Under the 5,000-year history of China, different dynasties had different ways of life. During the Qin Dynasty, the Three Kingdoms, the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, wars occurred frequently, and it was difficult for people to even settle down and work. The Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties were politically repressed and social Relatively stable, not to say that life is rich, at least they can have food and clothing; the Han and Tang Dynasties were happy times, the national strength was strong and the economy was prosperous, and many people lived a good life; finally, the Song Dynasty, the country's policy of emphasizing business, made social and cultural life an unprecedented development. .

But there was one problem that plagued me throughout my childhood.

When I was a child, I read stories that happened in ancient times, and I felt a sense of separation, and the sense of separation came from the estrangement in the way of life. In the previous era when material and communication were inconvenient, theoretically there were "people" who had the same needs as our modern day. What did they use to satisfy their desires in life? I was also curious about how the ancients did with so many so-called etiquette. Express desire. Or is it really as Lu Xun said, etiquette eats people?

I didn't expect the truth to be surprising. In ancient times, people's life can be said to be very playful.

For example, how much can one tael of silver be worth now? Will the cost of living in the past be too high relative to purchasing power? How did the legendary conservative ancient women wear clothes? What is the idea of being a big empire? How did the emperors consolidate their power but seize the hearts of the people?

This book reads like an old weekly magazine.

Not to mention the fishy content, just being able to peek at the private stories of people's lives at that time is a great satisfaction, and I really didn't expect a book to answer these strange questions. For example, the queen mothers can be as ruthless (or even more brave) as emperors for their "lover"; the beef that Liangshan heroes who go to restaurants love to shout should actually be mutton; official party culture has been very popular since before and many more. Even in ancient times, people thought and did the same thing as modern people.

No matter where you go, it's still decent!

This sharing will focus on two issues that I am most interested in, the purchasing power of money and the life style of women. The original book has many interesting stories, and I recommend that many curious babies can find it and read it.

What can you do with a coin or two?

Let’s go straight to the topic first. One or two pieces of silver were roughly equivalent to 500 RMB (about 2,250 Taiwan dollars) during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, due to the inflow of silver from South America and Japan, the purchasing power dropped by half, leaving only about 267 RMB (about 1,200 Taiwan dollars). Taiwan dollar) value. In this case, the ancient officials, taking the seven-pin magistrates of the Qing Dynasty as an example, can earn up to 30,000 taels of silver per year (including gray income), but many of them were later used to bribe their superiors. If you are a teacher, you can earn several hundred taels a year.

If you want to know the income level of the farmer and long-term worker, you can find the original book and read it.

After knowing the purchasing power of a tael of silver, let’s talk about the cost of food, clothing, housing and transportation. As a portrayal of the life of ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty, there are a lot of rich materials (I would like to share this classic next time I have the opportunity. book). A better piece of clothing is about 1 or 2 silver equivalent to 500 RMB; an expensive mink fur jacket is about 60 taels of silver, equivalent to 30,000 RMB.

Due to my poor financial resources, I don't know what brand of clothes I can buy with 30,000 RMB now. If you have experience, please leave a message to enlighten me.

For the meal part, the restaurant in "Golden Plum" is much cheaper. In the tavern, I ordered "four plates and four dishes, two large pots of fashionable olive wine, and two or three bowls of warm noodles", which cost a total of one-third and a half of silver. , which is 0.135 taels of silver, less than one hundred yuan. For the living part, the four-room house is about 35 taels, which is equivalent to about 17,000 RMB. The pressure feels a lot less than modern times.

Finally, please guess how much it will cost to bring a "Pan Jinlian" back?

women's life

Another big question I read when I was a child was that the ancients always dressed conservatively. How conservative was that? Especially with the rise of Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty, the requirements for women’s three obedience and four virtues became higher and higher. Desire. It's as if women's lives are suppressed and they become men's vassals, and they can only stay at home and stay full. But the truth is quite the opposite.

Women like the Song Dynasty had the highest employment rate in ancient times.

There were a large number of women working in the service industry and handicraft industry in the Song Dynasty. Many restaurants, teahouses, and breakfast shops were run by women, like the lady Wang who seduced Pan Jinlian from the Water Margin. In addition to the service industries such as hotels and catering, Song Dynasty women had a large number of employed people in industries such as acrobatics, laundry, cooks, matchmakers, storytellers, fortune-telling, and letter writing.

At that time, having a daughter was more valuable than having a son.

Speaking of the style of dressing, Liu Songnian's "Gambling Market in Mingyuan" in the Southern Song Dynasty depicts a market woman carrying a tea bottle, wearing her underwear and revealing her breasts. In addition to ordinary people in the market, in the upper class of the Song Dynasty, it was even more fashionable for women to wear underwear outside. The poet Zhao Lingyu of the Northern Song Dynasty wrote a song "Butterfly Loves Flowers", which describes a shy girl in the boudoir of a noble family: "The brocade forehead is heavy and the curtain is a little deep. The embroidered shoes are curved and do not leave Zhuhu. Forced to be shy without saying a word, the red silk frequently conceals the crisp breasts." Among them, the phrase "the red silk frequently conceals the crisp breasts" means that the girl was wearing a simple and elegant silk wipe. chest.

It was a big misunderstanding when I was young.

The book combines the conclusions of the historical images of the Song Dynasty: the women of the Song Dynasty are not as plump as those of the Tang Dynasty, and their eyes are like fashion models under the aesthetics of today. The dresses of the ladies in the Song Dynasty can be said to reveal a little sexiness in their simplicity and elegance; the dresses of the women in the market are simple but not lacking in wildness.

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