In the archives of Liaoning Provincial Archives, there are several original marriage documents of Qing Dynasty. From these marriage papers, we can see the social environment of the disadvantaged women in feudal society, and also get a glimpse of the social status of the poor in feudal society.

recommend oneself (for a job)

The Liaoning Provincial Archives kept a prostitution license, the contents of which are as follows:

"License: Marriage writer Liu Menyang, because of her husband's death, has no property, no children and no one to rely on. She has no relatives and friends, cries every day, and her family is pitiful. So she has sold herself to the iceman and is willing to sell it to Zhou Fengxi as her wife. Sanzao said after her long life that she would let her family make it clear that the price of her body was 150 yuan, and she would not owe it if she paid it. Matchmaker: Li Degong, Mrs. Lao Jin, on September 12 of the first year, Yang took the word. "

The "Iceman" mentioned here is the matchmaker, but why is it called "Iceman"? In Jin Shu's Biography of Letters, there is a filial official whose name is Ling Huce. One day, I dreamed that I was standing on the ice and talking to people under the ice. I'm surprised. I don't know if my luck is good or bad. I came to the book truck for a dream. The book cart said, "The sun is on the ice, and the sun is under the ice. This must be a matter of yin and yang (men and women). You are talking to people on the ice, which is a yin-yang language. This dream indicates that you will be a matchmaker, and when the ice is opened, marriage will become. " Soon, the satrap Tian Baozhen came to find him as a matchmaker.

From then on, the matchmaker was called the Iceman, and later it was nicknamed "Matchmaker", "Stroke", "Matchmaker", "Moon Elder", "Baoshan" and "Media Certificate". Ancient marriage was "the life of parents, the words of matchmakers", which was mediated by icemen, so it was also called ice media.

The license for prostitution shown in this file occurred on 1908. Liu Fengtian, a woman in Anton County, has no children, relatives and friends, no property, no reason to stay in her husband's family, no longer able to live, and she is at a loss about her life. The family (Yang's relatives) looked very pitiful and agreed that she should find another family. So Yang entrusted the matchmaker to sell himself to others as his wife.

First, the matchmaker finds a good buyer, and then the buyer, seller and matchmaker negotiate and agree on the price, and pay in cash; In order to be afraid that the woman will go back on her word and run away in the future, she set up a certificate as evidence to avoid endless future trouble. The signature of the matchmaker is written under the license, and the name of the buyer and seller is also crossed out. Yang pressed his handprint next to his name. After the formalities are completed, this certificate has legal effect. How much the paper itself can sell depends on many conditions such as age, appearance and physical condition.

This phenomenon of self-selling can only be the last resort that women have to take when they are cornered in the social background at that time. Its future fate depends only on matchmakers and resignation.

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Borrow a wife to have children.

The so-called borrowing a wife to have children is a typical wife, also known as contract marriage, which is a temporary marriage form derived from buying and selling marriage in the old society.

The characteristic of this marriage custom is that the man rents out the married woman as a temporary husband and wife with his property. In most cases, the man is married and childless, rich and needs children; The woman's family is poor and her husband is unable to make a living, so he has to agree to pawn his wife to others within a certain period of time. The man pays a certain rent and returns it to his wife when it is due.

This vulgar custom of renting one's wife as a vessel to other men was popular as early as the Song Dynasty, prevailed in the Yuan Dynasty, and became a custom in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Folks commonly say that this is the marriage custom of "borrowing a wife to have children".

There is a document that says:

"Zhao Xitang because empty-handed, difficult to live, in a dilemma, out of helplessness, can't do anything, willing to give priority to his own wife, sent to Zhang Mushi's home to do business, and even more clearly put forward to pay the national ticket to 600 yuan, face to face, not short, eight years is full on a regular basis. If the time is up, I will take my wife back. If there are natural disasters and diseases within eight years, all families will escape by fate. If they can't find it, one family will lose money and the other will lose money. Upon expiration, Zhao Xitang's leadership is not as relevant as Zhang Mu's, for fear that there will be no evidence, and the renter is a witness. "

And signed by the guarantor.

The term of this wife's contract is 8 years. Zhao Xitang, a citizen of Anton County, was forced by life and married someone else. His wife lives in her husband's family. After the expiration, she took her back. In this contract, my husband's name was written and my handprint was pressed, but my wife's name was not written, which also shows that my wife has no right to control her own destiny.

Generally speaking, a husband can not let his wife know about it in advance, and even if he does, it doesn't matter whether she agrees or not. In the society at that time, once a woman married a man, her husband held the power of life and death, and women, like other things in the family, were dominated by her husband.

In eight years, the fate of his wife has been passed on to others. If there are natural disasters and diseases, life and death are determined by fate, and she dies when she dies; If you run away, the two families will look for it together, but they can't find it. A family will lose people and a family will lose money.

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Mortgaging a wife and hiring a wife

From the perspective of historical research, during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there was a phenomenon of "pledging a wife to hire a wife" in China.

The so-called "pledge wife" means transferring one's wife to another person with a sum of money, and returning the wife and the original money at the appointed time.

The so-called "employment of a wife" means that the employer pays the woman's husband an employment fee, so that the woman can be his temporary wife within the agreed time limit, and the woman will return it to her husband after the expiration, and the employment fee will not be recovered. These two forms can be regarded as the bud of a typical wife.

In the Song Dynasty, with the development of commodity economy, it was more common to employ wives by contract. According to Long Bian Zi Zhi Tong Jian, in the seventh year of Xining (A.D. 1075), because of drought and locust plague, the common people mortgaged their wives to sell their children, leaving their father and son unprotected. In the first year of Yuan You (A.D. 1086), Su Shi wrote in his memorial that in the past twenty years, due to the shortage of seedlings, countless people sold fields and houses and hired wives and daughters.

A typical wife can often be divided into two types, one is a typical wife and the other is a rented wife. According to the general method, divide it by the length of time. The wife who has a long time is the wife who has a short time. They are all temporary forms of marriage, with a term of one to two years, five years, 10 years or even 15 years, and the length of time is often linked to the birth of children. Because wives mostly aim at having children, they are also called "borrowing abdomen" or "renting abdomen".

The prevalence of the custom of marrying in the old society was caused by many economic reasons: for example, the husband was ill and unable to support his family, or was heavily in debt and had a hard life; There are also poor because of gambling, and husbands have no choice but to rent wives. Generally, the husband has the final say and the wife is forced to agree; There are also husbands who are absent for a long time, wives who have no life and are self-disciplined. Victims often borrow their wives' children with their consent because they can't have children.

Whether marrying a wife or marrying a wife is for the purpose of economic benefits, which reflects the husband's absolute possession of his wife and the woman's personal attachment to the man. Once a woman gets married, she loses her personal freedom, completely obeys her husband's control, is bought and sold like a commodity, and has no resistance, which reflects the darkness of society and the backwardness of morality and ethics.

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Partner with your wife.

There is also a document about the gang contract:

"Gangster Sun Changyi promised his wife Zhang Jinxiang's middleman because he had no money, and he was willing to send it to Zhang Xiansi's name, stating that it was worth three hundred yuan and the money was paid face to face. I don't owe anything, I use official money. Both families accepted it. If there is any natural disaster, disease, escape, etc. Their fate will be safe. This is the wish of the two families. I am afraid that there is no evidence and it is not bad. "

There are also the signatures of the founder, middleman, middleman and borrower.

This way of letting a wife live with another man is commonly known as "boarding" or "pulling relationships" in Northeast China.

In fact, it is to adopt a husband, which is a variant form of polygamy. Its essence is to let men who have the ability to work find men who have no ability to make a living to help them live.

Its characteristics are that the husband of a married woman is seriously ill, unable to work, unable to support his wife, children or the elderly, and the family is very poor, unable to maintain the minimum living standard, and has to rely on another husband to bear the living burden of the whole family.

One thing these marriage customs have in common is that they are forced to "sell their wives for profit" because of poverty and poverty. However, any civilized society will spurn this harmful old patriarchal system.