How did the ancients solve the problem of singles?

Marriage is very fair and free today, but not necessarily in ancient times.

Let's take these ancient singles as an example of the breathtaking practices of ancient marriages.

There are several ways to solve the problem of singles in ancient times.

First, the widow remarriedWe all know that in ancient times, the requirements for women's loyalty were very high, "one woman does not serve two husbands". In ancient times, due to the threat to the lives of men compared to women, whether it was war or hard labor, the degree of threat to the lives of men was very large, so often after the death of the husband, the government would support the marriage of widows and local singles.

Second, the government formulates marriageIn ancient times, there was a saying that the marital status of women and men would affect the fortunes of the country, and once the country had more singles and older women, the country was likely to face some disasters, so the government would come to be a matchmaker to help the singles find a daughter-in-law.

Third, forcing girls to get marriedIn some dynasties in ancient times, if a woman did not marry at a fixed age, it was a crime, and the whole family would go to prison with her, and this compulsory practice also alleviated the problem of singles in ancient times to a great extent.

Fourth, polyandryThis practice is still rare in the Central Plains, and it is basically used in areas where there are fewer women from ethnic minorities in the tribes.

Fifth, it is forbidden to take too many concubinesWe all know that in ancient times, men were not as demanding as women, they must be three from four virtues, dedicated to their own officials, men can have many concubines, in this way, there are too many rich men's daughters-in-law, which will make those small people become singles, so some dynasties in ancient times stipulated that rich families can not go to more than a fixed number of daughters-in-law, which also helped many singles have some opportunities. <>

In ancient times, men wanted to marry but had no chance, but now, most single people don't want to get married, and feel that they are happier than married. It's really a different era and different vision.

Speaking of which, in ancient times, except for those who were so poor that they couldn't support themselves, there were really few singles, and after thinking about it carefully, this benefited from the social customs at that time, and shared a few customs to prevent singles in the pre-Qin era.

First: Mid-spring tryst.

According to the "Zhou Rite Matchmaker", in the pre-Qin period, every mid-spring (similar to the period from February 2 to March 3), local matchmakers would organize older unmarried young men and women to go to trysts. The so-called older age is that women and Lu (15 years old for and Lu, indicating that you can get married), men weak crown (20 years old for weak crown, indicating adulthood), you can participate in this kind of tryst, the vernacular is the ancient large-scale group blind date activities.

In this kind of activity, the women will also collectively sing the song "You Youmei" (one of the "Book of Songs"), to the effect that the ladies are here, and the young people who are asking to marry me should hurry to my house to give the dowry.

This kind of large-scale event was officially permitted, and it was a precious opportunity for ancient women to step out of the boudoir and get in touch with unmarried men. Otherwise, no matter how good a lady is, she will be locked up in the boudoir every day, and the gentleman will not know. Therefore, the credit for this custom is still great.

Second: the words of the matchmaker of the parents' orders.

Zhou Li formulated a strict system for ancient marriage, which is dowry, which continues throughout the traditional era of China, and the most important feature of dowry is usually said to be "the order of the parents, the words of the matchmaker".

In other words, if the young people fall in love with each other and return home, they can find a matchmaker to ask for marriage. But if you don't like it, it doesn't matter, your parents will take care of it. From the time the child is very young, they will begin to look for a suitable marriage partner for the child in the same class, and even set a baby kiss early.

When he reached the age and completed the "six rites" procedure, he carried the bride home. Therefore, as long as the decision-making power of children's marriage is put in the hands of parents, except for families who are too poor to do it, otherwise parents will marry their sons back to their daughters-in-law.

Third: transfer.

In the Zhou Dynasty, there was this custom of "transferring houses". That is, the father dies, and the son (son) wife (marries) his mother; brother ends, brother's wife and sister-in-law; Uncle ends, nephew and aunt.

But on this issue, there is a little controversy, and some people say that it is written in "Yi Heng": "A woman is chaste, from the beginning to the end." ”

Yi is Zhou Yi, and Zhou Yi appeared in the Yin Shang era, so from that era, women were required to start from the beginning.

But judging from more records, at least in the pre-Qin era, the so-called "concept of chastity" was not formed, and the "Analects" did not discuss this issue anywhere, Confucius admired the "Zhou Li" the most, and his son Bo Yu died, and Bo Yu's wife remarried to Wei Guo, and Confucius did not object.

And this system also prompted a large number of "widows" to remarry, and to some extent also reduced the number of singles.

In ancient times, the problem of singles was actually much more serious than it is now, and it has existed throughout the ages. In ancient times, brothels were allowed, largely to solve the problem of this part of the sex life of single men. But visiting a brothel is not a complete solution. So, how did the problem of singles be solved in ancient times?

Forcing women to marry.

For example, in the Jin Dynasty, a woman must marry when she reaches a certain age, otherwise the government will forcibly find a partner for her. The Book of Jin? Emperor Wu Ji (Volume 3) records that Sima Yan demanded in the winter and October of the ninth year of Taishi, "If the parents do not marry in the seventeenth year of the female year, the chief official will be matched."

It means that when a girl reaches the age of 17, if her parents do not marry off her daughter, then the local leaders will find her a husband and force her to marry by force.

2. "The melon is not sweet" should also be twisted.

In the Jin Dynasty, a woman had to marry when she reached a certain age, otherwise the government would forcibly find her a partner. The Book of Jin? Emperor Wu Ji (Volume 3) records that Sima Yan demanded in the winter and October of the ninth year of Taishi, "If the parents do not marry in the seventeenth year of the female year, the chief official will be matched."

It means that when a girl reaches the age of 17, if her parents do not marry off her daughter, then the local leaders will find her a husband and force her to marry by force.

3. Encourage "second marriage".

In ancient times, there was a saying that "a good woman does not marry twice", and the emphasis was on the custom of marriage from the beginning to the end. Therefore, whether it is the private sector or the government, it is very difficult to encourage remarriage. In ancient times, men generally regarded marrying widows as inferior, and they would not be able to raise their heads in society, and people would look down on them, unless they really couldn't please them, or they couldn't afford to ask for yellow flower girls, so they would choose women with a history of marriage to marry and start a family.

In ancient times, singles were very few. <>

First of all, marriage was very important in ancient times, because it was related to the expansion of the family and the inheritance of heirs. The ancients had a saying that "there are three unfilial pieties, and no queen is great", so marrying a wife and having children is the most important event in life, whether it is in a noble family or a commoner family, you can do nothing, but you must not marry a wife and have children. In ancient times, patriarchal blood relations were valued, and in a family, the tasks of property inheritance and management of family affairs were handed over to the descendants of the family.

If there are no heirs, then the family is equivalent to extinction. The ancients paid attention to having many sons and blessings, and the necessary condition for having children was marriage, so in ancient times, there could be three wives and four concubines, but there were very few singles. <>

Secondly, in ancient times, labor was very important in an agrarian society, and in addition to the necessary food rations for the family, there was also the important task of paying taxes. If there is less labor, then the harvest is correspondingly small. As we all know, farming requires both strength and people, and a prosperous family is very conducive to the family's wealth.

With regard to marriage, in ancient times there was a very systematic and comprehensive marriage system, where men and women reached a certain age, and if they were not married, then the state would allocate marriage so that both unmarried men and women could start a family. Because the national finance is mainly the agricultural production of the people, and if the number of people cannot grow, it is extremely unfavorable to agricultural production, and population growth can also increase the number of people who pay taxes to enrich the treasury. <>

However, there were also some unmarried men in ancient times, mainly those who were unwilling to stick to secular etiquette and religion, and hoped to be free and free to transcend the world, such as donations in the Wei and Jin dynasties, many of which were unmarried. However, the odds and chances of this happening are very, very small. In ancient times, marriage was still the mainstay.

The problem of singles has been a troublesome matter since ancient times, how did it solve this problem in ancient times? Distribution: After all, poverty cannot be solved by individuals alone.

Sometimes, in order to solve these social problems, some activities of forcibly separating wives were carried out in ancient times. First of all, it is stipulated that girls under the age of a few must marry, and it is the same crime not to marry their parents. For example, the Jin dynasty stipulates that "if the parents do not marry at the age of 17, they should be matched with the main **".

War and famine led to a dramatic decline in Shaanxi's population, a phenomenon that also played out in the late Qing Dynasty.

The uprising of the late Qing Dynasty was actually an outbreak of single men, with hundreds of thousands of unwifed men fighting against the Qing army in several provinces. The first is the door-to-door son-in-law In ancient times, if you couldn't find a daughter-in-law, you could only take a step back. However, the door-to-door son-in-law has a low social and family status.

He is usually a helpless, poor bachelor. In other words, Zhu Bajie is a son-in-law, and he came twice. A door-to-door son-in-law is usually like a half-servant.

He had to do all sorts of things at home, and some children had to follow their mother's surname. In short, no one will be a door-to-door son-in-law unless necessary, but he has a wife after all.

<> marry a widowAlthough the Ming and Qing dynasties emphasized that widows should observe festivals, how can helpless widows in rural areas feed their children if they can't find a man? As a result, some widows are forced to remarry under pressure, and some still remarry with their children. Of course, like Sister Xianglin, it was her mother-in-law who sold her widowed daughter-in-law.

However, this was not a glorious thing in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Neither remarried widows nor married single widows could lift their heads.

We know that in ancient times, due to the huge gap between social classes, it was often the rich who had three wives and four concubines, and the poor who lived singlely. Even in the case of wars and other serious losses of men, the ratio of men to women is extremely favourable to men, which is "waterlogging and drought", and the problem of single life is extremely serious. There is an old saying in Chinese history that there are three unfilial pieties, and no children are not great.

If you want to have offspring, you must have at least one wife, otherwise you won't have children out of thin air. First of all, the notion that a rich man can have three wives and four concubines is actually false. In ancient times, this did not mean that a rich man could have three wives and four concubines.

Most wealthy people only marry one concubine at most. The ancients didn't want to marry as many wives as they wanted. Each dynasty had strict rules.

Poverty cannot be solved on its own.

Multi-government arrangement.

If you meet a good emperor and a good system, the marriage problem of the remaining people may be solved by the organization. For example, when Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty did not marry a woman at the age of seventeen, the magistrate had to act as a matchmaker to find her husband's family.

The melon is not sweet" should also be twisted.

In the Jin Dynasty, a woman had to marry when she reached a certain age, otherwise the government would forcibly find her a partner.

"Second marriage" is encouraged

Among the poor in ancient times, there were still many singles. To solve the problem of singles, in fact, the government has many measures, such as collecting taxes on the elderly. There are also ways to use official media to discourage the rich from marrying too many concubines.

In ancient times, there were still singles. If they want to solve the problem of singles, they can propose marriage to girls, and they can also buy slaves to be their daughters-in-law.

There have been many singles from ancient times to the present, but there were many more singles in ancient times than there are now. So how did they solve it? Many poor people began to "rent wives", that is, their wives would always go out in exchange for living expenses.