It is rumored that the Qinglou has appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, although the women who work in it are proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, but they have to commit themselves to others in order to make a living, and it takes a lot of money to leave the Qinglou, only a few lucky women will be ransomed by the scholars and accepted as concubines, most of them can only be kept as mistresses or concubines, and do not get any name, and the end is usually very miserable.
It is recorded in the Book of Wei that the ancient Qinglou women were "happy households", and they were regarded as untouchables like camping households and miscellaneous households, although they were very high in literature and art in order to attract literati to consume, but basically they could not get rid of the status of untouchables for a lifetime, even if they met their favorite objects at work, they could not get married because of the regulations of "cheap and good do not marry". Although there were still guests who were willing to spend a lot of money to ransom them, only a few lucky women were able to be taken as concubines, and most women could only be kept as mistresses or concubines, and did not receive any status for life. However, whether it is a concubine, a mistress or a concubine, these Qinglou women will soon be abandoned by their husbands and owners after they redeem themselves, and there are two main reasons.
The first reason is "old age and decay", most of the women who can let guests spend money to help redeem themselves are objects with outstanding appearance and figure, but when time passes, even if the woman who will maintain it again, it is inevitable that there will be traces of time, and after the reason for the obsession of men disappears, the attitude towards women will naturally gradually fall cold.
The second reason is "unable to have children", Qinglou women need to continue to use contraception because of their work, so they use a lot of means to harm the body, which in turn affects the reproductive function, but in ancient times, they attached great importance to children, if they gave birth to a child, even if they were old and decrepit, they might be "precious to mothers and children", but if they couldn't give birth to children, they would end up being left out in the cold, or even abandoned.