Costume drama refers to: TV dramas set in ancient times, including TV dramas that are set in history but wear ancient costumes and imitate the habits of the ancients. Costume dramas can be roughly divided into martial arts dramas, historical dramas, mythological dramas, magic dramas, palace fighting dramas, crossing dramas, court dramas, biographical themes and so on according to the genre. It is particularly popular in Asia, where the standard of Japanese filming and storyline are excellent.
Today, we will talk about the historical drama in the costume drama.
When you watch this type of historical drama, I don't know if you have found such a phenomenon, that is, harem concubines, whether they are wives, good people, or beauties, eight sons, etc., no matter what they are called, they call themselves "concubines" when they meet people. So, what does the term "concubine" mean? In ancient times, all women would have called themselves that? Or is this only the case with women in the palace?
In fact, this is a sore spot of costume dramas, almost all costume dramas will make such a mistake, in fact, the word "concubine" can not be said casually, it has its own specific scope of use and scenes. Moreover, "concubine" is a term that has long been used to refer to: a person of low status and lowliness.
According to the Shang Shu Biography, "Those who are enslaved are very lowly, and such a man must call himself a vassal and a woman call herself a concubine." The history books of the Zhou Dynasty also say: "Concubines are used to refer to poor and lowly men and women." In the Warring States period, because of the frequent wars, the miserable life of the people, and the people in the family fled everywhere, the exiles were called "concubines."
In the dictionary notes, men are "human subjects" and women are "human concubines", so one can also interpret the term "concubines" as a subservient person, a ruled person. For example, in the "Records of History", there are sentences and words such as "please commission the state as a concubine" and "ask the commission to be a concubine". Similar uses of the term "courtesan concubine" are recorded in the history books of the Han Dynasty: "Some small countries in the Western Regions were subservient to China, and they often called themselves concubines. "The concubines of the world (that is, the people who are ruled under the heavens) are all sad and complain about the status quo of the country. ”
Next, we will explain in detail the separate meanings and usages of "subject" and "concubine".
First of all, let's first say "subjects". In oracle bones, the word is represented by a vertical eye. So why is this happening? Modern scholars have studied and believed that the human head is prostrate, while the eyes are upright, much like the form of a submissive, enslaved, and ruled man. Modern dictionaries and the Book of Rites are roughly the same interpretation of the word.
In another commentary, we can see that the original meaning of "subject" refers to the captive. If people do not kill the captured prisoners, then these captives will naturally become the slaves of the victors, so "subjects" are used specifically to refer to "male slaves". In addition, subjects can also be used to denote people who serve the monarch and to refer to men.
For example, in the Spring and Autumn Period, men generally called themselves vassals of kings. However, it should be noted that the use of "subject" in the Qing Dynasty was relatively special, Manchu officials generally called themselves "slaves" when they played the fold, while Hanchen could only call themselves "subjects", and could not use the title of "slaves", otherwise, they would be punished for the following crimes. From here, we can see that in the eyes of the Qing people, "subjects" are not as good as "slaves", and their status is very low.
Second, let's talk about "concubines." From the glyph of "concubine", we can see that it consists of a "female" character and a "Xin" character, and the shape of "Xin" is very similar to a shovel used for a flat head. Some modern scholars explained: "In the past, the knives, chisels and other torture devices used to execute criminals or prisoners of war of foreign races were collectively called 'Xin', so the instrument of punishment was used to represent the glyph of 'Xin'. ”
In the dictionary, "concubine" refers to: a woman who has committed a crime. In the eyes of the ancients, anyone who is guilty can be taken as a slave, so the original meaning of "concubine" refers to: female slave. Sometimes, people also use "concubine" to refer to a woman who a man marries in addition to his wife, for example, in the middle school textbook "Zou Ji Satirizes the Qi Wang Na Zhi", it is said that such a sentence is said: "The wife of the subject is a private subject, and the concubine of the subject fears the subject." ”
Of course, "concubine" is more used to denote a woman's modesty, for example, the word is used in the Warring States poetry: "Concubine (I) is the daughter of Wushan." It should be noted that "concubine" is specifically used to refer to women, and cannot be used on men, let alone combined "subject" and "concubine", or used in front of people with lower status than themselves, otherwise, they will be laughed at by the people of the world.
Finally, let's talk about the use of the term "concubine". In some of the Tang Dynasty's odes, we can see the phrase "Wanfang Concubines", or the Song people saying "All the Concubines of All Nations", so it can be seen that "Concubines" is a general term, which means: men and women as subjects. However, for a specific, specific man or woman, it cannot be called a "concubine" alone.
So it's like not being able to describe a man or a woman with "male or female" in terms of " .
In addition, in many cases, "concubine" can be used as a verb, for example, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai Yong said: "Concubines of all nations". Therefore, as long as we read the history books, we can know that the concubines of the harem did not call themselves "concubines" when talking to the emperor, but called themselves "concubines" or "concubines".
Finally, the author also wants to say that the so-called historical drama, in fact, can be divided into historical documentary drama and historical court drama, as well as a type of palace fighting drama based on entertainment. Moreover, if strictly divided, palace fighting dramas can only belong to the category of costume romance dramas, and cannot be classified as rigorous historical dramas. Therefore, when the choreographer was shooting, he did not strictly study the historical data at that time, which is also understandable.
Resources:
[Shang Shu Biography,"Warring States Policy Qin SI", "Warring States Policy Qin SI", "Shi Ji Wu Taibo Shijia", "Later Han Shu Empress Ji", "Shuowen Jiezi", "Shuowen Jiezi", "Oracle Bone Research", "Jin Shu", "New and Old "Book of Tang", "Song History", "Ming History"]