The land of fireworks, the prosperity of the scene. Qinglou has left a deep imprint in the long history, Du Mu once described it in poetry: "Several years of wind and dust Yangzhou dream, clouds and rain, phoenix dance dragon Teng left the impression of Qinglou." Jiang Kui sang passionately: "Cardamom years, dreams lead to the joy of the green building", and Xu Yan wrote even more boldly: "Saving the clouds and palming the rain, the phoenix soaring and the dragon wings, wandering in the extreme of the green building." ”
In this hazy place, countless gorgeous women have spent their youth, including the cardamom beauty in Du Mu's poems, the uninhibited soul fish mystery who writes Qimo's spring dream, and the talented girl Xue Tao who writes poems on peach blossom paper. And Qin Huai Bayan is even more well-known, they are outstanding, singing and dancing, attracting countless wanderers.
Just ask who can resist the warm fragrance of nephrite, drink and listen to music. In the pictures of TV dramas and poems, we often witness many people looking for joy in the green house and indulging in the flowers before the moon. So, do you know how much RMB you need to go to the Qinglou now?This answer is sure to surprise you.
The origin of the Qinglou is no longer verifiable, and it is generally believed that the early prototype of the Qinglou can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, when the Duke of Qi Huan set up a place for lewd pleasure in the palace - Nulu. The Eastern Zhou Policy in the "Warring States Policy" recorded: "There are seven markets in the palace of Qi Huan, and there are 700 women's palaces. The fourth volume of "Shuying" also mentions: "There are 700 female lu, and the Duke of Qi Huan raised funds for night gatherings to help military activities." ”
In other words, the Duke of Qi Huan created more than 700 female lures in the Qi State, which caused controversy. The women's houses here were managed by the government, and this management method was also continued later, and the prostitutes in the government-managed green buildings were generally called "official prostitutes".
However, the origin of the Qinglou is not limited to the female house, right?In fact, the earliest prostitutes in China may have originated in a slave society, that is, during the Xia and Shang periods. Records of ancient prostitutes can be found in the ancient liturgical document of the Zhou Li.
Zhou Li" recorded: "Female wine, female squeamish, ridicule thousands of people and weak." The "female wine" and "female wine" mentioned here are actually the prototypes of the official prostitutes raised by the emperor in the palace. "Zhou Li" was created by Zhou Gongdan in the Western Zhou Dynasty, which means that in the Western Zhou Dynasty, prostitutes already existed.
There is also such a record in the biography of the Xiongnu in the "Historical Records": "Xia Ji accumulates female music and advocates excellence." "Female music and advocating excellence are all titles for courtesans at that time, and Xia Wei was the last emperor of the Xia Dynasty. There are no unearthed cultural relics in the Xia Dynasty so far, only later written records, so it belongs to the non-letter history period, and the relevant records can only be used for reference.
The masses of the people are the creators of history, and many things originate from the people, and then gradually develop, and gradually become a trend and become the attention of the authorities, and the same may be true for raising prostitutes. Since there were official prostitutes in the Xia Dynasty, it is likely that there were private prostitutes in the people earlier.
In other words, it is likely that there were prostitutes in the Wuzhu era. This can also be found in modern times, for example, Japanese culture has been deeply influenced by Chinese civilization, and in many places it is almost a copy of culture. A study of the history of some parts of Japan still retains the obsolete witch culture, and it was not until the Sui and Tang dynasties that Japan gradually moved out of matriarchal society.
At that time, many witches with relatively high social status became witch prostitutes in order to survive. In the earlier period than the Xia Shang, we also had an era when the Wuzhu culture was prevalent, and also experienced a stage of the gradual decline of the matrilineal clan and the rise of the patrilineal society, so it can be speculated that there were already sorcerers who became prostitutes in that era.
By tracing the history of prostitutes, we can find that the prostitute industry in China has sprouted as early as ancient times, and gradually matured in the Tang and Song dynasties. At that time, the prostitution industry was roughly divided into three categories, including private prostitutes run by the private sector, domestic prostitutes supported by families, and official prostitutes run by the government.
First, let's look at official prostitutes. Official prostitutes are usually kabuko raised by **, who make a living by selling their performances rather than selling their bodies, and usually require talent and beauty. The "talent" here refers not only to the skill of singing and dancing, but also to the literary skills of reciting poetry, which is determined by the urbane people who serve the official prostitutes.
During the Tang and Song dynasties, official prostitutes were the most strictly managed group of prostitutes, and they were usually included in the music register, and played the role of waiters in the banquets of scholars**. Most of these scholars and doctors were literati, and their pursuit of wind and snow and soul communication surpassed the worldly passion for clouds and rain. Therefore, the official prostitutes at that time were required to be proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, so as to cater to the elegance of the scholars and doctors.
Over time, official prostitutes came mainly from women from families whose property had been confiscated. Of course, there are also some women who have been trained since childhood and have grown up to become official prostitutes. Official prostitutes were the most strictly regulated of the three major categories of prostitutes in ancient times. In the Ming Dynasty, they left the music and joined the Jiaofang Division, and no longer performed songs and dances for the banquets and drinking parties of the officialdom.
Through this series of depictions, I believe you have understood that the cost of training an official prostitute is bound to be expensive, so the value of official prostitutes is usually quite high.
Of course, there is also a special type of identity among official prostitutes, known as camp prostitutes, where the "battalion" refers to the army. Most of these prostitutes were unfortunate women who had been captured during the war, and when they marched with the army, their fate was quite different from that of other official prostitutes.
Next, we turn to domestic prostitutes who are self-sponsored. Perhaps for many people, the term domestic prostitute is a little unfamiliar, but if you mention the great poet Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty, you will definitely be enlightened. Bai Juyi's family had a large number of prostitutes, and according to legend, the number exceeded 100, as evidenced by his poems.
Bai Juyi once had a poem: "Cherry Fan Sukou, willow Xiaoman's waist", here Fan Su and Xiaoman are the two domestic prostitutes he raised, because they are good at singing and dancing and are appreciated. In addition, Bai Juyi wrote in another poem "There is a Moon in the Small Garden": "The water chestnut holds the sheng spring, and the valley wipes the pipa." The red silk dances with her hands, and the purple silk sings at will. In the poem, these women are all domestic prostitutes that he raises.
In fact, supporting a prostitute was a tacit tradition among the literati at that time, and it was called "scribe romance". Not only Bai Juyi, but other wealthy literati families more or less have some domestic prostitutes. These prostitutes differed from concubines in that their main duty was to perform the art of singing and dancing and to add a joyful atmosphere to the feast.
According to the literature, Su Shi (Su Dongpo), a famous poet in the Song Dynasty, raised many domestic prostitutes at home, the most famous of which is probably Wang Chaoyun. Wang Chaoyun was originally a courtesan in Hangzhou, and after Su Shi's two wives died one after another, she became Su Shi's concubine and has been with him ever since.
In Su Shi's later years, Wang Chaoyun passed away, and Su Shi wrote a lot of poems to mourn this confidante who had been displaced with him. These include works such as "Epitaph of Chaoyun", "Plum Blossoms of Xijiang Moon", "Huizhou Recommended Chaoyun Shu", "Diqi Zen Temple" and "Slow Flowers in the Rain".
These poems bear witness to Su Shi's deep longing for Chaoyun, forming a touching story that leaves a deep impression on the emotions between Su Shi and his confidante.
The last category is the private prostitutes, that is, the prostitutes in the Qinglou that we are familiar with. Some of these Qinglou women make a living by selling their arts, some sell their lives as a business, and of course, some women sell both their arts and their bodies. When we talk about spending in a private house, we are actually referring to enjoying the pleasures of a private house and a private prostitute.
As mentioned above, the prostitution system in the Tang and Song dynasties was quite mature, so let's take the cost of visiting Qinglou in the Tang and Song dynasties as an example to understand how much money the ancients needed to spend time in a folk Qinglou.
To understand how much money people in the Tang and Song dynasties cost to go to the Qinglou, first we need to figure out how much one or two ** in the Tang and Song dynasties is equivalent to today's RMB. Maybe you have heard in the TV series that you will need a few taels for a cup of tea, but is this actually the case?This is not the case.
Nowadays, when we calculate the exchange of ancient and modern money, we generally calculate it according to the ** of grain. The amount of money required in ancient times and the amount of money required in modern times generally do not change much for the same amount of food. There are two reasons for this.
First of all, the quality of food is related to the national economy and people's livelihood, and it is the foundation of a country. In ancient times, when China's society was relatively stable, the food usually did not fluctuate drastically, because the people's livelihood was inseparable from food. Secondly, China has always been a major grain producer, and the output of crops is not limited by other countries, and it is relatively stable.
We all know that the commodity economy of the Song Dynasty was very prosperous. However, due to the chaotic price in the Song Dynasty, there were cases of private minting of copper coins in various places, resulting in different degrees of inflation in different states and counties, so it was difficult to provide specific reference value. Therefore, let's take the Tang Dynasty as an example to illustrate.
In order to figure out how much a tael of silver in the Tang Dynasty was equivalent to today, we first need to understand the conversion system of silver taels and grain in the Tang Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, one tael of silver was equal to one thousand wen, and one thousand wen was often referred to as "one hanging money".
We are all familiar with the allusion of "not bending your waist for five buckets of rice", so how much is five buckets of rice?During the Tang Dynasty, ten buckets of rice were generally considered to be one stone of rice, and one stone of rice was enough for one person to eat for three to four months at that time. Therefore, five buckets of rice is actually not a small amount, enough to sustain an adult for nearly two months.
At that time, the monthly salary of a nine-grade petty official in the Tang Dynasty was equivalent to five stone rice, that is, one month as an official could get enough rations for one year. It is no wonder that many people rushed to the imperial examination to become civil servants at that time, because such treatment was really exciting.
Generally speaking, a bucket of rice in the Tang Dynasty cost 5 wen yuan, which means that one stone of rice is equivalent to 50 wen yuan. At that time, one stone of rice is equivalent to about 59 kilograms, or 118 catties, today. Therefore, two catties of rice in the Tang Dynasty were worth about four to five cents.
By observing the trend of rice today, we can find that the price of rice is generally between five and six yuan and two catties. In this way, we can conclude that the four to five texts of the Tang Dynasty are actually equivalent to the five to six yuan of today. Considering that one tael of silver is equal to one thousand wen, then this is actually equivalent to about one thousand three hundred wen.
In the Tang Dynasty, there was no such advanced agricultural technology as Yuan Longping. In an era when rice had not yet been successfully cross-bred, rice was perhaps more precious and more valuable than it is now. The level of productivity in ancient times was relatively low, and the purchase cost of various goods was not as cheap as it is today.
Taking these factors into consideration, it is generally believed that one tael of silver in the Tang Dynasty is roughly equivalent to 2,000 yuan today. This may be surprising, right?It turns out that the cost of a meal, a bowl of tea, and even a few taels or a few hundred taels of silver deduced in the TV series is actually equivalent to tens of millions of yuan today.
After understanding how much a tael of silver in the Tang and Song dynasties is equivalent to today, let's study how much it cost to visit the Qinglou at that time. Unlike official and domestic prostitutes, the private operation of the Qinglou mainly pursues economic interests, that is, profits. In order to earn money, the bustard mother at that time could be described as unscrupulous.
In ancient times, whether it was appreciating opera, watching singing and dancing, or even just tasting tea for recreation, visiting the Qinglou required a unified payment of a "flower tea fee". This flower tea fee is similar to today's table fee, as long as you step into the green building, you have to pay, and you need to pay extra for other activities in the future.
This is actually not uncommon in many film and television dramas, we can often see that before visiting the Qinglou, the protagonist has to pay the bustard a sum of money, which is the so-called "tea money". So how much is the ancient "flower tea fee"?In general, it varies from person to person and is generally considered to be consistent money.
At that time, the money was equivalent to 770 yuan, which is roughly 1,500 yuan when converted into today's currency. That is to say, just by entering the Qinglou, not drinking, not eating, or even singing and dancing, the threshold fee will reach 1,500 yuan.
Generally speaking, a visit to a green house is not just a simple "observation of the people's feelings", but will definitely be accompanied by other consumption activities. The common situation is that you need to order a table of banquets first, and the ** of this table of banquets is about 30 taels of silver to 50 taels of silver, that is, at least equivalent to 60,000 yuan.
In addition to customizing the banquet, you can also invite girls to accompany you for entertainment. Ordinary girls' ** is generally between 10 taels of silver and 30 taels of silver, which is converted into about 20,000 yuan. And if it is a Qinglou Oiran, a top brand or a famous prostitute, then ** will inevitably show a geometric multiple growth, I believe everyone can understand.
Calculated in this way, starting from the initial tea fee, plus a series of expenses such as booking banquets and inviting prostitutes, the total cost has been close to 100,000 yuan. It can be seen that it seems that it is not unfounded that the ancients "spent a lot of money" for the Oiran, and may even pay the price of family ruin.
It is important to understand that in 2021, the average annual salary of employees in urban non-private units in China will only be 106837 yuan. In other words, even if you don't eat or drink for a year, and don't calculate other expenses, you can barely visit the Qinglou once, and the Qinglou is really not something that ordinary people can easily afford.
Of course, only a small part of these expenses eventually went to the Qinglou women, and most of them were collected by the Qinglou operators such as Bustard's mother. This also explains why many women in Qinglou spend their youth in Qinglou, and the money they earn is barely enough to redeem themselves. It is already so expensive to visit the Qinglou, and it is even more difficult to redeem the Qinglou woman.
It is rumored that Dong Xiaowan, who was one of the eight Yans of Qin Huai, spent thousands of taels of silver to redeem his body, which is equivalent to millions of yuan according to today's monetary value. This once again highlights the high cost of visiting the Qinglou and ransom for the Qinglou woman.
Looking back on this information, do you also think that Qinglou is described as a "gold cave" and deserves its real name?
In fact, there is a clear difference between the ancient Qinglou and the brothel we usually think of, and it can be said that the difference between them is like the cost of a roadside barbecue stand and a Michelin-starred hotel. In the Qinglou, the scene of spending a lot of money is really exclusive to the rich and gentlemen, and it is not something that ordinary people can easily afford.
Many of the talented women we know are actually kabuki, and their relationships with their customers are based more on common interests than intimate relationships, which is often said to be "selling their art but not their bodies". These women are beautiful and skillful in singing and dancing, and they interpret their own stories in the Qinglou Chu Pavilion in Hualiu Lane.