Nowadays, most men are particularly envious of ancient men, because in addition to the relatively high status of ancient men in the family, they can also marry concubines, but this situation has changed in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
Li Wu of the State of Wei wrote a book called the Book of Laws, which contains a chapter called "Miscellaneous Laws" that details the prohibition of adultery: "A husband has a wife and two concubines, and his punishment is greasy, and if a husband has two wives, he is punished; if a wife has a second husband, he is a palace." ”
The gist is that if a man has two concubines at the same time after having a wife, his ears should be cut off, and if a man marries two wives, he will be directly executed, and even more men who dare to hook up with a wife with a husband will be castrated directly by the palace.
His article clearly advocates monogamy, hindered by the strong State of Wei at that time, the birth of this regulation, so that other weak and small princely states also have to go along with it, but in the face of so many beautiful women, men will inevitably have their favorite, what to do? This is really not difficult to do, generally see beautiful things, people will always want to grasp it in their hands, so what men will not accept such a rule in their hearts, since they can not have multiple wives or concubines at the same time, then change the name of the woman they like, not call it a wife and concubine.
So there were a variety of names such as concubines, concubines, and concubines, so without changing monogamy, there were many more concubines with titles. Although the emperors of all dynasties and generations are practicing monogamy, the harem also has many women, such as lady, concubine, talent, noble concubine, etc., so the emperor takes the lead, and without violating the ancestral etiquette, there is never a shortage of women around the king.
Picture: There is never a shortage of women around the king
The emperor did this, and the men below naturally followed suit, although they could not have three palaces, six courts, and seventy-two concubines like the emperor, but there was still a few concubines, but there was one thing that needed to be observed from beginning to end, that is, they could only marry one house. What is the status of a wife in the family? First analyze from the literal point of view, wife and "Qi" homophony, that is to say, the wife's status in the family is equal to that of the husband.
Wanting to marry a wife is not a simple thing, you need to marry the selected wife through six etiquettes such as Na Cai, Asking For Names, Na Ji, Na Zheng, Please Period, and Kissing, so that the wife who enters the door is recognized by the family elders, relatives and friends, that is, the wife, and the status in the family is of course the highest. After the wife, as long as she is alive, she is absolutely not allowed to marry another wife, if the man dares to marry another wife, it is equivalent to the current bigamy crime, will be severely punished by the law, in the "Great Ming Law marriage gate" there is such a record, "If there is a wife to marry, the staff ninety."
Ordinary people who are beaten with ninety rods will surely die, so under the constraints of such a system, no one dares to marry two wives at the same time.
Photo: Stills of the ancient Ming media marrying a wife
In the Ming Dynasty, the status of the wife was more protective, if a man had a wife, there was also a concubine, but the husband must put the wife first, and once the status of the concubine room in the family was higher than that of the wife, it would also be severely punished, which showed that the status of the wife was very high.
Since the status of the right wife is high, then the woman who enters the door must be below the right wife, so the second only to the status of the right wife is the wife. Concubines are not ordinary people can be, can only be married by the wife's mother's family, most of them are the sisters of the right wife. It is precisely because of the blood relationship with the wife, so the children of the wife can also be called the son of the concubine, if the wife is unfortunate to die, the wife can be turned into the wife, while the women who enter the door do not have such treatment, their identity has been frozen, there is no possibility of rising.
Image: The sister of the wife's dowry: Concubine? Still
In ancient times, the existence of concubines was very low, men through matchmakers, the next appointment of worship through heaven and earth, six ceremonies to marry a wife, no matchmaker to follow the man, and did not perform any etiquette is a concubine.
The identity of the concubine is also a far cry from that of the concubine, and the status in the man's heart is just like that of a maid. And concubines should also have considerable respect for their wives at home, and to put it bluntly, concubines are also equivalent to wives' maids.
In ancient times, there were clear regulations that if a wife accidentally injured a concubine, she would not be punished much, and if a concubine was disrespectful to her wife and dared to hurt someone, she would be guilty of a first-class crime, so a concubine had almost no status in the family, but anyone with some status would not let her daughter be a concubine for others.
Therefore, there is also a saying in the folk that it is better to be the main room in the poor family than to be a concubine under the rich man's door, which also shows that the concubine room has no human rights at all.
Image: Stills of a woman who is a concubine to someone else
So what kind of woman would become someone else's concubine? In fact, there are many kinds of candidates to become concubines.
Among them, the highest status among concubines should belong to the daughters born of famous nobles, although they were born into famous families, but in ancient times, the concubines were clearly distinguished from each other, and the daughters of concubines were basically only the fate of concubines.
The second is the daughter of ordinary people's families, but such a family, unless it encounters great difficulties or has the heart to cling to it, will not be willing to let her daughter go to someone else's house as a concubine.
There is also a kind of called the room maid, this kind of room maid is actually the wife brought over the handmaiden, in the close service of the master at the same time, when the hostess is sick or other reasons, will also let the room maid serve the man. However, even if such a lady is favored by the hostess, she is still the hostess's handmaiden at home. Other concubines include poor families who cannot make ends meet and have to sell their daughters to wealthy families, as well as prostitutes in qinglou.
Photo: Stills of a prostitute in the Green House
Of course, the concubine room is not the lowest status here, and there is a lower level than the concubine room. She was born into the declining famous doors of ancient times, and because of the sin, these famous doors became slaves and slaves for both men and women.
And those handsome women were favored by their masters when they became slaves, and when they were pampered in the master's storage room, they were called 嬖, because they were guilty bodies, and the status of the women was lower, and even the children they gave birth to could not obtain real personal freedom.
Moreover, after being labeled as sinners, the people will never have the opportunity to turn over, and if they are honored, they will also think that it is rebellious and contrary to morality in ancient times.
Photo: Stills of a handsome-looking woman who has become a slave
Therefore, the fate of ancient women was unfair, but it seems that in that historical context, they have no way to change all this.
Therefore, in ancient times, it was also monogamous, but there were too many tricks for men in ancient times, and under the premise of respecting monogamy, they established a variety of identities such as concubines, concubines, and concubines. I have to say that the wisdom of the ancients, small editor service!
Article author: Dahui
The entire graphic was produced by the team of the Big Cafe Say History Studio!