In ancient times, population was very important for a dynasty, in ancient times it was based on agriculture, it needed population, and if there was a war, the population was even more important.
Therefore, the imperial court will try all kinds of ways to increase the number of people, if someone can not marry a wife, the court will also help, successive dynasties have similar institutions, can be understood as official media.
In many dynasties, if a woman does not marry at a certain age, it is equivalent to committing a crime, not only will she be punished, but her family will also sit together, at this time the official media will casually help her find someone to marry, as for how to marry the person, it is up to her, can only resign herself to fate.
Generally speaking, people who forcibly marry the past are not very good, they are people who cannot marry their wives, so the ancient single sticks are more blessed, and they are not afraid of marrying a daughter-in-law, and the imperial court will find ways to solve them for them.
In normal times, there will be someone in charge of this matter in the imperial court, but if there is war or the end of the dynasty, no one can take care of it, and this is the case at the end of the Qing Dynasty.
China's last feudal dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, was in chaos at its end, and the people were living in a hot life, and many people had a good appetite, let alone marrying a daughter-in-law.
The ancients paid attention to filial piety and three, and no queen is greater, so those poor wives can't afford to marry, so how to pass on the lineage? At that time, the poor came up with a solution, which was also a convention among the poor.
Even if they are not able to marry a wife, they will also pass on their lineage through "marriage to their wives". Literally, a pawn is a pawn, and the popular understanding is to pawn out the wife, that is, to rent it out.
This kind of thing will only appear in the poor family, after marrying the daughter-in-law, it is really poor in the family, helpless to make this decision, the other part of the poor can not even marry the daughter-in-law, their needs are very large, rent one back, leave a descendant for themselves.
This is completely unethical, and it is even more disrespectful for women, in that period of history, women's status is low, naturally the husband said what is what he said, did not dare to resist.
Generally speaking, there is not much difference between the marriage of the wife and the normal marriage, it is also introduced by the matchmaker, and there is also a symbolic dowry, but there is an agreement between the two, not really married, but the face is good-looking.
After the woman passed, there was a time agreement, according to the record, the longest is five years, as for how to talk about the price, it depends on the woman's appearance, and whether it is good to have children and raise these.
There are also detailed regulations between the two, for example, after the pawn goes out, the woman is not allowed to go home during this period, and the children in the family cannot go back to visit, until after the end, they can not go back.
It is worth mentioning that this kind of thing did not originate in the late Qing Dynasty, it has a long history, and during the Han Dynasty, the ruling class thought that this kind of thing was unethical and explicitly prohibited it.
Later, only when the court was in chaos and the people really could not get by, similar things would happen, and in the eyes of the poor, it was a big thing to leave a descendant, and they could not afford to eat, which was nothing at all, and it was beneficial to both sides.
Interestingly, when the imperial court at the end of the Qing Dynasty knew that this matter occurred in a large area of the people, it also specially ordered a ban, but unfortunately it was still repeatedly banned, for the simple reason that they could not fundamentally solve this matter.