Shen Chenai's Different Life in Ancient Times

Mrs. Chen's words are very credible. On this day, Shen Chenai was hugging Xiao Shan, feeding him the stewed egg custard bit by bit, while at Luoding on the other side, he was carefully peeling the little laurel. The egg skin of the hard-boiled egg, the egg has just come out of the pan, and it is still a little hot. Naturally, the egg skin is not so easy to peel.

The two children are now wearing new clothes. According to Mrs. Chen's request, the tailors made clothes that are larger than the actual figures of the two children. The extra size is reserved for the children. room to grow.

These two children are obviously malnourished. They both have yellow hair and a thin body. After asking the doctor to come and see them, they said that they were not fed well when they were young, and some of them have hurt their spleen and stomach. If you want children His physique has become stronger, and he must be more careful in conditioning in the future.

Originally, the medicated big bone soup Shen Chenai was eating was very suitable for people with weak constitutions and spleen and stomach disorders, but there were still medicinal materials in it, and the doctor was also worried that the child was too young to bear the power of the medicine, so he called From now on, Luo Ding will feed the children an egg every day, and use the relatively gentle temperament of the chicken to nourish the children's bodies.

After getting along with each other these days, Xiao Yuegui's wariness towards them has been reduced by half, and she has gradually begun to trust their little girl, and now she no longer has to look at their faces and talk at the same time.

As for the child Xiaoshan, except for crying for a while when he came to wake up on the first night, he didn't show any abnormalities, and lived in his uncles' house peacefully. up.

Just as they were eating breakfast together, Mrs. Chen walked in suddenly.

Seeing this, Luo Ding handed the boiled egg full of potholes in his hand to Yue Gui, and asked Mrs. Chen who walked in quickly: "Auntie, what's the matter for coming here in such a hurry?" ?”

After entering the house, Mrs. Chen put a bed on the top of the kang, and said to Luo Ding and Shen Chenai excitedly: "I found out who Niu Da Niu's next family is, and it's Lao Yue's family who lives in the north of the city."

Hearing this, Luo Ding put down the bowls and chopsticks in his hand, and said to Mrs. Chen, "Auntie said that the Niu girl married into Yue Jiuyan's house in the north of the city?"

Mrs. Chen patted her thigh and laughed wildly when she heard the words: "It's true that people entered Yue Jiuyan's family, but they didn't marry into it. Niu Da Niu was sold into Yue's family by her parents at a price of 60 taels. I went. What's even more ridiculous is that the Niu family also said that their family signed a document from a concubine. When they asked about the age, they hesitated and couldn't tell. They were trying to deceive someone, and they didn't think about it carefully. , who would spend 60 taels of silver to pawn a concubine in her 30s into the house."

The term concubine is not unfamiliar to Shen Chenai, who is from archaeology. In ancient China, the status of concubine was very low. Generally speaking, it was no different from goods. The meaning of "Zhizi" can be understood literally. Since it is a bought thing, the owner will naturally use it if he wants to use it, and sell it if he wants to sell it.

This point was especially prominent in the Song Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, it was very popular for the families of officials and dignitaries to give concubines to each other. If the master and the mistress of the family recognize it, then it is considered a concubine, and at least they can still have an identity. If they do not recognize the child, they will follow the household registration of the concubine's room. No, it's just a beautiful maid, so the child can only be a lowly one.

As for the story of favoring concubines and destroying wives that often appears in Zhaidou novels, apart from the imperial palace, it needs very special conditions to form in other places.

The first one is that the mistress's natal family is poor, and she must be sure that she will not be able to have children.The second is that the concubine's status is special, the mistress can't sell it at will, and that concubine's room must have a fox's brain in addition to a fox's face, otherwise it will not survive.The third and most important one is that the head of the male master of the family must be flooded, and it must be hopeless, so that he can completely ignore the strange eyes of the outside world and pamper his concubine with peace of mind .

It is even more difficult to raise a concubine as a wife. Since the Zhou Dynasty in ancient China, the slogan "Don't take a concubine as a wife" has been clearly put forward, and the marriage laws of the Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties It also clearly records the punishment given to those who take concubines as wives.

"Tang Law Discussion Household Marriage Law Wife as Concubine": "Those who take their wives as concubines and maidservants as wives will be imprisoned for three years. Those who take concubines and Hakka women as wives and maidservants as concubines will be imprisoned for one year Half. Everyone pays back."

Article [-] of "Song Xingtong" volume: "Those who take their wives as concubines and maidservants as their wives will be imprisoned for two years. Those who take concubines and Hakka women as wives and maidservants as concubines will be imprisoned for one and a half years, and each will be returned to justice. If the maidservant has a son, and the one who has been released as a good one, listen to it as a concubine."

Did you see that people who take concubines as wives not only have to go to prison for both parties, but also have to return to justice after the prison is over, that is to say, after they come out, they will stay in whatever status they were originally, and this prison is considered to be for nothing.So let alone high-ranking officials, even ordinary people rarely do this.

Both "Jin Ping Mei" and "A Dream of Red Mansions" in later generations have stories about raising concubines as wives, but these two stories were written in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. , one hundred rods.If the wife is still there, those who take concubines as their wives will have a staff of ninety and make corrections.If there is a wife who remarries, the staff will also be ninety. '

Comparing the two phases, the punishment is much less severe, and before the Manchus entered the customs, the status of each Fujin was not obvious, and after the Jingyuan of the Ming Dynasty, the status of the main wife in the family did not drop a lot , so this kind of thing should still happen in the folk, but in the official family, as long as he still wants the black yarn on his head and the title on his head, no one dares to do it openly.

Although the status of a concubine is humble, there are indeed people who need it and the market is huge. In addition, there are really many civilians who are eager to spend money but are unwilling to sell themselves as slaves, so the business of pawning concubines came into being.

Dian concubine, you can understand its meaning by looking at the two words, it is the daughter of a good family pawned as a concubine, since she is the daughter of a good family, then she is naturally a good family, since she is a pawn, there must be a time , and allowed the girl's family to redeem her. Such a girl's family can be transferred, but she has no right to beat and scold her, let alone decide her life or death.

Therefore, such a girl is still free after the pawn time is up, and the children born during the period will belong to the man. If she has nothing to do, she can leave when the time is up.

Even so, being a concubine is still a matter of extreme reputation loss for girls and their families. Many people have this idea, and they do it secretly, like the Niu family who are willing to speak out People, it is really unheard of, but what Mrs. Chen said just now seems that the Niu family is more than just concubines. If he heard correctly, it seems that their family sold Niu Da Niu into a slave?

Slaves are lowly, and their status in the law is equal to that of cattle, horses, donkeys and sheep. Unless the master is kind enough to let you be good, you will be their "livestock" for the rest of your life.

Since it is a 'livestock', of course it has no human rights, life or death is entirely up to the owner's mind, as long as the owner can give a reason, no matter whether it is reasonable or not, the government will not ask a servant's life or death in detail.

There is an essential difference between pawning a concubine and selling one's body into slavery. What kind of documents did Niu Da Niu's parents handle?

Seeing that everyone in the room was very interested in her topic, Mrs. Chen stopped hiding and said with certainty: "It must have been sold. The Yue family hired a matchmaker instead of a matchmaker, so Niu It’s impossible for a big girl to be married. Everyone knows the current market price of a concubine. The big girl Huang Hua is only 20 taels of silver a year. Their family’s Niu Da Niu is more than 30. Why do they pay 60 taels of silver? , everyone is not a fool, if you think about it, you will know everything. What's more, I know the matchmaker hired by the Yue family very well, and she personally admitted that the Niu family sold Niu Da Niu, so it can be fake."

Luo Ding nodded when he heard the words, and said with a bit of playfulness: "Since Yue Jiuyan's family bought her, then I can rest assured, that family is not easy to mess with, if Niu Da Niu is tossing around this time, That's really courting death."

Mrs. Chen smiled lowly when she heard the words and returned: "Who said it wasn't that? This is the way to heaven. She doesn't go, and there is no way to go in the region. She doesn't want to be a good wife in the Luo family. It's all right now. Mother has been sold into hell, and this time she wants to turn around again, with her character of a big girl, it is really difficult."