Apart from arranged marriages, what other special ways were there to recruit relatives in ancient times?

In ancient times, women were "second-class citizens" compared with men and had no right to choose their own marriage. The so-called "parents' orders, matchmakers' words" and "marry a chicken and follow a dog" are women's fates. This bondage to women is a double-edged sword. Although women can't choose their husbands independently, men also lose the opportunity to fall in love and can't meet the women they like. Marriage has completely become a tool for carrying on the family line. However, even in the context of "parents' orders, matchmakers' words" and arranged marriages, the ancients also invented many methods of blind date marriage, and many young men and women achieved their own "independent marriage" in this way.

Competing to recruit relatives is the most famous in the history of Tang Gaozu, Tang Gaozu.

Competing to recruit relatives originated from the system of "robbing marriage" thousands of years ago. In the age of the law of the jungle, when men are strong, they can naturally win back beautiful women. There is a poem in the Book of Songs: "The lamb is decorated with a leopard, and the hole is powerful, and the other child is straightforward." It is said that only powerful people can trust him to participate in politics and govern the country. In fact, the same is true in the family. Being able to protect his family and his woman from bullying is the capital that modern men show off.

Competing for relatives is a common thing in martial arts movies. For example, in The Legend of the Condor Heroes, when Mu Nianci got married, it was a marriage contest, so he had a doomed love affair with Yang Kangyou. In the ballad "Three Heroes and Five Righteousnesses", Zhan Zhao got married, which is similar to a contest marriage, so he married Ding Yuehua. In The Romance of Yang Jiajiang, most of the heroes in Yang's novels have married women with high martial arts skills, such as She Saihua, Wang Huainv, Yang Yu and Mu Yu. And most of them get married after they are satisfied with each other. As a martial arts family, it is a beautiful thing to find a good husband for your daughter by fighting. But the real history, even if it is a competition to get married, it is extremely rare for women to compete in person. The woman's father came forward to find some strong men with high martial arts, try martial arts with the candidates and choose a son-in-law. This is the truth of history. Moreover, in the competition, you can not only see martial arts, but also see the face value, so that the selected husband is more in line with her husband's wishes. The so-called "meritocracy" that only looks at martial arts without looking at face value is actually unreasonable.

The earliest record of fighting marriage comes from Buddhist scriptures. The daughter of Shupov, the king of ancient India, was named Qiu Yi, and she was very beautiful. The monarchs of eight countries came to propose marriage. Finally, Bofu discussed with his daughter and decided to choose a good husband to get married through competition. Finally, Siddhartha, the prince of Baomi King, won the competition and got a beautiful wife. And this winner is the later Tathagata Buddha. According to legend, Guan Suo, Guan Yu's son, studied martial arts from Kazuki Watanabe musician in the Three Kingdoms period, and married three young ladies, namely Bao Sanniang, Wang Tao and Wang Yue, in succession.

These are just legends. In history, three people are famous. These three men were Tang Gaozu Li Yuan, Hanwang Chen Youliang and Qin Liangyu's husband Ma Qiancheng in the late Ming Dynasty. In the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Dou Yi, an official of Shang Zhou, chose her husband as her daughter and married her by competition. Dou Yi drew two peacocks on the screen, stipulating that the person who shot both peacocks in the eye at the same time won. As a result, none of the grandchildren who participated in the competition met the requirements. When it was Tang Gaozu Li Yuanshi's turn, an arrow hit two peacocks in the eyes. His ability to penetrate Yang with a hundred paces is worse than that of Huang Zhong in the Three Kingdoms. So, Tang Gaozu got a daughter from Dou Shi as she wished, and also saved Dou Shi's life. Because the Northern Zhou Dynasty was quickly replaced by the Sui Dynasty, and Li Yuan was related to Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty, the Dou family became relatives of the emperor and the country and survived being killed. Later, Li Yuan became the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and Dou became the mother of the country. Visible sinus blazing with anger, this contest attracted a generation of emperors.

In addition to Tang Gaozu, Hanwang Chen Youliang, who competed with Zhu Yuanzhang for the world at the end of Yuan Dynasty, also won the beauty through the contest. He married "white" Pan Jinhua; Ma Qiancheng, another hero in the late Ming Dynasty, married Qin Liangyu, one of the most famous female heroes in history, and Qin Liangyu was the only female hero in history who was recorded in the official biography as a famous dynasty. She was made a second-class lady before her death and was posthumously made loyal. Ma Qiancheng, a handsome man who she chose to marry her relatives through the competition, is another person with unique vision and talent after Ma Yuan, the general of Fu Bo in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

"Hydrangea Marriage", Chen Guangrui made his debut in The Journey to the West.

Legend has it that throwing hydrangeas to attract relatives has existed since the Han Dynasty, but most people know it from film and television dramas. Because there are few records of throwing hydrangeas in the official history, it should be the folk custom of southwest ethnic minorities, which comes from a beautiful love story. The heroine of this love burst into tears because she missed her lover. She wants to give hydrangea as a symbol of love to others and make it herself. Because of blindness, I often prick my hand when embroidering, and the hydrangea is stained with blood and red. Later generations regard the red hydrangea as a token of love, which has the same function as the arrow of Cupid in the west. Throwing the red hydrangea out of the embroidered building where the girl lives will hit the right man. It's really "life is a matter of fate", counting on the old moon to tie the red rope.

Chen Guangrui, the father of Tang Priest in The Journey to the West, experienced this thrilling scene. He is a new champion, riding a horse, parading the streets and praising officials. He happened to meet Yin Wenjiao throwing hydrangea to marry his wife. Chen Guangrui didn't rob him, but the hydrangea hit him, so he got married. The bride didn't lose him either, but she was the daughter of Yin Kaishan, the founding father. Later, the "Tang Priest" they owned was actually the reincarnation of the Tathagata who violated the Buddhist rules. Although it is a fairy tale, this story of throwing hydrangeas to choose relatives vividly describes the whole process of using hydrangeas to recruit relatives in ancient times.

In fact, is the ancient hydrangea like this? The answer is no, if you think about it carefully, which lady is destined to throw her happiness outside the cloud nine. What if she throws money to a beggar, as Chen Guangrui experienced? What if you throw it to the elderly? What if you throw it to a married person? There are ten thousand cases waiting for this uncertain thing. Those who throw hydrangeas to marry their relatives are rich and powerful people, ordinary people, no ladies, and no embroidered buildings. The gentry of these giants are so confused that they ignore their daughter's happiness and recruit a son-in-law with the uncertainty of a hydrangea.

So, what does the real ancient hydrangea look like? First, after the sea election, the candidates will be determined through registration. In other words, not everyone is qualified to be a finalist. Passers-by spectators are not qualified to participate in throwing hydrangeas to attract relatives. In fact, Chen Guangrui does not exist. Because he didn't sign up. Through the sea election, the married, the elderly, the wrong people, and even the ugly people who don't like the elderly are filtered out. Second, miss diligent practice of throwing hydrangea, not "human life", but accurate throwing. Although Miss Huang Zhong's technique of throwing hydrangea is not like Huang Zhong's archery, she will not throw it casually. This is the great event of her life. In order to find a good husband, she will practice hard and throw a favorite husband accurately at the scene of throwing hydrangeas, which is basically accurate. Thirdly, there are procedures for throwing hydrangea, including invitation, return, party, duet, throwing the ball, having a picnic, sitting at home, eating, singing and leaving. The groom who was thrown in still has to go through a set of procedures of three media and six employees. In ancient times, the procedure of getting married was very complicated, and there were also many customs.

The earliest hydrangea in history is actually a weapon called "Feituo", which is usually used for hunting. Deng Chanyu once threw a hydrangea in the Romance of the Gods, weighing 500 kilograms. Such a heavy hydrangea can only be carried by Erlang God Yang Jian. Later, people changed the flying heavy objects into embroidered cloth bags, threw games at each other and turned them into hydrangeas for blind date. Throwing hydrangea is recorded in history. Zhou Qufei, a Song Dynasty man, said in "Answering the Backbone Generation" that "if men and women succeed, women love to marry and men marry". This method is popular among Zhuang people in Guangxi, and it is probably invented by Zhuang people. There are two opinions about men and women throwing hydrangeas. One is to give women a certain choice, and the other is to represent a narrow interest of men. In case of being hit by a beautiful woman, there is a feeling of "pie falling from the sky".

In the same year, nobles competed for talents to be good husbands.

In addition to competing to throw hydrangeas to recruit relatives, the "same year meeting" is one of the most important choices for nobles to recruit relatives. What do you mean by "congress in the same year"? In the ancient imperial examination, it was also a good time for students to take the first place, the second place, the flower exploration and the Jinshi. If there are women in the family, the nobles in the DPRK will naturally choose from such talents, including the emperor, the princess and princess of the sovereign family, and naturally focus on these talents in a million. If you have both talents and looks, it is a hot commodity of the nobles and giants. Doingno. 1 is as famous as the wedding night, and it is not groundless.

The most famous son-in-law of that year was chosen by Chen Shimei, the champion of the Song Dynasty, and Chen Shimei went to Beijing to take the exam. After passing the exam, he was recruited as a son-in-law by Song Renzong. He concealed that he had a wife and children in his family and was chosen by the emperor as an unmarried youth. As a result, after the success of the incident, Qin Xianglian was attracted to Beijing with her son. His wife sought her husband and her son sought her father, which made Chen Shimei very embarrassed. In the end, Bao Gong stepped forward and triggered the "beauty case". Of course, Chen Shimei's story doesn't exist in history, just a play. There really was a Chen Shimei in the Qing Dynasty, but he was an upright official, and there was no story like Qin Xianglian's. The local people were very angry at the story of insulting Chen Shimei's reputation in the Song Dynasty. Up to now, there is a saying that "Chen Shimei is not sung in Beimen Street and Qin Xianglian is not sung in Qinjialou".

There really are plays like Chen Shimei in real history. The champion of the Northern Song Dynasty was once a good wife. He was reading the list when it was published by the court. Somehow, it was robbed by a dozen strong men. Where did he get it? Ministry of War Shangshufu. As a result, when Shang Shu of the Ministry of War proposed to Zeng by name as a woman, Zeng did not answer as Chen Shimei did, but calmly replied: I was born in poverty, and it was a blessing to be promoted to a high position. Why don't you wait for me to go home and discuss it with my wife? How can the daughter of Minister of War be a concubine? I have simply rejected the statement. As a result, the onlookers burst into laughter, and the minister of war also did a boring thing, and he forgot about stealing relatives.

Chen Shimei's story and Zeng's story illustrate the fierce competition of the conference from one side. If the top scholar is good-looking, it is basically princesses and monarchs who are related to the country. As long as the remaining second place, flower scouts and hundreds of Jinshi are unmarried, it is easy to choose the right girl at this time. I don't have to worry about myself, but I was robbed by the giants in Beijing. Now we can understand why ancient students tried their best to take the national examination, and Fan Jinzhong's madness can be understood. For a poor scholar, if he is admitted, it will be not only the time to be the top scholar, but also the wedding night, and all the luck in the world will fall on him overnight.

On Valentine's Day, the master of "Picking up Girls" shows his talents.

For ordinary people, there was also the opportunity of "free love" in ancient times. This opportunity is "Valentine's Day". There were three Valentine's Days in ancient times. One is the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month, and the other is the Shangsi Festival on the third day of March, the seventh day of July. These three festivals are all called ancient Valentine's Day.

Lantern Festival, also known as Lantern Festival, Shangyuan Festival, Lantern Festival and so on. On this day, young men and women can enjoy lanterns, eat glutinous rice balls, have solve riddles on the lanterns and set off fireworks. You know, in ancient times, women were not allowed to go out casually. "The door is closed, and the second door is closed." . But the Lantern Festival is an exception. On this day, women can come out to enjoy the lanterns together. This gives young men and women a chance to date each other. Women who are in love with spring look at their favorite "xianggong" at the same time, while unmarried men, looking at the beautiful women under the lamp, naturally refuse to miss this excellent opportunity. "I looked for her in the crowd for thousands of Baidu, and suddenly I looked back, and that person was in the dim light." Both sides take a fancy to it, leave their names and contact locations, and then they can visit relatives and friends at home. The opportunity is only a short time, and if you miss it, you will lose it.

Shangsi Festival is the day when the Queen Mother holds a flat peach party and the Zhuang people sing folk songs. On March 3rd, it was a sunny day, and many beauties enjoyed the cool by the Chang 'an River. On this day, women who have stayed in the boudoir for a long time can go out for an outing. So on both sides of this river, young women and handsome young men can express their love for their lovers through folk songs in their husbands' spring. Everyone is familiar with the story of the famous Third Sister Liu. Shangsi Festival is not very popular in the north, but it is still a lively festival in Guangdong and Guangxi. Every year on the third day of March, young men and women will dress up beautifully, and folk songs will be indispensable. On this day, it is very interesting to express your feelings and even get married at last.

Begging for Qiao Festival is the seventh day of July, which comes from the folk story of Cowherd and Weaver Girl. This story has a history of thousands of years. The weaver girl is a fairy girl in the sky, and the cowherd is a handsome guy on earth. A pair of lovers were ruthlessly separated by the Queen Mother and could only meet once on July 7th. Because the weaver girl is a fairy girl in the sky, her ingenuity is certain, so on this day, women on the ground will ask the weaver girl for help. The ancient begging festival was not Valentine's Day. The story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl is so sad. The husband and wife were ruthlessly separated and met only once a year. Only in modern times have they been given the meaning of Valentine's Day. If a woman is smart, she will fall in love and beg for a husband all her life.

Women also have the right to pursue love.

For ordinary people, in addition to using festivals to woo, the skills of picking up girls are also very important. There were many romantic talents in ancient times, all of whom were experts in picking up girls. For example, the famous Tang Bohu lit autumn fragrance, which is a beautiful story of picking up girls. The white snake pursues Xu Xian and the seven fairies pursue Yong Dong, all of which convey a rare sense of equality through myths and legends.