Why did the custom of "competing for marriage" appear in ancient times?

In ancient China, women had to be bound deeply. The Three Cardinal Principles and the Five Permanent Principles were not just for fun. Under such circumstances, would there really be contests to attract relatives like those often seen in costume TV dramas? This physical quality does not represent the original nature, so the selection of people is reliable? However, this thing really happened in history, but the contest in the past was much more subtle than that in the TV series, and it was not so generous and unrestrained.

The most famous contest in history is Tang Gaozu Li Yuan. At the end of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Du Yi, the great Sima, held a contest in Chang 'an to get married for his daughter. In the Book of the New Tang Dynasty, it was recorded that there were only a few words in this contest to get married: "Because of painting two peacock screens, please make the faint one shoot two arrows, and the yin will make it in the eye." The shooter reads dozens, but none of them agree. Gao Zu finally shot, each with one eye, and then returned to the emperor. " In the end, Dou Yi chose Li Yuan. Later, Li Yuan became the monarch, and the whole Dou family followed the wealth. At that time, the contest directly attracted a son-in-law.

this has also become the standard of choosing a husband. Competing to recruit relatives is one of the ancient ways to recruit relatives. The woman sets up a challenge ring and invites everyone to participate, from which the person with the best martial arts is selected to get the engagement. There are usually two ways to recruit relatives by competing: one is that the champion is a girl who recruits relatives, and whoever challenges successfully becomes the new champion, and if no one competes again, she will get the engagement directly; the other is that the champion is sent by a representative of the woman.

In this respect, we can see a similar plot in Jin Yong's novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes, in which Mu Nianci competes for marriage and Mu Nianci is the champion. In Jet Li's "Fang Shiyu", Lei Laohu set up a contest for his daughter Lei Tingting, and the champion was his wife Li Xiaohuan? .