Today's law stipulates that the earliest marriageable age for women is 20 years, and women up to the age of 14 are underage girls.
However, in ancient times, from the princes and ministers to the common people, the wives were basically in the range of thirteen to fifteen years old.
Now it seems unbelievable, they are just children.
Why, then, did the ancients always like to marry such young girls, and could they take on the responsibility of the family?
All of the information stated in this article is based on reliable sources of information and is detailed at the end of the article.
Decline in the social status of women
"A woman is virtuous if she is not talented, and it is better to marry well if she has more talents. "In ancient times, women had no financial resources, it was difficult to study, and they could only rely on men. They have been subservient to patriarchal societies all their lives.
Confucianism advocates "three obedience and four virtues", and women should listen to their fathers, husbands, and sons. The value of her life seems to be only a wife and a mother.
Coupled with the concept of "more children and more blessings", childbirth has become a woman's only mission. The sooner a girl marries, the sooner she will have children for her husband's family, and the higher her status.
Moreover, poor families in ancient times could not afford to raise too many children. Giving your daughter out early can reduce the burden on the family.
Some parents will also sell their daughters to rich families as concubines, hoping to turn over. It is conceivable how miserable women are in this environment.
Wars are frequent
In ancient times, wars were almost commonplace.
It was not uncommon for vassal states to fight with each other for supremacy, which led to a significant decrease in population.
Taking the Three Kingdoms period as an example, Wei, Shu and Wu attacked each other, and the war continued.
According to statistics, the annual population of nearly 60 million at the end of the Western Han Dynasty plummeted to 7 million during the Three Kingdoms period. In just 100 years, the population has been reduced by eighty or ninety percent, and the losses have been heavy.
One of the most direct reasons is that the war has led to the death of a large number of middle-aged men on the battlefield. At the same time, many elderly and weak women and children were forced to leave their homes and died in the process of fleeing.
Every time the troubled times are pacified, the sharp decline in population will deal a heavy blow to the country's development. The lack of labor will lead to a decline in agricultural productivity and a sharp drop in the country's fiscal revenue.
At the same time, foreign enemies are more likely to take advantage of the opportunity to attack.
In order to restore the population as soon as possible, each new dynasty will adopt measures to encourage childbearing.
Among them, the most direct and effective is to stipulate the age at which the people should marry and have children through national decrees, and punish violators to varying degrees, so as to achieve the role of supervision.
Taking the Han Dynasty as an example, according to the records of the Book of Han, the following regulations were promulgated during the reign of Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty: "If a woman is more than 15 years old, she will not marry until 30, and five will be counted."
The meaning of this sentence is very clear, that is, if a woman has not married and started a family by the age of 15, and is still single until the age of 30, then she will be punished by five times the heavy tax.
One can imagine how hard this is to the families of ordinary people.
Similarly, the Song Dynasty had a similar rule that once a woman did not marry after the age of 15, her parents would be punished by joint sitting.
In this environment, teenage girls are forced to marry into marriage.
The medical conditions were poor, and the ancients had a short lifespan
In ancient times, medical conditions were extremely backward, and some minor illnesses such as colds and fevers could lead to premature death.
Not to mention the dangerous situation of a woman giving birth.
According to historical records, even for royal descendants, the mortality rate of newborns can be as high as more than 50%. Of the eight sons born to Emperor Kangxi, four died early and did not live to be 10 years old at all.
This is still a relative of the emperor living in the Forbidden City, so you can imagine how difficult the plight of the common people is.
In the case of wars, famines and plagues in ancient times, the infant mortality rate of ordinary families may be as high as 80%, and the children who can grow up smoothly are the lucky ones.
Similarly, the probability of death from childbirth was extremely high among women in ancient times.
In the era when there was no ultrasound examination, a woman could die at any time due to dystocia. People vividly compare giving birth to a child to a "ghost gate", and even if they survive, they have to pay great pain.
In order to avoid the danger of having no children and grandchildren, men can only get pregnant as early as possible, so that young wives can get pregnant multiple times as soon as possible, and strive to give birth to at least 1-2 healthy children.
If you marry later and have children later, it means that the chances of having children are compressed.
This kind of early marriage and high fertility rate can also be said to be a helpless response of the ancients to short lifespans.
The larger the population, the higher the taxes
In ancient times, the main source of state revenue was taxes.
The most important form of taxation is the poll tax, which is a tax collected from individuals according to the size of the population. The larger the population, the more poll tax the state can levie.
In the Qin Dynasty, for example, the poll tax was levied on a wide scale, and the elderly, women, and even newborn babies had to pay it. This has undoubtedly placed a heavy burden on ordinary people.
But at the same time, we must also recognize that under the conditions of the ancient handicraft economy, population was equal to productivity. Only when the population base is large enough can the country have sufficient labor force to engage in agricultural production, textiles, smelting, construction, etc.
With more people, the land and resources can be more fully exploited, and the country's wealth will be richer. Otherwise, in an era of plague and war, once the population drops sharply, the national strength will decline.
Therefore, the ancient government lowered the age of marriage and encouraged childbearing, and also had the consideration of maintaining the tax base.
Of course, there are drawbacks to relying too much on the poll tax. It increases the burden on the people and is not conducive to the improvement of the quality of the population.
Good governance should take indirect measures to increase the population naturally by improving people's livelihood, and should not use coercion to force people to marry and have children at an early age.
Modern people cannot copy the marriage model of the ancients
In the context of the time, they had no choice.
But we also can't copy the marriage model of the ancients. The quality of life in modern society has improved, and people no longer need to rely on early marriage and childbirth to continue the incense.
Young men and women can now choose each other on their own and build a family with their feelings. They have more time to let the relationship warm up naturally, and more conditions to create a good environment for their children to grow up.
Contemporary young people should cherish their current lives, bravely pursue true love, and strive to live a dignified and emotional life. It is hoped that modern society can provide more opportunities for women to stretch their talents and enjoy equal status with men.
Only in this way can the ancient patriarchal system be broken and we can usher in a real era of equal rights for men and women.
bibliography
[1] "Tang Hui Wants to Marry" "Men are fifteen, women are thirteen or more, listen to marriage." ”
[2] "Hanshu Huidi Ji" "A woman is more than fifteen years old, and if she does not marry until thirty, five counts".
[3] "Family Rites": "Men are sixteen years old and women are fourteen years old. ”