It is a woman who is born and carries the place of sleep. The clothes of the clothes, the tiles of the lanes. There is nothing but etiquette, only wine and food are discussed, and no parents are cursed. --- Analects
In feudal society, women had a low status and had to live dependent on men. If you were in a feudal society, would you go with the flow or would you choose to fight against an unjust fate?
The fate of the parents is that the marriage of ancient women is not up to their own decision, women have no right to speak, and some women do not want to be dominated by their parents in marriage, choosing to become "self-combing women" and not marrying for life.
Today, let's walk into the "self-combing women" and see their lives.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="7" >what is a self-combing woman</h1>
In ancient times, when a woman was in a boudoir, her hair was combed into a long braid, and when she was waiting to get married, her mother helped herself to pull her hair up, a process called a bun.
Some women do not want to be dominated by feudal marriages, so they curl their hair, indicating that they are the same as women who have been married, using this method to fight against the unfair fate, indicating that they would rather not marry for life, and one person will die alone.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="11" > the origin of the self-combing woman</h1>
In feudal society, male power is supreme, when women are not yet married, their parents will instill in them subtle ideas, everything is important to their husbands, and they must tolerate whatever happens.
After marrying into the husband's family, women are reduced to tools for procreation.
In the Book of Rites, it is even advocated that women serve one husband for life, while men can have three wives and four concubines.
Ancient women felt that this was particularly unfair to women, and they wanted to break this system and pursue equality between men and women, and then they produced self-combing women.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were especially many self-grooming women, most of whom were in the Pearl River Delta region. At that time, the Pearl River Delta was economically developed, especially the silk industry.
As a result, many women enter the factory to work, get paid through their own labor, achieve economic independence, no longer have to rely on their mother-in-law and in-laws, and can be completely self-sufficient.
They see that the female friends around them are not doing well after they get married, and they feel that marriage has not brought happiness to women, but has brought endless pain, so they are not willing to marry.
In this case, a group of women who opposed feudal marriage were born, and they were collectively called self-combing women.
After becoming a self-combing woman, no one will force you to marry, but in the future, if you meet the man you like, you cannot remarry, and you can only be alone for the rest of your life.
And joining the self-combing women also requires a series of rituals: first, to choose a zodiac auspicious day; second, to prepare new clothes, shoes, socks, etc.; then, to bathe in the "aunt's house", worship Guanyin, and vow never to marry; finally, the older self-combing women will help them comb their braids into a bun, then change into new clothes, and then salute other self-combing women.
After everything is done, you can officially become a self-combing woman.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="28">
The condition of becoming a self-combing woman</h1>
First, the parents should agree with the matter, and the parents must also build a house for their children, and such a house will also become the aunt's house, and after becoming a self-grooming woman, the woman can only live in the aunt's house;
Second, once the self-grooming girl is sick, she can only live in her aunt's house and cannot nurse her illness in her parents' house;
Third, and most sadly, after the death of the comb girl, parents and family members are not allowed to mourn, nor can they go to worship, only other self-comb women are eligible to worship and mourn.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="34" > once repented, the end was very miserable</h1>
When becoming a self-combing woman, a series of ceremonies are actually equivalent to having already married, but it is a person who has no physical object, so after choosing to become a self-combing woman, it is impossible to regret it.
If you meet the man you like in the future, you can't fall in love with him and marry him, and you can only live alone for a lifetime, until you die.
If the self-combing woman is unclean and self-loving and has an affair with a man, she will be spurned after being discovered, and she will also suffer from people's blank eyes for a lifetime.
This is still light, and if it is serious, it will not only be beaten severely, but also soaked in pig cages, put people in pig cages, thrown into the river, and drowned people alive.
After death, his parents could not help her collect the body, so the sisters of the self-combing women wrapped the body in a straw mat and then dug a pit to bury it.
If it is a self-grooming woman without a partner, only the body is washed away by the river and flows into the distance.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="45" > the status of women has increased, and self-combing women have gradually disappeared</h1>
Zi comb women existed for about 300 years, and the largest number of people in the late Qing Dynasty and early Min Dynasty.
In the 1930s, the status of women gradually improved, and self-combing women slowly disappeared.
Until the 1990s, the self-combing women basically returned to their families, and the aunt's house was slowly uninhabited.
In 2012, the aunt's house where the self-combing woman lived became a museum of historical relics and was open to the public free of charge, and since then this period of feudal history has finally passed.
brief summary
Self-combing women are a product of feudal society, and although they are pathetic, their courage is also commendable, at least they bravely stand up against feudal marriage.
After the reform and opening up, we advocated the freedom of marriage. Women's status has gradually improved, no longer the era of lifelong husbandhood, women have the right to choose who they marry, and they also have the right to end marriage and even remarry.
Of course, you can also choose not to marry, no matter how you choose, you will not suffer from the strange eyes of others.
This seems perfectly normal to us, but at that time, self-combing women did not dare to think, and the only way they could oppose feudal marriage was to choose to become self-combing women and never marry for life.
Reference: The Female Commandment