As far as we know, our wife is surnamed Wang, but we don't know her name for the time being. Let's call her Ms. Wang. Ms Wang has a background. Her grandfather is the prime minister of Song Huizong, and her cousin is the famous poetess Li Qingzhao. However, when she quarreled with Qin Gui, she didn't mention any of these backgrounds, only how much her dowry was worth. How much is her dowry worth? Two hundred thousand copper coins. At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, according to the comprehensive purchasing power of Kaifeng copper coins, one copper coin was equivalent to 13. Always 1000 yuan, equivalent to 130 yuan. 200,000 is 26 million. Oh, no wonder Miss Wang is so great and arrogant. At the end of the Song Dynasty, especially in Jiangnan, when girls got married, their parents spent much more money on dowry than their male parents did on bride price. At that time, the common dowry included not only gold and silver jewelry prepared by poor and rich families for their daughters, but also a string of copper coins, boxes of cloth, clothes in cages and complete sets of furniture. Conditional families even use land and houses as their daughters' dowry. For example, a girl named Zheng Qingyi got married in the Southern Song Dynasty. The dowry list includes 500 mu of land, 30 shops and 654.38 million copper coins. In contrast, wife Wang's dowry is worth 200,000 yuan, which may seem a bit small.
The reason why the woman's parents have to prepare so many dowries is that they are afraid that the dowries will be laughed at. The second is to improve the daughter's economic status in her husband's family. The more dowry, the more voice she has in front of her in-laws and husband. The so-called "economic base determines the superstructure" was perfectly reflected in the marriage life of women in the Song Dynasty. Of course, there is a third reason: according to the laws of the Song Dynasty, dowry is the only reliable and pure private property of married women, and no one can use it for any reason. In other words, no matter how much dowry parents give their daughters, it is a waste of water. Because of the above three reasons, the Song people married their daughters and took out quite a lot of almost desperate dowry. For example, Su Zhe, Su Dongpo's younger brother, married a woman and sold 9,400 mu of cultivated land, which was converted into nearly 3 million yuan. At that time, Su Zhe was over 500 years old and had worked in Beijing for many years. He didn't even buy a suite.
Parents give their daughters a dowry at all costs, and daughters will naturally cherish the dowry they get. Before entering the door, the woman's parents will make a dense list of property, indicating how many jewels, clothes, houses and land are prepared for her daughter; After going through the door, the new daughter-in-law will ask her husband's family to make a statement in the ancestral hall and explain to the ancestors what the daughter-in-law brought. These things can't be used without the consent of the non-wife. To sum up, in order to protect the only property rights of married women and the family status brought about by property rights, there must be not only a notarization before marriage, but also an oath after marriage. I guess Ms. Wang got married before the article started, and she will notarize the dowry. In the long quarrelling career after marriage, she may show her 200,000 dowry with this notarial certificate more than once to prove her legal status and prove that she is worthy of her husband's respect. This scene, at first glance, is vulgar, but when you think about it carefully, it is very sad.