Linxia

Chapter 73, Marriage

At this time, it would take some time for the little pupils from the school to come over, so when Mr. Ou had some free time, he would lie on the recliner under the osmanthus tree as usual, fanning himself with a cattail leaf fan and squinting his eyes.

Fang Lin strolled over, sat down next to him, and talked to Master Ou about the Qiu family. He said that the Qiu family seemed to have many relatives and he had seen them attending banquets several times.

Master Ou sighed and said, "The Qiu family has quite a few relatives. Every year, either the daughter of this family gets married or the son of that family gets married. Many distant relatives also come. In short, there are constant banquets for weddings, funerals, and full moons. They are also very capable. They are very generous with the money they can scrape out of their teeth when they attend banquets. The gifts they bring are no less than those of young people. All the relatives say that the two old people are good."

"Fang Lin, what do you think about this?"

"This... is just about saving face." Fang Lin restrained his words and didn't say anything to flatter himself.

"Who said it wasn't? But..." Master Ou pointed at his face and said, "People, the more they lack something, the more they value it."

This is a very insightful statement!

Fang Lin understood that Master Ou meant that Granny Qiu's face was burned, and she might have been criticized a lot in the past, so she cared more about her face than other people.

How can one talk about this? Don't put yourself in someone else's shoes, and don't judge from the perspective of a bystander. They may not be unhappy if they do this, so there is no need for you to comment on it.

As they were talking, a fortune teller in linen clothes came over. He was blind in one eye, and wore an old linen shirt that reached his ankles. He was wearing a pair of torn cotton shoes without roots, and his heels were exposed. His skin was dark and rough like the bark of an old locust tree. His hands stretched out to each other's sleeves, and in his arms he held a flag with the word "fortune telling" written on it.

The fortune teller in hemp clothes glanced at Master Ou, then looked at Fang Lin, bowed slightly and said, "Old sir, young master, do you want to tell your fortune?"

"I am a scholar. I respect ghosts and gods but stay away from them." Master Ou sat up from the rattan chair, looked more serious, and shook his head.

"Neither do I." Fang Lin stood up and returned the greeting.

"That's all." The fortune teller in hemp clothes didn't say much. He walked forward and looked at Mr. Xin and his son.

Mr. Xin and his son were working at the dock. They came back for lunch at noon and sat on the doorstep to rest and relieve their fatigue. They would wait for a while before going to the dock.

"Old man, I see that your son has not yet married. Do you want me to calculate it?" asked the fortune teller in hemp clothes.

"I calculated it! I calculated it!" After hearing the other party's accurate description of his son's situation, Mr. Xin nodded repeatedly and said, "Can you calculate for my son and see when he can get married?"

Mai Yi asked Xin You about his birth date, solemnly took out tools, told him his fortune, and asked Xin You to stretch out his hand for him to read.

Fang Lin was not far away and also looked over. The back of Xin You's hand was like a tablecloth that could not be washed clean. His nails were very long and full of dirt, and there were ten white semicircles at the bottom of his nails.

Maybe because he was not professional, he didn't notice anything.

"If your son doesn't get married this year, he will definitely get married next year." The fortune teller in hemp clothes said, and he praised Xin You's hands: "The ten white spots on your son's hands are more obvious and bigger than others, which means he can embrace the sun and gather a piece of golden light, just like holding a pile of gold. Even if he doesn't become rich in the future, he will live a worry-free life."

After hearing this, Mr. Xin was so happy that he couldn't stop smiling. His crooked mouth was drooling. He wiped it quickly and asked how much the fortune-telling would cost.

"Just give it to me, old man!"

Mr. Xin went back and came out again soon, giving him one or two taels of silver.

The fortune teller in hemp clothes was not surprised. He took the tael of silver, put his hands together again, reached into each other's sleeves, and left with the flag in his hand.

Fang Lin witnessed the whole process, looked at Mr. Xin, and then looked at Master Ou.

Master Ou always intervened when he saw something he didn't like, but this time he didn't say a word from beginning to end.

However, when Fang Lin saw Xin Laoguan's happy expression, he seemed to understand something, but his thoughts were still churning.

'On ordinary days, Mr. Xin was reluctant to spend money on food and clothes, calculating every penny shrewdly, but this time the fortune teller gave him only one or two taels of silver. How much food could this buy? 'Stinginess and generosity, shrewdness and ignorance, made him ponder the truth.

After the fortune teller in hemp clothes left, Master Ou asked Old Man Xin, "Did the marriage you talked about last time not come to fruition?"

"People look down on my son!" said Mr. Xin.

"Ugh!"

Master Ou sighed, "That family is a merchant, but they only have a small storefront selling food. If it was in the early years of the founding of the country, it would have been marrying up to the Xin family!"

"Master, please tell me about it!" Fang Lin suppressed his chaotic thoughts, handed the bamboo tube to Master Ou, and said with a smile. He liked this kind of topic very much. The changes in social trends in history, from Master Ou's mouth, could deepen his understanding of the entire Daxia society, as if he saw the great trend from conservative to open.

"You kid, you're only thinking about the little thing in my stomach!"

Master Ou pointed at Fang Lin, took the bamboo tube and drank a sip of water, and then he began to tell the story: "From the early years of the founding of the country to the present, not only has eating and drinking changed, but also marriage has changed."

"In the early years of the founding of the country, the hierarchy was strict. Wearing clothes and using bowls and chopsticks had their own rules. Naturally, there were strict rules for marriage. Generally, relatives could not marry, people with the same surname could not marry, people of high and low status could not marry, officials could not marry civilians, and people of high and low status could not marry. There were laws for who could marry whom, and those who violated the law would be punished. For example, 'If a slave marries a good man, he will be beaten with 80 sticks. If a good man marries a slave, they will both become slaves and be demoted to the lowest level of people.'"

Fang Lin nodded, he could imagine the atmosphere at that time.

Under the social background at that time, scholars would certainly not want to marry farmers, workers, or businessmen, and farmers would not want to marry businessmen and industrialists. They would each keep to their own business and never interact with each other until they died.

Master Ou also told a true story: "During the Yongning period, which was the third dynasty of the Great Xia Dynasty, there was a scholar in Fengyang Prefecture named Cheng. He had two daughters. The eldest daughter was married, and the younger daughter was still unmarried. She was called Cheng Xiuting. She was quite pretty and smart. She had never learned housework since she was a child. She read a lot of books, was well-educated, and was generous.

Cheng Xiucai raised his daughter with great difficulty, and naturally wanted her to marry into a good family. However, he never expected that his educated daughter would have a stronger independent character, and secretly got to know the son of a merchant family without telling her parents.

But this merchant was a good businessman and had quite a few businesses. If she married him, she would definitely not suffer. On this day, the merchant prepared a lot of betrothal gifts to propose marriage and also invited a well-known local matchmaker, hoping to persuade Cheng Xiucai to find a good marriage.

When Master Ou said this, he looked at Fang Lin and asked, "Do you think this marriage can be successful?"

"In my opinion, given the social atmosphere at that time, it would have been impossible," Fang Lin replied.

"Yes!"

Mr. Ou continued, “As soon as the merchant and the matchmaker entered the house and stated their purpose, they were driven out by Mr. Cheng.

This was extremely unreasonable. The merchants and matchmakers thought Chengjia was going too far, saying that this was not the right way to treat guests. But Cheng Xiucai said, "What guests are we treating? My family is a scholarly family, and we have been studying for generations. But you brought peddlers and hawkers into my house. It's obvious that you want to harm my family. They are not guests at all."

After driving away the merchant and the matchmaker, Cheng Xiuting burst into tears, complaining that her father had kicked out the person he loved. Cheng Xiucai was so angry that he took a broom and hit his daughter, scolding her while beating her: "You are an unfilial thing. I have spent all my efforts to educate you to study, but I don't expect you to bring honor to the family. I would accept you even if you married a farmer, but you married a merchant and you are willing to be lowly. How can your father feel embarrassed? "

"Fang Lin, who is right and who is wrong in this matter, Cheng Xiucai or Cheng Jianu?" Master Ou asked again.

Fang Lin thought for a moment and said, "It's not that Cheng Jianu did anything wrong. What Cheng Xiucai did was also understandable. After all, marrying into a merchant family for the sake of so-called love is not only ruining herself, but also the reputation of her family."

"No one is wrong, right?"

Master Ou smiled and said, "This was in the early years of the founding of the country. During the Zhengde period of the Great Xia Dynasty, due to various factors, the system was changed so that merchants could also participate in the imperial examinations. In this way, merchants not only had a lot of wealth, but also had a status recognized by the country. Today, can you imagine the impact this has brought?"

"After the class system of scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans is broken, the concept of family background will probably change. Heroes will be judged by their wealth, and winners and losers will be determined by how much wealth they have accumulated. No matter what their background is, having money is the most important. This concept may have extended to marriage?" Fang Lin said carefully.

"Yes, children can be taught."

Master Ou told another true story: "During the Hongtai period, two years ago, there was a farmer in the city named Zhou. His ancestors inherited 20 to 30 acres of land and hired five or six laborers. In addition to growing rice, they also planted mulberry, hemp, cotton and other crops. They were doing well and had a small fortune. They had a son named Zhou Xiaoyuan, who was also my student. He loved reading and passed the examination to become a scholar at the age of 20. Don't you think these conditions are good?"

"Of course." Fang Lin nodded.

"The Zhou family is in such a good financial situation, and Zhou Xiaoyuan is of marriageable age, so many people have come to propose marriage. The matchmaker said that there is a good girl in such-and-such a family, and that there is a young lady in such-and-such a family who is still waiting to be married.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Xiaoyuan looked down on all of them and rejected them one by one. It turned out that he just fell in love with the young lady of the Gu family, named Gu Caier.

Who are the Gu family? They are one of the most wealthy merchants in the city, the owners of Rongxin Commercial Bank, with three weaving workshops, a shipyard, and a whole fleet... The Zhou family is also wealthy, but compared with the Gu family, it is nothing. The Zhou family invited someone to the Gu family to propose marriage, but even the matchmaker was kicked out, scolding: "A toad wants to eat swan meat. He is not even a Jinshi or an official, so he is not worthy of going to his family to propose marriage."

What do you think this is?"

"All we can say is that things change with the times and social trends change." Fang Lin also sighed.

'The Great Xia of this time and space is just like the Great Ming of the previous life and space. After the middle of the century, the whole society gradually became more open-minded. Merchants stepped out of the bottom of society. The boundaries between scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans became blurred. Money began to penetrate power. The two were intertwined, and the idea of ​​money supremacy began to rise.' He thought to himself.

He chatted with Master Ou for a while. When the students started to go to school, Master Ou became busy and Fang Lin could not stay any longer, so he went home.

……

(End of this chapter)