"Ming Gong Shu Ban Qing Ming Collection": "When a woman marries a dowry, it is the land given to her husband's family by her parents. If she has her own share of the husband's family, how can she be allowed to do so by herself?"
In ancient Chinese wedding customs, it often included the sending of betrothal gifts and dowry. In other words, when a man marries a bride, he must give her something to express happiness. After a family received a betrothal gift, they had to return a dowry in response. In ancient society, the value of the dowry was far greater than the value of the betrothal gift, and almost everything in the bride's family was spent. This was caused by unequal social status. There is a saying in the ancient book "Book of Rites Nei Principles": "The wife has no selfless goods, no selfless beasts, no selfless weapons, and dare not take private leave or give privately." It can be seen that a married woman not only has no private property, but also needs a dowry. It belongs to the husband's family.
The value of dowry
This phenomenon changed after the founding of New China. At the beginning of the founding of New China, betrothal gifts and dowry were regarded as feudal bad habits and were widely criticized. , but this custom among the people is difficult to completely eliminate for a time, so it has always existed tenaciously. In modern times, it has almost become an unspoken rule of the industry. However, the value has changed from the ancient dowry being greater than the betrothal gift to the betrothal gift being greater than the dowry.
Because of this, the older generation either did not have a dowry when they got married, or the dowry was very expensive. In a treasure appraisal program in my country, a granddaughter took her grandma’s dowry to appraise the treasure and wanted to know what kind of cultural relic it was. Why does the granddaughter want to appraise treasures, and what is the origin of this dowry?
Mysterious Earrings
It turns out that the granddaughter has reached the age of marriage. According to folk customs, the granddaughter should bring a dowry when she gets married. I am worried about whether to give my husband a car or to renovate the house. The granddaughter's grandmother came over and gave her pair of earrings to her granddaughter, saying that she could just use them as a dowry.
This is a relatively ordinary-looking earring. It is not very big in size and is yellow in color, but it is not the color of pure gold. If it is placed at a roadside stall, it will basically not let go. The extent to which people take a second look. The granddaughter asked her grandma where she got it, and grandma replied that it was a treasure passed down from ancestors and had a history of hundreds of years.
When grandma married grandpa, there was nothing in the whole family that was more valuable than this pair of earrings, so she brought them as a dowry. After getting married, my grandma always kept this earring in a small box and never showed it to others easily, just so that she could give it to her descendants in the future. Seeing that his granddaughter was about to get married, the old man took out his earrings.
Although grandma said that this earring is very valuable, the granddaughter still murmured in her heart. She didn’t know what kind of cultural relic it was and which dynasty it belonged to. If it was just a fake, wouldn’t it be included in the wedding ceremony? It's embarrassing. For safety reasons, my granddaughter took this earring to participate in a famous treasure appraisal program and planned to have it appraised by experts to see which dynasty cultural relic it was and how much it was worth.
Cultural relics of the Liao Kingdom
At the scene of the treasure appraisal program, the granddaughter handed over the earrings to experts for identification, and a dramatic scene occurred. Generally speaking, when treasure appraisal experts are appraising cultural relics, it doesn't take long to have a good idea of ??whether it is a fake. However, these treasure appraisal experts are just staring at this. They looked at the earrings for a long time. It was not that they couldn't tell whether they were genuine or not, but they were a little unbelievable as to which dynasty these were.
It turns out that through the workmanship and specific appearance of the earrings, we can know that this is not a workmanship from the Qing Dynasty, but a cultural relic from the Liao Dynasty. As we all know, the Liao Dynasty has a history of nearly a thousand years. In addition, the Liao Dynasty was a dynasty established by the Khitan nation. Therefore, the cultural relics of the Liao Kingdom are still unfamiliar to us, and there are many national crafts waiting for us to discover.
My granddaughter’s grandmother was actually able to hold a cultural relic from the Liao Dynasty. It was obvious that her ancestors were from a large family. After the expert looked at it, he quickly asked: What is your grandmother's last name? After all, if we investigate grandma's genealogy, we may be able to know why this cultural relic appeared in the hands of this family. We may even know where the ethnic minorities flowed after the demise of the Liao Kingdom, which can help us understand the ancient times more comprehensively. history of ethnic migration.
Conclusion
It can be seen that this small earring is really valuable, so much so that experts dare not estimate its value, but just let the granddaughter keep it. After all, This is grandma's wish. After listening to the expert's words, the granddaughter returned home with satisfaction and decided to keep the earrings well and continue to pass them on.
Reference: "Book of Rites·Nei Principles"