In ancient times, not only sons were preferred to women, but also the distinction between concubines was also very important, and these details were vividly reflected in the historical hit drama "Ruyi Zhuan". Empress Fucha's first child was a daughter, and in the early days she also loved this daughter very much, until after the two princes she gave birth to died in succession, The Hopeless Empress Fucha was weak and could no longer give birth to a dragon heir for the royal family. Empress Fucha understood that she was a dying man, so she no longer had the virtuous virtues of the past.
The only daughter she gave birth to, although usually cruel and willful, was extremely filial, and the already insane Empress Fucha saw this daughter and thought of her two sons and healthy body, so she threw all her temper at this daughter.
He often spoke harshly to her, wanted to exchange her for his son, said that his daughter was useless, and said very hurtful things. If the eldest lady of the ordinary nobility did not have a son and a half daughter, she would have no face, let alone the queen of the mother of a country.
Of course, patriarchy existed in history, but the noble daughters of the upper class were already the pearls of the family. Noble women in ancient China to bear no less responsibility than men, women's marriage is often used as a replacement resource, the key to the joint development of the two families, they are loved by thousands of loved to grow up, so many of the plots in the TV series are fabricated, not in line with historical facts.
Many people are curious to admit that in ancient times, the sons and daughters of a large family were of higher status and more valued. In fact, there is no need to have any doubts about this, there is a difference between concubines and concubines, and the eight words of honor and inferiority and orderliness have long been engraved in the bones of ancient people.
Whether it is a concubine or a concubine, the addition of a concubine proves that it is born of the husband's wife, the wife and the husband are mutually supportive, and the concubine who gives birth to the concubine can only be regarded as a high-level "slave" selected by the wife for the husband.
The ancients, who attached great importance to the patriarchal and ceremonial systems, paid special attention to these, and the birth could not be determined, and the children born in the belly of the wife were more valued and of higher status than the children born of concubines. Of course, if the concubine is loved by the husband enough, the children born to the concubine will be better off and will get more things.
The family of a woman who can sit as the head of the house is on par with her husband's family, and the door is right. Their marital union is not a simple love between men and women, but a means of binding the interests of two families and consolidating power.
The children born to the wives of high-ranking families naturally have help from the mother's mother's family, while the concubines are from a humble background, have no rights and no money, and the children born have any background help behind them.
The status of the right wife will make many concubines hungry, and once a man loses his wife, he will often marry another concubine or help the concubine room. Because the wife can not only represent the family to attend aristocratic gatherings, but also has the right to manage the house, the family's money is kept by herself, and she can get a lot of oil and water from it.
There is also a very important reason for concubines, that is, in terms of establishing an heir, when she becomes a proper wife, she has the right to establish an heir, and she can set up her own children to inherit the family business.
In history, the two brothers of the Yuan family in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, are the best examples of the difference in the status of concubines and concubines. Yuan Shao was the eldest son of Shu, and Yuan Shu was the younger son of Yuan Shu, because of the distinction between Concubines and Concubines, Yuan Shu was very disrespectful to his brother, and Yuan Shao also lacked his father's weight and resources compared to Yuan Shu. Yuan Shao could only win the hearts of the people by virtue of his own strength and personality, so as to serve as an official.
However, the harder Yuan Shao tried, the more outstanding he became, the more he would be jealous of others, because Yuan Shao's identity as a shuzi was ridiculed and ridiculed. One of the ten pieces of evidence against Yuan Shao submitted to the imperial court during Gongsun Zhan's crusade against Yuan Shao was that yuan shao did not distinguish between etiquette laws and that his lowly birth mother was treated with unseemly etiquette.
In fact, concubines only have fundamental differences in inheriting titles, land, and other things left by their ancestors. If the nobleman's wife is infertile, he can also accept the concubines born of concubines as his own children to inherit the ancestral inheritance. Men, on the other hand, could inherit their brother's children without having children.
After the Ming Dynasty, the distinction between concubines and concubines gradually blurred, and the eldest and youngest were the key to inheriting the family business, even the imperial throne was no exception. One emperor of the Ming Dynasty named Zhu Changluo died shortly on the throne, and the next emperor was Zhu Youxiao, the "Shuzi". After Zhu Youxiao's death, because he had no children to inherit his position, the throne passed to another "shuzi" Zhu Youjian.
In summary, it can be seen that in terms of status, the concubine is undoubtedly much higher than the concubine, as the daughter of the wife, she can enjoy better treatment in the family, but the adult concubine must marry someone else as a wife, the so-called married daughter spilled water, any property in the family is no longer related to the concubine, except for the dowry given by the father.
Summary: Although Shuzi cannot enjoy the brocade and jade food of his concubine, because he is a man, he still enjoys the inheritance right of the family, and he can also rely on the conditions provided by the family to study hard, obtain meritorious names, enter the dynasty as an official, and his future status and life are not worse than those of a concubine who marries a human wife.
Shu women will not be so lucky as Shuzi, because of the identity of women, Shu women do not have the heavens and the earth to show themselves like Shuzi, and can only be married to children by the arrangement of the master mother, usually the end of the Shu women is to marry a man as a concubine.