Marriage means the formation of a new family relationship, once two people enter the marriage, it is no longer a simple love between two people, but related to two families, so marriage has occupied an important position in human society and family relations since ancient times, through marriage can reflect people's social concepts and mental states.
When the trend and spiritual destiny of a society change, it will also affect people's orientation and concept of marriage relationship.
How did the deformed concept of marriage in the Wei and Jin dynasties come into being? Why deviate from the concept of moral etiquette in the Qin and Han dynasties?
In the period before the Wei and Jin dynasties, especially in the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, great importance was attached to etiquette and Confucian ethics, so when people considered the issue of marriage, they often mainly focused on whether it could conform to the etiquette system and the concepts advocated by Confucianism. After entering the Wei and Jin dynasties, with the influence of the door valve system, a new group began to appear on the historical stage, that is, the scholar class. Affected by this, with the continuous rise of the economic and political status of the clan, the traditional concept of marriage has also changed accordingly.
The Wei and Jin Dynasties were a period of great importance to the door, and under the door valve system of the Six Dynasties, marriage was no longer a matter between men and women, but rose to a major event related to the interests of the family. Through the marriage of the door to the door, not only can you maintain the nobility and purity of a family bloodline, but more importantly, marriage is also a necessary means to climb up to other high-gate nobles.
Judging from the "New Sayings of the World", in the marriage relationship during the Qin and Han Dynasties, more attention was paid to the etiquette system and ethical and moral concepts, and this moral concept was developed to the Wei and Jin Dynasties period has been abandoned, people pay more attention to whether marriage can bring benefits to the family, so in marriage people are more willing to choose xuanhe's scholar high gate, and forget the most original etiquette and ethics.
Therefore, this concept of marriage that disregards ethics, morality and etiquette is obviously deformed, but in the "New Language of the World", instead of raising any doubts about this kind of scholar marriage, it shows a sense of envy, so this attitude also strengthens the concept of marriage of the Wei Jin clan to a certain extent, and even promotes the development of this concept.
First of all, everyone knows that the division of the shishu in the Wei and Jin dynasties was very clear, and it was strictly forbidden for the shishu to intermarry with each other, and at the beginning this practice was to maintain the purity of the aristocratic blood and avoid mixing into the han bloodline. However, with the development of society, people began to gradually forget the original intention of this practice, and later the shame of intermarriage with the Han gradually became the most important reason for the refusal of the scholars to intermarry.
In addition, the prohibition of intermarriage between the gentry was to some extent an important part of the superiority of the gentry. Although there are few records of the story of the marriage between the scholars and the concubines in the "New Language of the World", through the records of various contents, it can be clearly seen that there is a serious gap between the scholars and the concubines.
Case
It is said that at that time, Wang Wuzi of Wei and Jin wanted to choose a good son-in-law for his sister, and by chance, he met the son of a soldier, and through understanding, he learned that this person was talented and a good candidate, so he wanted to marry his sister to him. After informing her mother of this, her mother said that if this person was talented, she could ignore the door, but after seeing this person, she rejected the marriage for various far-fetched reasons.
The mother's approach seems to be enlightened, but her deep-seated concept of the scholar is deeply rooted, seeing this person just to give her son a face, in fact, she still looks at the door, so she casually rejects the marriage on an unrelated reason. It can be seen from this that the talent in front of the door is not worth mentioning at all, and the concept of the door is still the proud victor.
Although intermarriage between the scholars and the concubines is strictly prohibited, there are still cases in history in which the children of the scholar clan marry a Hanmen woman as a concubine, so why is this? In fact, this is also the only room for accommodation between the concubines, that is, to make a strict distinction between marriages. At that time, the sons of the Shi clan could still be forgiven if they had to marry the daughter of the Han Gate, but if the daughter of the Shi Clan wanted to marry the Han Clan, it was absolutely incompatible. Therefore, if the daughter of the Han clan is good enough, she also has the opportunity to marry into the shi clan.
There is also such a classic case in the "New Language of the World":
When Wang Zhan of Wei and Jin was young, because of dementia, no one proposed to him, so he took the initiative to request to marry the daughter of Hanmen Haopu, and later he explained to his father that the woman's behavior was not abnormal, and his father considered Wang Zhan's situation and was worried that he would not be able to marry a wife, so he agreed.
Later, the girl gave birth to her son Wang Cheng, and with her beauty and wisdom, became a model among the mothers of the Wang family. To know that the Wang family in the Wei and Jin dynasties, whether it is family history or status is famous, the reason why this woman can get such a position in such a family, of course, is not only the simple behavior is not abnormal, the most important thing is because she is a woman, if you change into a man, it is absolutely impossible to marry the scholar family, let alone be able to obtain such a prominent position.
However, there are very few women like the daughter of Hao Pu who have become a model and obtained a certain status, in fact, most of the cold women who can marry into the warrior clan are usually very humble, not only will be discriminated against by the scholar family, but also need to endure a lot of bullying, in other words, Presumably many people would rather choose to sit on the bicycle and laugh than sit in the BMW and cry, will not be willing to endure that kind of life.
However, during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there were indeed many women with cold doors who squeezed their heads and wanted to marry into the Shi clan, why did they have such a deformed concept, and what was their motivation to marry into the Shi Clan?
Obviously, most of it will not be love, but the main thing is to change the court. The marriage of a hanmen woman into the shi clan not only changed her own destiny, but also changed the fate of the entire family. Therefore, it can also be seen from here that in the period of feudal society, marriage was only a political act, an opportunity to expand one's own power, and family interests were the key to determining marriage, not love between two people.
Thus, in these cases, marital issues are difficult to decide through pure love. In many love stories in ancient China, there are many tragedies of sacrificing the love of children because of family interests. The willing sacrifice of a woman in order to be able to transform her family can also show how important the concept of the door occupied in the marriage relationship at that time.
The influence of the concept of mendi on marriage during the Wei and Jin dynasties was more reflected in the marriage of emperors. At that time, the phenomenon of marriage between emperors and scholars was increasing, and unlike previous dynasties, the marriage between emperors and nobles in previous dynasties was mostly regarded as a gift from the emperor to them, while in the Wei and Jin dynasties, it became a relationship of mutual benefit between the two sides.
The emperor can consolidate his rule by marrying with the high gate of the warrior clan and attracting more forces, and the high gate of the clan can rely on the political protection of the imperial family, which is more conducive to the long-term development of the family. The combination of the two brings the political connection to the highest level. Therefore, at that time, the marriage between the scholar gaomen and the emperor was also regarded as a normal thing, so the scholar gaomen no longer had any sense of gifts, but felt that this was a matter of course because of the mutually beneficial relationship between the two sides.
On the other hand, at that time, if the emperor chose a spouse who was not a high-ranking monk, it would make people feel incredible. Through this, it can also be strongly reflected how much the rise of the scholar class has affected people's concept of marriage.
All in all, the concept of marriage in the Wei and Jin dynasties underwent earth-shaking changes due to the rise of the scholar class, completely abandoning the previous concept of marriage that attached importance to etiquette and ethics. In the Wei and Jin dynasties, this deformed concept of marriage made the love between men and women valueless, and the interests of the family were the key factors in determining a marriage.
Resources:
"The World Speaks a New Language"
History of the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Wei and Jin Dynasties