Chapter 71: The "ordinary" life of Ming Chuan, a peasant girl (Part 2)
In addition, the Confucius Mansion also stipulated that the master should always call the slaves by their nicknames, while the slaves would call the master "Mr." and "Miss", no matter whether the slave was gray-haired or not, and whether the master was still young, there were no exceptions. But if the slave is also named Kong, and his seniority is much higher than "Yanshenggong", this matter will be troublesome - there are quite a few tenants and slaves under the Confucius family who are his relatives, and they also have the blood of Confucius. ——According to Confucius' principle of "father, son, son", not only can the master not call them by their nicknames, but they should also call them master and ancestor! However, according to the same Confucius principle of "only superior wisdom and inferior foolishness cannot change", the master is born to be the master, and the slaves only deserve to be slaves. what to do? After all, the Confucius Mansion was worthy of being a "saint", so it added another rule: all slaves named Kong were forced to change their surnames; inside the gate of the Confucius Mansion, only the masters were allowed to be named Kong, and no one was allowed to offend!
Well, once the Confucian family settles down to work for the Confucius family, whether it is selling themselves or working part-time, they must first change their names...
Fortunately, Dai Erdong didn't have to change her surname, but no one in the Kong family called her by her surname. They were all called by her first name.
Then, because Confucius in the Spring and Autumn Period was very particular about funerals, the Confucius family held funerals and strictly followed the funeral rules of their ancestors, and forced all tenants to mourn together, and no marriages were allowed during the period. However, if someone dies in the house of a slave of the Confucius Mansion, no one is allowed to cry, no one is allowed to wear mourning, no trace of mourning is allowed, and he is not even allowed to die in his own home. This is because most of the slaves live in the walls of the Confucius Mansion. Outside, so as not to offend the "auspicious" atmosphere of Confucius' house. It's the same funeral, but the master and the slave are so different. This is Confucius's "Courtesy should not be disrespected to common people"
In addition, the Confucian government also stipulated that when a slave replies to his master, he is not allowed to complain about his reasons, and he is not allowed to be "offensive" in the slightest. Otherwise, he will be beaten lightly, but seriously injured. When a slave is serving his master, he must lower his eyebrows and be submissive, and must never look directly at his master, otherwise it will be a crime of disrespecting the master... There are many kinds of servants, at least they are almost the same as the maids who serve the royal family in the Forbidden City. But the maids who serve the royal family in the Forbidden City still have the privilege of being allowed to marry on their own once they reach the age of twenty-five (although in feudal society, the girl's family will probably not be able to marry into a good family at this age, so they can only go to (Being a nun)), but the maids of the Confucius Mansion have to follow so many stinky rules throughout their lives and cannot exceed them at all.
For the masters of the Confucius family, these "aristocratic" red tapes naturally represent the dignity and grace accumulated in history. But for the low-class people who serve them, it means countless unnecessary troubles that only make people feel headaches and nausea.
Well, by the way, the person Dai Erdong served in Kong's mansion was a little beauty who was in her prime of thirteen years.
What, are you saying that the eldest lady of the Kong family is a little beauty? Hey, who told you that the person she is serving is Miss Kong?
Let's use the story of "A Dream of Red Mansions" as an analogy.
Does Qingwen next to Baoyu know?
Dai Erdong is the one who serves Qingwen!
Qingwen serves Baoyu, and the little girl serves Qingwen!
——In a feudal society with strict hierarchies and rigid classes, even slaves were divided into three, six, and nine grades. Among the slaves in the Confucius Mansion, the best ones are naturally those who are deeply trusted by their masters - just like the maids in "A Dream of Red Mansions" who are luxuriously dressed, well-fed and well-fed, and as delicate as "vice ladies". Not only are they well-dressed and well-fed all day long, but they are even qualified to have a dedicated little girl serve them...
Although these maids were born into the same family, in essence, they were like Dai Erdong, who signed a deed of sale at the Yanshenggong Kong Mansion and became slaves.
As for newly bought slaves from outside like Dai Erdong, they can only be regarded as the lowest existence in the Confucian biosphere. They are basically worse than the pigs and dogs waiting to be slaughtered in the kitchen - the pigs and dogs at least give their master a look. Qualifications, but they can't see their master at all.
——If these newlyweds bought from outside can serve the favored maids, it will be a blessed and easy job.
Even if you are lucky enough to serve the maidservants of your family, they will only have a few old and patched clothes, only enough to eat half full of various coarse grains, plus the uneaten leftovers from the host's banquet. Even the "monthly money" that existed in theory was not even distributed to the hands at one time. It was all deducted by the greedy stewards.
However, compared with another group of even more pitiable people in the Kong family, the life of low-level maids like Dai Erdong was not the worst.
That is the tenants who have paid taxes for the Confucian Mansion in Qufu for generations and have to bear various errands.
Since ancient times, Chinese farmers have had to use their own labor force to cultivate the land of landlords, nobles and royal families, and dedicate 40%, 50%, 60%, 70% or even more than 80% of the harvest to the landlords, nobles and royal families for their enjoyment.
The Kong family is a great nobleman and landowner who has been hereditary for more than seventy generations. Under the guise of worshiping Confucius, it extracts countless rents of grain and silver from tens of thousands of tenants every year. The "statutory" amount of exploitation alone accounts for as much as 50% to 60% of the harvest.
The land rent in Confucius Mansion is known as "ten thousand years rent". That is to say, his family's land rent was used to worship Confucius and was related to the "blood food of the holy ancestors". Therefore, it "will not increase in good years and will not decrease in poor years" and will remain unchanged for thousands of years. In fact, "no increase in good years" is just because it has already been broken and there is no more growth, while "no decrease in poor years" is its original meaning. What's even more terrible is that when tenants pay rent to the Confucian government, in addition to the "regular" land rent, there are many additional exploitations. The most distinctive features of Confucius are the "doujian" and "land" in Renliang. The so-called "tip of the bucket" means that the grain will come out of the bucket when the rent is paid. Those that are so sharp that they flow down to the ground are called "turf". The tenants were not allowed to take back the property or the land, and it was occupied by the Confucius family and given to the losers as "salary" (salary).
And tenants who paid rent were also subject to many kinds of extortion beyond the "regular amount". One is "extra cost", every tael of silver rented will cost one cent and eight cents of silver; the second is "exchange fee", for every one tael of silver rented, there will be an additional four cents of clearance fee (delivery fee). The numerous additions brought trouble in calculation, so they were simply added together and added four dollars for every two. In addition to these explicitly stated additional blackmails, there are many other tricks and blackmails.
In addition to the "ten thousand-year rent" of renting grain and silver, the Confucian government also forced some tenants to specialize in certain kinds of goods or provide certain kinds of labor. Among them are the so-called: radish household, vermicelli household, bean sprout household, toon household, peach household, apricot household, duck egg household, fish household, rice rice household, plate household, dish household, cooking broom household, sweet potato household, and altar incense household. The annual flower house, the firecracker house, the door god house, the slaughter house, the salt transport house, the boat house, the trumpet house, the firecracker house, the pole house, the box house, the pig sacrifice house, the cow sacrifice house, the sheep sacrifice house, the mourning house, etc. There are really many names, and there are all kinds of surprises. Tenants are required to volunteer for free in everything.
(The matter of these unpaid labors is quoted from the propaganda materials of the Red Guards criticizing Lin Piao and Confucius. It is shocking and is simply slavery.)
In addition to the various exploitations mentioned above, there are also various temporary additions from time to time. For example, if Duke Yan Sheng needs to pay tribute to the emperor in a certain year, all tributes will be paid by the tenants. When the emperor went on a "pilgrimage" to Qufu, the tenants suffered even more. In addition to work such as repairing bridges and roads, building sheds, weaving mats, and weaving cattails, a certain amount of money must be paid along with the grain. In addition, during weddings, funerals, births, birthdays and other events in the Confucian mansion, tenants' property was often expropriated, and their despicable tactics of extortion and extortion were widely used. Then, loan sharking was also a method of exploitation by the Confucius family. It is said that Confucius rarely talked about profit ("Zi rarely talked about profit"), and the Confucius family rarely talked about profit on the surface. They always talked about "benevolence, justice and morality", but they were really ruthless when it came to usury. ! According to records, the Confucian government lent money to foreigners, and the annual interest rate was as high as 123%! Sometimes they would distribute moldy wheat, borrow a bushel of rotten wheat, and return a bushel of good wheat. When planting grain, one bushel is borrowed and two bushels are returned. There is also a so-called "cattle rent" in loan sharking, that is, the Confucius government pays for the purchase of cattle and horses, and adds 40 to 50% of the price to rent it to farmers. The farmers can use it for three years and pay off the rent in three years. ; But in the end, the cattle and horses still had to be taken back by the Confucius Mansion and dealt with separately. Under this kind of usury exploitation, farmers often starved to death before the cattle rent could be repaid.
When the Confucian government, under the guise of "benevolence" and the "benevolence" of the Confucian government, drained the last drop of blood from the farmers in Qufu, letting them starve to death in the ravines and expose their corpses in the wilderness, they lived an extreme life. Luxurious life - In fact, strictly speaking, Confucius himself was an aristocratic man who was very particular about food and clothing. "You will never tire of fine food, you will never tire of fine meat", "You will not eat if it is not cut straight, and you will not eat if it is not cooked properly", "You will not sit on the table if it is not straight", and if you wear a black lambskin robe, you must wear a black blouse; if you wear white If you wear a deerskin robe, you must wear a white blouse; if you wear a yellow fox fur robe, you must wear a yellow blouse, etc., giving you a high-end and classy aristocratic style.
Naturally, the "saints" of the past dynasties of Yanshenggong Mansion in Qufu also followed the example of their ancestors and went even further. While singing the deceptive tune of "spending money and loving others", they lived in extreme luxury and used only the ostentation in food, clothing, housing and transportation. To show one's "noble" status.
For example, when the old lady of the Confucius family spent New Year's Eve, she only had a private banquet for her family and did not invite any outside guests, so she would have to spend 830 taels of silver. If there is any major celebration or funeral, the waste will be even greater. And not only did the gentlemen eat delicacies from the mountains and seas, but the cats and dogs also lived a luxurious life like their owners. Cats need to eat 3,000 Wen per day, and dogs need to be fed with pig liver, which costs 12,000 Wen per day. The cost of bird food is as high as 24,000 yuan. At the same time, the tenants outside the Confucius Mansion were selling their children for a thousand coins each!
In general, things like "the wine and meat smell of wine and meat in the rich family, and the bones on the road are frozen to death" happen every day in the Confucius Mansion. There were so many leftovers dumped out in the Confucius Mansion that they could pile up into a hill every day, but they never refused to collect even half a bushel of wheat from the tenants in rent...even though many of the tenants in the Confucius Mansion also had the same surname. , even still retains the same bloodline, and is a descendant of a certain concubine of a certain generation of Yan Shenggong, but he cannot get any relief.
The fine wine in golden bottles is worth the blood of thousands of people, and the delicacies on jade plates are worth the paste of thousands of households. The luxury and extravagance of the Confucius Mansion, the decadent and corrupt life, their clothes, food, flowers and grass are all the result of the blood and sweat of the working people. However, the tenants who were squeezed by the Confucian government lived a life worse than that of an ox or a horse.
——So, when the Confucius Temple was smashed during the ten years of turmoil, the tenants named Kong were the ones who smashed it most vigorously.
In addition to the exploitation of rural tenants, another method of exploitation used by the Confucian government was to occupy the market and collect taxes. The rural markets where all the villages and villages were located were occupied by the Confucius government, and local bullies were appointed to act as aggregators to collect taxes by force. In addition to receiving huge amounts of tax revenue from these markets all year round, the Kong Mansion also used the method of changing the market leaders from time to time to often collect the "recognition fees" from the market leaders. In order to raise the selling price of Jitou, the Confucius government treated Jitou as a rare commodity and put it up for public bidding and auction. In addition, the Confucius Mansion also used its power to make a fortune by opening pawn shops, running banks, and issuing money bills. Whatever gangsters have done in ancient and modern times, at home and abroad, the Kong family will only do it more ferociously and greedily.
So, after witnessing so many things, the time-traveling girl Dai Erdong finally had an epiphany:
The so-called thousand-year-old family, the saint race... are actually just a group of the most decadent, greedy, and cruel social parasites.
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The time and space of the late Ming Dynasty, Sanya base, temporary office assigned to Wang Qiu
At this moment, Wang Qiu, Huang Shi, Wang Meiling and Ma Tong, who are idle for the time being, are studying the personal experience report of a time-traveling girl from a peasant family in the late Ming Dynasty who once worked as a slave in the Confucius Mansion of Yanshenggong, Shandong. The content is really It can be said that every word is bloody and shocking.
"...Hmm, it seems that this time-travelling lady has finally awakened to the simplest sense of class struggle!"
At the table in the office, Wang Meiling held her chin in one hand and poured herbal tea into the porcelain cup with a silver pot in the other hand. At the same time, she said to her son, "...then what's next? She truly awakened from then on and began to lead the slaves and tenants of the Confucius Mansion to quarrel. Revolution? ”
"...How is it possible? Not to mention whether she has such courage, no one will listen to a little girl!"
Wang Qiu shrugged, "...She just discovered another fact next, that is, hateful people also have pitiable qualities..."
——Half a year after being abducted and sold into the Confucius Mansion as a slave, Dai Erdong was responsible for serving a favored maid who was born as a slave. The eldest maid of the "Vice Lady" is going to be taken over by a master from the Confucius Mansion!
Moreover, the other party is a master from the Kong family branch, who is over sixty years old!
This age is much older than that of the young girl who wanted to buy Dai Erdong, an old bachelor!
Despite this, the Confucian master is still old-hearted and superstitious in the art of Taoism - but the problem is that if he goes to live in seclusion in the mountains and forests, of course he will not interfere with anyone's business, even if he is sitting there Under the waterfall, he realized the ultimate in martial arts, and everyone just admired him If he were to make alchemy in his own house, it would be just a waste of money, and at most it would poison his own body... But it is very regrettable that this old man is practicing the magic of the house, which requires seven virgins to perform. "Cauldron", go to bed with him and practice yin and yang together!
Therefore, the old maid whom Dai Erdong was serving was taken over by this old man in an honorable manner, and she didn't even have the status of a concubine!
——No way, no matter how well-dressed and well-fed they are, in the final analysis, these maids are still slaves who have signed a contract of sale and have no personal freedom at all, and have no right to maintain their reputation. As for whether she will become a man's plaything, it depends purely on luck.
Taking the example of "Dream of Red Mansions" as an example, Baoyu was a rare good master who cared about the girl and was not impatient. So except for those who are willing to take the initiative to climb into bed, such as Xiren, the other girls can actually maintain their chastity. Jia Lian was watched closely by Wang Xifeng. Even so, he would go out to hunt wild food whenever he had time. If it were a slightly weaker young lady, which of the girls in Jia Lian's room would be able to maintain her chastity?
It's a pity that the eldest maid of the Confucius family did not have such good luck. She had to devote herself to an old man at a young age.
But apart from a little regret that she was not lucky enough to be favored by those young masters, the eldest maid had no intention of resisting, and she never thought about escaping from the house - after all, they A high-class slave Life is much more comfortable than that of ordinary people outside. Those maids in the Confucius Mansion just serve tea and water, do needlework, write poems and tear up fans. They don't have to do any heavy work. They are basically living like official ladies. life. If you become the maid of your first wife and take care of your aunt after giving birth, you can be regarded as half a master. Even if the housewife is not easy to talk to and cannot be raised as an aunt, and is later assigned to a servant in the house to take care of things, it is more honorable than marrying a butcher and a farmer outside to kill pigs and cultivate the land.
So, the eldest maid, together with six other eldest maids who were born slaves, were sent to the Taoist temple where the old man of the Kong family lived in seclusion. As the maid serving this big maid, Dai Erdong, or Yao Han's maid, naturally followed her.
"...Then what? Then what? Did the old man from the Kong family who was playing double cultivation got Dai Erdong in trouble? Or was the maid she was serving so unstoppable that she was also fucked to death by her master in bed?" Wang Meiling's His eyes sparkled, and he asked with great interest (and heartlessness).
"...It's not that exaggerated! First of all, Dai Erdong's dark and thin face can be considered an ugly girl these days. This old man has been rich and noble all his life, and his vision is very high. How could he like her? ? Secondly, that guy is an old man in his sixties after all, and he is not the kind of man who is as fierce as a tiger. Wolf's muscular man, even if a little loli can't handle his big stick, seven loli can't handle one of him?" Wang Qiu rolled his eyes and replied, "...The real question is, the one from Kong Mansion? The old man who practiced dual cultivation, his body couldn’t bear it within a few years!”