Since the transition from feminist society to patriarchal society, men's status and power have been instantly elevated. In order to highlight the social status of men, special regulations have been formulated for men to marry many wives and concubines, and the higher the rank of men, the more wives and concubines they can have.
Image: A lot of stills of women around the man
Ancient emperors could have many concubines in addition to empresses. The number of wives and concubines of princes and ministers is relatively small, but there are also several. Only those who are too poor to eat will have only one wife.
Since a man has so many women, a very obvious and serious problem arises.
In ancient times, property was inherited by sons, which son should be inherited by which wife?
Is all sons equal, or are only the sons of the wife inherited? Do men marry so many women that each woman has the same status in the family?
Photo: The emperor sits with many beautiful women stills
When we look at ancient novels or costume dramas, it is not difficult to find a situation from it, although ancient men married many wives, not all women's status in the family was the same.
Generally speaking, the first wife a man takes is the main wife, and the dowry specifications of this right wife are relatively high, in addition to the generous dowry and dowry, they must also enter through the main entrance with the so-called eight-lifted caravan.
Image: Stills of marrying a wife
As for the other women who married later, they were generally men's concubines. The dowry specifications of the concubine can not be compared with the wife at all, first of all, in terms of the dowry is very casual, there is also exquisite when welcoming the door, can not use eight large sedans, but casually find a palanquin, from the side door to carry in the end of the matter.
After a man marries a concubine, he will also let the right wife manage the concubines, and the concubine will meet the good wife, at least not to be abused by the right wife, if he encounters a difficult wife, the concubine's life at home will be sad.
Since these wives and concubines have completely different positions in the family, the children they give birth to naturally have completely different statuses. Especially the status of the son, if the son of the wife is biological, then the son born of the concubine can be said to be sent with a full phone bill.
Image: Stills of a man marrying a proper wife
The son born to the wife is called a concubine,
The first son born to a wife is also known as the eldest son
。 The sons born to other concubines were called shuzi. Don't look at the difference between the two, there is a huge difference in status and treatment between them.
In ancient times, in order to safeguard the overall interests of a family,
There has always been a very clear distinction between concubines, and the class is also very strict.
This concept even directly became the core of the ancient marriage system.
Let's use the highest level of heaven as an example. An emperor can only appoint one empress at a time, and the empress is also the highest status among her peers in the harem. She was in charge of everything in the harem and set a special set of management standards.
Even if other women were favored, they could not disobey the queen too much, and all the treatment of other concubines could not exceed that of the queen. In the same way, among the sons born to so many women in the harem, the empress is also born with the highest status, and if the empress does not give birth to a son, the highest status will become the first son of the emperor.
Image: Stills of the canonization ceremony
In the hereditary feudal dynasty, for a long time the throne was reserved for the eldest son.
Only if there is no eldest son, the eldest son will be established, and if it happens that neither the concubine nor the eldest son can inherit the throne, it will be passed on to other sons.
This system does prevent many princes from fighting over the throne, and it can better manage the world. But there is another drawback, once the emperor's eldest concubine does not act, it will plague the whole world.
Moreover, if it happens that the concubine and the eldest son cannot succeed to the throne, the other sons will continue to fight for the throne. Kangxi was because of the early death of his eldest son, coupled with the fact that the crown prince was deposed later, which directly led to such a fierce battle.
Image: Kangxi Comics
In addition to the Qing Dynasty, there are many tragic cases caused by the difference between concubines and concubines, and the one that can most arouse the memories of everyone is the King of Lu.
King Huan was not the eldest son, and he had two brothers in front of him, but they were both sons, so with the support of everyone, this cruel king of Lu succeeded in ascending to the throne and became an abusive prince who plagued the people of the world.
I don't know if those courtiers who had opposed the ascension of the other two heirs to the throne and must support the ascension of this concubine to the throne will regret the various deeds of the King of Sui after he took the throne? And the parents of the King of Qiu, seeing their concubines in the underground, had destroyed the country, and presumably regretted that they had to stick to the practice of establishing a concubine as the crown prince.
Image: King of The Bulge Comics
According to the "Spring and Autumn of the Lü Dynasty", the road to the throne of the Shang Dynasty is even more bizarre. As mentioned earlier,
The son born to the empress for the emperor was a concubine, but the three brothers were the same father and mother, and in the end only the youngest king became a concubine, and his two elder brothers became concubines.
It turned out that it was because King Shang's mother was still a concubine when she gave birth to his two brothers. After giving birth to two sons, the mother of the King of Shangyi became the right wife, and then gave birth to Emperor Xin, the king of Shangsu. In the view of Taishi Guan, the first two were both sons, and only the King of Shang was a concubine.
Originally, his mother wanted to make the eldest son the crown prince, but was strongly opposed, believing that in the case of a concubine, the eldest son could not be made a crown prince. Therefore, Di Xin, who originally had the least chance to ascend to the throne, instead ascended to the throne, and he was still very young when he ascended to the throne, and he was pushed to the throne.
In "Lü's Spring and Autumn", this play was also evaluated: "If the use is like this, it is not like this law." It can be seen that the people who wrote this book did not agree that this method must be used to select heirs. Presumably, after experiencing the lesson of losing a country because of the distinction between concubines, some people can still see this problem clearly.
Image: Stills of Emperor Xin of shang
This system in China has also spread to neighboring countries, most notably North Korea.
Lee of North Korea
clan
Dynasties also had a very strict distinction between concubines, which was most evident among the large local families
。
In order to ensure the interests of the concubines, the descendants of the concubines directly become servants, and the descendants of the concubines must be regarded as masters. This practice is simply more serious than the Chinese concubine division, it seems that when Chinese culture spreads, it also spreads some bad things to other countries.
Fortunately, after many painful lessons, people have fully realized the shortcomings of this method. After the end of the last feudal ruling dynasty, this inheritance law was basically abandoned, allowing the capable person to give full play to his talents.
Nowadays, it seems that "xian" is much more important than "嫡", and only "xian" can make society develop faster and more stable.
Article author: Dahui
The entire graphic was produced by the team of the Big Cafe Say History Studio!