#长文创作激励计划#
When you usually watch some TV dramas, you must often see an elderly middle-aged woman in charge of the Qinglou, and other customers usually call her Lao Bustard.
I believe that many people have the same question as me when they were young, that is, why do everyone call the proprietress in the green building the bustard, and what is the origin of this statement?
In this regard, first figure out how the Qinglou came about, and then take a look at how the bustards mate.
1. How did the mainland Qinglou come about?
Qinglou, many people will directly understand it as an ancient brothel. In fact, they had very different meanings in the earliest days.
Qinglou refers to a luxurious and elegant house, usually the residence of some official prostitutes or wealthy women.
Before the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Qinglou did not mean a brothel at all, but as a compliment, it was often used to describe gorgeous houses, especially those of wealthy families.
For example, during the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Zhi wrote such a sentence in "Beauty Chapter": "By asking women to live in peace? but at the southern end of the city. The green building is close to the road, and the high gate is closed. ”
The "green building" here obviously refers not to the place of fireworks or the brothel, but to the green lacquered building where the woman lives.
This usage was very popular during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. In addition to being the residence of the wealthy, the Qinglou can also be used as a synonym for the imperial palace.
There is a theory that the origin of the word Qinglou is related to Emperor Qi Wu of the Southern Dynasty. Emperor Wu of Qi in the Southern Dynasty painted his palace blue, so it is called "Green Building".
This statement is mentioned in Yuan Mei's "Suiyuan Poems", which has a sentence that says, "Emperor Qi Wu applied green paint on Xingguang Tower, which is called Qinghui Building".
So the question is, when did Qinglou become widely used as a synonym for brothels?
The answer is also in the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, which can be traced back to a poem in Liu Miao's "Mulberry Picking Xing" of the Liang Dynasty: "The advocate woman is not sorrowful, and the end is under the green building".
In other words, the Kabuki or Sanyu couldn't bear the sorrow in his heart, so he sorted out his clothes and walked out of the green building.
Prior to this, in some literary and historical materials, there was no record of the Qinglou being called a brothel.
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After that, it was not common to use Qinglou to refer to brothels. But since the Tang Dynasty, the word Qinglou has gradually become a common word, officially representing the meaning of "brothel".
At that time, many literati and scholars would basically call the brothel "Qinglou".
It was not until the Northern and Southern Dynasties that Qinglou became a representative of brothels, but the origin of brothels in the mainland can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, society was in turmoil, and the princes were constantly competing for hegemony. The aristocracy began to keep prostitutes, known as "nüle", who could not only have fun with their masters, but also give them as gifts.
Later, the Xiangguo Guan Zhong of the Qi State set up the "Seven Hundred Nulu Villages" during the reform, that is, there were 700 prostitutes living on one street.
The purpose of Guan Zhong's establishment of brothels was to increase the financial revenue of the Qi state, alleviate class contradictions, attract talents, and provide for the enjoyment of the monarch and nobles.
Of course, there are also some experts and scholars who believe that brothels did not originate in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, but originated in the earlier Xia Dynasty.
As the first dynasty in the history of the mainland, the Xia Dynasty was in the period of slave society. Slave owners often waged wars in order to gain more land and slaves.
In war, good-looking female slaves often became toys for slave owners.
For example, in the "Historical Records", there is a record of "Xia Wei accumulates women's music and advocates excellence", indicating that there were already people similar to prostitutes during the Xia Dynasty.
In addition, some scholars believe that the origin of brothels in the mainland should be traced back to the Shang Dynasty.
At that time, the Red Dust Girls were witches (also known as witch prostitutes) and they enjoyed a high social status.
But it is not by making a living by giving out of the body, but by receiving goods from men out of admiration and gratitude to God.
However, there is a clear controversy in the academic community at present. After talking about the Qinglou, let's talk about bustards again.
2. How do bustards mate?
Bustards are relatively large birds, and they are also relatively special and easy to identify.
The wings of this bird are large and wide, which allows it to display a spectacular posture when flying high altitudes.
Bustards' plumage comes in many colors, but they are predominantly gray-brown or brown. The feathers of the upper body are usually mottled with stripes or spots.
The feathers on the lower half of the body are a little purer, usually of only one color, with no miscellaneous stripes or spots.
Such a color combination allows them to help conceal themselves in the wild.
Bustards have sharp beaks and are very hard, and can peck at various plant seeds, insects and small animals.
The legs are also stronger, which helps them to walk and run freely on the ground.
BustardsA bird that prefers to live on the ground, especially in environments such as open grasslands, wetlands, or farmland.
Bustards are also social animals and often fly in groups of twos and threes, especially during the breeding season, when these bustards gather together to form larger groups, which can better help them defend themselves against foreign enemies while breeding.
Bustards are omnivores, which can eat all kinds of small insects, small earthworms, and plant animals such as grass seeds and fruits, but the latter is the majority.
Whenever courtship, the male bustard will perform various gorgeous dances and melodious chirpings in front of the female bustard to attract the attention of the other.
Bustards are widespread in many countries and regions, but are mainly concentrated in parts of Asia, Europe and Africa.
Bustards also exist in many areas of the mainland, especially in the grasslands and wetlands of Northeast China, North China, and Northwest China.
Nowadays, due to man-made reasons, many suitable habitats for bustards have been destroyed, and their numbers on the mainland have been greatly reduced, and they have directly become endangered and protected species.
Not only the mainland, but also other countries and regions are facing an existential crisis due to the interference of human activities.
In order to protect the survival of bustards, many countries and regions have tried to restore their populations by establishing nature reserves and implementing artificial breeding.
The mating method of bustards is relatively special, and it is not a male bustard and a female bustard as we normal people understand, pairing.
To put it simply, in the bustard's mating system, a pair of many (usually 5-7) is very common, and it is also due to their nature.
When mating is complete, the female bustards leave the mating site to find a suitable place to nest. The eggs that are successfully hatched will be borne by the male and female parents in turn.
3. Why is the proprietress of the Qinglou called the old bustard?
The word "bustard" refers to a kind of bird in ancient Chinese in mainland China, which is what we now call a bustard.
Ancient people also discovered the characteristics of one-to-many mating by observing bustards. Therefore, in ancient times, the bustard bird was given the derogatory title of "the wife of ten thousand birds".
And the woman in the Qinglou is what she does, everyone must know it.
Therefore, the word "bustard" in "Lao Bustard", if it is taken out alone, it alludes to the woman in the green building.
plus the word "old", referring to the older women in the green building.
The older women in the Qinglou are usually the managers or proprietress of the Qinglou.
It is precisely because of this that the ancient people chose to call the manager or proprietress in the green building "the old bustard".
During the Ming Dynasty, there was a record of "the old man of the prostitute called the bustard", which marked that the word "old bustard" officially became the title of the proprietress of the Qinglou.
After thousands of years of word of mouth, this title has gradually become fixed.
In addition to this, there is also a theory that the proprietress of the Qinglou is responsible for managing or controlling the prostitutes and dealing with various customers.
This way of working is similar to the behavior of the ancients who believed that the female bustard could mate with any bird, so the ancients used "old bustard" to call the proprietress of the Qinglou.
It's a crude symbolic analogy.
Coupled with the ancient society, Qinglou was often regarded as a lowly place, and the social status of Qinglou women and proprietress was relatively low.
Therefore, the title "old bustard" is obviously derogatory and contemptuous.
epilogue
In the beginning, the term Qinglou did not refer to a brothel, but to a more luxurious house where women lived, or directly to a palace. Later, it gradually became synonymous with brothels.
The term bustard is mainly due to the fact that the ancients discovered the special one-to-many mating method of the bustard, and then made a crude symbolic analogy between the two.
It is worth mentioning that this title itself carries a certain derogatory and contemptuous connotation.
It reflects the prejudice of ancient society against women, especially women engaged in the profession of Qinglou, and also explains the tragic fate of women in ancient Qinglou.
References:
Fushuo History2023-07-12The Mystery of Bustard Reproduction: Revealing the True Meaning of "Old Bustard" in the Ancient Qinglou! 》
Xiu'er Says History2024-01-25 Why do you call the proprietress of the ancient Qinglou "Lao Bustard"? In fact, the bustard has carried a thousand years of grievances"
Popular Science of Forest Animals2024-05-24Why is the owner of the Qinglou called the bustard? Do the bustards of the "wife of all birds" mate with all birds? 》