In the Northern Song Dynasty, there was such a small story, Wang Anshi's wife Wu Shi, took the initiative to spend money to buy a woman for Wang Anshi as a concubine, but Wang Anshi insisted on retiring the woman.
It should be noted that although Wang Anshi returned the goods, he did not ask the other party for a refund, do you say that this is a strange thing? So the question is: Why did Wang Anshi do this?
Image: Stills of a woman bought for Wang Anshi
1. The philosophy of wives and concubines
In fact, in ancient society, the relationship between wives and concubines was very delicate, especially in large households, and the relationship between wives and concubines could not be as close as sisters, but it was definitely not like water and fire.
1. Suppression
First of all, in the old society, the status between wives and concubines was completely different, from the legal level, the wife needed to be three media and six hires, and unless it was expressly stipulated in the court law, the husband was not allowed to divorce his wife without permission. Concubines often have no personal freedom, and even many concubines are bought and sold, and the husband's scolding and trading of concubines is also within the scope of the court's legal permission.
However, in ancient times, men often only considered the door to the household, and for concubines, perhaps there may be some real feelings, therefore, in ancient society, there was such a phenomenon, that is, although concubines could not become wives, the court law also prohibited the promotion of concubines to wives, but the owner of the family may give concubines a certain preference in other fields.
Although this made the wife very unhappy, it just so happened that the wife was the main room no matter what, and the status at home was supported by the law of the imperial court, so the concubines would be comprehensively suppressed, but this suppression was also measured.
For example, according to the law of the Tang Dynasty, women are good at jealousy, which is also the reason for men to divorce their wives, and the specific embodiment of good jealousy is to abuse concubines, which means that although you can suppress your husband's concubines, this suppression also pays attention to proportions.
Image: Stills of abusing concubines
2. Pomp and circumstance
Just as modern people like to show off their wealth, ancient people also like to show off their wealth, and in different eras in China, the content of showing off their wealth is also different. When modern people show off their wealth, they often show off how many houses they have, and there is such a situation in ancient times, but in ancient times, showing off how much real estate they have is often the behavior of rural local rich people, and the content of the scholar's show off wealth can be much higher than the style of the local rich man, for example, the scholar likes to talk about pomp and circumstance, and the rural local rich man is not as good as the scholar in this regard.
In addition, in terms of concubines, scholars also regard it as part of the pomp, and some scholars in the Northern Song Dynasty are eighty years old, and they will also take an eighteen-year-old concubine to show that they are a powerful person.
It is in such a large family, if there are too few concubines, then, even if the owner does not care, the wife of the family will feel disgraced, therefore, will take the initiative to suggest that the owner of the family take a concubine, even if you go to buy a few, otherwise, outsiders will feel that the family has reached a very depressed point, otherwise it will not even have no conditions for concubines. Image: Stills of the head of the house taking a concubine
Second, Wang Anshi's considerations
Wang Anshi was once an official during the Song Dynasty, of course, the emperor of the Song Dynasty chose to expand the scope of the bureaucracy because he was worried that the power of the civil officials was too large, and there were many officials who exercised the power of the prime minister alone.
But even so, in the Song Dynasty, being able to exercise the power of the prime minister is definitely the embodiment of a winner in life, so with Wang Anshi's status, he just has dozens of concubines, and Cai Jing in the song Huizong era, how many concubines there are, I am afraid that Cai Daren himself can't remember.
However, Wang Anshi was unusual, the official did not take a concubine, for this reason, his wife felt that there was no face on her face, so there was a story at the beginning of this article. So the question is: why did Wang Anshi refuse his wife's kindness? All this is a long story.
Image: Stills of having dozens of concubines
1. Wang Anshi's personality
What kind of person is Wang Anshi? The answer to this question can be answered in one sentence or inexpressible. Wang Anshi was a minister during the Song Dynasty and a famous writer of the Northern Song Dynasty.
But was Wang Anshi a loyal vassal or a traitor? Did the reforms led by Wang Anshi help the Northern Song Dynasty or destroy the Northern Song Dynasty? In fact, from the time of Wang Anshi to the present day of the 21st century, there is no clear answer to this topic in the field of history. It is conceivable that when Wang Anshi was alive, he faced what the situation was like, and when Wang Anshi became an official, people from Sima Guang's faction claimed that Wang Anshi was a traitor.
Even the empress dowager and empress dowager of the Song Dynasty personally told Song Shenzong that Wang Anshi was planning to use the name of changing the law to make a big mess in the world, and even among the people who hated Wang Anshi, Wang Anshi's image was similar to that of the man-eating monster with green faces and fangs, and it could almost be described as the world's first traitor.
What a clever person Wang Anshi is? Of course, he also knows that many people have negative publicity about himself, and Wang Anshi needs to create a good personality for himself - that is, a saintly design.
Photo: Wang Anshi as an official still
2. Saints are designed
Wang Anshi wanted to carry out the change of law, first of all, to convince Song Shenzong that he was not a traitor, so Wang Anshi had to trust Song Shenzong. However, all the people under the heavens are treacherous courtiers, often for their own glory and wealth, and the concrete embodiment of this glory and wealth is to live a life of sound dogs, horses and drunken gold fans, the most direct embodiment is to live in a mansion and a group of wives and concubines.
Therefore, Wang Anshi must keep his life simple and make himself a saint image, at least so that he can produce a logic, if Wang Anshi is a traitor, it must be for the sake of coveting glory and wealth, and those who covet glory and wealth must be particularly addicted to pleasure and have a group of wives and concubines, so Wang Anshi decided: Completely do not take concubines.
At least the emperor of the Song Dynasty saw such a situation and felt that this Wang Anshi was really single-mindedly trying to govern the country and the world, not to seek personal pleasure and gain power. Image: Stills of keeping life simple
3, Wang Anshi's embarrassment
But even so, Wang Anshi still did not wash away the image of the country and the people in the eyes of later generations, for the reason that although the purpose of Wang Anshi's reform was to reduce the burden of the common people and increase the financial revenue of the imperial court. However, in fact, these policies pursued by Wang Anshi often needed to be implemented by the most grass-roots officials.
These officials maliciously misinterpreted Wang Anshi's policies to gain benefits for themselves and even local interest groups, which eventually led to the pressure on the lives of the people at the bottom becoming more intense, of course, this was not Wang Anshi's original intention, so it was not easy to say that reformers, and if they wanted to do something practical, they would have to bear the infamy.
Article author: Dahui
The entire graphic was produced by the team of the Big Cafe Say History Studio!