Many people believe that prostitutes start from Eastern Zhou , and the "ancestor" of this industry is Guan Zhong . The author believes that before the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, there were many women engaged in flesh-and-skin business, but this industry was standardized and nationalized in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, so later generations would think that Spring and Autumn Qi State was the birthplace of prostitutes.
Although in a strict sense, Guan Zhong is not the ancestor of the prostitute, he is a great economist. In order to increase the fiscal revenue of Qi, Guan Zhong suggested that the King of Qi open a "inner village" in the palace, solving the employment problems of more than 700 prostitutes at one time, and allowing this group to be protected by national policies. Although the "official brothel" does not conform to the ideological values of modern people, in that era when the ideas were not yet civilized, the "inner village" opened by Guan Zhong effectively solved the economic problems of Qi.
In fact, it is not just modern people who sneered at Guan Zhong's "inner neighbor". At that time, from scholars and officials to peddlers and pawns, many people in Qi were resistant to Guan Zhong's opening of an official brothel. "The Strategy of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty" mentioned:
" Qi Huangong Seven cities in the palace, and the inner neighborhoods are 700, and the people of the country miss it."
Although Qi is not the birthplace of prostitutes, the earliest voice of "prostitution ban" in the world came from here.
However, although this incident caused an uproar in Qi at that time, it did not play any role. Qi's prostitutes flourished and promoted the national economy. The reason for this situation is probably because the literati and priests who were shouting "prostitution ban" were all over the place, and after get off work they got into the "inner neighborhood". The so-called "prostitution ban" was just a thunder and a little rain.
After the Qin and Han dynasties, Guan Zhong's system was preserved and evolved into a more complete "household system" and "official prostitute system". The people worked as a result of the ups and downs, and "breastern culture" also appeared among the people. Although the topic of "bringing house" is a bit ambiguous, we cannot deny that this is part of ancient folk culture.
During the Tang Dynasty period, the court opened many state-owned brothels. The ministers of the court often joined hands to support the "development of state-owned enterprises" after get off work and went to the brothels to relax. In order to reward civil and military officials, the court also introduced a series of preferential policies, which even reimburse officials for prostitution.
The people living in Chang'an will see such a scene every day. Brothels appear every other section of the street in the street. Every night, the entire Chang'an City sings and dances to peace. Unlike modern people who are afraid of "prostitutes", visiting prostitutes in the Tang Dynasty was not a shameful act, but rather an elegant act. The high-ranking officials and nobles and scholars linger in the fireworks place without any hesitation, just like we are visiting nightclubs.
In fact, we don’t need to think of ancient clients as they are particularly dirty. Their purpose of going to brothels is not just to vent their sexual desire. There were many entertainment projects in the brothels of the Tang Dynasty, including piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, poetry and writing pairs, dancing, and juggling. The atmosphere is not as smoky as modern people imagine, and it is more elegant. According to legend, the minister of the Tang Dynasty Ouyang Zhan fell in love with a fair woman. Unfortunately, the beauty is poor, and the woman died of illness not long after they got along. After hearing about this, Ouyang Zhan took leave to the brothel, lying on his lover's coffin and cried bitterly, and later he simply committed suicide to commit suicide.
Surprisingly, Ouyang Zhan's behavior was not only not condemned by the public opinion at that time, but also understood by many scholars and officials. At that time, people said that Ouyang Zhan was a guy who valued love and friendship. From this we can see that the people at that time had long been accustomed to the fact that officials were visiting prostitutes, and the behavior of visiting prostitutes would not be regarded as a corrupt morality.
However, the reason why the people of the Tang Dynasty were so tolerant of prostitutes was entirely due to the relatively open atmosphere of the Tang Dynasty. By , the situation was very different in the Song Dynasty. As time goes by, the Song people's thoughts have become more and more conservative, especially among the people. The working people hate the behavior of "prostitution" that destroys family harmony. As a result, a wave of "moral ban on prostitution" was set off among the people in the early Song Dynasty, and the people no longer tolerate prostitutes and clients.
However, after all, prostitute business has been developing for hundreds of years, and relying solely on "moral ban on prostitution" is obviously useless. During the Song Dynasty, there were many prostitutes, ranging from official prostitutes, camp prostitutes, family prostitutes to private forms of secret prostitutes. Those who engage in this profession included prisoners from enemy countries, widowed widows, female relatives from sinner families, and women who sold themselves simply for money. It was easy to understand that the Song Dynasty's lack of ban on prostitution at that time. If this industry was banned, these women would face the risk of unemployment.
However, the imperial court ordered the situation to ban the situation of "forcing good people to become prostitutes" and prevent the corruption of people's customs from the perspective of the access mechanism. In addition, the rulers of the Song Dynasty also imposed certain restrictions on the sexual consumption behavior of consumers, mainly to prevent officials who shoulder social responsibilities from affecting their public office due to prostitution. After Song Renzong ascended the throne, he issued a ban: officials in charge of prisons prohibited entry and exit of brothels, which was to prevent law enforcement officers from delaying law enforcement work due to prostitution or being exploited.
After Song Shenzong came to power, the scope of the ban was expanded. Not only prison personnel, but also supervisory officials were included in the ban. However, in order to prevent this group of officials who were "treated differently", Song Shenzong made a fuss and allowed them to "relax" for a day of the year. On Song Shenzong's birthday, the ban on prison guards from visiting prostitutes will be temporarily lifted. Therefore, every day, the supervisory staff will go out in groups to the place of love and mistresses and vent all their depression this year.
At that time, people used a poem to describe the scene of that day, which was:
"March is 30th, and I will sing hard.
You don't need to sleep tonight, and it's still spring before the morning bell."
Ming Dynasty , the court's efforts to "ban prostitution" became more and more relaxed. The founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang not only did not think that prostitution was a manifestation of the corruption of morality, but instead vigorously promoted it. In order to increase the treasury income, Zhu Yuanzhang opened more than a dozen brothels near Qinhuai River .
At first, there were very few prostitutes coming to work on the Qinhuai River. For this reason, Zhu Yuanzhang also collected many "experienced" women from all over the country and arranged them to their posts. In a sense, Zhu Yuanzhang's original intention is similar to Guan Zhong in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. In the early Ming Dynasty, the economy was in a depression and the national treasury was tense. Zhu Yuanzhang had to find a way to drive "domestic demand". Due to the strong promotion of the court and officials took the lead in consumption, the development of the prostitute industry reached its peak in the early Ming Dynasty. Not only would prostitutes appear in banquets between high-ranking officials and nobles at that time, but even the daily social engagements of officials could be held in brothels.
However, although brothels fill the treasury, brothels also have various negative effects. We don’t know how many families were destroyed by the official brothels in the early Ming Dynasty and how many human tragedies were caused. We only know that the people’s calls for “ban prostitution” were getting stronger and stronger at that time. Zhu Zhanji Before he ascended the throne, he saw the negative impact of official prostitutes on society. Therefore, after Zhu Zhanji came to power, he immediately issued an order to ban official prostitutes and explicitly prohibited officials from visiting prostitutes. Unfortunately, Zhu Zhanji focused all on official prostitutes, and the ban on private prostitutes was insufficient.
After Zhu Zhanji's policy of banning prostitution was introduced, the local gentry immediately came up with countermeasures. They raised prostitutes at home and cleverly played the edge of the court's "ban on prostitution". As official prostitutes were banned, many prostitutes who had lost their livelihood appeared everywhere. In order to survive, they had to open secret prostitutes. Therefore, although Zhu Zhanji issued an order to "ban prostitution", the prostitutes did not become extinct, but only existed in a more concealed way.
After Zhu Zhanji's death, the later Ming Dynasty rulers relaxed their restrictions on prostitutes again. In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the Qinhuai River was unprecedentedly prosperous, far better than in the early Ming dynasty. Not only are there rows of brothels located on both sides of the Qinhuai River, but there are countless painting boats floating in the river. "Miscellaneous Notes on Banqiao" written by the Qing people is actually a record of prostitution by officials, students and literati. The " Qinhuai Eight Beauty " recorded in it is the eight most popular prostitutes on the banks of the Qinhuai River.
From the above records, we can see that the restrictions on prostitutes by rulers throughout the ages have mostly remained verbally and no corresponding criminal laws have been issued, so the development of the prostitute industry has never stopped.
However, by Qing Dynasty , the life of the prostitute was no longer good.
After Kangxi came to power, he repeatedly reiterated the "ban on prostitution" and issued clear regulations:
"Partners opened a kiln to lure women's children, and the leader was the only one who was killed by a bachelor's behavior, and sent people wearing armor to slaves from Heilongjiang and other places."
Jiaqing After ascending the throne, he further strengthened the punishment:
"Where to prostitution inside and outside the capital, he was punished for a long time. In addition to the crime of being punished as usual, he rented it to the owner of the house. He was 80 stumbling on the first crime and was a month's pledge..."
In fact, rulers of all dynasties have been studying the issue of "ban on prostitution", and many emperors have put it into practice. However, only the Qing emperors "acted the truth" and turned "moral ban on prostitution" into "legal ban on prostitution". Even though Kangxi and Jiaqing issued more perfect restrictions, the effect of "banning prostitution" has always been unsatisfactory.
The bureaucratic system during the Qing Dynasty was flawed, so many private prostitutes had contacts with local officials. These private prostitution news are very well-informed. Every time the court intensifies its efforts to "anti-pornography", they always receive news and "disappear collectively." Therefore, the beginning of "Yangzhou Guzhu Ci" appears as follows:
"As soon as the ban is met, he will escape from life and death, and he will not know where to go..."
It can be seen that the "ban on prostitution" system proposed by the Qing emperor is not perfect, and it is easy to be exploited by private prostitution. In the late Qing Dynasty, the prostitution industry flourished again. As Western powers knocked on the country's doors, the commercial economy revived the prostitute industry. In addition, the "ban on prostitution" policy issued by the court is becoming increasingly loose and cannot impose constraints on private prostitution. More importantly, the emperor not only did not increase the intensity of "ban on prostitution", but instead was at the forefront of prostitution. The favorite entertainment activity of domination is to go out in casual clothes and go to the willow alleys to release sexual desire.
In short, the attitudes of rulers in previous dynasties towards the prostitution industry were different, some encouraged, some prohibited, and repeated. It was not until that "ban on prostitution" became a reality after the founding of in New China.
On November 21, 1949, the Second People's Congress of All Representatives of Beijing made a resolution on the closure of brothels, which clearly stipulated: "In accordance with the will of the people of the city, I decided to immediately close all brothels, confiscate brothel property, concentrate all brothel owners, gangsters, etc. for interrogation and handling, and concentrate prostitutes to train, transform their thoughts, cure their sexually transmitted diseases, send them home if they have a marriage partner, help them get married, and those who are homeless and have no cousins can organize their learning and engaging in production..."
Reference materials:
["Eastern Zhou Strategy", "Banqiao Miscellaneous Notes", "Prostitution ban"]
