In the long history, China's marriage system has been changing with time, from the initial "three wives and four concubines" to the later "monogamy", which is enough to see the progress of human civilization.
However, in history, the marriage system is not only the "three wives and four concubines system" that everyone is familiar with, there is a country's marriage system in history that is the wife inheritance system, "the father dies and the son marries the mother, and the brother dies and the brother marries the sister-in-law", which is unimaginable to everyone in any case, and such a system is really incomprehensible. This institution of marriage appeared precisely in the Huns.
Xiongnu, is a force that rose step by step during the Han Dynasty, during the Han Dynasty and Tang Dynasty, China had a long war with the Xiongnu, and at that time, the Xiongnu were also regarded as "barbarians" by the Han. Many of the folklore of the Huns is contrary to what we often call ethics and morality, even the institution of marriage.
In the ancient tradition of our country, a woman has "three from four virtues", and if her husband dies, she must not remarry. The Xiongnu marriage customs are contrary to this, the Hun father dies and the son marries the mother, and the brother dies and the brother marries the sister-in-law. While it may seem perverse, it is also very realistic when you consider the reasons for it.
Originally, this marriage custom was recorded in the "Chronicle of History", and it was actually related to the origin of the Xiongnu. We all know that the Xiongnu were a nomadic people who emerged during the Han Dynasty, but they were actually a separate ethnic group during the Xia Dynasty. Some historians have proposed that this marriage custom was formed in this ethnic group during the Xia Dynasty, and the Xiongnu were their descendants, so the Xiongnu marriage custom is likely to be continued because of this.
At that time, the marriage custom in this ethnic group was called "steaming marriage", in which "steaming" refers to the son marrying the mother, and "steaming" refers to the brother-in-law, which is the origin of "steaming marriage". It can be seen that the marriage customs of the Xiongnu have existed for a long time, and although this marriage system is contrary to common sense, it also has its advantages.
I have to say that the Huns still considered a lot. After men and women married and became husband and wife, what they had was the common property of the husband and wife, because the Xiongnu were in war for many years, so many men died. But they usually think that it is very cruel for women to be widowed for the rest of their lives for their virginity.
Therefore, these women of the Huns would choose to remarry. But who to marry? Another problem. If you let your daughter-in-law marry someone else, the children born and some property will follow, as the saying goes, fat water does not flow to outsiders' fields, and your own family's property is even married to a foreign tribe even with his wife and children, and anyone is unwilling.
In order to better protect their own property, the Huns continued this marriage custom, allowing the sons of the family to marry their mothers and their younger brothers to marry their sisters-in-law, so that not only protected the property of the same clan, but also allowed the women of the Huns not to be bound by the dogma of the Three From Four Virtues, and to get along with the same people more harmoniously. They also see such an approach as the best of both worlds.
Although the "wife inheritance system" of Xiongnu marriage seems absurd, if you think about it carefully, in fact, they also had to do it, and the reasons for this are indeed very realistic.
But with the development of the times, the irrational marriage system of the past no longer exists, and now we live in the era of monogamy, and in an era of world peace, we should cherish such a beautiful life!