Novelty Center / Roundup
▲There are roughly two ways for men to marry concubines in ancient times. (Schematic diagram / flipped from Pixabay gallery)
Most of ancient China was a patriarchal society. Powerful men could marry the main palace and concubines. In contrast, commoner women were like male appendages, who were slaughtered and had no status. In addition to the emperor’s harem, how can ordinary men marry so-called “concubines”? It can be roughly divided into two types, and the process is an eye-opener.
The first method is called “retrieval system”.
The concubine system means that when marrying a wife, women of the same age as the wife’s family, including younger sisters, nieces and other women of the right age, are “brought over” together.Of course, to be able to choose the “female system” and take away multiple women at one time, the man must have a certain degree of financial resources. Therefore, although this method is ethically unbelievable and even a bit contemptible, but to a certain extent , can also boost the economy of the wife’s family alone
The second method is more direct, that is, “grabbing relatives”
Under the old social system, Chinese people had two kinds of hatred about family, namely “hatred of taking one’s wife” and “hatred of killing one’s father”, which were regarded as the greatest hatred in life. However, in the era of the group marriage system, snatching marriages was a popular custom. Whoever was stronger had more choices and could choose the commoner women he liked. Even after the marriage system was established later, snatching women was still an important source of concubines.
In addition to these two, there is another item that completely treats women as “products” and regards them as a kind of “reciprocity”. In ancient times, to marry a wife in a formal way, you need to follow the rules of etiquette, but concubines do not have these etiquette, and they can be bought and sold at will without breaking the law.
