In the old days of urban and rural areas, the archway that was most erected was the so-called "ZhenjieFang".
After the Song and Yuan dynasties, the concept of "starvation is small, loss of control is big" is prevalent in the whole society, and the first driving force behind it is the official.
In the commoner class, the possibility of establishing a meritorious name or making a meritorious career is extremely small, and the only person who can be officially commended is the woman who keeps her virginity and enters the official history, so that her name will go down through the ages.
The "History of Song", "Yuan History", and "Ming History" contain a large number of biographies of chaste women, and the "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty" has four volumes of "Biography of Lienu", which is the largest in Chinese history.
In the Qing Dynasty, the duan, dong and Yang clans were typical, the oldest was only 21 years old when widowed, the youngest was only 15 years old, and the widow was as long as 79, 80 and 101 years respectively!
The "Qing History Manuscript and Biography of The Daughters of Lie" contains: Dong Shi married Hu Yuanbo, "Yuan Bo 卒, Dong Nian fifteen, for the eighty years of the concubine, ninety-five years of the year is the death." ”
"Qing History Manuscript • Biography of The Daughters of Lie": "Li Huoran's wife Yang, Yongnian ren. In the fifteenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1676), he died suddenly, and Yang Nian was twenty-one.
Uncle Filial piety. Fuzi honors the sage, marries the woman king, gives birth to a son and honors the sage, and the aunt and the woman care for the orphan grandson until the establishment. Yang died in the forty-second year of Qianlong (1777), with a life of one hundred and twenty years, and a hundred years of observance. ”
How do young women who have had male and female love spend the long years of widowhood?
It takes not only perseverance, but also skill.
According to the "Qing History Manuscript And Biography of The Daughters", Hu Yuanbo's wife Dong Shi was widowed at the age of fifteen, and the neighbor's wife once asked her how she had kept it all these years when she was so young.
Dong Shi said: "Hungry and eating, tired and sleeping, not hungry and tireless, there will be something to do, do not sit and play." I will taste the servants of men, and the women will be red, and I will ask for her work.
If you seek work, you will be dedicated; if you are dedicated, you will be diligent; if you are diligent, you will be tired and tired. Tired is sleeping, improvisation, no need to make a breath, and for a long time it is habitual. ”
Photos of the Qing Dynasty
In order to survive the long years, Dong Shi worked hard and kept improving, all his thoughts were spent on doing work, and there was no time to think about other things. When you are too tired to hold on, you go to sleep, wake up and work.
Therefore, the widow's virginity-keeping skills are almost the same.
The reason for the duan's widowhood began in the Ming Dynasty, and the Qing History Manuscript did not include it in the "Biography of The Daughters of Lie". Fang Bao, a famous essayist in the Qing Dynasty, specially wrote the "Biography of Gao Jie Women" for him.
This high-ranking woman, widowed at the age of 17, died at the age of 96, and was widowed for 79 years. To spend the rest of her life, she moved into the city and "sewed for the people of the city."
Gao Jie's grandson later entered high school and became a high-ranking official, redeeming her father to return, and Gao Jie's wife also became a lifewife and a wife, but she was still "seventy years old and carried out the service of servants", doing housework like a slave.
Working is not about making a living, it's about passing the time, and it eventually becomes a habit.
What should I do if I work during the day and still can't sleep at night?
Before her death, the woman told her descendants that if she could not keep the festival, don't be like yourself, because this day is too bitter. After the widow, Gao Jie was very young and could not spend the night.
She prepared 200 copper coins, turned off the lights in the dead of night, and scattered the copper coins all over her bedroom. Then, the black light blindly touched it back one by one until it was exhausted.
So repeatedly, day after day, to pass the life.
The pain of a woman's life is so silent. As an outsider, it is difficult to know the inside story...
