Traditional virtues of concubinage in ancient times

Why does a wife "marry" a concubine "accept"? This is mainly because in the past, when people asked for wives, they had to follow their parents' orders and matchmakers' words. The man should give the bride a bride price, and the woman should bring some dowry when she gets married. This is called "taking a wife". Concubines are usually bought with money, or are maids and handmaids. At home, they are even prisoners or sacrifices of defeated countries, so they are called "Na" concubines, which means accepting their meaning. "Tang Law Theory" is very clear; "Concubine is cheap" and "Concubine knows business".

In other words, my status is very low, which is equivalent to a commodity. It turns out that in ancient times, the status of women was very low, and the status of concubines was lower than that of wives. So concubines have different rights. The wife can control the financial power and everything in the family, while the concubine has to bear the responsibility of bearing children, but she does not have this right. Even before her, she was still a slave, and she was the master. Although all the children they gave birth to were brothers and sisters, illegitimate brothers always had higher power status than illegitimate brothers.

In addition, ancient marriage attached great importance to family status and rank, and paid attention to "skin color and class follow each other." Marriage of different classes cannot communicate with each other, and it must be in accordance with "everyone has his own spouse, and the skin color and class need to be consistent." Therefore, if a woman with low status wants to be attached to the powerful, or if two parties with different status meet true love, because the hierarchical marriage system can only be solved by the man's "concubinage".

Under such a hierarchy of wives and concubines, illegitimate children's status is also humble. They can't call their biological mothers "mothers" but "aunts", while the first wife is called mothers, which shows the low status of ancient concubines.