As we all know, China has always practiced polygamous concubine system in ancient times, slightly more powerful men will generally be a big family, there will be many concubines and children in the big family, therefore, the affairs of the family must be very trivial, which is why there is a saying in our country called "it is difficult for a clean official to judge family affairs."
And today I want to introduce you to one of them, this person is actually very familiar to many people, he is the famous Qing official Hai Rui of the Ming Dynasty, his work ability is very strong, during his reign has been very clean, although he performed very well in work, but his family affairs are a mess, and it is precisely because of this that he is often criticized by posterity.
First, Harry's first wife
As mentioned above, Hai Rui is a very famous Qing official in the Ming Dynasty, which means that his family situation will not be too good, even if he has been ranked in the fourth pin, but he is not corrupt or bribed, only relying on the imperial court to live, so life is very poor, not rich, and in the Ming Dynasty everyone also knows that the most distinctive feature of the Ming Dynasty is the low salary.
The minister's salary is sometimes not enough to support the operation of his entire family, and so is Hai Rui, even if he lives in the four pins, but his monthly salary is only twenty-four stones, which translates to today's only about two or three thousand, and such a salary is definitely not enough to support a family.
But what is surprising is that even though his life is very poor, he still has three wives and two concubines, which makes people wonder, is Hai Rui a clean and honest person at work, but privately a lustful person? In fact, this is not the case, Hai Rui is a veritable good official for the country and the people.
If he is really a lustful person, he will easily be caught by others, so if Hai Rui is a truly upright person, why does he have so many wives? In fact, it is because of his mother, in the final analysis, because of the persecution of feudal etiquette.
In the historical records, there are more detailed records of Hai Rui's family, Hai Rui's mother is a very strong person, she is actually very dissatisfied with Hai Rui's first wife, that is, Xu Shi, because since Xu Shi married into the Hai family, all the daughters born have been daughters, and she has not been able to give birth to a son to continue the incense for the Hai family.
And the old lady who regards the incense very seriously is very dissatisfied, bent on letting her son leave this Xu family, and then take a son to come, but in fact, Xu Is a very virtuous and virtuous woman, is a very standard housewife, she has been working hard after marrying Hai Rui, and the backyard management of Hai Rui is very good.
Let Hai Rui be relieved of worries and be able to focus on work, however, just because he could not give birth to a son, he was disliked by Hai Rui's mother, and Hai Rui was a well-known filial piety, under the strong request of his mother, he could only obey his mother's words and leave Xu Shi.
Second, the second wife
After Hai Rui put Xu Shi off, the old lady couldn't wait to see other women, and it didn't take long to meet a woman surnamed Pan, which was Hai Rui's second wife, and the old lady took a chance that she would soon marry her back, but this time the old lady looked away, this Pan family not only had a hot personality, but also was not good at raising.
This Pan family and the previous Xu family is a completely different personality, Pan is not as stoic as Xu shi, to the old lady Bi respectful, if there is anything that does not go along with her wishes, Pan will talk back to the mother-in-law, often the old lady can not say the words of the old lady's anger, and the old lady also regrets after marrying back to the Pan family, want to leave her.
But Pan has not yet given birth to a son, the old lady wants to wait for her to leave an heir before she leaves her off, but Pan has not been able to give birth to an heir, and later the behavior is more and more excessive, and even deliberately do not sleep with Hai Rui, which completely touches the bottom line of the old lady, so the old lady let Hai Rui give the second wife Pan Shi also Hugh.
Third, the third wife
After the dismissal of the Pan family, the old lady also learned a lesson, so later when the old lady helped her son to see each other again, it was only after confirming the woman's disposition that she was relieved to give the dowry, which was Hai Rui's third wife, Wang Shi, and the Wang clan was the daughter-in-law who satisfied the old lady the most, because she gave birth to three children in a row within a few years after passing the door.
Two of them were sons, which made the old lady who wanted to hold her grandson overjoyed, but their days did not last long, because soon after, Hai Rui encountered a big setback in the official arena, the Ming Emperor at that time was Zhu Houxuan, and Zhu Houxuan was notoriously superstitious, he was unusually superstitious Taoist, and had always dreamed of immortality.
Therefore, for a long time, he did not care about the affairs of the government, and only stayed in the alchemy room, and Hai Rui was very unaccustomed to such behavior, so he wrote an article, which is the famous "Security Neglect", and it was precisely because of this article that the emperor was quite dissatisfied with Hai Rui, so he put Hai Rui in prison.
After Hai Rui was thrown into prison, the fortunes of the Hai family also began to plummet, first Hai Rui's two sons died one after another, even the younger daughter did not survive, and then Hai Rui's own career was greatly hit, the two grandchildren were gone, the old lady at that time was very sad, but she thought that her son was still there, as long as the son was rescued, the child would have again in the future.
Therefore, the old lady began to actively rescue her son, but who could have imagined that after Hai Rui came out safely, their family's fortunes still did not get better, because after Hai Rui's wife Wang Shi did not come out anymore, and the old lady was extremely anxious about this, because the two grandchildren had died prematurely, and the Hai family had no one to inherit the incense, so the old lady decided to let Hai Rui take a concubine, Hai Rui himself was actually very helpless, but he could only do what his mother ordered.
As I said before, Hai Rui's family situation is not very good, the previous three wives have spent all the savings of the Hai family, and now they still want to take concubines, there is really no extra money, but the mother's order Hai Rui can not disobey, so he can only cheekily go to his colleagues to borrow money to take concubines, which is really ridiculous.
And the misfortune of the Hai family is far more than this, before the death of several children, and then there were several concubines, one of the concubines Han Clan actually hanged herself not long after marrying into the Hai family, and more than ten days later, Hai Rui's wife Wang Clan also suddenly died violently, such an intensive funeral, but also let the Hai family begin to fall silent.
The Hai family has been dying continuously for decades, which makes others have a lot of criticism of the Hai family, and all this is because of the old lady's obsession, she has always been attached to the incense of the Hai family, even if so many people have died, Hai Rui's mother still has not stopped, she is still dragging her elderly body around, wanting to be a concubine for Hai Rui.
So he found Hai Rui's last concubine, Qiu Shi, but this Qiu clan did not let the old lady get her wish, until the old lady died, Hai Rui was childless, and after the old lady died, Hai Rui did not marry a wife or concubine, and it was always this Qiu clan who accompanied him.
4. Summary
In fact, Hai Rui's big family condenses the persecution of women in feudal society, and the imprisonment of feudal etiquette on people's thoughts, whether it is HaiMu's strong intervention in his marriage, or Hai Rui's blind obedience to his mother, which makes people feel angry.
Therefore, even though Hai Rui was a very famous qing official, his reputation was still not very good. By today's standards, the behavior of the jellyfish is naturally very incorrect, but by the standards of the ancients, she is a very conscientious mother.
Hai Rui's father died early, so Hai Rui was brought up alone by Hai Mu, so she has very deep expectations for this child. That's why he attaches so much importance to his heirs, leaving aside the heirs, Haimu's teaching of Hai Rui is very successful, otherwise Hai Rui would not have become such a famous qing official.