It's hard to believe that in the Republic of China, prostitutes are licensed to work!
That's right, it's a legitimate profession.
In 2019, a 16k paper-sized prostitute certificate was found in the antique market in Linfen, Shanxi. The document contains information such as name, occupation, and place of origin.
Such a thin piece of paper bears witness to the material and spiritual dilemma that Chinese women are facing in a patriarchal society in just 37 years of the Republic of China.
After the founding of New China, the profession of prostitute was abolished, and countless women were liberated.
Many women in the prostitute industry bravely stood up and spoke out about the countless darkness during their career, which gave people a deeper understanding of the word "miserable".
In order to have complete control over the prostitutes, the old bustard will take away all the bounties.
If they disobey, they will draw whips, close small black houses, etc.
Even after each benefactor left, he had to enter the house and knock on the bricks on the floor and walls one by one.
Many people wonder why the bustards knock bricks every night, what is the meaning of this quirk?
The Republic of China prostitute Kang Suzhen explained this in her memoirs.
Let's walk into the life of Kang Suzhen and see the real life of a prostitute in the Republic of China.
First, what makes women lose their freedom
In an article published in Ta Kung Pao in the twenty-fifth year of the Republic of China, an old man mentioned how miserable the life of prostitutes was at that time.
It reads: "The bodies of prostitutes, nine times out of ten, are unhealthy, and most of them are dyed with flowers and willows. If you encounter a strong temperament, you will be beaten half to death, and eventually tortured to the point of exhaustion and death. There is also an unwritten rule in this line, that is, come naked, go naked, and most of the dead prostitutes are not given clothes..."
There are many more descriptions of the cruel life of prostitutes, and these tortures Kang Suzhen have not escaped.
The year Kang Suzhen was born, the Great Qing had already perished for 20 years.
Although the Great Qing dynasty died, the persecution of women in feudal society was vividly reflected in the prostitutes of the Republic of China.
What the hell is it that continues to objectify women, torture and ravage women.
Let them lose in torture, the fundamental right to be free?
The answer is certainly complicated, but the first important factor in it is feudal tradition.
The Republic of China was a special period, when feudal society had collapsed, the order of New China was still slowly being established, and people's traditional thinking had taken root.
In the old rules of "patriarchal society" for a long time, the status of women has always been very low, and it was normal for women to be bought and sold in ancient times.
The second factor is the prevalence of "opium" and "smoke".
Kang Suzhen's father is one of them, he is a rough man, after being infected with smoke, the family's money has been squandered.
Such a family, there is no warmth to speak of.
For Kang Suzhen, the only one who can give her warmth is her mother.
However, during a pregnancy, the mother was beaten by her dehumanizing father and unfortunately miscarried.
The only person in the family who guards Kang Suzhen is also gone.
So, at the age of seven, he was dragged to the market by his father and sold to a large family as a maid.
For the sake of a big cigarette, the daughter is just a tool to make money, like selling livestock, there is no family affection at all.
For Kang Suzhen, if you just serve people in the house, it's okay.
Unfortunately, the slaves of large households are not fuel-efficient lamps.
Because Kang Suzhen is honest and works hard, he gets the joy of the master's family, and is jealous of other maids.
In the end, Kang Suzhen was framed and excluded, lived on the street, and became a small beggar, cold and ignorant, hungry and cold.
At this time, Kang Suzhen was only 10 years old.
If you put it now, 10-year-old children are still in elementary school under the care of their parents.
Second, the pathetic distortion of human nature
In the turbulent displacement, Kang Suzhen met a Sichuan opera class, and the owner of Pan class saw that Kang Suzhen was quite spiritual and accepted her into the class.
Kang Suzhen, who settled down in the Sichuan opera class. She studied hard and performed on stage.
It is precisely because she cherishes the life she has now, after a year of hard work, Kang Suzhen gradually became famous in Chunxi Road, Chengdu.
I originally thought that life could finally settle down, but I didn't expect fate to play a joke on her again.
Pan Ban Master secretly has evil intentions towards Kang Suzhen and wants to plot against her.
Kang Suzhen could only sneak out and become a beggar again.
Going around in circles, the young Kang Suzhen still can't resist the evil of human nature.
Once again, she was sold by traffickers to a family as a child bride.
Her nominal husband is a man with a disability, perhaps because of his disability for many years, which gradually made him psychologically distorted and scolded Kang Suzhen at will.
As a child bride-in-law, Kang Suzhen worked as a cow and horse every day, and had to endure the humiliation and torture of a disabled man.
In the end, Kang Suzhen couldn't bear it and ran away again.
Kang Suzhen remembered the big sister she met in the Sichuan opera class and hoped that the big sister could help her.
But once again, she underestimated the weight of human nature in the face of poverty.
This big sister of the Sichuan opera class, pretending to buy a new dress for her, changed hands and sold her to Qinglou. The old bustard saw that she looked good, and immediately gave the money and took the person away.
At this time, she was only 13 years old.
From being expelled from a large family to learning drama in a Sichuan opera class, and finally being sold as a prostitute for a child bride, it was only 3 years.
It's hard to imagine what kind of mood a child has experienced in the past three years.
Being deceived again and again, hurting the soul again and again.
Perhaps Kang Suzhen cried countless times at night.
In her memoirs, the life of being sold into a brothel is dark.
In a poor age, when a person loses his family affection, the warmth of this world has been completely lost.
This is also what we often say now, the material base determines the superstructure.
Food and clothing have not been solved, how can you have the ability to supply spiritual power.
So Kang Suzhen's days after that can be imagined.
Third, there is no escape and compromise
After Kang Suzhen was sold into a brothel, of course, she did not follow, after all, she was originally a good family woman, of course, she knew that being a prostitute was a very dishonorable job.
However, her resistance to death is only a common thing in the eyes of the old bustard.
The old bustard has dealt with hundreds of girls like Kang Suzhen.
Before they became prostitutes, they were also good family women like Kang Suzhen at this time.
Brothels have secret rules for newcomers who have just entered the industry.
It seems to be a standardized set of "pre-job training".
First of all, use the whip to draw hundreds of whips to make your skin open and flesh bloom, and the body pain is unbearable.
Then cut off your food, hunger makes you gradually lose your mind, and finally puts you in a small black room, deprives you of your vision, leaves you helpless, and torments your soul.
Because Kang Suzhen's previous upheaval and several sales have exhausted her physically and mentally, plus the reality is that high walls are built, bodyguards guard the courtyard, and there is no chance of escaping at all.
To survive, she had to compromise.
In this way, Kang Suzhen accepted reality.
Because I was too young to pick up customers.
In the brothel, he learned to play and sing every day and learn how to please customers.
Of course, he couldn't escape, and was fed sterilization pills by the old bustard.
In order to facilitate the convenience of a direct customer and to facilitate the management of prostitutes, the old bustards would give sterilization pills to the prostitutes who entered the industry.
This is an unwritten rule.
When Kang Sujin was 15 years old, pick-up began.
Her first guest was a 70-year-old man.
According to Kang Suzhen's recollections, the old man not only looked ugly, but also had strange requirements.
It is conceivable that most men seek prostitutes to satisfy many of their special quirks.
Because there is no satisfaction in normal life, it is satisfied in prostitutes.
In Kang Suzhen's memories, most of the guests she received had special requirements.
Even if she didn't want to, she could only endure the nausea and accept it.
In order for her to get used to this nausea as soon as possible, the old bustard will give Kang Suzhen leftovers from time to time to adapt to the situation.
And there are many prostitutes like Kang Sujin who have suffered inhuman treatment.
There was a prostitute named Wanyu who picked up a fierce-looking Xinjiang man one night, and I don't know what happened that night, and after the guest left the next day, she broke her breath.
Before breaking his breath, he told Kang Suzhen not to be a prostitute in his next life.
However, for these women who were sold into brothels, there is really no escape.
Kang Suzhen's memoirs mention a prostitute who discussed with her benefactor to escape, but was discovered by the old bustard and locked up in a small black room that day and breathed.
Fourth, there is no escape from the suffering in the heart
The old bustard on TV often said: "As long as you are well-behaved and pick up customers well, you can make a lot of money."
So, in the 6 years that Kang Suzhen worked as a prostitute, from Chengdu to Baoji to Lanzhou, receiving more than a dozen guests a day, did she make money?
The answer is, of course, no!
The old bustard wants you, a cash cow with no cost net money, how can you save enough money to escape from Ascension.
In this line, there is another rule that does not become.
That is, at night, the old bustard would enter the prostitute's room with a small wooden stick and beat every brick on every floor, even the wall.
The purpose is to check if anyone is hiding the guest's tip.
Once discovered, it must be locked up in a small black room and tortured.
Prostitutes were the lowest and most despised group in society at that time.
Not only do they sell their bodies for laughter, but they also have to be sold like goods by the bustards.
To get out of the sea of suffering, it was simply difficult for the prostitutes at that time to ascend to heaven.
Kang Suzhen was one of the many misfortunes of the old society, and she was also the luckiest of those misfortunes.
She met the man who could take her out of the sea of suffering - Wei Xiaopeng.
Wei Xiaopeng is Feng Yuxiang's secretary, with avant-garde thinking and enthusiasm.
After meeting Kang Suzhen, he sympathized with her and eventually redeemed her.
In the end, the two became husband and wife.
It was also with the encouragement of her husband Wei Xiaopeng that Kang Suzhen wrote her and her sister's experience into a memoir "My Prostitute Life", and finally handed it over to folk novelist Wang Yannian to polish into a book.
After that, there were "Dust and Tears" and "Qinglou Hate".
The book truly records the misery of the life of prostitutes and the despair and helplessness of life during the Republic of China, and also vividly records the physical and mental persecution of women in the old society.
Without Wei Xiaopeng, Kang Suzhen might have contracted flower willow disease like other prostitutes and died of old age.
Perhaps after the founding of New China, get rid of the identity of a prostitute and live a new life.
Kang Suzhen's final escape from the sea of suffering may be the credit of Wei Xiaopeng, or perhaps the credit of the change of times, which is gratifying.
However, when we discuss the end result, we must also see that the harm that the old society has done to women has already been done.
And this hurt is engraved on the heart.
Engraved on the nerve pain that strikes every memory.
Epilogue:
The living environment may be able to change, and the physical pain will disappear, but the psychological scars are difficult to heal, and the bitterness in Kang Suzhen's heart is a sadness that cannot be erased with no amount of sweetness.
Finally, I am fortunate that we live in an era of peace and tranquility without war.
The advent of this era was brought about by the countless sorrows and pains of the predecessors.
We should cherish it.
Draw a lesson from a bitter experience.
Seeing the beauty and hope of life in grief is a little meaning for Kang Suzhen to remember suffering and write a book, and it is the comfort we get from Kang Suzhen's story.