Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 299
Hearing Guo Kang's discussion, everyone began to think again.

"You have really considered a lot of things." Zhu Wenkui said with emotion: "I never thought that there is such a problem..."

"I can't help it either." Guo Kang shook his head and said, "We are people who seek the country, so we must consider more. Moreover, these moral principles are essentially the needs of the people and cannot be ignored."

He had indeed thought about this matter seriously.Moreover, I remembered it when I was listening to Tuo Huan's bragging.

At that time, Guo Kang told him about Cao Jian's family.Tuo Huan complained that concubinage or polygamy should actually be open, so that a bunch of troubles can be hopefully resolved.Otherwise, with the current probability of premature death and death in battle, no one knows which generation he will die.

Guo Kang didn't care much about it.He felt that this matter was too far away, and he had no right to speak, so why bother.But he began to think about why there is a monogamy system in this place.

The early barbarians were polygamous, and the later changes were all influenced by the church.And the rules of the church were inherited from Rome.

Compared with other civilizations, the source of this custom is not difficult to find.

At the same time, the Central Plains were also dominated by monogamy.Since the Warring States Period, there have been strict laws and regulations that strictly limited the scope of concubine marriage and concubinage.

Generally speaking, civilians can only be monogamous, and officials can only take two concubines at the Qing level.The relevant laws are quite harsh, especially during the war, bigamy is a felony that can be punished by beheading.

As for the princes, they often adopt the concubine marriage system, that is, marrying multiple women from the marriage partner at one time.But correspondingly, according to the law of etiquette, the princes will no longer marry wives and concubines after this.

The emergence of this phenomenon is the result of the game between the upper and lower levels, and between families.

At that time, Guo Kang, when many people mentioned ancient times, they meant three wives and four concubines.But at that time, the vast majority of men supported monogamy.The reason is also very simple. If everyone can marry wives and concubines at will, then women will be quickly taken over by the middle and upper classes, and the lower classes can only be bachelors.

Although the lower-level male householders have no money, they are the most numerous and the most able to fight.As the military pillar of the country, their opinions are also very important and cannot be ignored.Therefore, the final rule must be a compromise for both parties.That is to say, on the one hand, open an opening for taking concubines, and on the other hand, strictly limit the level and number of concubines, so as to avoid any impact on society.

The marriage of princes is actually a kind of alliance.The so-called concubine marriage is actually the result of a compromise with the woman's natal family.In order to prevent the married daughter from giving birth to an heir, the woman's family will send multiple women over at once, so as to ensure that the grandson must be one of her own and ensure her influence as a relative.In the same way, after a concubine marriage, no more wives and concubines are used to prevent other families from intervening in the competition.

Therefore, these rules are, in the final analysis, the result of games between all parties.

And the Romans also produced the same system-in terms of system, most people are monogamous, while the upper class has few restrictions on seeking pleasure, and the adoption system can also be used to supplement heirs, which of course include illegitimate children and stepchildren such as.Such a comparison is no coincidence.

Therefore, Guo Kang speculates that this kind of "ethics" that everyone defaults to is actually based on the strength of lower-class male citizens.The stronger these people are and the higher their right to speak, the more the society as a whole tends to maintain monogamy.

And this kind of moral principle cannot be evaluated with absolute "morality".For the virtue of one group may well be the tyranny of another.

Ordinary male citizens believed that the large number of concubines of the great nobles harmed their own interests and must be restricted; however, Guo Kang also investigated those women who served as mistresses to the great nobles through Cao Daoxing's mother.On the contrary, they want to formally become concubines, because although this is not a decent status, it will indeed make life easier than before, and provide these women who are generally of low background with a chance to rise.

Therefore, Guo Kang suspects that this kind of thing cannot be judged by good or evil.In today's social environment, he doesn't even know what kind of behavior is oppressing women.Obviously, the moral experience of the previous life cannot be directly applied, not to mention that in those days, different people also had completely different definitions of morality.

In this kind of society where citizens are strong, morality is not formulated by the upper class, but is forced by male citizens to accept it.To put it bluntly, whoever is the best at fighting is qualified to formulate morality.It might not make sense to think too much about it.The most important thing is to understand the logic behind these moral rules in order to avoid risks and borrow help.

"When we study morality and etiquette, we are not only studying them, but more importantly, figuring out the ins and outs." He said to everyone: "Just like the topic just now-why are the barbarians rude? Because for them, etiquette and morality are not important. It is in the best interests of this group."

"But on the other hand, these morals are morals because it is in our own best interests to act in accordance with them. That is to say, behind the conflict of moral concepts, it actually means that the ways in which both parties benefit have emerged. reconcile contradictions."

"So, it's very simple to make them accept morality. It's enough to intervene and adjust artificially. For example, through tribute, trade, crusades and other means, artificially change the gains and losses of the barbarians."

"Originally, you would lose money if you abided by morality, but now you have to make money; if you didn't abide by morality, you could make money, but now you may lose your life. Morality. This is probably what we often call 'education'."

"But now, you all know that the world is much bigger than what the ancient kings imagined in the Yao, Shun, and civil and military eras. This huge world is full of barbarians, and no matter how capable the imperial court is, it will not be able to take care of it."

"The biggest problem with these barbarians is that they have too little experience and their lives are too smooth. They lack history, and they have neither suffered major setbacks nor encountered dangerous situations. Therefore, it is impossible to understand why we have these Morality."

"In this situation, unless you can beat him hard and make him understand the truth, it is definitely not easy to communicate. Instead of doing this, it is better to leave it to us."

"The barbarians can't communicate, it doesn't matter, we live here, and we are very good at communicating with the barbarians." He suggested: "Where the Celestial Dynasty is beyond its power, we can do it for you. At least, dealing with us is better than dealing with those people directly." Easy."

"When we really need it, we can organize various forces around the Mediterranean Sea to pay tribute and trade together. We can serve as a main node, and we can also set up other secondary nodes in places like Italy and France that are easy to deal with. In this way, Wouldn't it be much more convenient for everyone to organize a network that is responsible for both trade and education?"

(End of this chapter)