Ancient women marrying late is a crime? Why did ancient women marry at the age of thirteen or fourteen?
For the matter of late marriage, Bai Juyi once wrote in the poem "Five Songs for Friends": "Thirty men have rooms, and twenty women have returns." "In this way, is it not true that the ancient feudal society did not care about such things as late marriage?
Of course it was impossible, and even women marrying later in some dynasties had clear penalties. For example, Liu Ying, the Emperor of Han Hui, once ordered: "A woman who is over fifteen years old to thirty years old will not marry, and five counts." "The meaning is: Your daughter is not worried about marrying, and the mother's family is not worried about eating, then pay more taxes to the state."
It is true that the children of some princes and nobles marry late and have children late, which may make the "leftover men and women" in front of the screen have a feeling of "the same is the fallen people at the end of the world", but let's not forget that it is the feudal society of the landlord class, the princes and nobles enjoy privileges, and when Ama follows the emperor into the customs, he will eat the suffering he should suffer in this life.
The current law stipulates a minimum age for marriage for men and women, but the ancient feudal dynasties set a maximum age for marriage. The Jin Dynasty stipulated that if a woman was seventeen years old and had not yet married, the imperial court forced you to be the "object of state distribution"; the laws promulgated by the rulers of the Tang Dynasty would also persuade women to marry at the age of thirteen, and the latest time of marriage should not exceed fifteen years old; in the Song Dynasty, the ruler directly told you that "the daughter does not marry, and the whole family is squatting in prison." "In order to curb the trend of late marriage and late childbearing generated by economic and social development."
Obviously, the forced marriage of women in successive dynasties is not in line with our popular free love, late marriage and late childbearing customs, so what is the reason why women must marry at the age of thirteen in ancient times? These are all related to the short life expectancy in ancient times and the needs of the agrarian economy.
What was the average life expectancy in ancient times? Why is life expectancy not high?
Xu Shilian's "Outline of Population Theory" of the Republic of China records that the average life expectancy of the ancients was only about 30 years old, which was in the prime of their lives, and how did it become the average limit of the ancients when they were established to perform their grand plans and achieve their careers?
The first is the war factor, the war in the era of cold weapons is different from the modern war, basically two waves of people and horses to the last person. "Drunken lying on the battlefield Jun Mo smiled, and a few people in the ancient conquest were still" is a true portrayal of the cold weapon war.
In addition to direct fighting on the battlefield, the execution of prisoners of war is not uncommon in mainland history. For example, Bai Qi after the Battle of Changping and Xiang Yu after the Battle of Julu have records of pit killing and surrendering pawns.
Looking at the ancient history of war on the mainland, peace is relative, war is absolute, and wars between tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of troops often break out, bringing about a sharp decline in population, while there are 3971 recorded wars in ancient mainland China, which is exaggerated to the point that almost every year in our Chinese five-thousand-year civilization there have been wars every year.
Looking at the world's wars, in addition to the last two world wars, there are very few tens of thousands of people abroad war outbreaks, the agricultural economy is difficult to support such a huge population consumption, if the Russian nation is called a "fighting nation", our Chinese nation can be called a "war nation".
Most of the soldiers in the war were young and middle-aged, so they had a huge impact on the average life expectancy of the mainland in ancient times, in addition to medical and health conditions is also an important factor.
For example, in recent years, the new crown epidemic incident, if this is placed in ancient times, most of the ways to deal with infectious diseases are to close the village, let the people inside fend for themselves, and even more directly slaughter the village to avoid the consequences. If you encounter some difficult diseases, it is "a leg pedal, a cover of cloth, and the whole village is waiting for the food."
The fragile ancient medical system made the health of the ancients unable to fully guarantee, and the few Sacred Heart Healers such as Bian Que and Hua Tuo were not respected and recognized by the rulers, which in turn affected the average life expectancy of the ancients.
In the ancient feudal society with an average life expectancy of more than 30 years, early marriage and early childbearing naturally became the consensus of society, otherwise it is likely to appear the tragedy of "poor and uncertain river bones, like people in the dream of spring girls".
Why did women need to marry early and have children in ancient times?
In recent years, the mainland has implemented the "two-child" and "three-child" policies, encouraging more children, and people often can't afford the economic pressure of raising children, and in the ancient logic of child-rearing, only a small amount of rations need to be provided in exchange for a strong labor force, which is a converted "trade".
The difference in demand brings about differences in people's behavior, the development of industrial society requires a lot of funds, resources, technology, etc. Modern human beings do not pay much attention to population growth, but will consider the environmental pressure brought about by population growth. Coupled with the current level of peace in the international situation, there are few problems of population demand caused by the outbreak of war, and agrarian societies are very different.
The conditions required for the development of agricultural society, in addition to land, the most important thing is the population. Population means labor force for farm work and military strength in wartime, so there is a social concept of "many children and many blessings" and "no filial piety has three, and no future is greater".
Even if early marriage and childbirth have great damage to women's bodies, the ancient small peasant society often chose to ignore women's needs, degrade their social status, and force women to pursue "husbands and children" in life.
In that feudal society where men were inferior to women, women could not enjoy the same social status as men, and many women were regarded as "reproductive machines" with strict oppressive ethics of "husband for women", forcing women to live dependent on men to survive.
From the royal princess to the envoys and relatives, down to the dawn of the people selling women for glory, all reflect the fact that women have a humble status in ancient society, behind the early marriage and children of women, is the bloody fact of oppressing women.
Reproduction is the instinct of biology, human beings are no exception, so the ancient family concept also came into being, the population of the family to prosper require women to give birth, early marriage also means early birth, early birth means more fertility, more fertility can make the family stronger.
In ancient times, everyone depended on the family to survive, if you told your parents in ancient society that you were "unmarried" and "Dink", you were basically isolated from human civilized society, and the small road was painstakingly persuaded day and night, so big that you swept out the house to expel the family and lost the capital to live.