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●—≺ Preface ≻—●
In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, in order to raise fines, the Qing government repeatedly looted the people's fat and anointment, and the people's families were so poor that they could not even eat, let alone marry their daughters-in-law.
However, the decadent idea of "no filial piety has three, and no descendant is great" tightly binds people, and it is okay if you can't marry a daughter-in-law, but in order to continue the incense, even if you smash pots and sell iron, you have to have a son.
But these poor people don't even have daughters-in-law, how can they have sons? What exactly did they come up with to lose their conscience?
●—≺ Woman who has become a "commodity" ≻—●
Bao Chao, a famous general under Zeng Guofan, was poor when he was young, and he could not even afford to support his parents, wife and children. In order to survive, he could only rent his married wife to people in the same village in exchange for some silver to survive.
This thing seems absurd, but in fact it is even more suspicious.
In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, didn't society place great emphasis on women's chastity? Why did Bao Chao's family think of lending his wife out when he was poor? And what are the procedures for renting a wife?
In fact, renting wives was very common among the Qing people, especially the poor, and even formed a trend.
The Qing government was cowardly, and they signed a series of treaties that humiliated the country and paid sky-high fines. But where do these fines come from? It is not yet a search for people's fat and people's ointment over and over again.
The common people not only had to pay the high taxes of the Qing Dynasty, but also had to bear high-priced fines, endure layers of exploitation by corrupt officials, and had no surplus food at home for a long time, making it difficult to survive.
But even if life has become difficult to this point, people's hearts are still corrupted by the rotten idea of having many children and blessings and passing on the lineage.
They thought to themselves: Even if I am poor and can't have many children and many blessings, at least I must keep a son, and I can't cut off the incense of our family.
But they can't even afford to marry their daughters-in-law, so how can they give birth to sons?
Thus, a sinful business was born.
Formal marriage requires various cumbersome processes such as Nacai, name asking, and Najib, among which the high dowry is even more unaffordable for these people, what should I do?
They thought: Anyway, now that the world is chaotic, there are many people who have no money to marry their daughters-in-law. But even if you spend a lot of energy to marry your daughter-in-law, you may not be able to raise a family.
In that case, it is better for everyone to help each other.
Those who cannot afford to marry a daughter-in-law rent a wife from a person who can afford to marry a daughter-in-law, so that those who cannot afford to marry can also temporarily have a daughter-in-law to bear a son to themselves and pass on the lineage. Those who cannot afford to support their families can also receive a rent to ease the financial pressure on the family.
Thus, a deformed marriage model, the marriage of the wife, was born.
The term "pawn marriage" is taken from the pawnshop, and people feel that this model of renting a wife is similar to the way pawnshops pawn items, so they give it the name "pawn marriage".
Although people know that marriage is a very disgraceful form of marriage, they still try to put an almost transparent fig leaf on it to make this act elegant.
Therefore, a series of procedures for marriage of wives came into being.
If the poor want to marry their wives, they also need matchmakers. First of all, the family who needs a wife will find a matchmaker and ask her to find a suitable family for herself. The matchmaker then finds a suitable family from the house of the person who is going to rent out his wife according to the price.
The second step is "contracting". A contract is when two families sit together and discuss various matters related to the marriage of the wife, and after the discussion, a contract is signed. The contract specifies the number of years of the pawn wife, generally speaking, 1-2 years is called a rented wife, and 3-5 years is called a pawn wife.
There are many things that are specified in the contract, the most important of which is the amount of the transaction. They will determine the amount of employment to be hired according to the wife's age, appearance, physical health, fertility, etc., and the better the conditions, the higher the price.
In addition, the contract also stipulates many other provisions for women, such as:
During the period of the lease, the wife is not allowed to return to her husband's house, nor can she see her former children; During the period of the lease, the wife may not refuse the current husband's request for intercourse;
A child born to a wife in her current husband's family cannot be called "mother", but only "aunt". After the end of the lease period, the wife can no longer return to the husband's house during the lease period, let alone contact the children born during the lease period...
Each of these provisions clearly demarcates the ethical relationship between the two companies. But each one is also the cruelest injury to the wife.
In their hearts, a wife is just a lifeless "cargo" that only needs to mechanically fulfill their "duties" in each family.
At the end of the "contract", it is "retained". The dowry given by the current husband's family to the original husband's family is the transaction amount negotiated before, and in addition, it is some worthless rags.
These rags are not to show that they value the wife, but to ensure that the son born to the wife is reasonable and not discriminated against.
Finally, it is the marriage link, of course, the marriage does not need to carry eight palanquins, often a red robe, perfunctory.
After the "wedding", the wife completely became a member of the new husband's family during the lease period.
●—≺ The tragic life of his wife ≻—●
Women are the most severely hurt in the deformed marriage of the pawn wife, and their bodies and minds have suffered indelible trauma.
First of all, the wife herself will look down on herself. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, society's restraint on women reached its peak, and women needed to follow the three virtues and four virtues. Among these bondages, the demand for chastity is more demanding, something more important than the life of a woman.
Although these women, who are deeply poisoned by feudal ideology, extremely disdain the behavior of themselves and their former husbands, the idea of three virtues and four virtues, and the weakness of women's biology, force her to be powerless to change the status quo.
Therefore, the spirit of these wives was greatly torn, and many of them could not stand the spiritual condemnation and chose the road of seeking death.
But other women who reluctantly chose to accept it helplessly can only survive in their current husband's house.
After the wife comes to her current husband's house, she will sever all relations with her original husband's family, and will not be able to go back, let alone visit her children, and will have to suffer the pain of separation from mother and son.
The wife is also having a hard time at her current husband's house. The current husband hated that his wife had been defiled by other men and lost her virginity, and everyone else in the village was pointing fingers at him.
In addition, since the ultimate purpose of renting a wife is to have a son, the current husband will seize all the time and sleep with his wife every night.
Even if the wife is unwell, the current husband will not have the slightest scruples about her. During the day, the wife still had to do a lot of heavy chores. No matter what happened to his wife last night, or whether she was already pregnant, it could not be reduced.
During this period, many women could not bear the torture, could not even survive half of the lease period, and died.
And when the child is born, the child is not the wife's. When pawns take care of their own children every day, they can't even hear a word of "mother", only a word of estranged "aunt", how tormented their hearts should be.
Even so, after a few years, she must leave the child forever, separated from flesh and bones, and never see each other again in this life.
But after a few years, the wife can finally return to her former husband's house, and her life will not improve in the slightest.
Even if it is not voluntary, the wife will still lose her virginity because she lives with other men for many years, and she will be vilified by the gossip of blind dates in the neighborhood.
The most ridiculous thing is that her husband, and her family, are most likely the ones who accuse her the most of the excess.
At first, in order to live, the incompetent husband forcibly rented out his wife against her wishes; Now, he hates his wife for having lived with other men. Such a man is cowardly to the extreme, and hateful to the extreme.
The deformed form of marriage has caused indelible damage to women, and poverty is the most direct cause of this phenomenon.
In addition to this, there are many other reasons.
The Qing army's entry into customs, the wanton abduction of Han women, and the fact that some Mongol habits such as when a man dies and a brother or son can inherit his wife and concubine have had a great impact on the original conjugal system.
So, although many people despise this kind of behavior of sharing wives with many people. But in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, when the people lived in extreme poverty, people could not even eat enough, so how can they talk about normal marriage and childbirth?
In their eyes, although a woman's chastity is very important. But women are only a male dependency, with a humble status, and an existence that can be discarded at any time.
However, inheritance is a major event involving the continuation of the family and bloodline, and there must be no mistakes.
Therefore, when life is driven to a desperate situation, many of them will follow the example of the ruling class, which used to be shared by many people, and perpetuate themselves and their families.
The distorted marriage system of marriage came into being. Under this system of marriage, men's rights are guaranteed, the heirs of the family are continued, and only the woman suffers the heaviest damage.
But in feudal society, women are the least important compared to men, families, and families.
●—≺ The Sorrow of the Poor ≻—●
In order to adapt to the social form, there are many derivative forms of marriage between wives and wives, but no matter what form it takes, its root cause is poverty.
One of the variants of marriage is called "partnering". The "partner" here is different from the two people understood by modern society to live together.
There is often a plot in film and television dramas: the husband is addicted to gambling, goes in and out of the casino for many years, loses all the money, and finally has no choice but to use his wife to pay off debts. When you have enough money, when will you redeem your wife again.
This is the most basic form of "buddy". It completely ripped off the layer of the wives' marriage, which was so transparent that it was not visible, and told the world that this was trading women as assets.
During the Qing Dynasty, this form prevailed in the northeastern region. The poor will give their wives to the rich and make a contract when they will have money and when they will pay it back.
There is also a very dark derivative form of "tying prostitutes". The husband rented his wife to a brothel and signed a "bondage contract".
The brothel will give the husband a certain amount of money according to the woman's appearance, age, whether she is broken, etc. The "binding contract" will also state the woman's business period, and mark "When the limit is full, the account will be paid off, and the wife will be allowed to leave the museum."
In addition, there are many strange derivatives of wife marriage, such as sitting in the hall to recruit husbands, pulling gangs, etc. Not only that, there are even some scams related to the marriage of the wife.
Some people may not want to rent a pawn at all, but unfortunately fall into the trap and are forced to marry a pawn.
For example, if the former husband wants to sell his wife, he falsely refers to her as his sister and marries the victim.
After the victim completed a series of marriage procedures in accordance with the corresponding etiquette, the former husband once again approached the victim, claiming that his wife had been abducted and trafficked in an attempt to blackmail.
But no matter how many derivative forms appear, marriage is a feudal dregs and the heaviest injury to women.
●—≺ Author's Opinion ≻—●
The cowardice of the Qing government caused misery of life, and also derived the deformed and distorted form of marriage of the wife marriage.
It exposes ignorance, shamelessness, and evil in human nature.
The people of the Qing Dynasty were obsessed with the foolish idea of having sons and passing on the lineage; The idea of women as "things" that can be traded is ignorance and the waste of the birth of a wife's marriage.
It is shameless for husbands to force women to become wives on the front foot, and then to shame these innocent women who have lost their virginity.
Under the patriarchal society of the Qing Dynasty, women suffered the heaviest oppression. They require women to observe the three virtues and unconditionally follow her husband's decisions, even if the husband is ready to sell her to someone else. At the same time, women are required to retain their virginity.
They put women in a dilemma without giving them hope, and they have caused many tragic cases of separation of flesh and blood, which is a sin.
Such an ignorant, shameless, and sinful pattern of marriage is bound to be spurned and destroyed.
The Qing government was cowardly, the people could not sustain their lives, and there was nothing wrong with wanting to live. But because of this, abandoning human nature and abandoning conscience is the most terrible thing.
Fortunately, in modern society, men and women are equal, and marriage is illegal in our opinion, and it must be strictly resisted.