Feudal society is one of the longest stages in Chinese history, the rise and fall of the state and the change of dynasties are the most common phenomena, in addition, the strict hierarchy is a prominent feature of this period, in the family society, the royal family is the largest family in the world, the emperor is the supreme status of the ninety-five, and is regarded as the noble blood.
In the case of this kind of hierarchical restriction is extremely obvious, blood inheritance is the most important thing for people, famous families pay attention to inheritance, ordinary families pay attention to "son inheritance father's business", the son here refers to the "eldest son", which is the next generation of society at that time is the most qualified to inherit the existence of the family business, and there are corresponding daughters.
But what many people don't understand is that the status determined by the distinction between the concubines and the concubines is not absolute, and there are many times when there will be abnormal special phenomena, such as the Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty, although she has been in power for decades, although she is the identity of the concubine, but before she had to bow to the Empress Dowager Ci'an, who was a concubine, if she did not take power later, Cixi would not be able to raise her head in front of Ci'an for the rest of her life.
The tacit system of respect and inferiority of the elders
Human beings evolved from primates, and there was a hierarchy from the very beginning, and in the primitive society, because the usual production depended on gathering and gathering for a living, so women were dominant, and during this period, it was the men in the society who were clearly divided into ranks, and the higher grades that contributed more to the tribe were arranged downward as the contribution decreased.
In a society dominated by women, labor was relatively scarce, so there was no concept of grandeur, after entering the slave society, women's dominance began to decline, the change of production relations led to men becoming the main labor force in society, and the emergence and widespread spread of polygamy promoted hierarchical changes in society.
In the Western Zhou Dynasty, in order to facilitate the rule of Zhou Tianzi over the princes and kings in various places, he began to implement the sub-feudal system, and it was from this time that a clear hierarchical division began to appear in the area under the jurisdiction of the Western Zhou Dynasty, in order to ensure the purity of the royal lineage of the Zhou Dynasty, it was clearly stipulated that no marriage could be made between different ranks, which was related to the core of the sub-feudal system.
It has been used for thousands of years "primogeniture inheritance system", this system is established under the situation that there are many heirs and it is difficult to choose, as the so-called there is a grandson, there is no grandson, because the spouses of the ancients have a distinction between the dignity and inferiority of wives and concubines, and the first one born to a wife is called a son-in-law, and the first one is called "a long-term heir", whether it is a royal family or an ordinary family, only they have the qualification to inherit the family business.
As long as it is born to a concubine, it is collectively referred to as a concubine, and its status is much lower than that of the concubine of the family, and there is no inheritance right under normal circumstances.
Taking women as an example, the status of women in ancient societies was generally low, but there would also be obvious hierarchical divisions in slightly larger families, the main wife was born to a concubine, and the concubine was born to a concubine.
For large families, the status gap between concubines and concubines will directly affect their marital status, because of the interests involved in the big family, women's marriage has a strong political nature, and they are very committed to the right family, which restricts women's emotional freedom, but it may also bring them a change in status.
These women may have descendants in their own families, and once married, their status will generally change depending on the status of their husbands.
Exceptions are typical
This situation has occurred in "Dream of Red Mansions", one of the four famous novels, such as Jia Yu's two children, Jia Yu and Jia Zheng, both of whom are descendants, but Jia Yu is the eldest son, and Jia Zheng is secondary, and from the perspective of the whole story, Jia Zheng's status is much higher than Jia Yu, not only everyone in the house, but even most of the subordinates think so.
This has something to do with the status of the two, Jia Yu is a descendant, but he has done nothing, he is drunk all day long, addicted to gambling, lustful, and has no contribution to Jiafu, the person in power Jia Mu doesn't like him at all, and then look at Jia Zheng, he provoked the beam of Jiafu as the second son. He also became an official of the imperial court, so his status was higher.
The same is true for women, as we all know, Wang Xifeng is not only Jia Lian's wife, but also the big housekeeper in Jia's mansion, she is responsible for many trivial things, after Qin Keqing's death, she even took charge of the two mansions by herself, the people in the mansion are respectful to her, and the subordinates are afraid of her, even Jia's mother She dares to joke and has a very high status.
But what people didn't expect was that Wang Xifeng was just a concubine in her original family, although it was not clearly stated in the book, but it was described that Wang Xifeng's brother had no family inheritance, which means that Wang Xifeng herself is not a concubine, and the reason why she can call the wind and rain in Jiafu is because her husband Jia Lian has a high status in the house.
In the "Four Springs" of Daguanyuan, Jia Yuanchun, as the eldest daughter, is not only the highest status in the second generation of the family, but also married the current emperor and became a concubine, and her status reached its peak with the dignity of her husband.
Dream of Red Mansions is just a microcosm of the feudal hierarchy of the Qing Dynasty, in fact, such status changes were very common in the Qing Dynasty, and the Empress Dowager Cixi, who was very famous in history, had such an experience.
Cixi's origin and family background
Kang Yongqian's three dynasties were the most powerful period of the Qing Dynasty, since the Jiaqing Emperor ascended the throne, the times have been in decline, Xianfeng is also the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty to have real power, the reason why this is so is completely because of a woman, that is, the Empress Dowager Cixi.
She is a very special existence in Chinese history, so her family background has been debated endlessly, but with the continuous discovery of relevant documents later, the background of Cixi's net worth has finally been determined.
The genealogy can be traced back to know that Cixi is the Yehenara clan, when she was seventeen years old through the draft into the palace, by the then Xianfeng Emperor canonized as a Lan noble, from the family experience, although Cixi is the Manchu Qing inlaid blue flag, but because her own family is a criminal minister, so the original Xianfeng Emperor ignored her.
Cixi was not reconciled to this, at this time she already had great ambitions, the emperor's resistance to her could not stop her thirst for power, so she tried every means to create an opportunity to meet Emperor Xianfeng, and finally in the imperial garden with her own unique singing voice to his liking, attracted the attention of Emperor Xianfeng, won favor and gave birth to Emperor Tongzhi who would succeed him in the future.
As the so-called mother is more expensive than her son, especially in the current situation of the Qing Dynasty, Cixi will be more popular because of this son, Xianfeng soon named him Yi Concubine, which is the beginning of the Empress Dowager Cixi's power.
At that time, the situation of the Qing Dynasty was very complicated, there were invasions from foreign powers, successive defeats made the rule of the Qing Dynasty precarious, coupled with the outbreak of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement in China, the dire government made Emperor Xianfeng very busy, but he was too weak to maintain the political situation, and it was difficult to continue even lifting a pen and writing.
At this time, the role of the Empress Dowager Cixi was reflected, she became the ghostwriter of the Xianfeng Emperor with her perfect calligraphy, helping to write the holy decree while always putting forward some constructive suggestions, which was the beginning of Cixi's intervention in politics, and in the period of the Tongzhi Emperor, it was to open the curtain to listen to the government.
Empress Dowager Ci'an's contrast suppression
At this time, the Empress Dowager Cixi could not cover the sky with one hand, because at that time Emperor Xianfeng also had a genuine queen that was Ci'an, she was Niu Hulu's family, Xianfeng entered the palace in the second year, only from the perspective of origin, Ci'an and Cixi can not be compared at all, Niu Hulu from the level of view, as the Manchu Qing Dynasty's white flag, far lower than the Empress Dowager Cixi's blue flag.
Moreover, Ci'an is still a concubine in the family, if the two are not married, then the status of Cixi and Ci'an is the difference between heaven and earth, once both of them are married to the emperor, then the status of the two will be rejudged according to the emperor's favor.
Compared with Cixi's deliberate attempt to attract the emperor's attention, although Ci'an was the identity of the concubine, he was favored by Emperor Xianfeng very early, in addition, the Empress Dowager Cixi entered the palace by her own means, because her son was canonized, but Ci'an was completely different.
Because of the emperor's favor, she was canonized as a concubine within only two months of entering the palace, and in the next four months, she rose to the top and was directly canonized as the queen.
Cixi has a son, but she is only a concubine, never became the queen, the relationship between the two was very good in the early days, Ci'an was kind, and Cixi's children were also very good, and later the two also dealt with the eight ministers together, of course, all this is on the surface, because of the emperor's favor, Cixi has always been pressed by Ci'an to raise her head.
Maybe it's been like this all my life, Ci'an is a concubine, but she has the identity of the queen, even if Emperor Xianfeng died later, this situation has not changed, that is, as long as Emperor Xianfeng dies, no one can change the identity of Empress Ci'an.
In this way, even if the two were promoted to the empress dowager at the same time, Cixi's status was firmly suppressed by Ci'an, and even the eight ministers who governed the emperor and managed the country also showed a difference in attitude, and Cixi's identity became pale and powerless in the face of the emperor's favor, and the status of the so-called concubine was nothing more than that.
Perhaps because of this, Cixi regarded Ci'an as her biggest threat, and soon after the curtain was lowered, she carried out a series of operations such as seizing power and excluding dissidents, and finally Ci'an was made into a human being and imprisoned, but the gap between the two in identity could not be changed.
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