The ancients said: A sparse approach is better than a secret heart, and a lenient command is better than a strict one. In modern society, law is the most powerful weapon to stabilize social development, while in feudal society, the emperor is the law. Such a sharp contrast naturally forms different social systems. In contrast, modern law is more complete and completely It is a law that serves the people and is established based on the premise of protecting the people. In ancient times, the law served the emperor alone.
Even though modern laws are so sound, crimes cannot be avoided. In particular, crimes like rape are common, and the way they are tried is to measure the punishment based on the nature of the crime. But those who are careful will find that there were very few rape cases in ancient times, which makes people wonder, were all ancient people particularly decent? In fact, it has been proven that this is not the case. Don’t think about it too much. It’s just that the environment in which the ancients lived was different.
Men are superior to women, chastity system
In ancient times, it was known that women had a lower status, and they have always been in a state of men being superior to women in the entire social environment. For men, women are just tools for reproduction. As for family status, most of them are subordinate to men. Moreover, men can have three wives and four concubines, surrounded by beauties, but women can only live in one place, obeying their father before they are married, their husbands when they are married, and their sons after their husbands die. This status is destined to make women the target of being ravaged.
The life span of ancient people was short, coupled with constant wars, there was a serious imbalance in the social population ratio. You must know that war means a large amount of population consumption, which resulted in the phenomenon of more boys and girls. Moreover, in ancient times, sons were favored over daughters. Men could do many things, and giving birth to a girl was equivalent to giving birth to a "loser." This awareness has been instilled in their minds since childhood. The most constraining thing in their minds is the chastity system.
Under the influence of many factors, women in ancient times attached great importance to chastity. Officials would encourage women to remain widowed, while the people would verbally criticize women who remarried. Moral kidnapping If they have affairs with other people, they are unclean people. , such women will be pointed out everywhere, so under the constraints of the chastity system, ancient women attached great importance to their reputation, and once they were insulted, they would use their lives to protect their chastity. Therefore, the stories behind many chastity arches are unknown "accidents".
Cruel punishment, swallowing one's anger
The general environment has created a lowly chastity status for women. Needless to say, women from wealthy families have almost no risk of being raped, but for widows from small families, it is easy to be targeted. , especially those women who are somewhat pretty, are at greater risk of being raped. Once they are raped, they can only stay clean by death, otherwise what awaits them is the cruel punishment of "immersion in a pig cage". Even if they are victims, they are already regarded as unclean in the eyes of their family members. Pig cage to avoid bringing shame on the family.
What we know more is that women who have had an affair with others will be punished by being dipped in a pig cage. In fact, many of them were raped and had to be dipped in a pig cage. Naturally, we cannot do such a disgraceful thing. Publicizing the truth can only hide the truth as an unclean woman. And such things usually happen in big families. For those women with no family background, they can only swallow their anger.
If they are insulted by someone from a powerful family like a prince or general, they will either commit suicide or be dipped in a pig cage. Of course, this is when the matter is made public. Just imagine who is willing to die like this. As the saying goes, it is better to die than to live. Many women choose to swallow their anger and have no choice but to work as mistresses or concubines. Although there is no status at all, it is better than being immersed in a pig cage. a lot of. Therefore, behind those concubines and pig cages, there is some hidden rape case, but it is just not revealed.
Waiting in the boudoir, living in a deep house for a long time
It can be seen that rape cases rarely occurred in ancient times. It is not that the ancients were particularly decent, but they were recorded in different forms, such as chastity memorial arch, pig cage immersion, being a concubine, etc. , behind them are actually many cases of rape. However, in ancient times, women had a low status and did not dare to speak out. It not only ruined their own reputation, but also affected the entire family. Even if they were humiliated, they could only helplessly follow the society. Moral system, they have no choice.
In addition, there are some "lucky" women who have borrowed the "benefits" of the feudal system, which is to stay in the boudoir. Unmarried women, especially the daughters of families with good conditions, live in seclusion and are not allowed to have contact with strange men. Under such strict etiquette, these women will naturally not be at risk of being raped. Their husbands are the only ones they have contact with. Strangers of the opposite sex, and those lustful men lose the opportunity to commit crimes.
Married women or widows from wealthy families usually live in deep houses for a long time, and are surrounded by people when entering and exiting the house. Under such circumstances, they will naturally not give others the chance to rape. The more a woman from such a family comes from, in her thoughts Shangyue attaches great importance to the importance of chastity, which is deeply ingrained in their consciousness. Their precautions will also play a role in reducing the occurrence of rape cases. This is one of the reasons why there were so few rape cases in ancient times.
A land of fireworks, full of romance
It is natural for men to be lustful. It is often said that men use their lower body to think about problems. It is not unreasonable. For those poor men, survival is the first factor, and they will naturally not have evil thoughts. For those children from rich families, they want to have sex but do not want to commit rape and crime. At this time, the ancient feudal system provided them with A great place to spend time is the land of fireworks.
We often see records of brothels in historical materials, and the Song Dynasty was the most prosperous. Brothels became a romantic place for literati and poets, where they could find confidants who were not only as beautiful as flowers, but also had outstanding skills. , whether it is music, chess, calligraphy, painting, or bed skills, it will meet the needs of different men. With such a place, men will naturally not go out to rape.
Historical records record that the thin horses of Jianghuai are the most famous. These women are very beautiful and have been trained by the madam since they were young. The madam has also spent a lot of time and money on this. What he wants is that these thin horses will bring them a lot of money when they grow up. income. The lucky ones will be bought back as concubines by wealthy families, while the unlucky ones will become the top names in brothels.
It can be seen from this that in ancient times, wealthy men could have a good time in a brothel, where they could meet different "styles" of women they liked. Rather than risking rape, it was better to have a good time in a brothel. Special products like brothels naturally directly reduced the occurrence of rape cases in ancient times.
Summary
From the above factors, we can understand that ancient men were still romantic and lustful, even more so than modern men. The chastity system imposed on women made them victims but instead lost their lives. , or just swallow the humiliation and become a concubine, there is no other choice. In addition, some strict requirements for women also reduce the probability of contact with men, which will naturally reduce the probability of rape cases.
No matter what, under the feudal system, when women were humiliated, they could not use their human rights to defend their status, and they might even lose their lives. However, men had a higher status and had the upper hand. It was not that the ancients were particularly decent, so this rarely happened. Rape cases just manifest themselves in different forms.
