We usually know when we watch costume dramas that in ancient feudal society, everyone in the big family except for the male and female hostsThere will be a lot of maids.
Most of these maids are in the inner house, obeying the instructions of the hostess, and need to take on all the trivial household chores in the family every day.
According to the "three, six, nine, etc." of these maids, and they also perform their own duties and take on other specific tasks.
Basically, the higher the family's prestige status, the more maids the family raised, which is also a symbol of status in feudal society.
Just like in the most well-known "Dream of Red Mansions", as the mother family of the palace concubine, there are more than 100 maids of all kinds up and down in JiafuAnd because of the different statuses, there are various divisions of labor, and the things they do are very different.
How are they generally classified? What are the different types of work?
Among the big families, there is also a clear class distinction between all the maids.
Generally speaking, the lowest class is the rough girl who does rough work.
They are ordinary, and they have no special abilities, they can only do the simplest work with all their strength, washing and sweeping, planting trees and watering flowersThe status is basically at the bottom of the maid.
is like the "silly eldest sister" called by Jia's mother in "Dream of Red Mansions", she has no skills, and she looks a little stupid, but because she speaks interestingly, she stays by Jia's mother's side, but she does the heavy work of chopping wood and carrying water.
In the upper category, it may be a maid with some technical expertise.
In the process of being selected, they pay more attention to the requirements for appearance, and at the same time, they must have some technical ability.
Compared with rough girls, the daily work of this type of person may be easier。Serving tea and pouring water, eating and living, and tidying up clothes are all jobs that can't be blown by the wind and can't be drenched in the rain.
This kind of person can be closer to the master's house, and his status can be higher, such as the musk moon autumn pattern next to Jia Baoyu in "Dream of Red Mansions", and Feng'er next to Wang Xifeng.
Although they have close contact with the main family every day, their status is still not the highest, and their salary is not the highest, so they can only be said to be in the middle of the maid's class.
One level higher than the medium maid, it is the personal maid used by the master's family.
In order to ensure their loyalty and enhance their ability to serve people in the future, most of the maids are bought from an early age to learn how to become personal maids.
The status of the personal maid is much higher than that of the ordinary maidThe power is also greater, belonging to the master's henchmenSometimes it can even make decisions for the master's family, and it also has a control function for the other maids below.
For example, Qingwen next to Jia Baoyu in "A Dream of Red Mansions", she not only has excellent embroidery skills, but also can control the little maids in the entire Yihong Courtyard, who is at fault, she can drive people out;
Jia Yingchun's personal maid Si Qi,It is also the representative of the "deputy lady" in the hospital.
She can speak for the cowardly master girl, and she can also make the little maid order food and drink by herself, compared to other servants, her status is much higher.
As personal maids, they have to take care of every detail of their master's life, so the conditions will be more stringent when they are selectedWhether it is physical appearance or technical ability, it must be carefully selected.
They have mastered the ability of embroidery and sewing, accounting directors, tea and flower arrangement, and even human relations, and some can even be the chief housekeeper of the entire backyard.
The vision of many big families is higher than that of the young lady of the small portal, which is also an old saying"I'd rather marry a maid than a little girl".of the origins.
At this point, the three categories of maids have basically been summarized, but there is a very special and very important type that cannot be ignored.
That is the "man in the house" of the male and female hosts, that is, the maid we are familiar with.
This kind of maid's daily work is similar to that of a personal maid, but in addition to these, the most special thing about them is that they need to meet the private sexual requirements of the male and female hosts.
In ancient times, before marrying a wife, men usually chose one or two maids as "room people", who were responsible for guiding men to restrain their temperament, understand sexual affairs, and most importantly, prevent them from causing scandals before marrying wives.
When a man marries a wife, these maids are called "tongfang maids", and their living beds are connected to the bedrooms of the male and female hosts.
When the hostess is pregnant or other special circumstances, she still serves as the bedside of the male host and serves them to sleep.
If they meet a generous hostess, they will also have the opportunity to become concubines, for example, in "Dream of Red Mansions", after Xue Baochai and Jia Baoyu got married, they attacked people as "people in the room" who had intimate contact with Jia Baoyu, and if she had a generous wife like Xue Baochai, she would have the opportunity to be raised as a concubine.
But if there is a relationship like Wang Xifeng, Jia Lian, and Ping'er, it will be very complicated.
Even though Ping'er was Wang Xifeng's personal maid who had been with her since she was a child, she was still forcibly carried into a room, but Wang Xifeng was such a vigorous and jealous wifePing'er can only keep a distance from the male owner Jia Lianput himself in the camp of "Wang Xifeng's confidant", and there was a subtle peace between the three people.
The upper and lower hierarchies in feudal society are very strict, whether it is a rough maid at the bottom or a maid who serves closelyThey all have their own "job responsibilities" and need to do their best for their masters.
So how did they all get into the big family? How is their worth calculated?
With "Dream of Red Mansions" as the background, we can know that the maids in the big family are generally divided into two types:Raised at home and bought outside,The maids bought from outside are carefully divided according to their different backgrounds.
The maids raised at home are "domestic slaves".
That is, the maid's parents and even grandparents are slaves in the house, and such children are born slaves of the family, and their ancestors have relied on the same mansion for generations.
is like the mandarin duck in "Dream of Red Mansions", as the most intimate maid beside Jia's mother, the supreme leader of Jiafu, she is the domestic slave of Jiafu.
Mandarin Duck's parents are both old servants who watch the house in Jinling, Jiafu, his brother is the small leader of the comprador management in Jiafu, and his sister-in-law is also responsible for washing clothes in JiafuMandarin ducks were destined to be maids in Jiafu from birth.
Compared with those who are bought from outside, the host knows them well, and they are usually more at ease when they use them.
Later, Jia Yu, the eldest lord of Jiafu, wanted to forcibly marry Mandarin Duck as a concubine, and also used her complex identity to threaten her: if he insisted on disobeying, then he would embarrass Mandarin Duck's parents, brother and sister-in-law.
Like Mandarin Ducks, there is also the maid Xiaohong, who was originally by Jia Baoyu's side.
Her parents are the old servants of Rongguofu, her father manages the finances, and her mother is also in charge of the inner governmentTherefore, Xiaohong was destined to be a maid in Jiafu as soon as she was born.
In addition to the family members of this house, there is also a situation where the dowry maid like Ping'er mentioned above.
Like Ping'er is Wang Xifeng's companion, Si Qi around Yingchun, the waiter around Tanchun, and the painting around XichunSuch a personal maid who has been with the young lady since childhood will generally follow them to marry and serve as their dowry.
Whichever family the young lady and girl marry, they will also become the maids of which family, and according to the requirements of the main family, the identity may switch between the personal maid, the room, and even the concubine.
The maids bought outside are basically purchased by the big family in order to show their power and facilitate their lives.
These maids are all circulated by professional "human teeth", just like we buy daily necessities today to go to ***,Large families also need to find professionals who are in charge of human sales.
Unlike modern society, ancient feudal society allowed human trafficking.
Some parents who are struggling to survive because of their poor families will sell their children to large families in exchange for some food and money.
The history of human trafficking of maids and servants can be traced back to the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and with the continuous development of feudal society, this kind of legal person has its own fixed form.
Professional human traffickers who specialize in human trafficking are collectively referred to as "human teeth" or "tooth women".
Most of them will have direct contact with the mansions of the major nobles, and will be responsible for providing "high-quality and cheap" high-quality maids when the mansion provides vacancies for miscellaneous servants, and will also be responsible for "changing hands" when the maids are driven out of the mansion.
Of course, the so-called "cheap" also depends on the specific background of the times.
Generally, in the era of social tranquility and scarcity of wars, the people live peacefully, and the ** of the maid is higher; On the contrary, if the society is unstable and the human trade is frequent, it will be much cheaper to buy a maid.
Like the Qin Dynasty, an adult maid generally costs 4,300 yuan, which is about the same as the value of a stone of rice.
The Han Dynasty's "Wenjing Zhizhi" society developed steadily, and a young and middle-aged maid needed 10,000 yuan, which was about equal to the value of one catty, which can be said to be very expensive.
In the Southern Song Dynasty, the power of the imperial court was weak, and there was a lot of social turmoil, and the ** of the maid fell back to about 50 to 300 taels of silver;
Later, in the Qing Dynasty, the price was even lower, and 10 to 50 taels of silver could buy a middle-aged maid.
In addition to the poor families who are voluntarily bought and sold, there is also an important group of maids who are bought and soldThat's the official slave and the maid.
They were originally young ladies or maids in the Gaomen Mansion, but they were implicated in family crimes, and they were all used as slaves and maids by the imperial court, and became official slaves who worked for the country.
Most of these people will be directly assigned to other big families as maids, and some of them will be exiled to society and become traded goods in the hands of human teeth.
Since being ** in the house, the maid has become the owner's private property, and the livestock are regarded as the same kind, completely not protected by the law, the owner can send it, and even beat and scold it wantonly.
Although these maids are human beings, under the ruthless oppression of the feudal system, they have no personal rights and interests at all, and can only be bought and sold at will like an object.
If they are sold into the big family, they make mistakes or make taboos, and these big families can also drive them away at will.
Finding someone to sell the maids in the house again was a very normal thing at that timeOnly a few kind-hearted families allowed the maid to redeem herself after she had saved enough money.
This kind of "bought outside" is the most representative maid, and it is a few attacks in "Dream of Red Mansions".
As the most important maid by Jia Baoyu's side, she was sold into Jiafu by her mother and brother for money because her family was extremely poor.
Later, when she went home to visit her mother during the New Year's Day, her mother suggested that because the family had savings, they could discuss the ransom of her from Jiafu.
It's just that the attacker at that time was very close to the male owner Jia Baoyu, and her status was also likely to rise, so she didn't want to leave and volunteered to stay in the house.
However, no matter how they are classified, the maid is a dependent without personal power.
As a product of class oppression in feudal society, their fate is like a mess in the wind, and a deed of sale is not only their personal freedom, but also their dignity and personality.
In addition to serving the interests of their masters, they do not have the ability to make choices for their own rights and interests in their lives, which cannot be described as extremely pitiful.