After hearing Guo Kang's discussion, everyone began to think again.
"You really thought about a lot of things." Zhu Wenkui sighed: "I never thought there was such a problem..."
"I can't help it." Guo Kang shook his head and said: "We are people who seek the country, so we must consider more. Moreover, these moral principles are essentially the needs of the people and cannot be ignored."
He had indeed thought about this matter seriously. Moreover, I still remembered it when I heard Tuohuan bragging.
At that time, Guo Kang told him about Cao Jian's family. Tuo Huan complained that concubinage or polygamy should actually be allowed, so that a lot of troubles could be solved. Otherwise, with the current probability of premature death and death in battle, no one knows which generation of theirs will be extinct.
Guo Kang didn't care much about this. He felt that this matter was too far away, and he had no right to speak, so why did he care about it. But he began to think about why monogamy existed in this place.
The early barbarians themselves were polygamous, and subsequent changes were influenced by the church. The rules of the church were inherited from Rome.
Compared with other civilizations, the origin of this custom is not difficult to find.
At the same time, the Central Plains was also dominated by monogamy. Since the Warring States Period, there have been strict laws and regulations strictly limiting the scope of concubine marriage and concubinage.
Generally speaking, civilians can only have one husband and one wife, and officials up to the rank of minister can only have two concubines. The relevant laws were quite harsh, especially during the war years. Bigamy was a felony punishable by beheading.
As for the princes, they often adopted the concubine marriage system, that is, marrying multiple women at a time from their marriage partners. But correspondingly, according to etiquette and law, the princes will no longer take wives and concubines after this.
The emergence of this phenomenon is the result of the game between the upper and lower classes and between families.
At the time of Guo Kang, many people mentioned three wives and four concubines in ancient times. But at that time, the vast majority of men supported monogamy. The reason is also very simple. If everyone can take wives and concubines at will, then women will quickly be taken over by the middle and upper classes, and the lower classes will be left alone.
Although the lower-class male household residents have no money, they are the most numerous and the most able to fight. As the country's military pillar, their opinions are also important and cannot be ignored. Therefore, the final rule must be a compromise for both parties. That is to say, on the one hand, an opening is opened for taking concubines, and on the other hand, the level and number are strictly limited to avoid any impact on society.
The marriage of princes is actually an alliance. The so-called maiden marriage is actually the result of a compromise with the woman's natal family. In order to prevent the married daughter from giving birth to an heir, the woman's family will send several women over at once to ensure that the grandson must be one of their own and to ensure their influence as a relative. In the same way, people no longer take wives and concubines after a concubine's marriage, in order to prevent other families from intervening in the competition.
Therefore, these rules are ultimately the result of the game played by all parties.
The Romans also came up with the same system - in the system, most people were monogamous, while the upper class did not have many restrictions on their pursuit of pleasure. They could also supplement their heirs through the adoption system, which of course included illegitimate children and stepsons. such as. Such a comparison is not a coincidence no matter how you look at it.
Therefore, Guo Kang speculates that this "ethics" that everyone defaults to is actually based on the strength of lower-class male citizens. The stronger these people are and the higher their voice, the more inclined society as a whole is to uphold monogamy.
And this kind of moral principle cannot be evaluated by absolute "morality". Because the virtue of one group of people may be the tyranny of another group of people.
Ordinary male citizens believe that the large number of concubines of the great nobles harms their own interests and must be restricted; but Guo Kang also investigated the women who served as mistresses for the great nobles through Cao Daoxing's mother. Instead, they want to officially become concubines, because although this is not a respectable status, it will indeed make their lives easier than their previous lives, and it will provide these women who are generally not of high origin with an opportunity for advancement.
Therefore, Guo Kang suspected that this kind of thing cannot be evaluated in terms of good and evil. In today's social environment, he himself couldn't figure out what kind of behavior was bullying women. Obviously, the moral experience of the previous life cannot be directly applied, not to mention that in those days, different people also had completely different definitions of morality.
In this kind of society with strong citizens, morality is not set by the upper class, but forced by male citizens to accept it. To put it bluntly, whoever can fight best is qualified to formulate morality. There’s probably no point in thinking about it too much. The most important thing is to understand the logic behind these moral rules so that you can avoid risks and borrow help.
"When we study morality and etiquette, we are not just studying them themselves, but more importantly, we need to understand the ins and outs." He said to everyone: "Just like the topic just now - why are barbarians rude? Because for them, etiquette and morality are not It’s in the best interest of this group.”
"But on the other hand, the reason why these morals are morals is because acting according to them is in our own best interests. In other words, behind the conflict of moral concepts, it actually means that there are irreversible differences in the ways in which both parties can benefit. Reconciled contradictions.”
"Therefore, it is very simple to want them to accept morality. All it takes is artificial intervention and adjustment. For example, through tribute, mutual trade, crusade, etc., we can artificially change the gains and losses of the barbarians."
"Originally, abiding by morality meant losing money, but now you have to make money; originally, you could make money by not following morality, but now not only do you not make money, but you may also lose your life. No matter how rough the barbarians are, they still know how to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. As time goes by, they will accept this kind of behavior. Morality. This is probably what we often call 'enlightenment'."
"But now, you all also know that the world is much bigger than what the ancient kings imagined in the era of Yao, Shun, and civil and military eras. This huge world is full of barbarians, and no matter how capable the court is, it cannot take care of it."
"The biggest problem with these barbarians is that they have too little experience and their lives are too smooth. They lack history, and they have neither encountered major setbacks nor dangerous situations. Therefore, they simply cannot understand why we have these things. Morality."
"In this case, unless you beat him hard and make him understand, it will definitely be difficult to communicate. Instead of doing this, it is better to leave it to us."
"Barbarians can't communicate, it doesn't matter, we live here, and we are very good at communicating with barbarians." He suggested: "We can do it for the things that China cannot do. At least, dealing with us is better than dealing with those people directly. Easy."
"When we really need it, we can organize the various forces around the Mediterranean to pay tribute and trade together. We can serve as a main node, and we can also set up other secondary nodes in places like Italy and France that are easy to deal with. In this way, Wouldn't it be much more convenient for everyone to organize a network that is responsible for both trade and education?"
(End of chapter)
