That day Huang Yuanwai refused to turn south, so Tang Zhe came back often. Huang Yuanwai had to hide from others and avoid Tang Zhe, so he rarely had the chance to visit Yu Nu. For a few days, I thought about it day and night, almost making me sick.
On this day, Tang Zhe went out early and said he would go back to the north of Ruhe River to handle matters. When Huang Yuanwai heard this, he couldn't help but feel happy, feeling that his chance had finally come. Unexpectedly, in the afternoon, a girl of seventeen or eighteen years old entered the inn, found Jade Slave, and never came out.
In the evening, Huang Yuanwai felt depressed. I went outside and bought a bottle of gourd wine, cut a large piece of cooked mutton, and went back to the room to drink. As soon as she walked to the door, she saw the maid next to Yu Nu standing there, waving her hand and saying, "Executive officer, my wife has something to ask for."
Huang Yuanwai was overjoyed when he heard this. I didn't have time to put the wine and mutton in my hands back into the house, so I carried them with the maid to the Jade Slave's room.
Yunu and Pingping were sitting at the table chatting. Seeing Mr. Huang come in, he stood up quickly and saluted. Pointing at Pingping, she said, "This is my sister. She came to look for me because there was something going on at home."
After hearing this, Huang Yuanwai hurriedly asked with concern: "I wonder what it is?"
Yunu shook his head and refused to say anything. He just asked Huang to sit outside.
Seeing something was wrong in the atmosphere, Huang Yuanwai took out two coins from his pocket, handed them to the maid and said, "It's getting late, and I'm impatient to cook. There are two coins here. You can go out and buy some wine and meat and come back."
The maid took two pieces of money and went out quickly.
Xiangcheng has become accustomed to using Huizi from Xiangyang, which is much easier to use. If it were in the past, two ounces of money would be a lot of money. It would be impossible for Mr. Huang to take it with him when he goes out, and it would not be suitable for the maid's thin body to hold it.
Jade slave served tea. Huang Yuanwai grabbed Yu Nu's hand and said: "Although we have a romantic relationship, there is always some old love. If you have any difficulties, just tell me. As long as I can help, I will definitely help you!"
While talking, Huang Yuanwai secretly glanced at the girl on the side. Seeing that the girl's face remained normal, she felt relieved.
Yunu took out his hand and said: "Executive officer, I am the wife of an official in my family. You always know that."
Huang Yuanwai nodded: "You live alone in Xiangcheng and you don't live with the eldest lady. What does it matter?"
The jade slave said: "To be a foreigner, one must either come from a poor family and cannot survive. Or - or I am a romantic woman who was redeemed and raised here. What kind of person do you think I am?"
Huang Yuanwai said sarcastically: "Looking at my wife's daily appearance, she doesn't look like she grew up in a poor family."
Yunu turned around and said with some resentment: "Yes, only those who grew up in the wind and moon can have people like me. My sister and I were both sold at my mother's house since childhood and were raised by her. My mother is young At that time, she was the most famous person in the city of Kaifeng. When she got older and had no customers to help her, she bought a few of us sisters. She taught us how to sing and dance since we were young. When we got a little older, we would sell songs in restaurants. .”
Huang Yuanwai said: "That's it. It's a pity that I haven't seen your singing and dancing."
Yunu shook his head: "Although my mother has taught me since childhood, we sisters have no talent, neither can we sing nor can we dance. Fortunately, we have a good skin, and we have that lustful guest to help us."
By saying this, Huang Yuanwai understood that the two sisters were not prostitutes, but prostitutes.
Prostitution was not allowed in the Song Dynasty. Most of the female prostitutes, as they were called, sang and danced in restaurants and other places. They were prostitutes in name but not their bodies. Of course, in such an environment, as long as the customers can afford it, how many people can stay safe? When you get older, you can either rely on your savings to buy a few little girls, teach them from childhood, and make money to support yourself when they grow up. Or be like Jade Slave and become a concubine for others. The outer room is okay, and I don’t have to fight with the eldest wife of the family every day. Living together will not lead to peace of mind. Of course, there is another option, which is to find an honest man to marry. However, this time is not comparable to that of later generations, and unknown women are always looked down upon by others. If you marry close to each other, everyone will know your past experiences. How could they compare to their juniors? When they were young and beautiful, they were free to play with their own temperaments. But when they got older, they were still in high demand.
The prostitute is a family in name only. A mother is really a mother who has raised her children since childhood. There are even families where the biological daughter is in business, the mother is the real mother, and the teapot is the father. The brothels in later movies and TV shows, in which many girls openly engaged in business, were adapted from the special society of the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. Normal times in history do not exist.
This situation took advantage of the Song Dynasty's system of raising daughters. Because the restrictions on the status of slaves were gradually relaxed, the imperial court no longer allowed real slaves in society, and changed it to a hired labor system. Some wealthy families used their status as adopted daughters to buy slaves. In the Song Dynasty, maids and other servants often used the title of "adoptive mother", which is related to this.
After the turmoil of the late Tang and Five Dynasties, some new phenomena emerged in the Song Dynasty, one of which was that the official and private people no longer paid attention to family background. The civil uprising called for equality between the rich and the poor, and the government gradually abandoned the slave system and replaced it with a wage-labour system. This reform is of great significance and can be regarded as creating a new era. In the world, only Europe has accomplished this by completing the capitalist revolution. However, the military strength of the Song Dynasty was weak, and slavery became popular after the Mongols took over the Central Plains. It was a step back in this regard until the Ming and Qing Dynasties. As for later generations who say that it was not until Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty that China's untouchability system was abolished, they are gilding the Qing Dynasty. Before the Song Dynasty, the untouchability system began to disintegrate, and the Song Dynasty basically abolished it. At this time, the so-called prostitutes were not strict and did not involve flesh and blood transactions. They were just women who sang and danced. The status of prostitute is not something you are born with, nor can it be abolished. As for industry and commerce, etc., there is no provision for inheritance from generation to generation, and restrictions are gradually being reduced.
All in all, as Chinese history developed into the Song Dynasty, some new phenomena appeared. Society as a whole no longer values family background, but values status and wealth in real society. Restrictions on the person began to decrease, systems such as slavery began to be abolished, and the entire society began to enter the era of hired labor. This positive change was interrupted with the Mongol invasion. Later, under the influence of Mongolia, the Ming Dynasty actually regressed greatly compared to the Song Dynasty. Not to mention that the Qing Dynasty also added a layer of national oppression, which was a step further back than the Ming Dynasty.
It will be difficult for future generations to maintain an objective attitude when looking at history. For example, the Song Dynasty was praised to the heavens. It is said that the society is prosperous, the market culture is prosperous, and the culture reaches a peak. It's so black that it goes deep into the soil. It is said that no one can win externally, but internally there is only one prosperous Kaifeng mansion, and the people in other places in the world are in dire straits. Prosperity and culture only belong to a few people, and most people live worse than other dynasties.
Such an emotional statement is not conducive to a correct understanding of Chinese history. Objectively speaking, in terms of ideology and culture, the Song Dynasty was a peak of Chinese culture. Not only poetry and culture prospered, but also because literati deliberately made ideological breakthroughs. The orthodoxy debate in the Northern Song Dynasty made the Song Dynasty's understanding of dynastic orthodoxy, represented by Ouyang Xiu, evolve to be evaluated in terms of the control of chaos. To a certain extent, it is similar to the later poverty that is not socialism. This major change is a major achievement in Chinese thought. Not to mention the numerous names of Luo School, Shu School, Guanzhong School and so on. There are also debates such as the Shigong School and the Neo-Confucian School, which have conducted in-depth explorations of Confucianism.
In terms of social governance, whether it is the court or the people, officials or farmers, they no longer believe that one's birth determines a person's life. For example, someone in later generations wrote a piece called "Hanjiao Fu", which was said to be the best parallel prose in the world, and was attributed to Lu Mengzheng. Lu Mengzheng was poor when he was young, but later became the top scholar in high school. Together with the contributions of his nephew Lu Yijian, he created the Lu family, a typical wealthy family in the Song Dynasty. I say typical because the Lu family is an academic heirloom, rather than becoming a big landowner based on how much land they have. Of course, Lu Meng was the number one scholar, and no matter how poor his literary quality was, he would not have been able to write "Ode to the Cold Cellar". Not to mention Prime Minister Du Yan, who has been wandering around since he was a child. Later he became a Jinshi and became prime minister.
However, this cannot be used to conclude that the Song Dynasty reached a remarkable level in social governance. The system is a system, and the regulations are regulations, which may not be effectively implemented in practice. For example, the slave trade took advantage of the flaws of the system of raising sons and daughters, and in the name of raising sons and daughters, the slave trade was actually widespread. Although there are many ideological discussions, there are very few that can be truly institutionalized and implemented.
Neither can we deny the Song Dynasty’s progress in ideological exploration and development, nor can we exaggerate its social advancement. The Song Dynasty only made some useful beginnings in ideology and culture, which was more advanced than the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
As for the military of the Song Dynasty, it would be an exaggeration to say that it was useless, but it would not be an exaggeration to say that it had more lessons than experience for future generations.
Yunu and Pingping were born like this. My mother was a female prostitute. When she got older, she bought them two girls. It's a pity that the two of them have no talent and can only support their family by selling their bodies.
After listening to Yu Nu's story, Huang Yuanwai secretly glanced at Pingping who was sitting on the side. Sure enough, I found that although Pingping was quiet, she was very charming at heart and seemed to have her own flavor. I looked at Pingping and then at Yunu. They both had their own merits.
Yu Nu said: "The city of Kaifeng was destroyed. I was separated from my mother and sister. After I met an official, I became his wife. My mother and sister fled to Chenzhou. They had no choice but to make a living in the old days. Before A few days ago, Pingping met a benefactor, and her parents fled to Tangzhou, where they lived very proudly. Unfortunately, the benefactor didn't have much money, so he couldn't redeem Pingping's deed."
Huang Yuanwai was stunned and asked: "Without a physical contract, how could your mother be willing to let Pingping come to Xiangcheng?"
Yunu sighed: "After all, we were raised by our mother. It is better to say that it is a physical bond than the pension money given to her. It is also because of the pension that my mother has no choice, so she is not too strict with us."
Speaking of this, Yunu looked at Huang Yuanwai with a pitiful expression.
