China has these thousands of years of civilization, when human beings began to record history in writing, we can also experience the living conditions of the ancients from the text, throughout the history of China for thousands of years, we can always find the law, that is, the system of "male superiority and inferiority of women", from the patriarchal society began to decline the status of women, became a vassal of men, these thousands of years of history along the way, only a few women, can make a great career in that era. The status of women is not only reflected in the social division of labor, but also in the marriage of the sexes, which is especially prominent in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
What I want to introduce to you is the tragic experience of ancient women, how did the ancient "widows" insist on not marrying again for the rest of their lives? This will start from the Ming and Qing dynasties. In ancient times, it was actually normal for a widow to remarry, even if it was an emperor's woman, she could marry someone else, but this situation was no longer suitable in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Ming and Qing dynasties can be said to be a period of time when Chinese women were oppressed to the extreme, among which the particularly impressive is the "Yangzhou Thin Horse" and the "Three-inch Golden Lotus", which are all required by ancient men to regard women as "playthings", and there is even more unacceptable is the "chastity archway".
The so-called "chastity archway" is the "medal" awarded by the ancients in order to commend the woman who chose to be "widowed" after her husband's death and will not remarry for the rest of her life, which is also a manifestation of the ancients who believed that women were the most virtuous. In fact, this has a lot to do with the education of women in ancient times, women in ancient times received education on how to be a good wife from birth, which led to many women not remarrying, because of the influence of this kind of ideological education, so they would rather be widowed and poor, but also keep chastity.
In fact, it is not easy to be widowed in ancient times, as long as you ensure that you do not marry someone you can get the "chastity archway", which has a lot of greasy existence, a 70-year-old woman said that it is greasy, there is a saying from ancient times that has been handed down, that is, "there are many rights and wrongs in front of the widow's door". Only after swearing to be widowed, the surrounding neighbors said that the widow who swore to be widowed had a good character and never interacted casually with people, and the official family would support the widow's widowhood. And every month will be issued silver two as living expenses, a few years later will also set up a "chastity archway" as a reward.
In fact, many widows may be impulsive at first, and they swear to be widowed for the rest of their lives, and after a few years, when the government's "chastity archway" is distributed, they will find that widowhood is a very painful thing, and this "chastity archway" is like a mountain pressing on the widow's heart. If a widow meets a person who is in love with each other, she can't remarry, and those who like this widow can't marry her, because once the two have a personal relationship, it is equivalent to saying that they have committed the crime of deception and will be killed, so even if they survive until they are 70 years old, they dare not want to marry again for the sake of their lives.
China's thousands of years of civilization has developed to the present day, and there are very few feudal remnants of ancient people, which is also a manifestation of civilization progress. In today's society, whether divorce or marriage, people are free to choose.