How did "blind prostitutes" come into being in the Ming Dynasty?

It is obvious to all that the prostitution industry in Ming Dynasty was very developed. The romantic scenery along the Qinhuai River has made many literati linger. Most prostitutes in Ming Dynasty are talented and beautiful, and they can sing and dance, play chess, paint and write poems. Qinhuai, for example, is famous all over the world.

The establishment of Jiao Fangsi in Ming Dynasty also promoted the development of prostitution and the talents of prostitutes. In the Ming Dynasty, the wives and daughters of some criminal officials were sent to Jiao Fangsi as prostitutes. Most of these women come from good families, and their talents, knowledge and beauty are outstanding.

Such a prostitute cannot be persuaded by money. Only celebrities with both talents and virtues in China can convince them. Some pseudonyms who can't read a few words, local tyrants, are rejected by prostitutes, but they can't refuse. These prostitutes satirize these people in language, poetry, lyrics and eyes, and their services are not enough, which makes local tyrants very embarrassed.

Really, in the Ming dynasty, you didn't dare to find a prostitute without any talent. Under this historical background, a strange phenomenon appeared, that is, "blind prostitutes", which even became a fashion trend at that time.

As the name implies, "blind prostitute" is to destroy the eyes of prostitutes for the clients to play with. As the saying goes, if they don't have eyes, what's the fun?

Cao Qujing once cited an example in Gu Wang Yan: Liu Yuan, an ugly and illiterate local tyrant, went whoring in the late Ming Dynasty, but was ridiculed by talented prostitutes, which made Liu Yuan very angry. The pimp found a blind prostitute for Liu Yuan, which made Liu Yuan very happy.

Although Gu Wang Yan is a novel in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, this phenomenon of blind prostitutes is real. Hu Pu 'an's "China Folk Customs" once recorded: "There are so-called blind prostitutes in Guangdong, and pimps carefully select beautiful girls aged 14 or 15, teach them to sing and dance, ruin their eyes and provide pleasure for their prostitutes.

"The Bitterness of Blind Girls in Wuzhou in the Old Society" also records: "In the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, bureaucratic wealthy businessmen enslaved and abused blind girls. In order to meet the abnormal needs of customers, pimps cruelly blinded girls' eyes and made countless women suffer.

This phenomenon is more cruel than Duan Kangcheng's "Sleeping Beauty", which describes "letting girls take medicine and sleep naked, and letting impotent old people play". The phenomenon of blind prostitution is undoubtedly an inevitable barbaric act in China's thousands of years of civilization.