The film "Mother of Slaves" is based on the short novel of the same name published by Republic of China writer Roushi in 1930 in Sprouts.
As a Zhejiang writer, Roushi deeply resented the local custom of wives. Through the novel "Mother for Slaves", he indicted the persecution of women by feudal ritualism.
The film makes a more detailed supplement to the novel, and the Chun Bao Niang in the novel becomes the named Ah Xiu.
As the saying goes, a good man has no good wife, and a lazy man has a flower branch.
Ah Xiang, a lazy farmer, married Ah Xiu, a beautiful woman who was virtuous and industrious. If you can only rely on the efforts of one person after marriage, it is difficult to get better in such a life. Not to mention that in the old days, women tended to live dependent on men. Men are not industrious and self-motivated, then the home is basically ruined.
Ah Xiang is not only lazy, but also likes to gamble, not only likes to gamble, but also a special preference for sons and daughters, he personally threw Ah Xiusheng's first daughter into boiling water and burned to death, scalding a baby is as simple as scalding a flower, a grass.
At this time, Ah Xiu had just given birth to this daughter, and when she saw her husband holding up her daughter, she fainted, so she did not hear her daughter's screams, and the little baby had suffered such a great sin in one day of coming to this world.
This scene is like Xiao Hong's "field of life and death", Jin Zhi's husband threw his daughter to death, different scenes, different husbands, but the same cold-blooded.
A few simple pictures are enough to make people feel that the status of women in that era is not as high as a pig raised at home, will they throw the pig to death? Dare not, just like the evil mother-in-law in the "Hulan River Legend", beat the daughter-in-law at will, but reluctant to hit the chicken raised at home, the chicken and the pig can exchange money, but the woman will only spend money.
Ah Xiu was resigned to his fate, and when Ah Xiang proposed that he had already leased her to the landlord Li Xiucai, Ah Xiu did not even have the right to resist.
In the old days, the law was not heaven, the husband was a woman's day, if you married a husband who did not become a tool, then every day you lived a life worse than death.
Ah Xiang earned 80 yuan by renting out his wife for three years. In the face of his wife's face full of sorrow, Ah Xiang was full of indifference.
Ah Xiu said goodbye to him, and he ignored them. On the last night before leaving, Ah Xiang snored in the sky, and Ah Xiu couldn't sleep all night.
Ah Xiu was reluctant to give up her son Chunbao, who was just five years old, and she only blamed her own fate, but did not dare to blame her husband. The idea of following her father before marriage and marrying her husband has long been deeply implanted in Ah Xiu's mind.
Li Xiucai's wife had not given birth to a son and a half daughter for decades, and she finally allowed her husband to rent a woman to inherit the family lineage.
The wife, who is as fierce as Li Xiucai, eventually has to abide by the rules of patriarchal society.
Ah Xiu lived cautiously in the Li family, only because the tigress Mrs. Li always looked at Ah Xiu, afraid that Ah Xiu had snatched her husband, afraid that Ah Xiu would come to the top.
Mrs. Li rented only a belly, and Ah Xiu was just a tool for giving birth to a son in her eyes.
She monitored Xiucai's every move, often insulting her husband: "Are you fascinated by the fox?" "You should weigh your own old bones!"
Mrs. Li shouted at Ah Xiu's sister, but she used Ah Xiu as a maid, and after letting Ah Xiu wash her clothes, she said in a loud voice, "Why do you want you to wash my clothes?" Even your own clothes can also be washed by Huang Mama. ”
It seems that the eyebrows are kind and kind, but in fact, the heart is fierce, but such hypocrites like to eat and pray buddha the most. Mrs. Li often holds a string of Buddhist beads in her hand, which is really ironic.
Li Xiucai saw that Ah Xiu had a clear eyebrow and a gentle and kind temperament, and in the process of getting along, he developed feelings for Ah Xiu, and he delusionally thought that the days of the two maids and husbands could be renewed indefinitely. Ah Xiu's heart was not unshaken, and no matter how sad life was in this family, it was much stronger than the days when she followed her husband before.
Although both her husband and Li Xiucai regard her as a fertility tool, her husband Ah Xiang has no tenderness and treats pregnant women as roughly. Li Xiucai took good care of Ah Xiu when she was pregnant.
Over time, Ah Xiu also forgot about her husband. She and her husband have no feelings, and under the arranged marriage, her parents let her marry whomever she wants, she will marry. This is the marriage tragedy of the old times.
Once Ah Xiu was unwell, lying on the bed for three days, Xiu Cai has been serving around, causing a strong dissatisfaction from Mrs. Li, she said bitterly, As soon as I arrived at Xiu Cai's house, I became noble, what waist sore headache, my aunt's shelf was also laid out; before in my own home, I am afraid that like the street, there is a puppy with a belly in her belly, and when she is in labor, she has to run everywhere for food. ”
It is also very frightening for women to embarrass women. She would scold the people she hated with a knife-like mouth, and Ah Xiu, who did not dare to return her mouth, could only listen and swallow the pain into her heart.
Ah Xiu lived in the Li family under the tenderness of Xiucai and the meanness of his wife in the Li family.
After Ah Xiu gave birth to her son Qiu Bao, Mrs. Li rushed to drive Ah Xiu home, but Xiu Cai was busy delaying.
Xiu cai had the intention to make Ah Xiu his concubine, and he even gave the ancestral jade ring to Ah Xiu, which was Xiu Cai's affirmation of Ah Xiu's status.
Ah Xiu, however, could not give up Chun Bao, and Ah Xiu, who was unclear, was even not as clear as the maid of the Li family, Huang Xiu, who once said when she enlightened the sullen Ah Xiu: "People like us, what heart do you want, you have a belly that can be exchanged for money, if I want to give birth to a few more, give birth to one hundred yuan, three hundred yuan, then there is no need to suffer here, as long as you can earn money, the bitter point in your heart will be bitter." ”
I have to say that Huang Mama's words are not rough, and when the identity is established, it is better to maximize the benefits for herself. What is the role of hurting the spring and the autumn all day?
Hesitant Ah Xiu can't bear to forget Chunbao, and she is reluctant to leave Xiucai's house, and her ambivalent psychology makes her suffer.
Ah Xiu ended up making a big mistake that completely changed her situation.
On Qiu Bao's first birthday, Ah Xiu's husband Ah Xiang, whom Ah Xiu had not seen for a long time, found the Li family, and he had come to ask his wife for money. The 80 yuan that Li Xiucai gave to Ah Xiang had already been spent by Ah Xiang, who ate, drank and gambled. A man who can't live a life, no matter how much money he gives, is just a waste of money.
Ah Xiang told Ah Xiu Chun Bao that she was sick and had no money for medical treatment. Children are the weakness of every mother, and Ah Xiu, who has always been worried about whether Chunbao is doing well or not, hears that Chunbao is ill, and her heart is like a knife. However, the Li family did not give Ah Xiu pocket money at all, and Ah Xiu, who had no savings, could only give the qingyu ring that Li Xiu had given to her husband.
After this move was learned by Xiu, he was completely disappointed in Ah Xiu. It turned out that he ate and drank well to Ah Xiu, but Ah Xiu's heart was always on the man.
Mrs. Li wanted to catch Up With Ah Xiu again, and Xiu only acquiesced.
Huang Ma, who once regarded Ah Xiu as a sister and wanted to touch Ah Xiuguang, also changed her face and cooperated with Mrs. Li to drive Ah Xiu away.
She was alone when she came, and she was also alone when she left, and Mrs. Li, the landlord who slammed the door, did not even let Ah Xiu sit in a palanquin and let her walk back the whole time.
After the sad Ah Xiu returned to the destitute home, the son did not know the mother who had been gone for a few years, the husband directed Ah Xiu to cook, Ah Xiu said that the rice tank was empty, and the husband sarcastically said that the rice was not in the tank, but in a cigarette box.
Cigarette packs! From then on, Ah Xiu began this desperate and endless day again, repeating the slave for her husband and the slave for her son.
She was numb and used to it. She accepted everything that her husband had arranged for herself, she did not dare to oppose his husband renting herself, she did not dare to oppose his husband burning his daughter, she did not dare to oppose his husband beating his son.
Ah Xiu did not dare to oppose anything, which was the sadness of rural women in the old era.