The Book of the New Tang Dynasty records an interesting story that Emperor Taizong gave his brother-in-law a sex education class: "Princess Danyang married Xue Wanche. Wan Che was so stupid that the princess was ashamed and didn't sit at the same table for months. Taizong listened and smiled. In order to buy wine, he called his son-in-law and Wan Che over to talk calmly, holding gambling tools and carrying knives. Yang was invincible, so he gave it to him. The Lord is happy, so is life. " ("New Tang Book, Volume 83, Biography 8")
This passage means that after Emperor Taizong's sister Princess Danyang married, the princess was ashamed of Xue's stupidity in sexual intercourse and was very unhappy. She hasn't slept with him in months. When Emperor Taizong heard about it, he gave a banquet and invited other brothers-in-law to explain the essentials of sexual intercourse to them carefully. And with his own sword as a bet, if Xue doesn't know how to have sex when he gets back, he will give the sword to Princess Danyang. The princess happily went back by car with Xue. It is worth mentioning that, according to historical records, Emperor Taizong had 19 sisters, only one died young, and the others were taken away. In other words, if Master Xu comes, there will be as many as 18 people, which shows that this "physical health class" is not small. The sex education in such a big scene was taught by the emperor himself and recorded in historical books, which showed the openness of sexual concept and people's healthy and enlightened attitude towards sexual knowledge at that time.
The Tang Dynasty was a period of very open sexual concept. Compared with the later Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the communication between men and women was relatively free and open, whether in the imperial court, the government or the people. In the court of the Tang Dynasty, empresses and ladies-in-waiting did not shy away from foreign ministers and were informal. For example, according to historical records, Wei Ruyun and Wu Sansi sat on the imperial bed and played backgammon, while Tang Zhongzong watched and gave directions. For example, Jiang Jiao, a favorite of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, often feasted with his concubines, and An Lushan ate, drank and played with Yang Guifei in the harem, even staying up all night. Eunuchs often "go in and out, visit palaces" and make friends with courtiers and foreign officials. These were not condemned as fornication at that time.
A high degree of tension and depression will easily affect the function of the kidney, a viscera related to sex, and it will easily make people indifferent to sex, or cause sex to become a way of psychological venting, and there will be no such sex culture as the Tang Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, the country was rich and strong, the society was stable, and everything from the monarch to the people was calm, which was conducive to the development of various cultures, and sex culture was no exception.
In addition, there is another point worth pondering. According to historical records, Xue Wanche was one of the third famous generals in the Tang Dynasty. He made outstanding contributions to the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, and was named General Zuo Wei, known as Ma Xu, and later named Ma Xu, a captain, and was promoted to the secretariat of Daizhou. How can such a military commander be "invincible" and unable to exercise the way of husband and wife? Here, we might as well make a bold guess. The so-called "stupidity" may not be that Xue Wanche's sexual function is not strong enough to ask the princess to leave, but that the military commander's personality makes him behave rudely and impatient in his sexual life, and his sexual love lacks freshness and tenderness, which leads to disharmony between husband and wife.
It can be seen that many people do not pay attention to injecting new content into their emotional world after marriage, which leads to the lack of passion and prosaic sex life. In this case, many people's sexual dysfunction mainly comes from emotional and psychological influences.
On the sexual customs of Tang people from Dunhuang materials
Dunhuang is really a historical treasure house for studying ancient Chinese culture, especially the culture of the Tang Dynasty. At the beginning of this century, Dunhuang stone chamber suicide note was discovered. Tens of thousands of Dunhuang manuscripts are extremely precious ancient cultural and historical documents of China. They were personally copied in the Tang and Five Dynasties from the 7th century to the10th century. These unedited written records truly reflected the social life and cultural conditions at that time, and of course included the contents of sexual culture such as marriage customs, sexual concepts and sexual life conditions at that time.
Due to the developed economy in the Tang Dynasty, the materials of this section of business high school were mainly collected from Gao Guofan: Dunhuang folklore and China folklore. Cultural exchanges are extensive and fast. The highly developed culture of the Tang Dynasty spread abroad, which of course had a great influence on Dunhuang. Although Dunhuang culture has its own locality, most of it is a reflection of the culture of the Central Plains in the Tang Dynasty, and the information about men and women is of great value for us to study the sex culture in the Tang and Five Dynasties.
marriageable age
Among the materials found in Dunhuang, there are many statements about best age for marriage in the Tang Dynasty. For men, there are fifteen and twenty. For women, some say fifteen, some say sixteen, and some say seventeen, eighteen and nineteen. This is mainly because the provisions of the marriage age in different periods of the Tang Dynasty are inconsistent, which has affected the changes of folk marriage customs.
For example, Emperor Taizong stipulated that when a man reaches the age of 20 and a woman reaches the age of 15, he should "apply for marriage to make them live in harmony." Therefore, The Devil's Change says, "My family has everything and is respected in China. The boy is unmarried and should pay tribute in time. " In ancient times, men were crowned at the age of 20, and women were married at the age of 15, which was in line with the marriage age of Emperor Taizong. Another example is Hu Qiu, which says, "Husband, children are not family, and death is not a ghost. Although the door owner is not a person supervised by Ye Niang, he has been trained for fifteen years and finally has the meaning of centrifugation. Girls are extroverted and follow their husbands thousands of miles away. Today, they belong to a husband and they like to listen to punishment. " Hu Qiu's wife married Hu Qiu at the age of fifteen, which is also in line with the age stipulated by Emperor Taizong.
In the 21st year of the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (AD 734), he wrote: "Men are fifteen years old and women are over thirteen years old." Therefore, Yong Dong Bianwen said: "The sages said that Yong Dong died in 15- 12 ... until the third day of the grave robbery, he bowed to his parents for a few days. Parents bid farewell to their children and wish them good health and return home as soon as possible. Say goodbye to your neighbors and you will enter the future for miles. Every woman comes to ask, where does this husband live? ..... I can't stand being a thousand years old, so I want to cooperate with A Lang. " What is described here is that 15-year-old Yong Dong married the daughter of Emperor Tiandi, which is in line with the age stipulated by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty.
In Tang Daizong's time, things were different. After the Anshi Rebellion, the country was tottering, the society was in turmoil, the wedding date was postponed, and the war led to the increase of the marriage age. Therefore, Bai Juyi' s Poems for Women said, "Thirty men have a room and twenty women have a home." "Han Pengfu" said: "I remember my mother lived alone, married a good wife, and succeeded in Motome. I was named Zhen Fu when I was seventeen. " There are girls over 17 years old. For example, "Searching for God" said: "I only know how to get married, but I don't know where to meet ... Huo went in and found a woman of eighteen or nineteen. "
Mate selection condition
Matchmaker marriage is the main form of marriage in China feudal society. However, in the more enlightened feudal society of the Tang Dynasty, it happened more often that men and women broke the shackles of matchmaker marriage and could choose their spouses according to their own wishes, especially in Dunhuang. At that time, the status of Dunhuang girls was quite noble, so they had to choose their own husbands and ask him themselves. This situation is reflected in the Dunhuang folk story Fu Xian Fu, which permeates the characteristics of Dunhuang and reflects the marriage custom of Tang Dynasty with a high feudal civilization.
The marriage custom embodied in the poem My Daughter's Husband shows that the bride should propose to the groom in person at a grand wedding, and finally she will formally express her willingness to marry him after receiving a satisfactory answer. The significance of this inquiry lies not only in the fact that the woman has chosen a spouse according to her own wishes, but also in the following great significance:
First, support the Tang regime and oppose national aggression.
Dunhuang has been inhabited by Han people since the Han and Tang dynasties, but because it is located in the border, it is often invaded by other nationalities. For example, The History of a Mirror has been published for 32 years: "Zhenyuan autumn and August, yes, still praised the massive attack, dragon, bin and Ning, plundering people and animals, the crops were pale, and the west despised them." "Tubo often invades in autumn and winter ... to beg the Tang people, to take his wife ... to plunder people and animals." This aggression brought endless disasters to the northwest people in the Tang Dynasty. Once Dunhuang fell into the shackles of foreign brutal slavery, the historical retrogression brought the people in Dunhuang ruins, the fields became barren hills, the Gobi became a cemetery, and the people were trapped in the misery of being defeated by others or being slaves forever. Therefore, the issue of national life and death has changed the psychology and marriage customs of Dunhuang people. In the question-and-answer ceremony when they get married, they ask questions around an overwhelming contradiction, which is the national contradiction. This is like saying in "Daughter-in-law's Poetry": "As long as there are tens of millions of silks, don't count cups." Here, "Hu" generally refers to aliens, and whoever has a thousand horses symbolizes the highly developed economy and culture of the Han nationality. This word means that you would rather marry the Han nationality than the Hu people.
For example, the following question and answer:
The woman asked: where is this gentleman and where is his talent? Ling Leilang, why did you come?
The Open View of Marriage and Chastity in Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was in the heyday of feudal society and was also an "open" society. Its openness is not only reflected in political system, national policy and diplomatic relations, but also in folk customs and marriage system. At that time, women's lofty status and indifferent concept of chastity made the marriage in Tang Dynasty show a rare open feature in history.
The open atmosphere of marriage in the Tang Dynasty is first manifested in the relative freedom of young men and women in choosing a spouse and their bold pursuit of a happy marriage. Marriage in the Tang Dynasty stipulates that children who establish marriage relations without their parents' consent will be recognized by law, and only minors and those who don't respect their elders will be considered illegal. This provision legally gives young men and women a green light for their free choice.
The so-called chastity in feudal society means that women do not remarry or lose their virginity, which is a one-sided requirement for women. In ancient times, since chastity began to be valued and emphasized, women's divorce and remarriage became less and less free. But in the Tang Dynasty, divorce was common, there was nothing wrong with remarriage, and the concept of chastity was weak, which was rare in the whole feudal society.
Look at the legal provisions of divorce first. There are three provisions about divorce in the family and marriage in the Tang Dynasty. 1. Divorce by agreement. Refers to the so-called "harmony but difference" in which both men and women voluntarily divorce: "If the husband and wife are not at peace, they will not sit down." Second, advocate divorce. It refers to the forced divorce proposed by the husband, which is also called "becoming a wife". The Book of Rites once stipulated seven reasons for becoming a wife: unfilial to parents, childless, lewd, jealous, in poor health, talkative and stealing. Tang law also used these rules roughly. If the wife commits one of these crimes, the husband can divorce her without an official judgment. As long as Israeli parents and witnesses make and sign a document, the marriage relationship can be dissolved. At the same time, however, the Tang law also inherited the ancient regulations on women's "three don't go", that is, they don't go after three years of mourning, they don't go after being poor when they get married, and now they don't marry homeless people. In any of the "three noes", even if the husband commits "seven out", he can't file for divorce. Third, forced divorce. Couples who find "loyalty" and "illegal marriage" must be forced to divorce. "Righteousness" includes crimes of beating, killing, rape and homicide. At the government's discretion, if one party acts bravely, the law will force divorce and punish those who refuse to divorce. For "illegal marriage", it is also a forced divorce.
It goes without saying that the essence of these provisions in the Tang law is to strengthen the feudal patriarchal system and consolidate the husband's rights under the patriarchal system. In the feudal era, which emphasized children's single-mindedness, few previous generations and descendants stipulated that couples could divorce if they were not in harmony. The laws of the Tang Dynasty did not tell his wife "seven out" or "three no's", and the husband was not allowed to file for divorce without authorization, otherwise he was sentenced to one year's imprisonment. This is undoubtedly a restriction on the rights of husbands and a protection of women's interests. In addition, there are no restrictions and constraints on the husband's divorce and remarriage, which creates certain conditions for the relative freedom of marriage in law.
Judging from historical facts, it was easier to divorce and remarry in the Tang Dynasty. Divorce is, of course, proposed by my husband, and most of them are divorced. Women's debauchery and infatuation, men's success, can all be reasons to abandon their wives and marry more, and some even neglect their wives because of a little accident. Men divorce at will, and the fate of wives depends on the mood of husbands and in-laws. As Bai Juyi said in a poem: "Life is not a woman's body, and a hundred years of joys and sorrows are left to others."