Chapter 10 Chapter Three: Marriage and Family from the Qin, Han to Tang Dynasties

The system of monogamy and multiple concubines is the inheritance of slave-owner nobles in the form of marriage by the feudal rulers of all generations after Qin Dynasty.This kind of inheritance runs through the entire feudal society of China, and it was very prominent from the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty, and was confirmed by law.Of course, concubine behavior is mainly popular among the ruling class, and the number of wives and concubines of royal men is much higher than that of other classes.Qin Shihuang had twenty or thirty children, which shows that he had many concubines, not to mention that he also had a huge number of court ladies.According to historical records, until Liu Bang entered the Guanzhong, he still "seen thousands of women" ("Han Shu·Zhang Liang Biography").There were thousands of women in the harem of the emperors of the Han Dynasty, and there were more than 10 concubines.For example, there are 14 concubines and concubines of Emperor Liu Shi of the Han and Yuan Dynasties, namely: Empress, Zhaoyi, Jieyu, 娙 [xing]'e, Ronghua, Chongyi, beauty, good man, eight sons, seven sons, long envoy , less envoy, five senses, smoothness.The queen is better than the emperor, the first-level Zhaoyi is better than the prime minister, and Jieyu is better than the senior minister.In the Eastern Han Dynasty and Wei State during the Three Kingdoms period, the harem was all 12th grade.Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty also carefully followed the six palaces in "Book of Rites · Hunyi", and set up three wives, nine concubines, twenty-seven wives, and eighty-one royal wives.The number of court ladies reached its peak in the time of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, with a total of 40,000.

Aristocratic ministers also raised prostitutes and concubines in large numbers.According to the "Hanshu·Jing Shisanwang Biography", King Jing of Zhongshan Liu Sheng had more than 120 sons, and the number of his wives and concubines should not be less than thirty or forty.Yan Wang Liu Dan committed suicide, and his "post-wife Suidan committed suicide with more than 20 people" ("Han Shu Biography of the Five Sons of Wu").In the unearthed bamboo slips of the Han Dynasty, it is also found that "the princes and kings must set up concubines, eight sons, ruzis, and benefactors; Chehou must set up ruzis and beauties, and princes and queens must not be called princesses."

Senior officials often have wives and concubines in their rooms.In the early Western Han Dynasty when the social economy was still in decline, Prime Minister Zhang Cang already had "hundreds of wives and concubines" ("Han Shu Zhang Cang Biography").During the Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, princes, generals and ministers even "singed and prostitutes filled their houses... Competing to exaggerate, there is competition for mystery" ("Taiping Yulan").Shi Chong, the Taiwei of the Western Jin Dynasty, was extravagant and dissipated. Not only was he richer than his colleagues, but he also had more concubines than anyone else.In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, some princes and concubines were innumerable, and there were often so-called "fun stories" and "good talk" about giving concubines when they joked about remuneration.

Sui power minister Yang Su, "women in the back room, thousands of people eat rich clothes and jade", one of the concubines is in the same relationship with Li Baiyao, the son of Yang Su's colleague.When the incident happened and he was about to be killed, Yang Su saw that Baiyao was "not yet twenty, and his appearance is beautiful", so he said to him, "I heard that you are good at poetry and prose, and you can write poems to describe yourself. If you say what I want, you will be spared from death." .Baiyao was overflowing with ingenuity, and the poem was "completed immediately". Yang Su was "happy" after reading it.

Small and medium-sized officials and rich families among the common people often have wives and concubines.For example, Han Yu, who was "the decline of the eight generations of Wenqi" in Tang Dynasty, not only had concubines, but also had several kabuki.The great poets Li Bai and Bai Juyi both married concubines in addition to their main wives, which shows the prevalence of raising concubines at that time. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, during the Northern Dynasties ruled by the Xianbei people, polygamy or the system of having wives and no concubines even derived from the system of polygamy and concubines. "Polywives" refers to the women who were accepted by the emperors of the Northern Dynasties, "were only called by order", and "all of them were queens after the emperor's posthumous posthumous title" ("Wei Shu · Queen's Biography").Among the common people, all married women are called "wives", regardless of whether they are married or concubines.

The emperor can have a group of concubines, and the son-in-law who marries the princess can also have a group of legal concubines. According to the etiquette, the queen, concubine, and princess can only be loyal to one man at the same time as a large number of women. This is the characteristic of the patriarchal system in feudal society.Some aristocratic women are unwilling to be lonely and take advantage of their power to have sexual relations with more than two men at the same time. This kind of man besides their husbands for their entertainment is called Mian Shou.According to historical records, the first person to place the face head was Princess Shanyin during the Northern and Southern Dynasties.Seeing that her brother Liu Ziye (former Emperor Liu Song) had a lot of harems, she said indignantly, "You and I are both born of the late emperor. You have more than six palaces, and I only have a son-in-law. Isn't it too unfair?"Therefore, Liu Ziye arranged for her to meet the first 30 people.The more famous one is Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty. She has many faces, and because of this, these people have become famous figures for a while.Princess Shanyin, Wu Zetian, etc. are all examples of promiscuity denounced by feudal historians. They demanded equality in sex. It is nothing more than a perverted protest against the idea that men are superior to women.

While openly and legally accepting concubines, the ruling class attached great importance to the distinction between prostitutes and concubines out of the need to maintain patriarchal rule.That is to say, concubines can be taken, and the number of concubines depends on the social status of the concubine, but there can only be one official wife, and the law does not allow "disorderly wives and concubines".In the second year of Yuanshou in the Han Dynasty (1 BC), "Fu Yan, the Marquis of Kong Township, took the position of wives and concubines in disorder", and was exempted as a result ("Hanshu · Enzehou Biao of Foreign Relatives").The law also prohibits bigamy.The law of the Tang Dynasty stipulates: "Whoever has a wife and remarries a wife will be punished for one year; the daughter's family will be reduced by one grade. If he cheats and marries, he will be punished for one and a half years; if the daughter's family does not sit down, they will separate" ("Tang Law·Household") Marriage Law"). "Tang Law Shuyi" explained: "If you have a wife, you will marry more, but you will not be a wife at all."Explain that polygamy is only prohibited. Having a wife and taking concubines does not violate this law.

The prevalence of monogamy and multiple concubines among the ruling class of the Qin, Han, Sui and Tang Dynasties, as well as literati and wealthy households, destroyed the balance of the sex ratio in society and seriously affected the marriages of farmers, handicraftsmen and urban commoners who were the majority of members of society. The strange phenomenon of brothers marrying one wife together.On the one hand, there are groups of resentful women in the court and rich families, and on the other hand, there are many husbands in society. This abnormal phenomenon will inevitably slow down the overall growth rate of the population and form a population proliferation of the ruling class. It must be much higher than the abnormal growth of ordinary people.What's more, the luxurious and extravagant life of the royal family and nobles and their huge families caused the regimes of all dynasties to consume huge financial expenditures, and this heavy burden finally fell on the common people.All of these have slowed down the development of social productive forces.