Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 395 Is Rumu a Mother?like a mother

However, philosophers have found that the Serisians do not seem to have thought about this kind of problem.

There is a theory of "eight mothers" in Seris society, which means that eight kinds of women can be regarded as mothers, including aunts, stepmothers, adoptive mothers, loving mothers, married mothers, birth mothers, concubine mothers, and wet nurses.For philosophers, this is an obvious example.

Because among the eight mothers, some are not directly related to the father.

Concubine's concubine's children refer to their father's wife, and this relationship depends entirely on the father; the same is true for stepmother and concubine.Loving mother means that a concubine adopts the children of another concubine under the instruction of the father, and the children refer to the adoptive mother who takes care of them.Since the key point of emphasis is on the father's command, it is also related to the father.

But adoptive mothers and wet nurses do not necessarily have to be related to their fathers.Children can be adopted or nurtured even in the absence of a father.In this way, the authority of the father is not a sufficient condition for maintaining the status of the mother.

The remaining two are even counter-examples: married mother refers to the mother of a child who has remarried to another; out-mother refers to the mother who has been divorced.In both cases, the original parental relationship has ended legally.If the relationship between mother and child is maintained by the father, then these two relationships should be canceled immediately.

This problem is not unknown to the philosophers of Seris.

Confucius' grandson was named Zisi, and his great-grandson was named Zishang.The Kong family has had wives for several generations, and the son's mother also remarried after divorce.

After his mother passed away, Zishang was going to the funeral, but Zisi stopped him.The disciples asked why, and Zisi said that the woman should be the father's wife first, and then the child's mother.If the relationship between husband and wife is severed, the relationship between mother and child is also severed.Now this woman is no longer his wife, so she is no longer Zishang's mother, and there is no need to mourn for her.

His way of thinking is what Greek scholars call the father-centered model.

But the problem is that Zisi's theory has not been used by later generations.Confucian scholars have been arguing endlessly about how to treat married mothers and unmarried mothers, but they have not yet reached a unified opinion.In different times, in different places, people often go their own way.

Finally, the mourning regulations issued by the government are often a compromise product: mourning is required, but it does not have to be full.In short, it's obviously mixed with mud...

This shows that the Seris people have patriarchy, but patriarchy is not the only factor.The mother-child relationship itself has been recognized for a long time and has the confidence to bargain.In this case, the custom will naturally become what it is now.

In short, the purity of patriarchy is too low.

On the other hand, through some extreme cases, the difference between the two sides can be seen more clearly.

In Greece, there is a widely circulated story that Agamemnon, the commander who attacked Troy, was killed by his wife in collusion with a lover after returning home—in the Mediterranean world, this seems to be a very common plot, and it is true in reality. Many replicas.But Agamemnon's children are very determined and always want to avenge their father.

Agamemnon's youngest son, Orestes, went into exile after his father's death, and returned to his hometown after growing up.With the help of his sister, he successfully killed his mother and her lover, realizing his wish for revenge.

But after that, the Nemesis continued to pursue him, and Orestes could only continue to flee everywhere.Later, Apollo helped him run to Athens and seek the asylum of Athena, so Athena organized a group of the most intelligent people to judge him.

Apollo himself defended him, saying that his father was more important than his mother, so he should be pardoned for his actions.But the Furies considered matricide to be a felony and unpardonable.The justices could not agree, with support and dissent split evenly.At the critical moment, Athena cast the last vote and declared him innocent.Orestes was finally pardoned.

Although a fictional myth, this classic story has been repeatedly cited by scholars because it represents people's basic understanding.However, in Serris, such a thing cannot be found.

The case of murdering one's mother to avenge one's father is not unheard of. On the contrary, there were classic cases in the Han Dynasty.

During the period of Emperor Jing of the Western Han Dynasty, the famous "Fang Nian Case" occurred.Fangnian's stepmother Chen killed Fangnian's father, so Fangnian avenged his father and killed his mother.Ting Wei arrested Fangnian, and according to the law, he was found guilty of "killing his mother" and should be punished according to the crime of "big treason".

But at that time, the concept of revenge was very popular, so Emperor Han Jing recruited Emperor Wu of Han, who was still a prince at that time, to consult his opinion.

The prince said that in the Book of Rites, "a stepmother is like a mother".Why do you say "like a mother"?It means that after all, she is still different from her biological mother, but because of her father, let's treat her as her mother for the time being.

And when the stepmother kills the father, at the time of the attack, it means that the bond between husband and wife is over, and the resulting bond between mother and child is also over.Therefore, killing the stepmother should not be considered the crime of "big treason" of killing the mother, but should be regarded as the crime of ordinary homicide.

Emperor Han Jing recognized his point of view, so Fangnian's crime was mitigated, and he was finally sentenced to beheaded and abandoned the market.

The judgment of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was repeatedly cited in the codes of successive dynasties as a standard reference, and it also had a great influence.Even overseas, in the eyes of Greek researchers, there are also extremely rich information content.

The most obvious place is the problem of "a stepmother is like a mother".What exactly does Rumu mean?It means "like" mother, which means like a mother.So is Rumu a mother?It is "like" the mother, that is to say, after entanglement to the end, it is still not the mother...

This shows that although the stepmother is the legal wife of the father, she is still not the real mother of the original son, but a simulated mother-child relationship based on the marriage relationship of the parents.But just like the previous example, this difference just proves that in addition to the relationship brought by the father, the blood relationship between mother and child also has a certain influence and will be taken into consideration.

Similarly, the judgment of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was actually very "handy", saying that it reduced the first-degree crime, but in fact it did not reduce anything.He didn't reward Fang Nian for his revenge, and gave him a reduced punishment.Moreover, after analyzing the legal terms clearly, Fang Nian was still executed.

In this case, it is difficult to say which side the judgment supports.Because judging from the results, the government actually does not support anything, and even opposes the act of revenge itself.This kind of high control and the supremacy of the imperial court are also not found in Greece-because there are actually no "other parties" here.The positions represented by Furies, Apollo, Athena and other characters have all been replaced by the government.

(End of this chapter)