In ancient Chinese history, why could many children sell their bodies and bury their fathers, but they could not dig a pit and bury themselves?
When watching TV series, we can often see the bridge of a woman selling her body to bury her father, which makes many people wonder, even if there is no money to buy a coffin, can't you dig a pit and bury it yourself? Why bury your father by selling your body?
In fact, this was particular in ancient times, and selling one's body to bury one's father was just a helpless move.

It is difficult for the poor to survive
In ancient China, the most famous person who sold his body and buried his father belonged to Dong Yong in "Twenty-four Filial Piety".
Anyone who has seen the story knows that Dong Yong's family is very poor, and he is a wandering body, and in the end he can only sell his body to bury his father. And his deeds spread to heaven, and the seven fairies in heaven, moved by Dong Yong's filial piety, specially married him and helped him become free.
Therefore, it can be seen from this that it is not only women who sell their bodies to bury their fathers, but only the poor.

The most intuitive reason for selling one's body to bury one's father is that he is poor and has no money to buy land and coffins to bury his relatives. In ancient times, land was privately owned, and it was difficult for the poor to own a piece of land of their own.
If you dare to find a piece of land to bury your father at will, the owner of the land will definitely not agree, and people can directly report to the officials to arrest you.
Most of those who choose to sell their bodies to bury their fathers are poor people who have fled and have no relatives and no one to rely on. These poor people left their place of residence either because of natural disasters or man-made disasters.
If they can settle down in a new place, it is good, but if they unfortunately pass away on the way to escape, the children they leave behind will only become "black households" because they have no identity certificate.

During the feudal dynasty, the source of funds for the imperial court mainly relied on collecting population taxes from the people, and the tax revenue that the imperial court could get would be greatly reduced when there were many hidden people like black households.
Therefore, since ancient times, the household registration system has been very strict, and once you become a black household, you can no longer take exams, participate in social labor, and even eat and sleep will be restricted.
This means cutting off all the economic resources of the black households, and the burial father not only needs to buy a coffin, but also needs to buy a piece of land, such a large cost, can only let the black households, in the way of selling their bodies to bury the father.

Women are in a difficult situation
For women who choose to sell their bodies to bury their fathers, on the one hand, it is to let their relatives be able to enter the soil after death, and on the other hand, to find a place for themselves to settle down.
In ancient times, the status of women was very low, and they followed their father at home, became a monk and followed their husband, and their husband died from their son, and they could not get rid of the shackles of the three principles and five constants for a lifetime.
If a man has no parents or family, he can join the army, set up a stall to sell, and if he is not good, he can go to do odd jobs for others, and in any case, he can find a way to make a living.

But if an unmarried woman has no parents and family, it means that it becomes an object for people to trample on, leaving them with only death and red dust.
Therefore, when the parents and relatives in the family die for some reason, the woman can only choose to sell her body to bury her relatives in order to save her innocence and life.
Although you may only get a little money by selling your body and burying your father, in ancient times, those who could afford to buy maids must be rich and noble families.
As the saying goes, the dogs of the rich are more expensive than the children of the poor, and being able to go to the rich people's homes as maids is undoubtedly the best way out for these women.

Although there will be no personal freedom when a maid, and the children in the future will also be slaves, at least from now on, there will be no need to worry about food, clothing, housing and transportation, and there will be a corresponding salary every month.
When they are older, if the host family is willing, they will also match the maids with a marriage, which may be a small family or other laborers, for them, the next life can also be regarded as a settlement.
Feudal thinking
In ancient times, people attached great importance to a person's filial piety, and many dynasties even implemented the policy of "ruling the world with filial piety", encouraging the people to respect the old and love the elderly.
Especially in the Han Dynasty, there was a way to select officials based on filial piety, and if a person did not fulfill his filial piety to his parents, then he could not enter the dynasty as an official.

When parents are present, those who are children must serve with all their hearts and minds, and must not have the slightest intention of disobeying their elders. After the parents leave, the children should do a big funeral so that they can walk beautifully.
The ancients attached great importance to the etiquette process of funerals, paying attention to "the dead are great, and the soil is safe". When wealthy families conduct funerals, they will always feast a large number of relatives and friends, and then organize a magnificent funeral procession
Because they believe that if the funeral of the elders is handled in a beautiful way, then the life of future generations will also be prosperous.
For the poor, although there is no way to make a big funeral, the minimum coffin tombstone, burial land is necessary, and if you can't get the money to buy these things, you can only sell yourself.

In modern society, it is difficult to understand the behavior of these people who have passed away for their whole lives, but under such feudal thinking in ancient times, if they did not do this, the spit of those around them alone was enough to drown them.
Compared with the ancients, we are very lucky, because in modern society, there is no such thing as selling one's body and burying one's father, and the status of women has improved significantly, and women can support half of China's sky.