In ancient times, when people went back to the Qinglou, how much was the equivalent of RMB? The common people are not blessed at all. From ancient times to the present, the Green House has always been a mysterious and seductive place. In the writings of literati and artists, Qinglou is often given a romantic color, but what kind of puzzling history is hidden behind it? How much money does it cost to get a glimpse of the fragrant world? And are ordinary people really "unblessed"? Is there some hidden secret behind this? Let's trace the past and present life of Qinglou together and solve this mystery through the ages.
Qinglou has a long history and infinite meaning
Prosperous and prosperous, thousands of households, Qinglou has been lurking in the shadow corner of the city since ancient times. Tracing the origin of China's Qinglou and tracing back to the ancient history books, you can get a glimpse of its predecessor.
According to the "Warring States Policy", during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the monarch of Qi State, Duke Huan, had already set up a "female lu" in the court for sexual pleasure. More than 700 virgins supplied the endless desires of the aristocracy, which shows that the prototype of Qinglou culture was conceived at that time.
In the Zhou Dynasty, the "Zhou Li" mentioned "female wine" and "female concubine", that is, the predecessor of the official prostitute raised by the emperor. And the "Historical Records" also recorded: "Xia Wei accumulates female music and advocates excellence." It can be seen that even in the pre-Qin era, the germ of the prostitution system already existed.
In the Tang and Song dynasties, the Qinglou culture became more and more mature and prosperous. Prostitutes in this period can be roughly divided into three types: official prostitutes, domestic prostitutes and private prostitutes. Among them, official prostitutes are supported by the government and need to be both talented and good-looking; domestic prostitutes were privately supported by literati and used wine to entertain them; As for private prostitutes, they are the main force of the folk Qinglou.
As a pastime for literati and scholars, there is no shortage of opportunities for Qinglou to dress up. Dressing up, singing and dancing has become an art. The literati of the Tang and Song dynasties were even more fond of this, and there were many examples of Bai Juyi who had hundreds of prostitutes in his family.
Throughout the origin of the Qinglou, it contains not only the entanglement of love between men and women, but also a kind of cultural integration and artistic rendering. It is closely related to the social fashion and literati pursuit of the time, and has witnessed the joy and trend of an era.
Qinglou is bizarre, and the prostitutes have a bad fate
Behind the prosperous and splendid green buildings, there are ill-fated lives of prostitutes. Their plight reflects the dark side of ancient society.
Before the Ming Dynasty, the status of official prostitutes was not low. Most of them were born in scholarly families, and they were taught dancing and singing since childhood, and they were able to enter the music family and serve the officialdom nobles when they grew up. These official prostitutes do not sell hues, but only show their artistic skills, and they are often both talented and beautiful, and they are elegant and refined.
In contrast, the living environment of private prostitutes is far more laborious. Most of them came from poor backgrounds, and were abducted and sold to Qinglou by traffickers at a young age, where they were reduced to commodity trading. Once they step into the green building, it is difficult for them to get rid of the shackles, and they can only live with joy for life.
Even so, there are still many examples of prostitutes who belong to this dusty land from the beginning to the end with a group of children. Although they had a bad fate, they also went through hardships, and finally found a moment of joy in a dream.
Sadly, however, the fate of most prostitutes is truly miserable. They are abducted at a young age, and when they grow old, they are left to become bustards or abandoned on the streets. If you can't be redeemed by the guests in your life, you can only die alone.
Xue Tao, a famous prostitute who was popular back then, was one of the best. In her life, she was ransomed by nobles six times. It once became the leader of Xijing, and then fell to the night of brocade. It can be seen that even if the beauty in the Qinglou is beautiful, her fate is impermanent and ethereal, and she may be shattered at any time.
The black industry chain of human trafficking has caused countless girls to suffer. They were abducted into the Qinglou since they were young, and endured both physical and mental torture. Even if they became famous later, most of them could only be regarded as a short-lived spiritual sustenance. This can't help but sigh, in addition to the splendor of the green building, there is the weightlessness and decadence of many lives.
The consumption of financial resources has risen sharply
The reason why Qinglou exists is supported by the consumer power behind it. So what is sacred to be able to spend money and be happy in this land of fireworks?
It is true that finding the Qinglou is not for the idle. In ancient times, the only people who could afford Qinglou were undoubtedly the upper aristocracy and the wealthy class. These people have different identities and statuses, and their motives for going to Qinglou are also different.
For the imperial relatives and the feudal ruling class, the Qinglou was just a microcosm of their extravagant and extravagant life. They either use it to release their physical desires, or they take the opportunity to show off their power and wealth. Especially the emperors of the feudal era, they were simply frequent visitors to the Qinglou, satisfying their needs for poverty and luxury.
In contrast, the literati went to the Qinglou more out of aesthetic and cultural pursuits. They either wanted to find a voice in the green house, or they could learn from the prostitutes and understand the essence of art. They are not only looking for fun in the green house, but also pursuing a cultural taste.
It can be said that it was the large consumption of the aristocracy and the literati that created the prosperity of the Qinglou. They have provided a huge amount of money for the development of Qinglou, and also satisfied their various desires and pursuits.
So how much money does it cost to get a glimpse of Fangze in the green building? There's a lot of money to be had. The first is the door money that enters the door, according to the Ming Dynasty, the door money of the general Qinglou is about three or four taels of silver. Then you have to pay for the prostitutes, and order a top brand of oiran, which costs as much as two taels of silver per night.
Not to mention some special consumption, such as redeeming one's lover. If you want to ransom a handsome prostitute from the Qinglou, I am afraid that it will cost dozens of taels or hundreds of taels, which is really an astronomical amount for ordinary people. Li Xiangjun, who was famous at the time, spent a huge amount of more than 10,000 taels of silver when he was ransomed by Qianlong.
The black industry chain hidden behind it
Although Qinglou is a place for rich and noble families to chase Fengyue, there is a dirty black industrial chain hidden behind its operation. Bustards, prostitutes, traffickers, they make up the chain of interests of this evil.
At the heart of the Qinglou are the bustards, who are the controllers of the entire industry. On the one hand, the bustard had to buy prostitutes from the dealers and confined them to the Qinglou for sale as commodities. On the other hand, they also have to strictly manage prostitutes to ensure that they can continue to provide "service" to their customers.
For prostitutes, their fate is completely in the hands of the bustard. When he was young, he was abducted and sold by traffickers and reduced to commodity trading; When he grew up, he was oppressed and exploited by the old bustard, and he bore both physical and mental torture. They were reviled and toiled day and night to please their patrons.
And the traffickers are even more unscrupulous to capture innocent girls and sell them to Qinglou. They often lure girls into taking the bait with false promises, then threaten them with violence, and eventually abduct them to the green house. These poor girls were deprived of their liberty before they entered the red dust, and their fate was extremely miserable.
In the face of such a dark industrial chain, the imperial court cannot stand idly by. In order to effectively control the Qinglou, the government has repeatedly issued policies to strictly restrict the employees of the Qinglou, and at the same time censored the source of prostitutes, in an effort to break the chain of human trafficking.
However, due to the huge chain of interests involved, coupled with the favoritism and irregularities of some officials, the implementation of these policies has had little effect. Many green buildings are still selling and buying and selling people behind their backs, and the black industry chain has not been really blocked.
The poor are struggling at the bottom, and their ideals are out of reach
In addition to the fireworks in the Qinglou, most ordinary people work hard to get by, and they don't even have a chance to turn over. They live at the bottom of society, and they have no chance to spy on that prosperity.
In ancient times, there was a strict hierarchy in society, and the disparity between the rich and the poor was very obvious. Most of the ordinary people come from peasants, craftsmen or thieves, and their families are extremely poor. They scrape together every day to make ends meet, and they have no time to think about the enjoyment of the wind and snow.
Even the small traders and hawkers in the city can only make ends meet, let alone spend extravagantly. They worked hard and earned only a meager amount of money, and I am afraid that they could not even afford the door money of the Qinglou.
However, this does not mean that ordinary people do not have any yearning for Qinglou. On the contrary, it is precisely because of the embarrassment of the living environment that their longing for that rich life has become more and more intense. In their works, many literati have described the yearning and jealousy of ordinary people for the Qinglou culture.
However, the hierarchy of ancient societies was an impenetrable wall that separated them from their ideal life. At most, they can only knock on the door of the rich compound during the festival and get a glimpse of the splendid and gorgeous life, but they will never have the opportunity to experience it in person.
Born to struggle for toil, they have no choice and no way out. Its fate is like a flat boat in the sea, adrift. Although I yearn for a distant place, I have to bury this yearning in the depths of my heart forever.
Fortunately, the social changes and awakenings of later generations have finally opened up a road for ordinary people to change their fate. However, in that ancient time, when prosperity and ideals were gradually drifting away, the scene of "the poor struggling at the bottom, and the ideal was out of reach" was destined to last for a long time.