The novel "Jin Ping Mei" was created in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and with the development of Ichijing culture, the traditional "Cheng Zhu Lixue" has become less deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. The new landlord class, represented by Ximen Qing, regarded Confucian etiquette as a straw mustard, and devoted itself to fishing for silver and indulging in lust.
Ximen Qing is a typical egoist, money is supreme. The first time he talked to Wu Yueniang about Li Bottle, he said that Li Bottler was liang Zhongshu's concubine before, and brought a lot of treasures when he married Hanako. When Wu Yueniang told him about Lan Shi, the wife of Qianhu He Yongshou, Ximen Qing also said that Lan Shi was the niece of Lan Eunuch in the palace, and the dowry was very rich when she got married. Perhaps from a merchant background, the great official of Ximen has always cared about silver.
He had five wives and five concubines, and three of the five concubines were rich wives. Li Jiao'er was born in the Qinglou, spending money and being stingy, so naturally she saved a lot of silver. Meng Yulou had several thousand taels of silver in his hand, as well as two or three hundred barrels of three shuttle cloth left by her ex-husband. Li Zhen'er can be said to be the richest woman in Qinghe County, a hundred large Western pearls, a pair of two or two crow and green gems, and these two treasures alone are worth a fortune.
The money of these three rich wives, one of whom he earned, and the other two, was the inheritance of her ex-husband. Ximen Qing, where is the concubine, is clearly inviting the god of wealth to enter the door.
The two remaining concubines, Pan Jinlian and Sun Xue'e, were very poor, and Pan Jinlian's ex-husband was Wu Dalang, who had almost no inheritance after his death. Sun Xue'e was born from a beard and did not have silver. Don't look at Ximen Qing spending all day drinking and spending money like dirt, but he is quite stingy about silver. Although Pan Jinlian was favored, it was too difficult to want Ximen Qing's silver.
Pan Jinlian's mother, Grandma Pan, came to visit, there was no money for the palanquin, and the good-looking Pan Jinlian not only did not pay, but scolded her mother. Still Meng Yulou couldn't see it, and paid for her. Pan Jinlian was very poor before, but after marrying Ximen Qing, she was still very poor, and she did not have a leather jacket in the winter, and even her mother's seven cents of silver for the palanquin money was reluctant to pay. After Pan's death, Wu Yueniang did not let her go back to her mother's house to mourn, and Pan Jinlian gave Chen Jingji six or two pieces of silver and asked him to send people in the past, which was Pan Jinlian's biggest expense in the book.
Meng Yulou proposed that the concubines pool their money to set up wine, and Sun Xue'e could not even take out five pieces of silver, so she pulled out the hairpin on her head in desperation. As Ximen Qing's concubine, she actually owed a few silver flowers to the matchmaker Xue Concubine, and was so poor.
For women, there seems to be no sense of security without money, because there is no sense of security, Pan Jinlian has always wanted to compete for favors. Among the concubines, the most troublesome are Pan Jinlian and Sun Xue'e, perhaps they are jealous of the rich concubines! The first wife-concubine conflict in Ximen Qing's family was torn apart by these two people, and they almost fought.
Ximen Qing and the slave Song Huilian got along, the other wives and concubines turned a blind eye, Sun Xue'e chewed her tongue in front of LaiWang and set off a storm, Pan Jinlian provoked dissension, and finally Laiwang went to prison, and Song Huilian hanged herself.
However, fate is always so magical, after Ximen Qing's death, Li Jiao'er was married back by Zhang Erguanren to be the head of the family. The rich woman Meng Yulou cultivated the right fruit, married Li Yanei and became the head of the lady. Pan Jinlian and Sun Xue'e, who had no money, died the most tragically, one of them committed many evils and was revenged by Wu Song. The other took a risk and was forced to hang himself. It seems that in feudal society, for concubines, silver was sometimes more reliable than men.