"Entering the house" is commonly known as "inverted door", which refers to the fact that after a man and a woman decide to get married, the man goes to the woman's home to become a relative and settles down. In ancient times, most of such marriages were due to the fact that there were no brothers in the woman's family, and in order to pass on the generations, they could only recruit a son-in-law to come to the door, and after the man entered the woman's family, the children born had to follow the woman's family name.
The woman's parents "recruited a son-in-law to the door", and in the case that both men and women can be more satisfied, a "redundant marriage" is formed. In the feudal era, the phenomenon of excessive marriage occurred from time to time, and in modern times, the vast majority of people are only children, and modern people generally form a new independent small family after marriage, and there is no abnormal emphasis on the child's surname, so modern people have rarely paid attention to whether it is "into the excess".
Recently, a costume TV series "Son-in-law" has become a popular drama of the fire, which has triggered people's discussion about "entering the rich", so what is the historical culture of the son-in-law? What kind of life did those sons-in-law who had entered the rich in ancient times live in the father-in-law's house?
The social background of "extra marriage" and "extra son-in-law"
The mainstream social ideology that has been popular in ancient China is Confucian culture, and the people of ancient times attached great importance to clan etiquette, and how to continue the bloodline and surname is the most important problem for the ancients.
Influenced by this kind of thinking, the ancients were proud of "having children and heirlooms", so ideas such as "favoring sons over daughters" and "no filial piety has three, no queen is greater" has become the general consensus of the whole society.
Ancient emperors relied on sons to inherit the throne, rich gentry mainly relied on sons to inherit family property, ordinary people needed sons to plough the land and cultivate the fields - in short, the continuation of ancient families could not be separated from men, if some families had no male descendants in a certain generation, they could only put the hope of continuing the bloodline on their daughters.
However, it is unrealistic for women to inherit the ancestral lineage, so such families can only realize the ardent hope that the next generation of men can appear through recruitment, so that the ancestral shrine will not fall by the wayside, and the family's incense can still be continued.
The culture of the sons-in-law of various dynasties and generations in history
Speaking of the "son-in-law culture", it is necessary to mention the form of marriage of "marriage". In fact, as early as the pre-Qin period, there were many written records of extramarital marriage in the ancient books of the Han people.
In the pre-Qin period, the way of life of men settling in women's homes after marriage was not uncommon, probably because before feudal society, China was a matriarchal clan social family system, women were the core of the family, and men had to enter the woman's home because of external pressures - this is the prototype of extra marriage.
During the Qin and Han dynasties, the son-in-law often had to "commit" to join the wife's family because his family was very poor, not only to achieve a marriage, but also to become the main labor force in the wife's family, in fact, it was equivalent to going to the woman's home to "sell herself as a slave", the situation was natural, and the social status of the son-in-law was also very low.
After the two Han Dynasties, the clan system once again became a family bond valued by society, because there were many families in that period who did not have sons to continue the clan surname bloodline, so the woman's parents were often very eager to recruit a son-in-law.
They have status in the woman's family and do not have to suffer, but they still need to work, and their most important task is to have children with their wives, and the more the better. When the boy born to the woman grows up, it is entirely up to the child to inherit the ancestral inheritance of the grandfather's family.
During the Tang and Song dynasties, the social atmosphere was further liberal and open, and the phenomenon of more students entering the rich family court was generally appeared in society: for those rich families who only had daughters under their knees, they needed people in the DPRK, and the huge family property needed to be inherited by heirs; and for some students who were expected to have a promising future but came from a humble background, entering the rich and noble court could not only obtain a better reading environment and learning conditions, but also enhance their origin and background, so as to make the future path to entry smoother.
Therefore, in that kind of social atmosphere, it is no longer a strange thing for a man to enter the family of his wife, and the son-in-law will not be arbitrarily driven into the wife's family, nor does he have to bow down three or four times in front of the wife, and he is no longer an angry role in the father-in-law's family, but also respected by the whole family.
Since the Beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty, there have been clear regulations on whether the son-in-law can inherit the family property of the father-in-law, and the imperial court has clearly proposed that only the son-in-law who has lived in the woman's family for a long time can obtain the inheritance right of the family property of the father-in-law. However, by the time of the Yuan Dynasty, there were many sons-in-law who had entered the family with poor character, and there were even incidents in society in which they robbed the property of their father-in-law after entering the family.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the rights and interests of the son-in-law were further expanded, not only could he inherit the ancestral property and property of the father-in-law's family, but also if he could give birth to more than 2 children with his wife, then boys other than the eldest son could follow the father's surname. This phenomenon also proves that the social status and family status of the son-in-law have been greatly improved.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the people, the son-in-law could enter the family of the father-in-law, and people's thinking was further civilized and free, and the family situation of the son-in-law was also very good, and he was also extremely knowledgeable, and even some of the sons-in-law were still famous and socially high-class figures. After the son-in-law got married, he inherited two clans, and the children born to him could also be given the father's surname.
At this time, the marriage no longer implies the social phenomenon of demeaning the man, and there is not much difference between the marriage and the usual marriage, and the son-in-law no longer has to be cold-eyed and discriminated against from all sides.
The more famous "son-in-law" in history
In history, there are also many "sons-in-law" who have become well-known figures, and after they have become famous, their identity as "sons-in-law" is often hidden by the aura of their protagonists. The famous poet Li Bai, the Qing Taizu Nur Hachi, and the late Qing Dynasty minister Zuo Zongtang were all very powerful representative figures of the "Son-in-law" circle.
Shixian Li Bai was married 4 times in his life, and 2 of them were when he became a door-to-door son-in-law. The concubine of the Qing Taizu Nurhaci was named Tong Jia Hahana Zaqing, and the Qing Taizu Nur Hachi had a lowly and poor family when he was young, and he had to become the son-in-law of the Tong Jia clan. When Tong Jia Hahana Zaqing died, Nurhaci reverted to his surname "Ai Xin Jue Luo".
In the late Qing Dynasty, Zuo Zongtang's parents died one after another when he was a teenager, and he studied diligently, but he failed to try many times, fortunately, he entered the Zhou family and married everyone zhou Yiduan as a wife.
Yue Zhang's family was well-off and his wife was virtuous and sensible, so Zuo Zongtang was able to study and govern with peace of mind, befriend Gao Shi and enter the career path, becoming a generation of important ministers who were famous in the late Qing Dynasty.
No matter what the reason for the marriage of the son-in-law is, in the marriage, both husband and wife must support each other and maintain their hearts, in order to live a sound and colorful and happy life. No matter which dynasty or generation, the son-in-law should face up to his family role, respect his wife and parents-in-law, and take up the heavy responsibility of the family, so that a responsible man should have a family outlook and a outlook on life.