Chapter 1: People in the Song Dynasty viewed marriage and love. The TV series "Know, Do You Know, It Should Be Green, Fat, Red and Thin" (hereinafter referred to as "Know or Not") tells the story of Sheng Minglan, a concubine of the Sheng family, who lives in a large house where

Chapter 1: Song Dynasty people's views on marriage and love Song Dynasty people's views on marriage and love In a large house where his father died and his father was unkind, he relied on his kind and wise grandmother to stay humble and hide his foolishness, endure humiliation and bear the burden to become self-reliant and self-reliant, and finally achieve success for himself and his family. There were several marriages involved during the

period, which can quite show the Song people's unique views on marriage and love, and provides an important reference for us to understand the social landscape of the Song Dynasty, especially the marriage customs.

Imperial Examination and No. ── Catching a Son-in-law under the List

In the play, the father of the young prince Qi Heng has a first-class title. Why does he have to take the imperial examination and have to take it again if he fails once? This is a sign that people in the Song Dynasty attached great importance to "passing the imperial examination".

The imperial examination system began in the Sui and Tang dynasties. The rulers of the Song Dynasty emphasized civility and suppressed military force, making it more complete and mature.

In the Song Dynasty, there were a large number of imperial examination talents, and their official career was promoted very quickly. Jinshi and people could enjoy high-ranking officials and generous salaries, especially the number one scholar who only came out every three years. They had a valuable status and could become the leader of the country in less than ten years. .

People in the Song Dynasty were extremely fanatical in their pursuit of those who passed the imperial examination. On the day when the results were released, these talented people attracted all the attention. Even the supreme ministers paid close attention to them. Ordinary people crowded into the streets and even climbed to the rooftops to watch the talented people. Some people joked that "the glory of becoming the number one scholar cannot be compared to the glory of having hundreds of thousands of troops to recapture the sixteen states of Yanyun".

This mentality gave birth to the custom of "catching a son-in-law under the ranking list" in the Song Dynasty. On the day the ranking list was released, wealthy and wealthy families in the capital would "catch people" in front of the ranking list to find their favorite son-in-law.

It can be seen from this that once scholars in the Song Dynasty passed the imperial examination, they were winners in life with promising official careers and happy marriages.

Regarding this point, the famous poem of the Song Dynasty "Wealth does not need to buy fertile land, there are thousands of bells of millet in books. There is no need to raise a high hall to live in peace, wealth has its own golden house. Don't hate no one to follow you when you go out, there are many cars and horses in the book. Marry a wife Don't hate the unscrupulous matchmaker, the book has its own beauty." is a more appropriate description.

As the saying goes, "Everything is of low quality, only reading is good." From the perspective of marriage and love, "the son will be a Jinshi and the daughter will marry a scholar-bureaucrat" became the ultimate wish of parents in the Song Dynasty. Therefore, passing the imperial examination is the young prince's inner realization of the value of life in marrying. The only way to find your sweetheart.

Regarding catching a son-in-law under the rankings, on the day when the results of the first scientific examination were released in the play, the Sheng family sisters all went out. They were also ridiculed that they were afraid of passing the exam. The second brother of the Sheng family Changbai was "captured" and away from the capital. The dignitaries commented on the elegant Gu Tingye , intending to steal him as their son-in-law, but gave up after others pointed out his reputation as a libertine.

The Song people's enthusiastic praise of those who passed the imperial examinations promoted the prosperity of education on the one hand, and on the other hand it also greatly contributed to the pride of scholars.

Scholars are from a "Qingliu" family, and they are arrogant even if their family background is not high. Therefore, when the Gu family proposed marriage to the Sheng family, they called themselves "a martial artist" and praised the other party as a "Qingliu family". They immediately seized the power of the Sheng family. The person's psychology can lead to a smooth marriage negotiation.

The imperial examination created conditions for the rise of scholars from poor families. The so-called "Being a farmer in the morning and ascending to the emperor's hall in the evening" talks about the life reversal that passing the imperial examination brought to the scholars from poor families. Scholars have a very high status, and even scholars are arrogant.

In the play, Sheng Shulan's husband became a scholar at a young age, became a noble son of a poor family, married a wealthy family, and relied on his wife's family for all the family expenses. He relied on his fame to sleep in love and looked down on his wife who was a merchant, and humiliated her in every possible way, which also reflects the Song Dynasty. The real situation of some scholars.

In addition, in the Song Dynasty, those who wanted to catch a son-in-law did not care about their family background, or even whether they were married. This was the social reason why the imperial examination produced "heartless men" and "Chen Shimei".

There is such a short story in the storybook of the Song Dynasty. A scholar surnamed had married the eldest daughter of a family before he passed the imperial examination. After he passed the imperial examination, the woman died of illness. The family wanted to marry their second daughter to him. He, he refused, but he proposed that he wanted someone else's little daughter. The mother-in-law was resentful: she had to pick and choose after she got the right one! But he still married off his younger daughter.

It can be seen that as long as you pass the imperial examination, there is no need to examine your character.

Marrying a wealthy scholar - a rich woman marrying into a wealthy family

Marrying a wife to discuss wealth was a very prominent social phenomenon in the Song Dynasty.

Catching a son-in-law means "catching money". Whether it is a high-ranking official or a wealthy businessman, marrying off a daughter will cost a lot of money.

Those who achieve Jinshi often choose whether to hire a matchmaker based on the size of the other party's investment. In other words, as long as you have money, you don't have to worry about your character, family background and appearance.

In the play, Gu Hou's successor is the daughter of the Bai family, a wealthy businessman in Jiangnan. The family only marries her to replenish the family business with her generous dowry, causing tragedy for the two families for two generations.

The Song Dynasty notebook novel " Yijianzhi" records many anecdotes in which men dreamed of marrying a rich wife, broke their engagement to marry another rich wife, and sought a concubine from a rich family just after the death of their ex-wife. This reflects the attempts of men in the Song Dynasty through marriage. The social psychology of getting rich.

Women in the Song Dynasty also had the right to inherit property. . There is a story in "Yi Jian Zhi". A woman with a pockmarked face died of her husband and left a fortune. Later, there were many suitors, and soon the woman also died, and Her later husband changed his destiny by marrying her.

Marrying a rich wife has, to a certain extent, fostered the phenomenon of women marrying rich.

The "thick dowry" is repeatedly mentioned in the TV series "Do You Know". The eldest daughter of the Sheng family married an earl, and the dowry was rich, which can be called "a red dowry". Lin Xiaoniang of the Sheng family married her daughter Mo Lan, and she coveted the assets of her grandmother and married for wealth. The daughter does not hesitate to offend her husband.

The night before her wedding, the heroine Sheng Minglan arranged her dowry by candlelight with her grandmother, who loved her most. When she returned home, her grandmother bluntly said that in order for a woman to live a comfortable life, she must first have money.

In the Song Dynasty, a woman’s dowry was an important asset for establishing herself in her husband’s family, so those who married a woman should seek more, the better.

Moreover, the dowry of a woman in the Song Dynasty was at her own disposal after marriage. Generally, her husband's family would not use it, otherwise they would be ridiculed.

There is such a plot in the play. When Hua Lan, the legitimate daughter of the Sheng family, returned to her parents' home, she complained that her husband's family was in a mess. She used dowry money to make up for it again and again. Her mother immediately wanted to argue, claiming that the Earl's Palace actually had the face. There is money from the wife’s dowry.

It has become a common practice to marry a woman based on her wealth. If a poor family has no money to marry a daughter, they can only let their daughter be a concubine, serve officials or be "left" at home.

In the Song Dynasty, women would become "leftover women" because they had no money to get married. This is quite similar to how people today often ridicule men who have no money to marry a wife. In fact, the imperial examination talents that were valued in marriages in the Song Dynasty were similar to today's "boyfriends within the system." What's wonderful?

It can be seen that although the wheel of history is rolling forward, the emotions of the times still come and go, and it seems that nothing much has changed.