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●—≺ Previous ≻—●
Nowadays, young people criticize the "996" culture, hate overtime in the workplace, and resist the messy office atmosphere.
But you know what? Working life in ancient times wasn't much better, even worse than today's!
The ancients had to get up and go to work as soon as the rooster crowed, and it was impossible to do six days off and one day, and the imperial court even introduced a new regulation of "doing ten days off and one day off".
Their labor intensity is definitely far greater than that of the modern workplace "996".
How did migrant workers from all walks of life survive in ancient times?
How many unknown "workplace rules" are there in different dynasties?
●—≺ Behind the glamour of ancient officials ≻—●
In the interpretation of many film and television dramas, the ancient officials seemed to be very enjoyable, Li Wei dared to make demands with the emperor, rectify the bad guys, and He Shen and Ji Xiaolan quarreled every day, "love and kill each other".
But in fact, it was not so easy to be an official in ancient times.
There was a passage in the "Book of Songs" about the daily work of ancient officials, "The rooster crows, and the court is profitable", simply put, when the rooster crows, the official has to pack up his things and go to the court.
From the Qin Dynasty onwards, officials had the Xi of the previous dynasty, which mainly relied on imperial power and feudal rule.
There is also a very accurate arrangement of the timing and order of the officials' ascension.
Regardless of spring, summer, autumn and winter, cold and summer, 5 o'clock in the morning to 7 o'clock in the morning is the time of the upper court, which is called "Mao time", so the upper court is also called "point Mao".
The action of Dianmao is a bit similar to the modern clock-in to work, the officials in the capital enter the palace to go to the court, and the officials in other regions are far away, even if they can't go to the court, they have to go to work at the official office at this time.
Some people will say that going to work at 7 o'clock in ancient times is still humane, because modern people also have to go to work at 8 o'clock, and the time is almost the same, if you think so, you will be naïve.
There are many modern means of transportation, you can ride an electric car if you are close, and you can take a high-speed rail or drive out of the house if you are far away.
But in ancient times, it was not so easy to go to work.
If officials need to arrive at the office at 7 a.m., or go to the emperor at 5 a.m., that means they have to get up at two or three o'clock in the morning.
In ancient times, the craftsmanship of court clothes was cumbersome, and it was extremely inconvenient to wear, and it took a lot of time to wash and change clothes.
In addition to being well-dressed, the officials also paid attention to their places of residence, most of them lived far away from the official offices, and even if families with good conditions could travel by horse-drawn carriage, the time would certainly not be a long time.
In addition to the hard work, the off-duty hours of officials are also strictly controlled.
During the Qing Dynasty, the government promulgated a very clear "labor law" - the "Six Disciplinary Rules of the King James Decree", although the name is punishment, but there are also detailed regulations on commuting.
For example, officials in Beijing leave work at 4 p.m. in the spring and summer, and a little earlier in the autumn and winter, around 3 p.m.
During the Ming Dynasty, because the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was from a hard background, he did not say anything about his hard work, but also urged his officials to work hard.
He stipulated that officials in Beijing must go to court every day, and there was no rest day at all, and the time of the court was even harsher than that of other dynasties.
Ming Taizu asked his officials to wait outside the palace at three o'clock in the morning every day, and enter the main hall at five o'clock in the morning to report their work.
In the Qing Dynasty, the new emperor made reforms to the upper court, changing the daily court to once every ten days, allowing his officials to have time to breathe.
But such a good day didn't last long, and during Kangxi's reign, he changed the frequency of the previous dynasty to a daily dynasty.
It's already so hard to go to work, and some people can't help but ask: when can I rest?
According to historical records, officials in the Han Dynasty were the happiest, because they were able to take a day off every five days, and this day was dedicated to bathing at home, so it was also called "Xiu Mu Day".
The officials of the Ming Dynasty worked the hardest, except for the New Year, the emperor's birthday, and the winter solstice, which could be taken on vacation, and they all went to work the rest of the time, and the intensity of work far exceeded the modern "996".
In ancient times, it was already so hard to be an official, and some people thought that it would be okay to be an ordinary person if he was not an official?
In fact, it is not easy for workers in other industries.
●—≺ Workplaces of Other Laborers in Ancient Times ≻—●
The "9 to 5" that modern people have been yearning for is actually not a product of the development of modern society, and "9 to 5" still comes from the ancient Chinese agricultural civilization.
"Work at sunrise and rest at sunset" is the workplace state of ancient farmers.
We now envy the regular life of the ancient peasants, but what many people don't know is that the "9 to 5" in that era was not a social requirement, but had other hardships.
In ancient times, most of the farmers who farmed the land were poor, and the reason they worked at sunrise was to work hard to cultivate the land and wait for the harvest, but as soon as the sun set, they took up their hoes and went home, not because of laziness and freedom.
It's not that you can't work at night, but you need to have lighting.
In ancient times, there was no electricity, let alone electric lights, and if you wanted to illuminate the environment, you could only rely on oil lamps, and the grease in oil lamps was the "hard currency" at that time.
Oils and fats were expensive in the ancient trade market, but not every household could afford them.
If you can't afford to buy grease and it's dark at night, how can you talk about working at night?
Unable to afford lighting at night, farmers naturally have to go home to rest as soon as it gets dark.
For example, the scholars who study hard every day, in order to be able to enter the imperial examination, they incarnate as "professional readers", they have to get up to read at dawn, and try their best to find the light source at night.
In the stereotype, scholars are also a group of people who are not wealthy, but unlike farmers, they have to create conditions even if they do not have conditions.
Individual students with better family conditions will choose to buy oil lamps to study at night, so that the Xi learning environment will be better and more worry-free.
There are also some readers who study hard in the cold window, and they don't have such good conditions, so they have a fancy story of borrowing light.
"Chiseling the wall to borrow light", "hanging the beam on the head, and piercing the strands" are all ways of hard work for poor scholars in ancient times.
In the winter, stealing the light of the neighbors or going to study in the snow, and in the summer, catching fireflies and going home to shine, such an effort is not easy.
Shi Nong Industry and Commerce, after talking about court officials, farmers and scholars, merchants were also an indispensable professional group in ancient times.
They are a big money maker in the eyes of outsiders, but their status is really not very high.
The merchants of ancient times were not what everyone thinks, nouveau riche, high-spirited, lying at home counting money, and their professional lives were more miserable than in other industries.
The court officials were able to get up with the chickens in front of their homes, while the merchants got up earlier than others.
According to historical records, the working hours of the merchants were "300 beats of drums at noon to open and 300 beats of cymbals to close seven quarters of an hour before sunset".
Although buying and selling transactions do not begin until noon, this does not mean that merchants can sleep until noon.
They often need to get up before dawn to prepare the goods that need to be sold that day, as well as the display of their own stalls, etc.
In the Song Dynasty, night markets began to rise in the market, which was a good place for ordinary people to relax, but for merchants, it was tantamount to increasing labor hours.
They insist on finishing work from morning to late at night, and when they encounter solar terms and festivals, they even insist on setting up stalls until the early hours of the morning.
Just ask you if you work hard?
However, some people say that people are not saints and sages, and there are always individual businessmen who can't get out of bed after working hard for a long time, right?
It doesn't matter, the officials of the Song Dynasty have already thought of a way.
In order to urge the businessmen to get up early to work, a kind of monk appeared in the society, knocking on the wooden fish on the street every morning to report the time to the public.
This kind of work is similar to the night watchman, except that the monks only tell the time in the morning.
●—≺ Conclusion ≻—●
Whether it is ancient or modern, it is inseparable from the word "work", and it is precisely because of the efforts of thousands of people that the land can be harvested and the roads can be managed.
When we complain about the hardships of the moment, we might as well look back and see that we can become superior only when we have endured hardships.
From ancient times to the present, everyone's sufferings are the same, and happiness is bound to be the same.
From scratch, from beginning to end, work is not useless, "the young do not work hard, the boss is sad", for a better future, what reason do we have not to work hard?