Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1185 Postscript : Who is whose prey?

Since the Tang Dynasty, princesses and their husbands have often lived in separate houses, but this system was not fully institutionalized until the Ming and Qing dynasties.

At least this was not the case in the Song Dynasty, because the princesses in the Song Dynasty often did not have their own exclusive princess palaces and had to live with their husbands according to etiquette.

The specific operations are as follows:

After the imperial concubine was chosen, he was given clothes, belts, silver saddles, silk and other items. When the marriage was approaching, he was given a fortune.

Before a princess gets married, she is given a house to live in with her husband. In principle, the property rights of the house belong to the royal family, and the right to use it belongs to the princess and her husband. Generally, the royal family will take it back after the couple dies. However, in practice, it is often not taken back, or it is taken back directly after the princess dies.

The house where the princess and her husband live together cannot even be called a "house" but can only be called a "di".

The so-called Prince Consort's Mansions in the Song Dynasty were all built with the Prince Consort's own money, and in the capital they were only called "Prince Consort's House".

But if it is far from the capital, it doesn't matter. You can build it in a place far away from the emperor. For example, Xu Jue, the son-in-law of Emperor Yingzong of Song, built the "Son-in-law's Mansion" in his hometown of Chaozhou.

There are exceptions to everything.

Song Renzong had only one daughter, whom he loved dearly.

He ignored the opposition of all his ministers, demolished a large area of ​​Kaifeng houses, spent 70 strings of cash to build a princess mansion for his daughter, and gave his daughter an extra strings of cash pocket money every month.

Song Renzong took the lead in seriously violating the rules, which had a very bad influence on the atmosphere of the time.

The royal family, nobles, civil and military officials naturally followed suit, and the people also began to violate the rules on a large scale.

In addition, starting from the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song, the son-in-law of the emperor was no longer promoted. When the princess met the parents of the son-in-law of the emperor, she had to address them as uncle and aunt (father-in-law and mother-in-law), and the status of the princess in the Song Dynasty was further lowered.

It was also during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song that princesses had to call themselves "concubine" in their letters to the emperor, in contrast to the "minister" that the princes called themselves. This was not a derogatory term, but was purely for the sake of retro etiquette. In the pre-Qin era, "minister" and "concubine" were synonyms.

Today's Ming Dynasty basically inherits the Song system.

For example, if a princess and her husband are given a house to live in together, it is not called "Princess's Mansion" but "Princess's Residence". In principle, the court can take back the property.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the prince consort still needed to be promoted, but it was no longer promoted in the middle of Zhu Ming's reign. In other words, the princess was a junior rather than an equal to the prince consort's parents, which was considered out of common sense.

But Zhu Ming's grandson did something. He prohibited princes-in-law and commoners from taking concubines (those over 40 and childless were exceptions), and at the same time stipulated the number of concubines that officials at all levels could have.

This was clearly an invalid decree as it could not be effectively enforced and was repealed less than twenty years after it came into effect.

It has to be abolished, as it has become a tool for some people to seize wealth!
For example, a local dignitary set his sights on a rich man's property, so he teamed up with officials to arrest him for taking a concubine. Although this crime was not serious, it could be used to carry out other operations, and eventually forced the rich man to sell his property at a low price.

The side effect of the ban on concubines was that the princes-in-law were more keen to build their own houses. Then, in their own houses, they secretly took in a large number of concubines in the name of keeping singing girls, and often separated from the princesses.

……

Early in the morning, Xie Yan took a carriage into the city.

The magnificent Princess House in front of you was once Zhang Guangdao’s private residence.

The head of the Zhang family was exiled by Emperor Dingtai, and his property was confiscated. The largest house and a manor outside the city were given to his daughter by Emperor Dingtai.

The plaque on the gate was very long, with eight characters engraved on it: The House of Princess Qin Guojing.

The Grand Princess of Qin was the title of princess conferred upon her by the young emperor.

Jing is the title of the princess bestowed by the little emperor.

Generally speaking, princesses do not have titles.

Now that she had the title, she naturally enjoyed a lot of fame. So much so that when people mentioned the Grand Princess, they automatically identified her as the Princess of Qin, rather than the other Grand Princesses.

The reason for this honor is simple.

Princess Qin was the only one who went to warn Emperor Dingtai to be careful during the coup. She was also the only one who went to the palace to tip off the emperor before the coup, but she was captured by Prince Yong and his consort halfway.

Xie Yan walked around the main door and came to the side door to hand over the visiting card: "Please inform that Xie Yan is here to visit."

The doorman had been told long ago, and seeing Xie Yan's enthusiasm, he opened the door and bowed very respectfully: "Master Xie, please come in!"

Not only was Xie Yan led into the inner courtyard with courtesy, but even the two followers he brought with him were arranged to have tea and eat cakes in a small hall.

He met many servants along the way, all of whom looked at Xie Yan secretly with curiosity and vigilance.

When the prince consort was still alive, he also brought his servants to live in the palace. He did not dare to do anything to the princess, but he often lost his temper with the princess's servants.

At first, the princess would protect the servant and even quarrel with her husband because of it.

Gradually, the princess became a bootlicker, always asking her servants to be tolerant.

This caused the servants of the prince consort to become arrogant and make things difficult for the princess' servants. Even some of the princess' servants completely sided with the prince consort.

After the prince consort was executed, the servants loyal to the princess cheered.

Now it seemed that another prince consort was coming, and the servants were happy for the princess but also deeply worried.

What if Xie Yan also treats the princess badly?

"Hello, Mr. Xie!" The chief maid Qingluan came to the outside of the courtyard to greet him in person.

The eldest princess, of course, needs to be reserved.

Xie Yan bowed and said, "Thank you, sister."

Compared to the late prince consort who always had a gloomy face, Qingluan particularly liked the young scholar Xie. The young scholar Xie loved to laugh, gave people a very sunny feeling, and his mouth was also lovable.

Qingluan said: "My name is Qingluan."

Xie Yan immediately said, "Sister Qingluan is a good name. It sounds very fairy-like."

Qingluan was even happier after being called, and smiled, "My dear, please follow me in. The princess is in the garden."

The house was so big that Xie Yan walked from the outer courtyard to the inner courtyard, passing through two corridors, passing through the door and the courtyard, and then turning to another corridor. Further inside was a wall and a moon-shaped archway. After passing through the moon-shaped archway, he suddenly saw an exquisite garden inside.

The garden is filled with pavilions, terraces, flowers and trees, rockeries, lotus ponds and gurgling water. The private residence that Zhu Ming gave to Zhang Guangdao was not this big, and his descendants expanded it, forcing all the nearby merchants and residents to leave.

At this moment, Xie Yan was admiring the garden scenery, with only one thought in his mind: I have a bad stomach and I want to live off my wife!
He didn't know yet that the property rights of this house belonged to the royal family and the eldest princess only had the right to use it.

"Dong dong...dong..."

The sound of guqin came from further inside.

There are walls and doorways in front, and the garden is actually divided into several areas.

If Qingluan hadn't been leading him, Xie Yan would have probably gotten lost.

The eldest princess pretended to play the piano in the pavilion, listening to the footsteps outside.

A maid trotted over and whispered, "Here it comes, here it comes!"

Several maids surrounded the princess, standing straight ahead, but their eyes kept glancing over there involuntarily.

Qingluan led Xie Yan to the outside of the pavilion, bowed and said, "Your Highness, Scholar Xie is here."

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The eldest princess reached out and gently pressed the still vibrating strings of the zither, nodded and smiled at Xie Yan, then slowly stood up.

Xie Yan stepped forward and bowed: "Greetings, Her Royal Highness the Princess."

The eldest princess bowed in return, invited Xie Yan into the pavilion and asked, "What kind of music does Xie Liulang like?"

Xie Yan didn't know any guqin repertoire, so he could only hide his incompetence and avoid the topic: "As long as it's played by Your Highness, I like any piece."

The eldest princess' heart was pounding when he flirted with her without warning. She glanced at him and complained, "Xie Liulang is a young and romantic man. Do you usually talk to girls like this?"

Xie Yan had no experience in dealing with this kind of life-threatening questions.

He quickly thought of a solution and said, "I am only familiar with two women, and I have never talked much with other women."

The Grand Princess's attention was diverted: "Which two ladies are they?"

Xie Yan said, "One is my mother, and the other is my sister. When I talk to my sister, I am never polite, and I especially like to tease her. But when I talk to my mother, I have to be careful, just like I just talked to His Highness."

The eldest princess didn't know whether to laugh or cry after hearing this, and continued to ask a fatal question: "So in Xie Liulang's eyes, I am an elder like your mother?"

Xie Yan pretended to think: "Your Highness is just like my mother, majestic and kind, which makes me feel afraid, but I can't help wanting to get closer. But there are some differences. After all, my mother is an elder, and Your Highness is like a big sister of the same generation."

The eldest princess suddenly frowned.

What is a peer elder sister? After all this time, you actually treat me as your elder sister, so why are you flirting with me while showing off your balance!
As a straight man, Xie Yan didn't know where he said wrong.

He quickly sat over and carefully asked, "Is the princess angry? I'm not very good at talking, so I just say whatever is on my mind."

There are stone tables and stone benches in the pavilion, all made of white marble, which are quite cool to sit on in the summer.

The stone bench is long, but not very long, and can barely accommodate two people.

The princess sat in the middle of the stone bench, with only a small part of the bench exposed on both sides. When Xie Yan sat over there, he could only sit halfway, and his body was already close to the eldest princess.

If your words make up for it, your body can make up for it.

The eldest princess hadn't touched a man for many years. She blushed at this action and subconsciously moved her hips half an inch away. She said with shame and anger: "You are so rude. Don't you know the difference between men and women?"

Xie Yan was dejected and quickly sat back down.

He has never been in a relationship. He has learned a lot of theory, but has never put it into practice.

He can only substitute himself into the games he has played.

If this is a love game on a computer, the intimacy value just now should be insufficient, so the overly intimate actions have the opposite effect. How to remedy it next?
The princess did not refuse me to use my hair to weigh it, and also allowed me to keep my hair as a souvenir. The gossip spread all over the city, but the princess did not come out to clarify it, but instead invited me to participate in the polo meeting.

So, the princess should have a crush on me, right?
Xie Yan suddenly decided to go all out. Since his love skills were not good enough, he might as well go straight to the point. He pretended to be depressed: "I'm sorry, I was abrupt. I like Princess Sister, and I thought she liked me. I don't know how to talk to girls..."

The handsome and talented young man plays a pitiful role, which has a great killing effect on the older sister.

Just like a whimpering puppy being stepped on, it can instantly make a woman feel full of maternal love, and she can't help but want to hug it and comfort it. (Damn, so disgusting. Yue!)
The eldest princess really fell for it, as she had always been quite fond of Xie Yan.

The reason why she was angry just now was simply because Xie Yan claimed to regard her as a sister, and she thought Xie Yan was deceiving her feelings - this was purely a difference in concepts between two time and space. Xie Yan thought he was saying sweet words, but to the princess it didn't seem like that.

Hearing Xie Yan say that he liked her, the eldest princess became happy again, and the crying little puppy looked so adorable.

The eldest princess began to make a plan for herself, thinking to herself: "Alas, he is too young. Although he is very talented, he still doesn't know how to get along with others. When I was his age, wasn't I also unruly and willful? This will only hurt him in the future. I need to teach him more."

The eldest princess even thought of her past self, and a sense of responsibility arose spontaneously. She must not let Xie Liulang repeat her mistakes. She should teach him more and teach him how to deal with people.

"Okay, you are a man too, don't act like a woman." said the eldest princess.

The little puppy looked up happily and asked, "Sister is not angry anymore?"

The eldest princess asked back: "When did I get angry? You can be more casual in front of me in the future, but you must be careful with your words and actions when you meet others."

Xie Yan took the opportunity to attack the snake with a stick: "I treat my sister as my own, so I say whatever I want. If it were an outsider, I would not do this. I am usually smart."

The eldest princess was even happier, her eyes narrowed into two crescents as she smiled: "When did we become family?"

"Not yet?" Xie Yan had a confused expression.

The eldest princess fell for this and found it particularly exciting. She felt that Xie Yan was very lacking in other aspects except for his outstanding knowledge, and she felt a sense of accomplishment in guiding him back to the right path.

Xie Yan trained two little girls.

The Grand Princess also wanted to teach Xie Yan a lesson.

Both of them were experiencing the fun of a cultivation game.

(End of this chapter)