Concubines in the old society have a low status, what do they figure?

Concubinage was formed during the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and has been y rooted for thousands of years. The emperor's "three palaces, six courtyards, seventy-two concubines," and the rich and powerful people's wives and concubines.

From the point of view of modern civilization, the concubine system is a product of ignorance and backwardness, and it is extremely cruel and inhumane to women, stained with the blood and tears of countless women. According to historical records, King Wen of Zhou had 24 concubines, and the emperors of the following dynasties all did their best to intensify their efforts, often with tens of millions of concubines in their harems.

The upper beam is not correct, the lower beam is crooked. In addition to the emperor, the world's beauty, the ancient folk are also concubines into the wind. Even the Ming Dynasty, the famous Qing official Hai Rui, according to reliable information, he has married three wives, at least three concubines. By the time he was seventy years old, with an existing concubine, he took in another big girl like a flower as a concubine.

Li Bai, the poet of the Tang Dynasty, who was bold and elegant, also had a large number of wives and concubines. According to evidence, Li Bai not only married four times, but also had too many concubines to count. Li Bai in his own verses have also been revealed, such as "Yu also like the flow of Ping, with the waves of music Xiuming; own two young concubines, double riding steed line."

By the Ming Dynasty, the law also explicitly provided that any man who had reached the age of 40 and had no heir could take a concubine, a provision that provided a sufficient legal basis for a man to take a concubine. Because China since ancient times, there is the so-called "unfilial three, no later for the big" idea, the man married concubines, are in order to give the ancestor continuation of the flame well. So, concubinage has become a kind of grandiose and righteous behavior.

While the court allowed men to take concubines, there is a fundamental difference between concubinage and marriage. Concubinage was not a formal marriage, and the concubine was not the man's official spouse. The instrument entered into by a concubine is called a contract, which is actually a contract for the sale of a person. This kind of sale relationship, destined to concubine in the family's low status, and even far less than the modern "second wife" to get away with it.

In the ancient family, although the duties of both wives and concubines were to serve their husbands, rule the house, and bear and raise children, the rights of concubines in the family were restricted. Concubines could not participate in the rituals of the man's family, and relatives of concubines could not be included in the in-laws of the husband's family.

Children born to a concubine must recognize the main house as the "first mother", while the biological mother can only be the "concubine mother", that is to say, the concubine is equivalent to a reproductive machine. Therefore, the concubine's own children are young masters and young ladies in the family, and their status is higher than their own, calling their own children "young master" or "young lady", while their own children call themselves "aunt". Auntie". In the home, the wife could also call the concubine and scold her, while the concubine was not allowed to violate her wife's behavior.

For a concubine, it is equivalent to a man's private property, and the husband has the power to dispose of it as he pleases, or scold it, or send it away, or even send it away. Even if the concubine was killed, it was not a great offense. For example, the Qing Law stipulates that the punishment for a man who kills his concubine is only "one hundred strokes of the cane and three years' imprisonment". However, if a concubine scolds her husband, "if she scolds her husband, she shall be given a staff of 80". If you hit your husband, "do not ask whether there is injury or not, are imprisoned for one year or one and a half years".

In modern China, whether it is the late Qing regime, the Republic of China government, the Kuomintang regime, all recognize the legitimacy of concubinage. The trend of concubinage intensified during Yuan Shikai's time, who had 16 concubines, including sisters and aunts and nephews. During the Kuomintang regime, dignitaries took pride in marrying their aunts and treated concubinage as a symbol of wealth.

It was not until the founding of New China that the system of concubinage was formally abolished, and women were given a new lease of life and became half of the sky in the true sense of the word.