Why couldn't China help prostitution in ancient times?

I. Prostitute system and marriage and family system

The prostitute system in ancient China actually originated from the marriage and family system implemented by the whole society. Engels once said: "Prostitution is a necessary supplement to monogamy." In fact, for China, it is not only a question of "supplement", but also a twin system of two students, which complement each other and are indispensable. In ancient China society, men had a kind of "limited sexual freedom". The restrictive conditions are: as long as it does not destroy the sexual relationship between marriage and family, it is allowed; Any sexual relationship that may destroy marriage and family must be severely condemned and prohibited. ? In other words, a man with considerable wealth and social status can have a concubine (little wife) and a servant girl (servant girl) in addition to his wife. He can only have sex with his concubine (but he can't abandon his wife) or with his servant girl (as long as he "takes in" her afterwards and accepts her as his concubine). But outside the family, he can't commit adultery with any woman, nor can he have any "lover" or "third party" in the present sense. This is because, if the woman gets married, it will destroy the marriage of other men; Even if the woman is not married, her infidelity will destroy her future marriage or make another man unable to find a wife. ? This is the deep-rooted connotation of "social justice" in China's ancient Confucianism, and it is the concretization of gender relations. ? There are limits, and there must be concessions and other inclusiveness. That is to allow prostitutes to exist and allow men to visit prostitutes in a limited way. This is because the social status of prostitutes is often non-free or semi-free (so-called "prostitution", "adopted daughter" and so on), and it is impossible to marry a man with certain property and status. At best, they are just "redeemed" by men and become his little wives. Although this will often make this man lose face or lose face, it does not violate the social system, because it is just to resell a woman from a brothel to a family, or to find a brothel woman instead of a good girl when concubinage. It's strange, but it's harmless after all, just like other men. Of course, society will not interfere, just joking and joking. For lower-class men, it's no big deal that the Ming media is marrying a prostitute, as long as the prostitute can abide by women's morality after marriage.

On the contrary, if a man is addicted to whoring, even if he doesn't want his wife or marry her, society will at least severely condemn him. Many times, powerful clan organizations will "help", "save" and even punish him, such as depriving him of his position within the clan, marriage rights or inheritance rights. Because he destroyed the fundamental marriage system of society, he was called "doing nothing", "abandoning his family and starting a career", "living a decadent life", and even "being drunk and dreaming of death", "being dissolute and shameless" and so on. ? It is precisely because of this marriage and family system that prostitutes are ready-made objects for lower-class men to reasonably and legally vent their premarital sexual desire or residual sexual desire after marriage; For those rich and powerful men, especially the literati class, prostitutes are the only "lovers" they can find reasonably and legally. This is because, at that time, among all the women in the world, only prostitutes could be young women who knew piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, were versatile, sociable and had relatively rich feelings; Only prostitutes can sing poems, talk about latitude and longitude and sing wine songs to them. In short, only prostitutes can have the same interests and hobbies, and have the same language and emotional communication with them. This is not surprising, nor is it because prostitutes have any talent, but it is completely determined by the marriage and family system and gender role system of the whole society.

Second, the five fates of traditional women.

Under this system, for men, there are five kinds of women in the world, and each has its own uses, which are different and complement each other.

First, the wife. It is the "mother of children" and "daughter-in-law" that Ming Media is marrying, responsible for giving birth to children, managing housework, managing little wives and handmaiden.

Therefore, the conditions for a good wife must be:

1. Suitable for each other. In order to ensure that the wife has the corresponding housekeeping ability, make the current marriage and family a "match made in heaven" and maintain the current social status of men;

2. Be able to reproduce. In order to ensure that men can carry on the family line, men's families can be endless;

3. chastity is flawless. In order to ensure that the descendants of men are pure; Innocent family background, no "family history problem";

Step 4 obey. So as to maintain the patriarchal family system.

But it is not difficult to see here that many characteristics of normal women are not only unnecessary, but also bad for a wife;

1. Being young and beautiful is not only unnecessary, but also easy to "make trouble", "make trouble" and even "have an affair". Even a great man like Zhuge Liang said that an ugly wife is a blessing;

There is no need to work hard in bed. Giving birth to children, especially sons, is the real skill. Otherwise, once the wife is in a hurry to get angry, the husband will not get married and the family will not be at home;

Emotional richness is even more unnecessary, because men don't talk to their wives at all except housework, otherwise, the "pillow breeze" will become a "disaster".

So, don't men need these feminine characteristics? No, just because there is a second kind of woman in the establishment: concubines and little wives, which men specially marry or buy to supplement their wives.

Their conditions are, in turn:

1. Young and beautiful, in order to meet the psychological needs of men, such as "tender as a green branch", "beautiful as a fairy" and "golden house and charming";

2. The martial arts in bed are high and close at hand. Come at the call, be able to fight when you come, and be able to fight "sheng" to meet the sexual life requirements of men in daily life;

3. Spooling and jealousy, but enough is enough, so as to meet the needs of men to "play with women" (not just sexual intercourse).

However, I must have my shortcomings. They are generally born in poverty, lack of culture and education, and often can only go to bed to play, but they are not elegant. Moreover, in the closed small-scale peasant economy and rural society, it is difficult for a rich man to "cultivate" a little wife who also grew up in the countryside into a talented woman. Men, in particular, really can't play any emotional games with them, because after all, they are within the marriage and family. If they play with several wives, or take their first wife seriously, isn't that a fire in the backyard and asking for it?

The third kind of woman is a man's maid. They are (semi-) female slaves mainly engaged in manual labor. Although it is not a man's inevitable sexual partner, a man can do it if he wants, as long as he goes through the formalities of "closing the house" in advance or afterwards and promotes the servant girl to be a little wife. Some men don't even accept houses, so they are only half-raped and half-seduced. As long as there is no human life, society will have no temper, because that is a man's own housework. Of course, maids tend to be rougher, so there are fewer men.

The fourth kind of woman is a nun. They generally have nothing to do with men, but because of this, they are actually just "chastity vases" in male society, making men feel how perfect the world is. After all, there are some virgins who keep their virginity for us to worship and inspire the fifth kind of women, namely prostitutes. Their social function is "public toilets" for lower-class men, so it is lower-class prostitutes who serve them; For middle-level men, middle-level prostitutes play the role of "women next door", which makes such men have a reasonable and legal adultery taste and adultery addiction; For upper-class men, high-class prostitutes are their "dream lovers". Therefore, when literati go to brothels, they are generally "prostitutes", not just prostitutes of low-level men. "Fairy prostitutes" include not only one-on-one combat, but also a group of men who go to the brothel to play together or meet in the brothel to play together; It also includes using the company of brothels and prostitutes to conduct general social interaction between literati and officialdom. ? In order to meet such social functions and maintain such social roles and social status, prostitutes have been strictly trained and constantly screened since childhood. Those who are eliminated in the middle can only stay in the ladder lattice at the lower or middle level, and only prostitutes who meet the four needs of upper-class men for social interaction, leisure, flirting and sexual intercourse can climb to the top of the brothel. ? In this way, the rank of prostitutes is actually the same as that of men in society: poor men can only go to the "Liao" (stockade-style) prostitutes in Yanhua Lane to find those horrible rotten prostitutes; Well-off men can go to some prominent courtesans (like home) and find prostitutes who are similar to Xiaojiabiyu; And those decent men go to places where they can get in touch with buildings (places with money and status) and look for senior prostitutes who are often far better than wives and concubines. "Brothel Woman" became the most talented, gentle, understanding and sociable woman in the world at that time, and became the only woman who could attract the feelings of literati. Although in the real social system, they were still lower than wives and concubines, but in the few social activities at that time, their status was far above wives and concubines. Literati are often confused, forget or deliberately ignore the essence of "laughter" of brothel women, and only devote their "remaining feelings" to "courtship", constantly exalting, beautifying and sanctifying brothel women. As a result, there have been so many works praising prostitutes in the history of ancient literature in China, and there are also literary works that are said to be created by prostitutes. In fact, this is just a psychological need of literati. They are gifted scholars themselves, so the women they make friends with must also be talented women, otherwise they will be humiliated, unable to explain why they are infatuated with brothels, exposing their tragic appearance of being indifferent despite having wives and concubines, and even questioning the whole marriage and family system of society-that's a crime of decapitation! It is better to invent a wonderful illusion and hide it for fun. Even if you secretly process or even forge some "brothel literature", even if you are excluded by those "beautiful women" who "give and get back", you must endure, admit and pretend to forget. ? Thus, in the history of ancient literature in China, from the earlier goddess Fu, the male "wet dream Literature" reached its peak in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio; Scholar-bureaucrats' "masturbation literature" also reached its peak from prostitute poems to Du Shiniang. A Dream of Red Mansions finally completed "impotence literature". ? Such a tight social role network is undoubtedly a kind of suffocation for women. In ancient China, no matter how capable a woman was, there were only five prospects at best.

The happiest woman is the "wife", that is, the wife being married by the Ming media. No matter how poor the other person is, he is much better than any of the following roles. Therefore, in the wives' hatred of prostitutes, it is not because the suburbs have destroyed their families, as the wives themselves say, but because there is a deep-rooted and unforgettable contempt, so they hate them even more. Just like the emperor Lao Zi and his pugs have a deep hatred for "insurrection" because they have infinite contempt for the right people. The best result of a woman with poor conditions in all aspects is just to be a concubine. Although the status and position of a concubine are lower than that of a wife, they are higher than that of a servant girl. In particular, after all, with a home and a stable life, there is still a glimmer of hope: as long as you are loved by your master, your actual status and treatment will not be much lower than your wife; If you are lucky enough to meet the chance of the death of your first wife, you are likely to be promoted to wife. ? Those who have to be handmaids are of course the people at the bottom. They are prostitutes or semi-prostitutes, and the best result is that the master decides to marry himself to a footman of the same status and become a wife. If something goes wrong, it is not uncommon for girls to be resold by their owners or even sold to low-level prostitutes. Therefore, if the servant girl is "fucked" by her master; If you have the opportunity to be a little wife, then most people will only feel lucky and will not have a "daughter." If the above three kinds of people can't do it or refuse to do it, then women have only two ways to go: to be prostitutes or nuns. But after all, the ability of nuns is limited, and their material life is worse than the worst prostitute, so being a prostitute is often a better choice.

Third, restrictions on prostitution.

Li Yong, a famous Shanghai prostitute in the late Qing Dynasty. During the Reform Movement of 1898, Li Yong initiated and founded a brothel girls' school in Shanghai prostitutes' field to provide education for prostitutes. However, the social administrators in ancient China were not fools or just bent the law and did nothing else. They deeply understood the situation of women at that time, so they always tried their best to prevent the bottom women from going into prostitution because of "greed for enjoyment" (actually forced by life). This is not humanitarianism, but because the more such women, the more men who can't marry, and the more men who are "tired of playing with things" and addicted to brothels. ? This will not only threaten the whole marriage and family system of society, but also undermine the ideal of Confucius and Mencius that there is no resentment at home and no husband outside, and even threaten the political cause of the ruling class to train successors. Therefore, there are many "qualification examinations" for prostitutes in the past dynasties, and no one can do it if they want to; And "forced prostitution" has always been a felony, and it has always been a price to pay. ? In addition to this official control, the social lifestyle dominated by farming at that time also played a great role in restraining prostitution. At that time, men who were objectively able to spend money on prostitution were mainly small and medium-sized landlords, but they basically lived in rural society for a long time and rarely went to the city. They not only have considerable geographical and communication barriers, but also have great psychological isolation from urban life. Therefore, in terms of "sexual consumption", they often feel that as long as they have wives, concubines and maids at home, there are not many "wild dreams". On the contrary, the main force of the urban Chinese class is actually the relatively poor literati. For prostitutes, especially for "love in brothels", they often have more money than they want. Although the official class is powerful, it is bound by orthodox morality and many rules and regulations, and it is impossible to become a frequent visitor or guest of prostitutes. Therefore, the "gods" of prostitution are mainly Wandi and the prodigal son, and there are not many such men in history. Because of this, the prostitution industry in ancient China has always existed, but it has never developed greatly, but it is often criticized by some scholars who care about the country and the people with a sense of morality and national disaster, which makes future generations unconsciously exaggerate the scale and influence of prostitution industry in history. The phrase, "Businessmen don't know the national subjugation and hate, but they still sing backyard flowers across the river", just like the defeated generals who later defeated foreigners dared to slay their wives and daughters for "chastity", fully embodies the political complex that China literati can't be slaves and the cowardly spirit of bullying the weak.

To sum up, in ancient China, the marriage and family system, the prostitute legal system and the gender role system were combined seamlessly and complemented each other. We can't sum it up in one word at all, so we have to call it today's system of "harmonious operation of wives, concubines and prostitutes centered on men", which is absolutely evil from any angle; But it is undeniable that it is harmonious and efficient from the perspective of social operation.