Ancient people cloud "people die for money, birds for food death", how to make money from ancient times to the present is one of the biggest problems that plague the vast majority of people, in the face of this ultimate question, the ancients are in a hurry to get wise, wisdom to do their best, and finally they found some strange ways to make money to support their families. So where are these ways of making money strange, and where is the blame, now let's take stock.
(This article is excerpted from "Those Things in the Life of the Ancients", and there are longer deletions from the original text, and I want to know more interesting ancient occupations available for purchase books to read)
The ancients lived those things for ¥31.88 to buy
First, write love letters on behalf of others
Some people are brilliant in humanities, and some people taste the same as chewing wax, I believe that many people deeply feel the powerlessness of writing when they study, others write articles that are praised by teachers, and when they lift their pens, they can't jump out a word in their heads, and they don't know what other people's brains have grown up eating.
Since it is an advantage, it naturally needs to be used. It is said that Emperor Wu of han Liu Che deposed Chen Ajiao as empress, and Empress Chen spent many years in the cold palace. She heard that at this time, there was a new upstart in Chang'an City who was very talented called Sima Xiangru, so she "gave him a hundred pounds of gold" and wanted him to write a "love letter" to Liu Che for herself. Without looking at the monk's face to see the "wealth" side, Sima Xiangru gladly agreed and wrote the famous "Nagato Fu" with a stroke of his pen.
Among them, "the soul is overstretched and not reversed, the shape is withered and lives alone" describes the desolate scene after the former lover Chen Ajiao fell out of favor, and "suddenly slept and dreamed, and ruojunzhi was by the side", which expressed Chen Ajiao's longing for Emperor Wu of Han and could not sleep at night.
After all, it was a one-night husband and wife, and when Emperor Wu of Han saw this gift, he was already completely moved by Sima Xiangru's article, and he also knew that he still loved Chen Ajiao, and finally "Empress Chen was restored to be blessed". As for the allusion that Empress Chen bought the gift, Li Bai wrote in the second part of the "White Head Yin": "I heard that Ah Jiao lost grace, and bought a thousand gold to buy the king." That is, the origin of the idiom of buying a thousand dollars.
Second, the alternative red bride
As we all know, in ancient times, there was a profession called red bride, which was to match the relationship between men and women. But many people do not know that in ancient times, there was also a profession that specialized in brokering improper relationships between men and women, and profited from it, which was commonly known as "Ma Po Liu".
The second and fourth times in "Water Margin", Wang Po smiled and said, "The old man is a matchmaker." He will also be a dentist, will also hold his waist, will also collect small, will also say style, and will also do Ma Bo Six. "Then it is very clear to everyone seeing here, the person who matched Ximen Qing and Pan Jinlian in "Water Margin" is the wang mother, and Ximen Qing has a wife, Pan Jinlian has a husband, and the queen mother knows it. In ancient times, this kind of person was called Ma Bo Liu, also known as "Ma Eight Six", "Ma Bai Liu", "Ma Bo Liu" and so on.
However, just as the so-called gentleman does not take ill-gotten wealth, being a Ma Po Liu is not a legitimate way to make money.
Three: Anti-string actors
Anti-string actors are not a rare thing in contemporary times, for example, the famous Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang has the reputation of the first of the four famous Dan, and Danjiao is a collective name for female characters. But you may not know that before Mei Lanfang, as early as the Tang Dynasty, there was a very powerful anti-string actor named Li Ling in the history of our country.
Li Ling, according to the "Old Tales of Pear Garden", he was also a pear garden dramatist during the Tianbao period of the Tang Dynasty. Although he is a boy and is more than fifty years old, after he dresses up as a woman, he is not only beautiful and moving, but also plays a twenty-eight girl with a smile, which has many fans of the drama.
As Li Ling's fame grew, fans finally couldn't resist and ran to the backstage to ask to see Li Ling, but when the curtain was lifted, they only saw an old man sitting there. The old man told them: I want to see Li Ling and come back tomorrow. The next day, the crowd arrived as promised, and li ling was greeted in full dress. Subsequently, only to see him remove his makeup in front of everyone, people found out that she was actually the old man they saw yesterday, and they were amazed. It seems that the makeup technique, one of the three major evil arts in Asia, was already magical in the Tang Dynasty.
Of course, niche and rare occupations exist not only in ancient China, but also in foreign countries.
After the Black Death in medieval Europe, people talked about rats, which gave birth to a profession that specialized in rat catching rats - rat-catcher. Victorian England had a mousetrap named Jack Black, who became a big celebrity in England because he was interviewed by the famous journalist Henry Mayhew at the time; in medieval Britain, a strange profession called "groom of the king's close stool" was born, to put it bluntly, this kind of person was responsible for assisting the king in excretion and washing farts. Because this role held the highest "secrets" of the empire, often by the king's most trusted nobles or favored vassals, by the time Henry VII came to power, the latrine even became an official position, and also had the power to participate in the formulation of the state's fiscal policy; in addition, there were such as whipping boy, who was originally the prince's book boy, but when the prince made a mistake and was punished, the book boy would beat the prince; knocker-up, the ancient country had roosters to wake up, What about people who don't have roosters in the city, but who need to go to work in the morning and can't be late? For this reason, Ireland gave birth to a profession called wake-up worker, whose duty is to visit customers from house to house every morning, knocking on the window with a short stick or a long pole until the customer is woken up.
In short, there is nothing strange in the world, and in addition to the three hundred and sixty-five elements, even the smallest "chicken singing dog thief" also has its value, even when it plays a big role. As long as we don't do anything like "Ma Po Six", then it is a great thing to be able to make money.