In ancient China, it was almost impossible for a "little wife" to become a wife. Once she was a concubine, she was a slave forever.

In the Western Zhou Dynasty, when entering into a marriage relationship, both men and women must strictly obey the orders of their parents and the words of the matchmaker.

"Book of Rites·Quli": "A man and a woman will not make friends without a matchmaker"; "A man and a woman will not know each other unless there is a matchmaker."

However, there are exceptions to the conclusion of marriage. For example, Confucian etiquette stipulates that children should mourn for three years after their parents die, and are not allowed to marry during this period to show filial piety.

Speaking of the ancient marriage system, everyone will always think of the term "three wives and four concubines".

In fact, in most historical dynasties, the ancient concubine system was "one man, one wife, multiple concubines."

Even the emperor who has three palaces and six courtyards has only one "right position" in his "harem group", that is, the queen. The treatment enjoyed by other concubines and imperial wives is strictly speaking, they are all concubines.

The room cannot be compared with the empress of the main palace.

In addition, many friends think that concubines are equivalent to the "little wives" of the ancients, or "mistresses", "second wives" and other unnamed extramarital affairs. This is also not rigorous.

As the old saying goes, "a concubine is not as good as a wife." In ancient times, the status of a concubine was more like a personal maid. She had almost no rights as a "wife", but she had to fulfill the same duties as a wife.

For example: the "wife" takes care of her husband's children and serves the elderly, while the concubine also has to shoulder these responsibilities.

However, in front of the husband and the wife of the first wife, the concubine's status is like that of a maid.

We have seen in film and television works that the concubine and the first wife fall out and quarrel, but this basically does not happen in reality.

Once a similar situation occurs, the concubine with a humble status will definitely suffer.

The status of a concubine in a family is quite low, and she is subject to various restrictions.

First of all, whenever the family worships ancestors, the first wife, the first wife, is qualified to participate in the family sacrifice, but the concubine is not qualified and is completely excluded from the family tree.

The status of the relatives of the wife's family, that is, the natal family, is recognized by the husband's family, and they are relatives by marriage of the husband's family, but the relatives of the concubine's family will not be recognized.

In addition, even if they are children born from concubines, that is, concubines and concubines, they must call the unrelated wife of the first wife "concubine" and can only call their biological mother "concubine".

The title of mother is still only in written language. When meeting concubines and concubines every day, they must call their biological mothers "aunt".

The ancients attached great importance to blood relations, because concubines and concubines both had blood from their husbands' families, so although their status was not as good as that of legitimate sons and daughters, they were still young masters or young ladies.

In contrast, their biological mothers were much miserable. Not only could they not call their children sons or daughters, they had to address them as master or miss. The mother-child relationship between a concubine and her son was not recognized.

Don't think that the phenomenon mentioned by the author is alarmist. We can see such a scene in "Dream of Red Mansions".

Jia Zheng had a concubine, Aunt Zhao. Although Aunt Zhao was the concubine of the head of the family, she was not considered a "master". All the "masters" in the house looked down upon her, and even the maids who were slightly favored would look down on her.

Aunt Zhao gave birth to a daughter, Tanchun, but when she grew up, Tanchun did not recognize her mother at all, not even her biological uncle. She would rather call Mrs. Wang, the first wife, who is not related to her by blood, her mother.

He will call his biological mother mother.

It can be seen that in ancient times, the relationship between concubine, mother and son was not recognized in traditional ethics and moral standards. They were more like master and servant.

In fact, the ancient concubine was a "substitute" for the wife, or a reproductive tool.

The distinction between concubines and concubines was an important part of ancient etiquette, which directly led to the extremely low status of concubines.

After the death of the first wife, the concubine had no chance to ascend to the throne.

If a concubine is used to replace a wife, this situation will not only be criticized by the world, but also suspected of violating the law.

We know that the marriage system in ancient my country was based on the background of male superiority and female inferiority. Therefore, rules such as "the husband is the guide for the wife" were derived.

The relationship between husband and wife is inherently unbalanced, and the status of the concubine is even more worrying.

For a concubine who has made a mistake, the husband is fully qualified to punish her.

In ancient times, it was not uncommon for concubines to be beaten, scolded, and exiled.

Even if a husband kills his concubine in anger, he will not be sentenced to severe punishment in the Tang and Song dynasties. The most serious result is to be exiled.

In the Qing Dynasty, the punishment for the crime of killing a concubine was even lighter, with at most "a hundred sticks and three years' imprisonment."

So, if the humiliated concubine resists her husband, what kind of punishment will she receive?

According to the records of "Qing Code", "for scolding the husband, the stick will be eighty". If the concubine dares to fight with her husband, then she will have to "stay together for a year or a year and a half", and "regardless of whether she is injured or not."

The ancient class system was reflected in all aspects, even in families (clan).

In a family, the status of a wife is obviously higher than that of a concubine, and their relationship is more like that of a master and a servant.

The wife can instruct or beat or scold the concubine at will, but the concubine cannot resist or violate the wife in any way.

If a concubine commits an offense against his wife, he will be guilty of the same crime as the concubine.

From here we can see that in ancient marriage laws, concubines basically had no rights. Apart from the most basic human rights, their situation was the same as that of slaves.