Concubine, also known as aunt, escort, wing, wing, concubine, etc. , also known as the little wife, it mainly refers to women, sex, matching, and even in the structure of monogamy and polygamy.
If you hire a wife, you will be a concubine if you run away. -"Book of Rites" and "Spring and Autumn Biography" said: "I am not jealous of women as concubines." -"Shuo Wen" for a concubine. -"Yi Shuo Gua Chuan"
Concubine is generally a man who marries a woman with a lower status than himself, and takes a simpler ceremony as his spouse without going through three rituals, which is called concubinage. I can buy and sell, but not my wife. Before the Song and Yuan Dynasties, concubines could not be wives, otherwise the man might be sentenced to one and a half years' imprisonment. There was a man in Song Dynasty.
It takes a heavy ceremony for a son to establish a concubine as his wife after his death or divorce, which is called righting. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the distinction between bureaucrats and ordinary people was no longer strict, concubines became more common, and men also bought and sold wives.
Although Yu Ji was hired by the media, she could only enter the door in a small sedan chair, controlled by her first wife and despised by people. Although monogamy was stipulated in the Republic of China, on the basis of private ownership of the means of production, various disguised polygamy still existed. Officials, officials, and rich families saw that the daughter of a poor family was slightly beautiful and took it as a wife and concubine. If Ming Na fails, he will fight, behave, rob and kiss for his lewdness and happiness, and will never stop until he reaches his goal. For example, Liu Moumou, a rich man in Jiajiachang, Jianyang, has seven concubines. The last little wife was collected somewhere with 300 silver dollars when Liu was 78 years old, only 18 years old. In the old society, most of those who voluntarily took their daughters as concubines were extremely poor, or were forced by officials, officials, rich people and extravagant desires and prestige, and could not do it. Nine times out of ten, rich families want concubines, while poor families have one son and one dozen.
When a noble woman in the Zhou Dynasty got married, she needed a sister-in-law or nephew to accompany her. She was called a concubine, and she became a wing room, ranking higher than a concubine. Later generations and concubines gradually became inseparable.
The Book of Rites: "The son of heaven has a queen, a wife and a concubine ... The princess of the son of heaven is called the queen, the vassal is called the lady, the doctor is called Confucianism, the scholar is called the woman, and Shu Ren is called the wife." The prince has wives, wives and concubines. "The son of heaven has a queen, three concubines, nine concubines, twenty-seven concubines and eighty-one concubines.
After the Han Dynasty, ordinary literati and civilians had only one wife (the first wife) and could have multiple concubines at the same time. Most wives are husbands' first spouses. But there are also examples of "taking a concubine first and then taking a wife". For example, Zhang Taiyan married a concubine in 1892. After the death of the king, he married Tang Guoli, but only called the king a concubine.
In most dynasties, it is forbidden to have more than one main room at the same time (the main room of the emperor is the queen and the main room of the civilian is the wife). In rare cases, there will be multiple flat wives. So strictly speaking, in the history of China, polygamy is almost unreasonable and rarely happens. In fact, China is monogamous.
Due to the development of society, the evolution of slavery in China and the appearance of the good and bad system, concubines began to refer to a kind of semi-free person: born in a good family and became a member of her husband's family through purchase. This behavior is called "concubinage", but she is not a slave, and her identity still belongs to a good citizen. Although the laws and regulations at that time prohibited handmaids (young slave girls, belonging to untouchables) from becoming concubines and concubines directly becoming wives, in fact, these laws and regulations were often violated and reversed. After the death of the first wife, if you want to be a second wife, you have to go through a heavy ceremony called righting. For example, when Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty opened the new century, Li Rizhi, who was famous for his filial piety, said, "After his death, his youngest son became a concubine." . Li Qiyun, the minister of Tang Dezong, "legally married Wei's wife as Tang Huo".
In the history of China, children born to concubines are called concubines, and children born to wives are called concubines. Generally speaking, unless the wife has no children, illegitimate children have no inheritance rights. In Lee's Korea, illegitimate children need to take their father, stepmother and stepbrothers and sisters as their masters.
Generally speaking, in a polygamous family, a man can only have one wife, which is called the first wife. Before the Song Dynasty in China, only a few people, such as Jia Chong, got the permission of the emperor because of special circumstances and had equal status. A wife and her husband have equal status and enjoy equal treatment in terms of etiquette systems such as dress system and car system. For example, the queen's clothes have exactly the same accessories as the emperor's twelve-chapter clothes, such as favourites, buttons, dates, dresses and ribbons. In most dynasties before the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the act of having two wives without permission was punished with fixed-term imprisonment of more than one year, punishment and corresponding sticks and punishments, as well as coercion, restraint, divorce and marriage, but it was gradually relaxed in later generations, and many men had flat wives in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Men generally need to marry women with similar backgrounds. When you get married, you should indicate the family status, family background, age and other information through the marriage certificate. In some dynasties, such as the Tang Dynasty, if you cheat and marry a disproportionate woman, regardless of whether the woman's status is higher or lower than that of the man, the marriage will usually be forcibly dissolved, and the cheating party will be investigated for law, law, responsibility and responsibility.
The ceremony of marrying a wife was very grand, which lasted for more than a year before and after the Zhou Emperor married a wife, while the princes lasted for more than half a year. Although the wedding ceremony in later generations has been simplified, it still includes three kinds of documents (three books), such as letter of appointment, letter of engagement and congratulatory letter, and goes through six steps (six gifts): accepting gifts, asking names, accepting gifts, asking dates and welcoming (or welcoming) relatives. Sometimes, men have to shoot geese themselves to hold a ceremony to give them a drink. In some dynasties, men have to prepare poems to make up.
A wife can't be a concubine, usually only seven deadly sins can divorce. Some dynasties also stipulated that even if she committed seven deadly sins, she could not divorce if she met any of the following three conditions: First, she had experienced or presided over the funeral of her father-in-law or mother-in-law; Second, when the man got married, his status was not high, and later he became rich, which is the so-called "wife doesn't go to slag"; Third, the wife's family is scattered, and the wife is homeless when divorced. .
After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the distinction between bureaucrats and ordinary people gradually weakened, and people often righted concubines as secondary rooms after the death of the main room.
In addition, there will be some women without formal marriage, marriage, etiquette and style, mostly untouchable women such as handmaids or prostitutes, similar to modern mistresses, sometimes called concubines or concubines.
Maids are women with humble status, such as maids at home or bought geisha. These women belong to the untouchable class because of their status, so they can't be the concubines of literati, but can only be handmaids or pets, similar to love and women. There is a difference between a concubine and a maid, and their status cannot be exchanged. It is also illegal to treat a servant girl as a concubine. A handmaid cannot be a concubine until she has given birth. Maids and other concubines are often bought and sold or given to others. For example, Su Shi once gave two informal concubines who were pregnant to others. However, after Wang Runzhi's death, her official concubine, Wang Chaoyun, had the same status as the first wife in this family, but she didn't have a wife's name. In addition, there are people who raise good people outside, called "foreign wives" and "other wives".
The name of concubine was first seen in the Book of Rites Quli: "The son of heaven has a queen, a wife and a concubine."
There are many other nicknames for concubines: little wife, little wife, second wife, ordinary wife, little wife, Confucian scholar, such as madam, little lady, wing, wing, Xiaoxing, Hua Gaiji, subordinate female, arrested female, deputy room, deputy room, little wife and so on. In addition, because there were many emperors and concubines in ancient times, there were many names representing different levels. For example, in the harem of the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, besides the Empress, there are fourteen grades of names such as Zhao Yi, Mei Ren, Chong Yi, Lover, Eight Children, Seven Children, Long Ambassador, Less Ambassador, Five Senses, Shunchang, * * * * He, Entertainment Ling, Good Ambassador and Night Guest. In addition to his wife, the prince also has different levels of concubines such as good brothers and beautiful women. ("Han Shu consorts biography")
Generally speaking, empresses and concubines are just general terms for empresses. Famous concubines are also called wing rooms and wing rooms, and their existence is recognized by the family and society. However, whether in family, society or after death, their status is separated from their wives.
Before they die, they must carefully serve their husbands, their ex-wives, their children, and even their own children (just like Aunt Zhao in A Dream of Red Mansions, in front of Jia Zheng and Mrs. Wang, watching her Tan Chun still sitting, but she has to stand and give Jia Baoyu a curtain). In society, they have no chance to be honored by their husbands' official titles, nor can they show their faces at wedding banquets. After death, you can't be buried with your husband, and the memorial tablet can't enter the ancestral temple (the patriarchal clan system in the Ming Dynasty was particularly strict. Even if you gave birth to an emperor and were honored as the concubine of the Queen Mother after death, you can only enjoy the treatment of "offering sacrifices, offering sacrifices and leaving the temple".
Even the prominent concubines who are honored as "Rufuren" are still so, then those maids (also known as "Ji") who are unknown and only play for their sons, people, enjoyment and play are called "big maids" in A Dream of Red Mansions.
There is also a kind of house prostitute raised by your gentry for supply, sound, color and entertainment, and its status can be imagined. In history, there are not a few bedside people who give gifts to others, and some people take away their love because they see the beauty of other people's concubines. Shi Chong of the Western Jin Dynasty lost his life because he refused to give the green pearl to Sun Xiu as his favorite maid. Su Dongpo gave many concubines to others during his southern expedition, so that many people claimed that he gave them to others. Zhang's Love My Concubine as a Horse is also considered as a romantic story of "sex, love and affection". And so on, we can see that the society, society, place and status of concubines are as low as horses and chariots.