In ancient times, poor people who couldn't afford a wife thought of a way. Why did women suffer?

In ancient times, people's thoughts were relatively traditional. They believed that having more children would bring good fortune. They attached great importance to the inheritance of the family and regarded the inheritance of the family line as the most important thing. Later, it turned into patriarchal preference. However, with the continuous development of the times, people are becoming more and more open-minded and now pursue equality between men and women. Although this phenomenon of favoring boys over girls also exists in some places, it is relatively rare. In contrast, in ancient times, the preference for sons over daughters was very serious. Only when a family had sons could the family be passed on. If there were no sons, people would laugh at them. In order for the family to develop more and more, If you are strong, you will think that the more sons you have, the better. Of course, in ancient times, people's living standards were relatively low, especially for poorer people. They could not marry as many wives as they wanted. Although in ancient times, men could have three wives and four concubines, it still cost money to marry a wife. Yes, and in some dynasties, the number of concubines was also regulated. Even the number of emperor's concubines was limited.

For example, in the Han Dynasty, only those who had contributed to the country could take concubines, and the number of concubines must be controlled within 9 people, including the head wife. Therefore, although men in ancient times could have three wives and four concubines, they did not have to marry as many as they wanted. In addition, the more women they married, the more children they would have, and the more money they would spend. , it is also very expensive to feed a large family. And even simply marrying a wife requires money, which is what we call a bride price. In ancient times, great importance was attached to family status. When a man and a woman got married, they had to be well-matched. This was not only reflected in identity and status, but also in various aspects such as the knowledge and culture of the two people. Nowadays, the living standard of society is very high, but there are still people who are singles. What’s more, it was in ancient times. In ancient times, the poor had no money to marry a wife. How did they pass on the family line? In the Qing Dynasty, a special method emerged to allow poor people to get married.

When a man marries a wife, he not only wants her to take care of his food and daily life, but the most important thing is to carry on the family line. If he does not have the money to marry a wife, there will be no woman to give him a child. There are three types of unfilial piety: no filial piety. It is difficult for many ancient people to accept that the eldest son will be the eldest son, so they tried every means to marry a wife in the hope of having their own offspring, so they invented a special marriage system called the Candid Wife. What is called pawning a wife? In fact, it means pawning a wife. This is a method of buying and selling marriages. It is said that it first appeared in the Han Dynasty. There is such a record in the "Book of Han", "Marrying a wife and selling children cannot be prohibited by law. Justice cannot stop. "Buying and selling wives is illegal, but there is no way to stop it. The phenomenon of wife pawning had already appeared at that time, but many dynasties banned this method. After all, it was very immoral. In ancient times, princes and nobles could take concubines, but ordinary people did not have the strength. After marrying a wife, they did not have the ability to take concubines. Even if they could take concubines, they would not be able to support them.

What kind of marriage system is it? When a woman is "married" to the man's family, she will give birth to a child in the man's family by means of a pawn. After the two have a boy, the woman will leave and return to her natal family. The so-called wife is actually a hired woman who is hired to provide children. Children are regarded as a transaction. If you look at it now, this is hard to imagine, but in ancient times At that time, the status of women was very low, and in this special environment at that time, many men could not afford wives, so this situation occurred. For those men, since they cannot afford a wife, it is also a good method to hire a wife to carry on their family line.

In the Qing Dynasty, many poor men who could not marry and have children would choose to have their wives in marriage. Zeng Guofan's prime minister named Bao Chao is a very famous example. There is also a record of this in history: "When Bao Zhong was not a wealthy official, he was very poor, so he paid tribute to his wife and others." When Bao Chao was young, his family was very People who are poor and have no money to marry and have children use this method to reproduce.

In fact, this phenomenon has almost always existed in some dynasties in our country, but it reached its peak in the Qing Dynasty, especially after the Taiping Rebellion, when the number of men and women suddenly decreased, and wars also brought a large number of deaths to human beings. In addition, The economy of the Qing Dynasty was also seriously affected. The treasury of the Qing Dynasty at that time was almost empty. Therefore, some ordinary people were living in poverty, and it was a problem to have enough food and clothing. Let alone marry a wife, they could survive. Not bad.

At that time, many people lived a life where one person had enough to eat and the whole family was not hungry. However, the ancients attached great importance to carrying on the family line and had no money to marry a wife, so they would marry their wives. This situation at that time was In many cases, the wife plays a big role in reproduction. According to the records of "Guangdong Travel Xiaozhi", some women will not choose to remarry after becoming widows, but will become this kind of pawn wife. Those men who did not have money to marry a wife would rent widows to give birth to children. When the children grew up, the widows would leave and the children would be raised by the men alone. Later, with the continuous development of the times, this situation was completely prohibited. , it is even more impossible to exist now.