At the beginning of Do You Know, Sheng Hualan, Sheng's sister, was engaged to Yuaner's son.
Yuan Jia is a burly man, boasting. A large group of people came to Fu Sheng with many gifts to participate in the "levy" ceremony, and were allowed to enter the house after they got permission.
The Sheng family held a lively banquet to entertain the man and the guests.
The "levy" here is actually a bride price, which is a step in the "six rituals" of marriage.
A large number of marriage etiquette systems were formulated in the Song Dynasty. Different identities and positions have different levels of etiquette. The higher the level, the more complicated the wedding etiquette.
The system of "Three Books and Six Rites" originated in the Zhou Dynasty, and only when these things are completed can they be considered as legally married.
"Three Books" refers to three kinds of documents handed over by the man's family to the woman's family in the process of marriage, namely: the letter of appointment, that is, the engagement document; Gift book, that is, a document that lists the number of items that have been given; Wedding book, that is, the document to marry the bride when wedding.
"Six rites" refers to the six steps of marriage. Including:
Nacai: that is, the man's family asks the matchmaker to propose marriage, and the woman's family gives gifts.
Ask the name: that is, the woman's family tells the man's daughter's age after accepting the proposal.
Naji (also called Guo): In other words, if both parties put wedding posts in front of gods or ancestors for good or ill luck, then marriage is preliminarily agreed.
Requisition (also called gift): that is, the man's family gives the letter of appointment and gift to the woman's family.
Invitation day (also called begging day): it is a good day to choose to get married.
Kissing: The groom marries the bride, pays tribute to her and is sent to the bridal chamber.
It seems that the marriage in Song Dynasty is much more complicated than the modern marriage system.
The first episode of Know is about Ming Lan's mother, Wei Xiaoniang, who is pregnant and struggling with hunger and cold. The maid clashed with the housekeeper for a little charcoal fire to keep out the cold. In desperation, Ming Lan had to turn to his father for help, which showed the miserable life of concubines and their children who had fallen out of favor.
In the Song family, the status of husband and wife was very unequal, and wives and concubines were completely attached to their husbands, so their status was low. Nominally monogamous, but concubinage is legal, and the outer room has begun to be legalized. A wife should not object to her husband's private life, but should take the initiative to occupy a concubine room for her husband.
Most adult men in the play have wives and concubines. Ming Lan's father has a wife, two concubines and six children. No matter how fierce the wife is, no matter how spoiled the concubine is, she can only act on her face. No matter how good the relationship between Ming Lan and her husband is, it can't stop the concubines who were forced out of the house by their elders.
Moran, the fourth sister of Ming Lan, gambled on the reputation of the whole family and made every effort to marry into the Earl's House as the wife of his first wife. It is also because of the high status of the wife and the great difference between husband and wife.
Among the concubines, the wife has the highest status, and the eldest son is different from the illegitimate child. The murder of concubines in the play is only an individual phenomenon.
I have no personal freedom, and my status is not much higher than that of a handmaiden. It is also the "property" of the owner. Its main function is to have children and serve the husband and wife. Theoretically, the mother of a concubine's child is the wife. After the death of some men, wives can even sell concubines that they don't like.
Therefore, although Ming Lan was brought up by her grandmother, she was nominally named after her first mother.
When her husband was not at home, Mrs. Wang, the first mother, saw through Mrs. Lin's mistake and found a trafficker to sell her.
However, no matter how favored Miss Lin is, she has no social status. Even his own daughter is married, and he is not qualified to accept her tea and farewell.
A woman who lives with her parents and brothers when she is unmarried is a "daughter in the house". In the family, brothers and sisters enjoy certain property inheritance rights and property disposal rights according to different generations.
In the Song Dynasty, when families split up, according to the customs and laws at that time, they would give part of their property to their daughters, which is usually called "dowry", that is, the property given in the name of dowry is generally half of the brother's income.
The property is brought into the husband's house with the married woman. The property that the woman marries is nominally the common property of both husband and wife, and does not belong to the husband's family. Its ownership and disposal are in the hands of the woman, who can take it out for her husband's family or keep it for herself. If a husband asks for his wife's property, he will often be despised by the customs at that time.
If the husband and wife divorce or the wife remarries, the woman has the right to take all the property. After the Song Dynasty, women lost the freedom to dispose of their property.
In the play, when the Ming Lan sisters get married, their parents and grandmother are with them, and the dowry is different and they are all in their own hands. And if there is a marriage change, you can take it with you. This is a powerful guarantee for their rights and interests.
A childless widow can inherit all her husband's property, but she cannot sell it. If she remarries, she will lose her inheritance. In the case of certain chastity, you can enjoy your husband's inheritance for life, but you should be the heir of your deceased husband, and the property will be inherited by the heir after death.
Mrs. Qin Xiao is bent on winning the title of Hou Fu and will get rid of all those who get in the way at all costs. Therefore, in order to protect his wife and daughter, his brother Gu Yeting told his wife never to have an heir after her death to avoid getting into trouble.
We generally believe that in ancient times, only men could divorce their wives unilaterally, and women could not divorce their husbands. In fact, there was divorce in ancient times, and it was not uncommon for women to divorce on their own initiative in the Song Dynasty.
In the play, Sheng Shulan, Sheng's cousin, was bullied by her husband's family, who demanded a peaceful separation, and Sun's family wanted to divorce his wife.
So what's the difference between divorcing your wife and leaving? This involves the divorce system in Song Dynasty: "seven fruits", "righteousness" and "harmony".
Seven-out, also called seven-abandonment, means that as long as the wife makes one of the seven mistakes, the husband can legally divorce her, such as disobedience to parents, infertility, lewdness, jealousy, poor health, talkativeness, theft and so on.
Righteousness means that there is unjust behavior between husband and wife, which violates the law and the state forces divorce, otherwise it will be punished.
Divorce is a divorce by agreement, especially if the woman can also file for divorce.
According to the law of the Song Dynasty, if a husband is unable to support his wife, or has been away from home for three years, or his wife has been sexually assaulted by her husband's relatives, even if it fails, the wife has the right to divorce.
A woman has the right to remarry after divorce. Society is not ashamed of remarriage, and there is no discrimination against remarried women. There is no provision in the law that suppresses women's right to remarry.
During the Song Dynasty, women remarried everywhere from scholar-bureaucrat families to civilian families. Li Qingzhao, the "one pronoun Sect", Tang Wan, the wife of the famous poet Lu You, and even the emperor's concubine remarried. For example, there was an imperial concubine named Zhang who "married into the folk".
In this case, we can understand why Sun Xiucai, a ruffian rogue, chose to divorce his wife. He wants to divorce his wife because he is on the wrong side. The choice and separation of the Sheng family is to protect Shulan's reputation, let her remarry in the future and let her sister choose a good husband.
Many people think that Neo-Confucianism, which rose in the Song Dynasty, emphasized "preserving righteousness and destroying human desires", "men are superior to women", "three obedience and four virtues" and "men and women are not close", which greatly suppressed and imprisoned women, resulting in the continuous decline of women's status and no freedom in life.
In fact, Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty has just emerged and its influence is limited. In Song Dynasty, the economy was developed and the participation of women was high, which had a certain economic and social status. And inherited the legacy of Han and Tang dynasties, the society is relatively open, and women still have some freedom.
Women in the play are not limited to the main entrance or the second entrance, but also often travel, celebrate festivals, play lanterns and play with their partners.
As an illegitimate daughter, Ming Lan can also go to school with other brothers and sisters for knowledge, and there are not many taboos for boys and girls to study together.
Young men, women and children, as well as He Gongzi, also have the opportunity to meet and talk before marriage and get to know each other.
Poetry appreciation, polo clubs and other activities also provide excellent opportunities for young men and women to communicate and find children in famous families.
Ming Lan and other women, armed with pistols and riding horses, galloped freely in the polo field, vividly showing the mental outlook of women in the Song Dynasty.
In knowing whether or not, we can see the highly developed economy and culture, relatively perfect legal system and relatively open social atmosphere in Song Dynasty. Women have played a certain role in family and society, and they are all at the forefront of world civilization at the same time.