Sui and Tang dynasty marriage status, Li Shimin's 27-year-old married daughter Bai Juyi was 37 years old, and the bottom was unmarried for life
According to the Duyi Zhi, after the Xuanwumen Rebellion in 626 AD, the 27-year-old Li Shimin married Xiao Yu, who was the left servant of Shangshu at the age of 52, in order to consolidate military and political power, and Li Shimin gave his eldest daughter Princess Xu to Xiao Yu's eldest son Xiao Rui. There is no doubt that this political marriage has given Li Yuanchao's former ministers a reassuring pill, which is of great significance.
In the same year, the twelve-year-old Princess Xiangcheng married Xiao Rui. Political factors aside, the early marriage and early childbearing of the Gaomen clan in the Sui and Tang dynasties are not unique, but very common.
Why were the Gaomen clan able to marry and have children early at that time?
In the second year of the sui dynasty, Emperor Wen of Sui and his wife chose concubines for their second son Yang Guang, the king of Jin, and the fifteen-year-old Xiao clan was born in the Liang Dynasty royal family, and was both talented and beautiful, and was chosen as Yang Guang's wife, while Yang Guang was only 13 years old at the time.
After a gap of several decades, the sixteen-year-old Li Shimin was marrying his thirteen-year-old wife, Changsun Shi, and before his marriage, he had concubines in the house, the eldest daughter Princess Xiangcheng, and the eldest daughter Princess Changle, the former of whom was married at the age of twelve, and the latter was married at the age of thirteen; in addition, Li Shimin's niece Dou Huniang married Sun Wu'ao, the cousin of Empress Changsun, at the age of thirteen, as Lady Xuxian, and so on.
From this point of view, it is not difficult to infer that the reason why the high-gate clans at that time were able to marry early and have children early was inseparable from sufficient economic strength, social prestige, and political influence.
In other words, the powerful, rich and some people, for the high-gate clan, the bride price, dowry is not worried, Tim Ding, import is not afraid to raise, not only so early to marry the two surnames, not only can strengthen the family, form a strong family force, but also can integrate the resources of the two families, deepen the relationship between each other's relatives, form a "1 + 1>2" political synergy, and jointly become bigger and stronger in all aspects, why not enjoy it?
Bai Juyi Du Fu's poems look at the Sui and Tang marriages, the nobles have three wives and four concubines, and the low-level people are lonely and widowed all their lives
Throughout the Sui and Tang Dynasties, was it early marriage and early childbearing?
However, it is biased to say that early marriage and early childbearing applied to the entire Sui and Tang dynasties. Whether it is modern or ancient, whether it is China or the West, the marriage market also follows the Gini coefficient, and there is a gap between "rich and poor".
Phase 1:
In the early years of the Tang Dynasty, when the war was just calm, the society was initially determined, and everything was in ruins to be rebuilt, in order to promote economic prosperity and recuperation, it was natural to encourage early marriage and early childbearing and increase the population. For example, Li Shimin once issued an edict in the first year of Zhenguan, setting the age of civil marriage at twenty years old for men and fifteen years for women, which is only lower than the custom of the Gaomen clan.
Stage 2:
During the first year of Tang Xuanzong's reign, the economic prosperity and material living standards increased significantly, the country became rich and the people were strong, and the legal age of marriage was lowered again to fifteen years for men and thirteen years for women.
Stage 3:
In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, due to social unrest, land annexation, economic deterioration and other reasons, the gap between the rich and the poor widened, which naturally and profoundly affected the people's marital status, and the problem of late marriage was more prominent. Written by the famous poet Bai Juyi in the middle and late Tang Dynasty
In modern times, there are many chaos, marriages are more expired, marriage is not early, and fertility is often bitter and late
"It is to lament this phenomenon.
Of course, the law belongs to the law, and the social situation is also"
Adapt to the conditions of the times and adapt to local conditions
According to the study of Tang Dynasty epitaphs, nearly 75% of women married in the 13-19 age group in the Tang Dynasty, and basically did not marry in the age group over 23 years old; while 63.4% of men married in the 11-25 age group, and basically did not marry in the age group over 38 years old.
However, we know that most of the people who can leave epitaphs behind them are from the families of nobles and eunuchs, and the marriage age of men is still uneven in the morning and evening, so it is not difficult to speculate that the vast number of lower-class commoners may be."
Full of fullness dies, thirst dies of thirst
"Status: Some people have three wives and four concubines, and some people are lonely and widowed all their lives.
Modern people marry late mostly because of the way they live and work, so what is the reason for the late marriage of the ancients?
Unlike modern people who advocate a diversified lifestyle and voluntarily choose to be single and Dink, the late marriage of the ancients is mostly due to objective difficulties.
One: poverty. Women cannot afford to accompany women, and men cannot afford dowries.
For example, Du Fu wrote in "Negative Salary Line": "The virgin of Kuizhou is half Hua, and forty-fifty no husbands are homeless." He was also bereaved and did not sell his marriage, and he held a grudge all his life. "Poverty and war have led to the inability of low-level women to marry for life. Bai Juyi wrote more bluntly in "Marriage Negotiation": "
Rich women are easy to marry, and marry early and light on their husbands. Poor women are difficult to marry, and they marry late and filial piety to their aunts.
”
Second: high is not achieved, low is not enough.
The representative figure is Bai Juyi, who has repeatedly written poems to comment on marriage problems. Bai Juyi sympathized with the poor woman's late marriage, but he himself did not marry until the age of 37. At his age, Li Shimin had two grandchildren, both six or seven years old. Compared with the above-mentioned Tang Dynasty male marriage age ratio, Bai Juyi is also honored to rank among the most "old and difficult", but people are talented and famous, and late marriage is purely high-minded.
Personally, I believe that the phenomenon of late marriage represented by Bai Juyi, which is "high or not, low or low", is the result of the further deepening of the "Mendi Bloodline Cult" since the Wei and Jin dynasties. In the social atmosphere that attaches importance to the original family background of the spouse, the mendi or the strength of the middle and lower reaches of the upper class are waiting for the price to be sold, not eager to get married, focusing on the business career, hoping to rely on the success of the career in exchange for a wife from a high-gate family.
Bai Juyi was born in a small local bureaucratic family, his father and grandfather were all finally officials in the county order, the family lineage is much stronger than the common people, but in your circle such a family can not be ranked, the so-called "high is not low is not enough", until Tang Xian zongyuan and bai Juyi served as a left shiyi for three years, only to marry a Miss Yang from the Hongnong Yang clan, which is considered to be the power of the Gaomen clan.
Zooming in on the entire late Tang Dynasty society, Bai Juyi was still one of the lucky young men among the older men, but what about the low-level laborers of the same dynasty?
They worked all day for food and clothing, but they still could not afford to buy a house, give a bride price, could not afford to get married, could not have a baby, could not inherit the blood incense, and the energy and resentment that had nowhere to be released were corrupted into resentment against the court and society, accumulating deeper and deeper in their hearts, and eventually it was inevitable that the flower of human evil full of hostility would blossom.
A few years later, they must have been present in the Huangchao rebel army that had entered Chang'an to destroy the fortunes of the Tang Dynasty, and they had broken the superiority of the Gaomen clan in the form of an uprising.