Ancient people attached great importance to the continuation of the family, and the absence of offspring was regarded as the greatest unfilial piety. Even if the family conditions are not good, there must be a son to inherit the family bloodline.
For ancient women, they had "seven sins", and if they could not have children, they would be abandoned by their husbands. Not being able to pass on the family is the greatest sin for women.
Marrying a wife requires three media and six appointments, and it is easy for the rich to do it, but what about the poor? People who don't have money also have the desire to continue their offspring. It's just that this way is too cruel for women.
In ancient times, women had a low status and were doomed to a tragic fate since birth, having no right to speak, and having to obey men wherever they were. Failure to resist would be considered a great rebellion.
The concept of "preference for sons over daughters" has continued in China for thousands of years, and giving birth to a son is a good thing, and giving birth to a daughter is "losing money".
In ancient societies, women were often considered useless. They are neither able to add glory to the family nor take on the burden of providing for the family. In people's perceptions, women seem to exist only to collect debts from their families.
However, if you can find a good marriage, it is the greatest contribution to the family. For women from rich families, their fate is often determined by family interests.
Either it is a marriage with the right person to assist in the family business; Either marry a ** child to glorify the lintel; What's more, if you can marry a royal descendant, the family is rich and glorious.
These women have no autonomy in the matter of marriage, and can only be arranged by their parents in the prime of life. Even, they may not know what their husbands look like on the day of their wedding.
Parents are in charge, and matchmakers are matchmakers"This is the traditional concept of marriage. Men may be able to fight for someone they like, but women must accept the arrangement. In ancient times, fornication was considered a felony, and the charges were mainly against women.
Women who fall in love with men in private and make a private agreement for life will be spurned by society and punished by law. For a rich woman, her fate is slightly better, at least she can marry a rich man and live a worry-free life.
But for women from poor families, marriage is more like a deal.
In ancient times, some poor families would sell their daughters because they couldn't afford the cost of marrying a wife, no matter who the buyer was, as long as it was suitable. These women may be sent to Chongxi and married in the yin, and even if they are dissatisfied, they cannot change their fate.
Rich families must give a dowry when they marry a wife, which is undoubtedly a big problem for the poor, who may not even be able to eat, let alone take a wife. However, there is a phenomenon that is not uncommon in ancient societies, and that is "borrowing a wife" or "renting a wife".
Although men usually had only one wife in ancient times, it was not uncommon for them to have multiple concubines at the same time. These concubines usually come from different families, and they do not belong to the same family, but are "borrowed" or "rented" by the male host.
This method allows some men from poor families to marry wives, and also provides the possibility for the family to continue the incense. However, this phenomenon also reflects the injustice and wealth gap in ancient society, and also reveals the low status and limited rights and interests of women in ancient society.
In ancient times, concubines had a relatively low status, they were required to serve the head of the family, and the children they gave birth to could not call themselves "mothers". Only the head mother of the family can be honored as "mother".
Women with groups of wives and concubines are called "holding on to death, starving to death". Especially in the period when the country is in turmoil and the people are struggling to make a living, there are not a few people who have no money to marry a daughter-in-law.
But in any case, the succession is still an important thing. Therefore, even if the family is in financial difficulties, people will find a way to "do big things with little money" and marry a girl from a good family as a concubine.
In ancient times, due to economic constraints, some people would resort to borrowing or renting wives to solve problems. This approach treats women as the object of the transaction, and those who choose to lend or rent out their wives are usually financially disadvantaged, while the purchaser only needs women to be able to have children.
They would enter into a formal treaty stipulating that the period of borrowing or leasing was usually three to five years, depending on the age of the woman. Although this practice may seem absurd in modern times, it was a common phenomenon in ancient times, and it was carried out in accordance with the normal marriage process, such as hiring, ceremonies, and setting up a banquet.
Both borrowing and renting a wife involve treating a woman as a tool or commodity, and the borrowing woman can live in the original owner's house or the buyer's house, and the seller provides labor; On the other hand, the woman who rents the wife needs to live in the buyer's house, and cannot return to the original home during the period, even if she has children, and can only return after the end of the lease period and helps the buyer to have children.
This method of trading women as commodities is inhumane and has caused great physical and mental harm to women.
Poverty is a ruthless enemy that prevents us from respecting and protecting women's basic rights. It makes it easy for some men to treat their wives as a commodity** and even share them with others.
For those families who are unable to marry because of poverty, they can only use women as "tools" for childbearing, and regard them as worthless existences. However, poverty is not the only problem.
There is also a deeper problem, which is the neglect of women's dignity and worth. Polygamy in ancient times, which seemed to allow women to have multiple husbands, was actually just treating women as the property of men, without giving them the rights and respect they deserved.
Therefore, we need to reflect more deeply on the issue of poverty, while at the same time focusing on the rights and dignity of women. Only when we truly recognize the value and dignity of women can we eradicate the negative effects of poverty and achieve equality and respect for all.
This is not something to be thankful for, and for women, it only brings endless suffering. Some families are in difficult conditions but have multiple sons. It is a big problem to marry a daughter-in-law for each of your sons, but it is relatively easy to marry the same daughter-in-law for all of your sons.
In this way, when a woman is married into the house, she has to serve several men at the same time. A woman's status is like a toy, she can't choose who she spends her life with, she can only wait to be chosen.
The children born to the girls are raised by the brothers, because they are all in the blood of their families. In order for the so-called "successor", it is necessary to sacrifice the happiness of women and bear the devastation of life.
In ancient times, women were regarded as lowly objects, and men could dispose of them at will, and even marry their children to others, and their own children did not know who their biological father was.
This kind of behavior may have been considered normal at the time, but now it seems extremely immoral and unacceptable in modern society. In modern society, women seek equality, want to be respected and treated fairly, and are seen as thinking and independent human beings, not dolls or commodities to be exchanged.
This change in perception is a historical advance and a respect for human dignity.
The continuation of incense" and the old concept of "patriarchy" have made women suffer injustice, injustice and disrespect in their lives. Even today, when gender equality is being promoted, these stereotypes still exist.
This is the pain of women and the regret of society.