In ancient times, husbands and wives were in the same bed, embarrassing? What is the duty of a maid?
With the popularity of costume dramas in recent years, the word "maid" has gradually entered the public's sight. In many costume dramas, we can see various characters, and their identities and backgrounds are all referenced to ancient history.
The identities of emperors, empresses, palace maids, eunuchs, masters, and servants are also becoming more and more known. Today, let's take a closer look at the identity of "maid".
Behind the identity of the maid is the helplessness of the feudal system that we cannot ignore. In ancient times, owning a maid was often a symbol of wealth, and the maid had a low status, no power, and even needed to be served by the owner while he was resting.
If we were sleeping at home now, and there was someone standing there silently, would you feel scared? So what is the significance of the existence of the maid?
In many film and television dramas, we can see such a scene: the master and his wife have rested, but there are still a few maids around them, who are keeping vigil for the master. These maids are maids, and their duty is to provide various services to their masters.
From the point of view of physical effort, the duties of maids are not easy, especially those who are not very outstanding in appearance, often need to take on more physical labor.
In ancient times, maids got up every morning and started to get busy. Not only do you have to clean the yard of the owner's house, take care of the flowers and pets in the yard, but also wait for the owner to get up, change clothes and wash.
Despite not having toothpaste, toothbrushes, and facial cleansers, they need to make sure that their owners are clean and hygienic, otherwise bad breath and body odor can become a big problem.
In ancient times, whenever people were ready to wash, there would be maids who prepared everything for them in advance. The original method of washing was to hold the owner's mouthwash and use her fingers to help the owner clean his teeth.
The process of washing the face is much simpler, and the maid will gently wipe the owner's cheeks with a soaked towel. With the progress of the times, people began to use willow branches to clean their teeth, so maids need to prepare willow branches for their masters in advance, so that they can start washing immediately after waking up.
The maids' lives are full of hectic and challenging, and when the master has finished washing, they have to continue to make the bed to ensure that the owner has a clean and comfortable environment when he returns home.
But that's only a small part of their heavy workload. They also need to ensure the freshness of the ingredients when the host eats, because ancient people attached great importance to the taste and quality of the food.
Waking up early is the norm in the daily life of the maids, and they serve their masters without complaint.
Those who can afford to hire maids are mostly **, they have to rush to the court every morning, usually appear in the court at five o'clock, so these ** usually need to get up at about three o'clock in the morning, and the master gets up, the maid naturally has to follow, ready to be on call.
In addition to being responsible for the master's diet and having to go out early in the morning to purchase ingredients, the maid also has to take care of the master's daily life, and even complete various chores assigned by the housekeeper, which can be said to be busy all day long.
If you are the kind of girl who looks outstanding, then your situation will be even more difficult. You may wonder why being good-looking can become a nuisance.
In fact, it is only when certain conditions are met that good looks become a virtue. However, as a low-status maid, this advantage can become a disaster.
Because, being good-looking means that you may be favored by the male host. As a maid, how can you resist a powerful master? You may be forced to submit or endure the suspicions and harassments of your wife.
From an ordinary girl to a roommate, this is a poignant change. Sometimes, the status of the girls in the room is even worse than that of ordinary girls, and they often suffer from the suspicion and difficulties of the hostess, and the life in the back house is even more difficult.
In addition, even if they become roomgirls, they still have to take on daily chores. As a result, good-looking girls tend to face greater challenges. For those lucky maids, if they are favored by the male owner and are favored, they may even become the male master's concubines.
So, what about those unfortunate maids? What will be their fate?
The life of an ancient maid was not easy. If she is unfortunate enough to be criticized, it may be difficult for her to remarry after her innocence is questioned. Many male hosts don't even give them the title of concubine, just like a toy, and forget about it after discarding it.
Such people are more likely to be criticized after losing their support. In addition to dealing with daily chores, the maids also have to meet the needs of their masters. They live a difficult life, and those maids who often accompany their owners even have to warm up the quilt in advance before the owner comes back to sleep to ensure that the owner can have a comfortable sleeping environment.
In "Dream of Red Mansions", we see all kinds of images and fates of maids. Take Wang Xifeng's maid Ping'er as an example, because of her delicate appearance, she became Jia Lian's big girl in the room, and she had a bad fate.
However, with her ingenuity, Ping'er became Wang Xifeng's right-hand man, and her life was easier than that of other maids. This shows that smart girls tend to have a better fate.
In the chapters of the original book, there is no detailed description of Ping'er's future. But in the subsequent creations, Ping'er's fate has been positively changed. In the fortieth chapter of the continuation, Wang Xifeng's death put Sister Qiao in the predicament of being sold as a girl and a female envoy.
Fortunately, Ping'er stepped forward, protected Sister Qiao, and escaped from the Grand View Garden with her. In the end, Jia Lian made Ping'er the main room, which made Ping'er's life have a happy ending.
In "Dream of Red Mansions", in addition to Ping'er, there is also a woman with a tragic fate, she is Jia Baoyu's roommate. The attacker was originally the daughter of a poor family, and because of the poverty of the family, she even starved to death, and in exchange for a few taels of silver, she was sold to Jiafu.
In Jia's mansion, the attacker was originally just Jia's mother's maid, and later was sent to take care of Jia Baoyu.
Because of his kind character and professional attitude, he was deeply loved by Jia's mother, so he was promised to Jia Baoyu. However, the fate of the attacker was very bumpy. She was originally the daughter of a common people's family, named Hua Zhu, and was later sold to Jiafu by the Hua family.
In the sixth episode of "Dream of Red Mansions", the attacker and Jia Baoyu had a skin-to-skin relationship, but she finally failed to obtain the identity of an aunt and lived a miserable life.
Ancient maids had a low status, had no right to speak, no free choice, and had a bad fate. Some maids don't want to be roommates, what kind of fate will they face?
There are several characters in Dream of Red Mansions, who would rather pay the price than stick to themselves and not bow to fate.
In Jia's Mansion, the golden mandarin duck is Jia's mother's right-hand man and is favored by Jia's mother. This is thanks to Jia's mother's trust, which makes Mandarin Duck's status in Jiafu slightly higher than that of other girls.
Coupled with her outstanding appearance and self-esteem and self-loving character, she is highly respected in Jiafu. As the eldest girl next to Jia's mother, Mandarin Duck has seen many masters of Jiafu, which gives her a broader vision and deeper insight.
Mandarin duck was favored by Jia Yu because of her beauty, but she did not want to become Jia Yu's concubine. Jia Yu is greedy and lustful, looking for pleasure everywhere, and the mandarin duck is naturally reluctant to marry him. Jia Yu kept pressuring and found Mandarin Duck's family to force her to give in, but Mandarin Duck resolutely refused.
Despite the mandarin duck's resolute attitude, Jia Yu did not give up, but pursued relentlessly, and threatened that no one dared to ask for her except me, and no one could escape from the palm of my hand.
Even if Jia Baoyu wants to marry me, I won't marry him. Anyway, I just don't get married, if even the old lady forces me, then I'd rather die than give in. In that era when the maid's status was humble, the mandarin duck still resolutely resisted, and in the end, Jia Mu was moved by the courage of the mandarin duck and took action to protect her.
When Jia's mother was alive, the mandarin duck was sheltered, but Jia's mother died and the mandarin duck lost protection. knew Jia Yu's wolf ambition and was as transparent as a mandarin duck, but he could only choose to use his life as the price of resistance, and finally committed suicide by hanging himself.
Mandarin duck's courage and perseverance make us admire her. Her fate also makes us think deeply about the difficulties of the maids' lives, they do their best for the main family, but they often fail to get the respect and status they deserve, just like the pets raised by those noble ladies, the status is noble and dignified.
The sorrow of this feudal system has killed many innocent people.
In ancient society, the status of maids was low, but their rank was not static. Different maids will have different treatment and life because of different ranks.
Just as people's social status is three, six, nine, and so on, so is the maid. The girls are the best of the maids, and they have a special status and can serve the male host at any time.
If the male owner likes to have sex with girls, their lives will be improved, and their treatment will be better than ordinary maids. On the contrary, if they are not liked by the male host, their lives will be even more difficult.
For example, the Ping'er and Raiders we mentioned earlier, they are loved by their masters, so their living treatment and status are relatively high, and their level is even higher than that of the big maid.
The next level is the big girl, and their level is one level lower than the girl in the room. If you have watched the popular ancient TV series "Know it or not, it should be green, fat, red and thin" a few years ago, you will know that Dan Tang and Xiao Tao are first-class maids.
It can be seen from the TV series that first-class maids usually live in the master's house, which can be said to be the master's personal maid.
Their mission is to provide a full range of care for the daily life of the owner, including food and daily life, clothing and travel, accompanying and guarding, yard management, and even some trivial tasks that are inconvenient for the owner to deal with personally.
As maids, they need to maintain close contact with their owners in order to meet their needs at all times. There are pros and cons to this close relationship, with access to resources and opportunities unique to the owner, but life can become extremely difficult if you meet a demanding host, and you may even be abused and hurt.
At that time, the status of maids was very low, they were like mustard, and the master could even beat them to death at will without any consequences. Lower in status than the first-class maids are the second-class maids, who are responsible for daily household chores and also assist the first-class maids in their work.
The direct supervisors of the second-class maids are the master's family and the first-class maids, and their salaries are lower than those of the first-class maids.
Third-class maids have a lower status than second-class maids, and their work is mainly focused on heavy household chores such as cleaning the house, cooking, laundry, and carrying water. While these jobs are important, they are paid little and disproportionately with the amount of work they do.
In modern life, people usually don't need someone to be there when they go to bed at night, and it can be frightening if a stranger appears at the bedside.
In ancient times, the duty of a maid was to serve the master, and even at night there would be a maid on duty to meet the needs of the master's family. Although it may be a little embarrassing, in the eyes of the nobles, the maids exist to take care of them, which is taken for granted, so the maids will not feel embarrassed.
Today, we have entered a completely new society, and such feudal customs have been completely abandoned.