Guan prostitutes were prostitutes who worshiped officials in ancient times. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, official banquets were attended by official prostitutes. In the Ming Dynasty, official prostitutes were subordinate to the Jiaofang Division and no longer served officials. In the early Qing Dynasty, the official prostitute system was abolished. Officials and prostitutes were originally two people with very different social statuses, and their lives had no intersection. However, in history, the relationship between these two people was the closest. Official prostitutes were specially designated for the court. Some women from wealthy families were prepared to become prostitutes after their homes were ransacked, and some were trained to become prostitutes from childhood. Official prostitutes are not just beautiful. In order to cater to the needs of civil servants, all official prostitutes can write poems, calligraphy, music, and paintings. There was no shortage of literary and artistic works written by these people in ancient China. Many ancient celebrities also found inspiration from official prostitutes and created many literary masterpieces. Many dynasties stipulated that court officials could not enter private brothels and could only recruit official prostitutes. Su Dongpo and others also often visited official prostitutes. According to legend, there was an official prostitute who traveled around for Su Dongpo's "Wutai Poetry Case". In short, most of the officials in ancient China were literati. Literati have always been regarded as elegant people, and only the corresponding prostitutes could satisfy their status needs.
Prostitutes in Chinese history consisted of palace prostitutes, camp prostitutes, official prostitutes, domestic prostitutes and civilian prostitutes. Palace prostitutes are prostitutes who serve the emperor in the palace, camp prostitutes are prostitutes who serve military officers and soldiers, official prostitutes are prostitutes who serve local officials at all levels, and domestic prostitutes are prostitutes who are supported by the families of high-ranking officials and serve high-ranking officials. Folk prostitutes may be closer to what people understand today as prostitutes, that is, prostitutes who are active among the people and "serve" society. Among these five types of prostitutes, the first three are state-owned prostitutes. According to current words, they are within the system. Their status is humble, but their lives are quite prosperous. They are included in the official establishment of the state (Leji) and are supported by the state's finances. Of course, it also served the needs of the emperor and bureaucrats who represented the country and its symbols. As for the latter two categories, they are equivalent to individual private economies, surviving outside the system, not reaching out to the state, not causing trouble to the government, operating independently, and taking responsibility for their own profits and losses.
The earliest government-run brothel in China was opened by Guan Zhong, the Prime Minister of Qi during the Spring and Autumn Period, in the mid-seventh century BC. That is, in "Warring States Policy·Eastern Zhou Dynasty", "There are seven cities in the palace of Duke Huan of Qi, and seven hundred women." Nvlu is the place where prostitutes live, which is also the brothel in later generations. According to ancient records, the prostitution industry opened and operated by the government at that time was mainly to collect taxes. "There were many prostitutes in the secular world, so women were set up in the market to collect money from men in order to become officials." ("Book of Wei·Qiuci Biography") The second is to alleviate the sexual hunger and thirst of idle men and industrial and commercial citizens in society. Because the royal aristocrats, scholar-bureaucrats, and wealthy country gentry all kept a large number of beautiful women, this resulted in an imbalance in the gender ratio between men and women in society. When the official prostitutes developed to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, a system of camp prostitutes was established, which is said in "The Origin of All Things": "Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty began to set up camp prostitutes to treat the wifeless soldiers." (See "Han Wu Foreign History") In other words, camp prostitutes provide sexual services to military officers and soldiers. But later generations also called the prostitutes in the music camp camp prostitutes. To be precise, Ying prostitute is another name for official prostitute. In Chinese history, during the Spring and Autumn Period, Guan Zhong of Qi State established a state-run brothel to collect taxes. It is said to be the beginning of the country's development of prostitutes. Later, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established the prostitution system, allowing prostitutes to serve the military as comfort women, which reflected the talent and sagacity of the country. The emperor was considerate and kind-hearted, caring about the depression of his soldiers. In the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty set up a teaching workshop to recruit singing and dancing artists to indulge in sensuality. The Tang Dynasty followed the Sui Dynasty's Jiaofang system, and the romantic emperor Tang Xuanzong expanded the Jiaofang organization, with the number of Jiaofang artists reaching 11,409. Not content with this, he also set up a pear garden, engaging in extremely debauched and shameless activities. What is good at the top will be bad at the bottom. Especially after Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty established a teaching workshop and a pear garden, commanded 40,000 court prostitutes to have fun, and his affair with Yang Yuhuan spread throughout the court and the public, officials at all levels were extremely envious and imitated him one after another. There are official prostitutes in all local roads, Fangzhen, Fusi, and military towns in prefectures and counties. During festival banquets, to greet officials and entertain guests, prostitutes are assigned to sing and dance to accompany them
Song Dynasty During the Yuan Dynasty, Neo-Confucianism emerged, emphasizing the protection between men and women. There were restrictions on officials' use of prostitutes. It was stipulated that prostitutes could only provide singing, dancing and accompanying wine for officials, but could not provide sexual services. Violators would be subject to various penalties. Such regulations must be difficult to enforce because private transactions appear to be difficult to detect.
In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang also prohibited official prostitutes from providing services to officials, and allowed some official prostitutes to face the market and provide services to the society to increase fiscal revenue. Officials could not obtain sexual services from prostitutes, and their attitude towards prostitutes began to be cold. The funding for official prostitutes and prostitutes also became a problem. They had to transform into market-oriented services. The marketization of prostitutes in China began. Transition from government-run to private-run.
In the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Yongzheng ordered the abolition of the Leji system nationwide, and the state no longer officially supported prostitutes. From then on, officials' soliciting for prostitution was institutionally prohibited, but it was impossible to ban it. However, without the government-run prostitutes supported by the state's finances for pleasure, if officials do not pay for prostitution out of their own pockets, someone must pay for it for some benefit, or even embezzle public funds or use public funds for prostitution under a clever pretext.