubines were suppressed by their wives everywhere, life was not satisfactory, and some even had to do rough miscellaneous labor, no different from servants. What is even more tragic is that once the husband unfortunately dies, the son born of the concubine is called Shuzi, and the shadow of the concubine will always accompany the child. The survival of the concubine in the family is also very difficult, in the cracks to survive, if she is not favored, she will be very dangerous, the status will decline, if she is favored, she will be hated by the wife.