How open was the relationship between husband and wife in the late Ming Dynasty?

My friend Yang said that Jin Ping Mei, no matter how good it is, is third-rate compared with A Dream of Red Mansions.

Anyone who has read the novel Jin Ping Mei knows that there are too many sexual descriptions in it, which are too detailed. In a novel of/kloc-0.0 million words, sexual description alone accounts for more than 20,000 words. Moreover, Lan Ling, the author of the novel, takes pains to describe and even enjoys it, which makes people feel a little "vulgar" and not as "elegant" as A Dream of Red Mansions. In fact, if you live in the late Ming Dynasty, or know something about the social customs of the late Ming Dynasty, you will understand the good intentions of Lanling's smiling life. The immoral customs of that era were much more serious and dirty than those in the novel Jin Ping Mei.

In the novel Jin Ping Mei, Ximen Qing has a wife and five concubines. If you count Jodi who died of illness a few years ago, it will be six little wives. Among them, Li and Zhuo Di 'er are prostitutes, but who are Pan Jinlian and He? They are all "Erguotou", which means "Congnv" in the old saying. This is obviously not in line with the traditional family ceremony, but by the end of the Ming Dynasty, even among intellectuals, it was no longer a joke to find a shrew as a little wife, but was envied because it had become fashionable at that time. When a woman is divorced, it is not difficult to remarry as long as she is beautiful. It is normal. At that time, the social atmosphere was typical: having milk was a mother, and having money was a cow. The ethics and laws of society are almost destroyed. The so-called "rites and music collapse, people are old." Ostentation and extravagance was very popular at that time. In Jin Ping Mei, Mr. Cai's housekeeper greeted Ximen Qing and set up a banquet, which listed "ninety kinds of big dishes and dozens of small dishes, all of which are delicious, bird's nest and shark's fin are the best for dinner". It's so luxurious that I don't know how to put chopsticks. This is the social atmosphere in the late Ming Dynasty. It is said that when Zhang, the prime minister of the era of Jin Ping Mei, was ordered to be buried, he "lived in a city, eating food from his teeth and living on land and water for hundreds of products, so he thought there was no place to go." Later, I was entertained by the true satrap, and then I said with satisfaction, "I have only heard a full ear so far!" "

Ximen Qing, a street thug, was a guy who "didn't read much and wandered around all day" since he was a child. When he was about 25 years old, he still acted rashly. "He sleeps outside wholeheartedly and makes waves." Speaking of diplomas, he doesn't even have a formal primary school diploma, and he is almost illiterate. But such a rogue has become a local bully, and the whole county is afraid of him. We also set up the "Ximen Group Company" with official background, doing everything from selling medicine and cloth to selling salt. Such a rogue bully profiteer became an official and was sentenced by thousands of families in a province of Shandong. See which old gangster is not pleasing to the eye, arrest him and beat him up, and fine him dozens of taels of silver.

Ximen Qing is an out-and-out pervert and a prostitute. In Pan Jinlian's words, "cobblers go to bed as soon as they meet". No matter how good a woman is, she can't hold his heart. No matter how many little wives she marries, he will still go out for whoring. This guy has a way of hitting on women. He never forced women, but under his design, one woman after another took the initiative to throw herself at him, and even many women such as tits, Song Huilian and Wang Liuer were proud of having an affair with him and even showed off everywhere. Ximen Qing never forced him to pick up girls. He has plenty of time to pick up girls and spare money to give small favors to women. Wang Po summed up the "five-character truth" of women-"dish, donkey, Deng, small, leisure", and he has it all, so there is no need to force it. The woman he likes can hardly get out of his hands.

Pan Jinlian, Pang, Song Huilian, Wang Liuer, Ben Sisao, Mrs. Lin, Ruyi, Yingchun, Xiuchun, Lai Jue's daughter-in-law Huiyuan, and so on. Twenty-three women in the book were raped by Ximen Qing, including Toy Boy. In fact, there should be more than that, if nothing else, that is to say, prostitutes who are a little famous in Qinghe County, such as Li Guijie, Wu Yiner and Zheng Aiyue, have all been touched by him. Like Li and Zhuo Di Er, he also took them as concubines.

In the late Ming Dynasty, people like Ximen Qing were everywhere. As mentioned in the last section, Ximen Qing was not the only one who died of "Hu Monk Medicine", and this is not a fabrication of Lan Lingxiao. There was a Taoist Nie in Chuyang who specialized in selling red lead and "Hu Monk Medicine". Gong Tingbin, then the magistrate of Luzhou, raised many young ladies at home. Hearing that red lead was on sale, he was very happy, so he spent 100 for 10, and swallowed all the red lead in one month. Soon, everything was swallowed.

In fact, the use of aphrodisiacs has become a common practice in the late Ming Dynasty. Zhang died of "Hu Monk Medicine". This is not nonsense. The History of Social Life in Ming Dynasty, edited by Chen Baoliang, China Social Sciences Publishing House, has such a record on page 440: among the literati in Ming Dynasty, aphrodisiacs were also used. For example, Tan Lun, the minister of the Ministry of War, first learned the secret recipe of the court from Fang Shitao, and the effect was quite good. Later, Tan Lun dedicated this aphrodisiac to Zhang, only to get a high official. Tan Lun used this medicine for 20 years and was defeated by prostitutes overnight, so she couldn't afford it. In his last wish, Zhang warned him to use this medicine with caution. Tan Lun died just over 60 years old. Zhang kept using this medicine, and later his body became more and more infertile and he died.

This is how Prime Minister Zhang died comfortably. He died "as dry as a fish"

What a surprise! Zhang died so comfortably, so "late Ming" and so disgraceful.