A gentle gust of wind awakens the body that has been sleeping for a thousand years; a gentle gust of wind blows away the mysterious veil of history. Standing on the shoulders of time, I talk to history.
In modern society, most national laws stipulate monogamy, and monogamy can better reflect the greatness and single-mindedness of love. At the wedding ceremony, in the testimony of many relatives, friends and witnesses, the newlyweds who enter the marriage point will read out the vow that they will always be together whether they are rich or poor or old, old or sick. Although monogamy is practised in most countries in contemporary society, in ancient times, whether in the East or in Western civilization, it was very common for a rich and powerful official and nobleman to marry three or four women.
In ancient mainland China, because of the strict hierarchical system, a man's wife also has a right house and a concubine, and the status gap between them can be described as a world of difference, but as a concubine with a low status, she has an unexpected "privilege", and this "privilege" some of the main houses are not, which makes the right wife envious, what is this so-called "privilege"? Next, let the editor tell you about it.
I believe that everyone has seen such a scene in both the novel and the film and television drama, a man of a large family likes a woman of ordinary status, but the marriage of ancient times, especially the marriage of the dignitaries, is the order of the parents, and most of them are political in-laws formed for mutual use. For example, in the dream of the Red Chamber, even if Jia Baoyu likes Lin Sister no matter how much, Lin Daiyu is only a woman from a disgraced official's family after all, and in the end Jia Baoyu still marries Xue Baochao. This is also the normal state of men in large families in ancient times, the wives of the main house are all marriages from political marriages, and because of the name of the main house and the huge power behind the mother's family, the status of the main house wife is naturally self-evident.
Relatively speaking, concubines are generally dusty women brought back by the male host, women of ordinary status, after all, which high-ranking official and noble person is willing to let his daughter go to someone else's house to be a concubine and be angry with the main house? Except, of course, for the Emperor.
In ancient times, the concept of believing in multiple children and many blessings, marrying multiple concubines In addition to the male owner's liking, there is a more important reason is that it is hoped to add a few more heirs, and more often the concubines are also used by the male owner as a fertility machine for adding children and blessings.
In addition, the concubine has a more tragic side, I believe that everyone has seen some court dramas, in the palace, no matter which concubine or even the child born to the noble concubine, must call the queen the mother, for their own biological mother can only be called the birth mother. In history, many emperors called the empress their mother when they ascended the throne, and even recorded in the main history that they were born to the empress. And his own birth mother can only be remembered after he has seized the power of the government, and even more so he can only secretly remember for a lifetime, the emperor's family is still so ordinary officials.
However, although the concubine has no status to speak of, she has a "privilege" that even the wife of the main room does not have, which is actually in the sexual affairs, the concubine is better than the wife of the main room, and even has a child, especially the birth of a boy, which can improve her status a lot. Even in the hierarchical palace, the empress could not compete with the other three thousand beautiful ladies, after all, there was only one wife in the main house, and if she wanted to prosper, it was mainly up to these concubines who were responsible for giving birth.