Servant girl**? What can you do? Can you buy it?
Although we usually think of slavery and think of ancient Rome, there was actually slavery in Chinese history. In the Xia, Shang and Zhou periods before the feudal society, it belonged to the slave society.
However, the slave society seems to be far away from us, but its influence has been throughout the feudal society since then. For example, in history, the ubiquitous "slaves" and "slaves" are actually the products left over from the slave society.
So, how did the ancient maid come about? Initially, it was the defeated side of the two races that became the slave of the victorious side because of a struggle for territory or resources. With the development of history, the advent of private ownership made the slave a property-like object that could be freely bought, sold, and exchanged, and whose life was completely in the hands of the master.
After entering the feudal society, slaves did not disappear completely, but became slaves. Until the Song Dynasty, masters still had the power to dispose of slaves at will, including the "maids" we know as "maids", that is, female slaves.
Although maids are not strictly slaves, they are in fact "slaves" who can be bought and sold as goods, and still suffer the pain of slavery. In ancient times, people with a certain status and wealth usually bought a few maids to serve them.
Do you know how much it cost to buy a maid in ancient times? What can they do for you after the purchase? Let's see if you can afford it!
In ancient times, maids were tradable, and although after the Song Dynasty, it was more of an employment relationship, but there were also many examples of one-time buyouts, such as women who sold themselves to bury their fathers. There is no fixed standard for buying a maid**, when the war is in chaos, a few steamed buns can be exchanged for a maid, and in the period of social prosperity, the talented and beautiful maid** may be expensive.
Taking the Song Dynasty and Qing Dynasty as an example, the purchase and sale of slaves and maids was usually between 50 and 300 guan, which is converted into today's purchasing power, which is about 5,000 to 20,000 yuan.
In ancient times, the ** of the maid was usually between five taels and fifty taels of silver, which is equivalent to the current four or five thousand to forty or fifty thousand, and the specific ** depends on the rank and role of the maid.
Most of the maids' ** are poor families, and when faced with famine or war, the family cannot survive, so they can only sell their children. At this time, some people saw an opportunity and began to specialize in the business of selling maids, and they became known as "Yapo".
Ya Po not only sells maids, but sometimes also buys concubines or matchmakers for the rich. The poor woman who was sold to Ya Po could only wait to be sold at a price. Why is a maid called a maid?
This is due to their classic two-ring hairstyle, which has become the signature feature of the maids and the reason for their name.
In ancient times, the price of a maid was related to its role and appearance. If you were in ancient times, you could buy maids to do things for you. If you have limited financial resources, you can only buy the most basic maids, they are called "rough maids", they are ordinary-looking, simple in character, but full of strength, good at rough work, such as carrying water, chopping wood, laundry and cleaning, etc.
With some additional spending, you can buy kitchen stove maids, who are good at cooking, have a craft, and create higher value through cooking. If you're willing to pay more, you can also buy a personal maid, who may be beautiful or smart.
The beautiful can be trained as a concubine, and the wise can assist the master in handling affairs.
The fate of ancient maids was mainly determined by their status and role in the master's family. Thick maids may be abandoned by their owners in old age, while personal maids may change their status due to the birth of their owner's children.
Although the maids after the Song Dynasty were nominally hired and paid, they were still only the tragic products of women in ancient society and were seriously objectified.