It is a book
Luxury consumption of officials
"Rich" means that a person has money. According to the prices of goods in the Song Dynasty, you would be considered middle class if you had a savings of 10,000 yuan. You can live comfortably in Beijing, but you can't live in luxury. Officials, like ordinary people, have to eat, drink and defecate. Their main consumption is in treating guests to meals, drinking alcohol and giving gifts to prostitutes, buying and selling people, and giving gifts. In the third year of Chunhua reign of Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty, Raozhou sentenced Bai She to borrow 500 Wen from a new colleague to treat him to dinner. It’s quite a lot to eat 500 articles in one meal. The official regulations of the Song Dynasty were 770 consistent and almost consistent consumption, which means you eat a lot. The new colleague is young Ding Weisong.
During the reign of Zongshen, Su Shi recorded that officials played chess with Zhang, and the loser was treated to a meal, which also cost him five hundred coins. It can be seen that official and scholar gatherings usually require the same amount of money, which is enough to feed a family of five for a month. Speaking of luxury, Cai Jing treated his colleagues to dinner. Just one crab roe steamed bun costs "more than 1,300 yuan," so at least the meal is sumptuous.
A "rich" owner will be devoured after the meal. Eating is a normal expense, similar to pocket money, and buying and selling people is a big expense. In the Song Dynasty, reselling people, keeping mistresses, finding mistresses, and soliciting prostitution were all legal and legal. Song Huizong wore Tsing Yi and a small hat, and took advantage of the darkness to kill people and go out for prostitution, let alone a scholar-official!
It is recorded that when Wang Anshi was an official in Beijing, his wife Wu bought him a concubine! Wang Anshi saw his concubine and asked, "Who are you?" My concubine said that she was bought by my wife to serve you. If it had been anyone else, he would have given in. Wang Anshi's desire for beauty, money, and power is very weak, and he is really indifferent to fame and fortune. Wang Anshi asked again, whose woman are you?
My concubine told me the whole story. Her husband was a general because the ship capsized and sank while escorting rice. This loss should be compensated by the escorting military attache. The general went bankrupt and the compensation was not enough, so he had to sell his daughter-in-law. Wang Anshi asked again, how much did your wife spend on you? Concubine replied, nine hundred thousand dollars. Wang Anshi found her husband to return the goods, which led to the couple's second date. Nine hundred thousand means nine hundred strings.
In the middle of the Song Dynasty, the price of buying female slaves was about 100%. In the first year of AD, Han Qi was guarding Zhending. The scholar Peng Zhifang came to apply for a job, but Han Qi ignored him. Peng Zhifang jumped into their compound and slept under the wall all night. The next day, the servant reported that Han Qi was still missing. He uttered a poem: "Wash and cultivate diligently, and don't let wild branches stick out of the wall." Peng Zhifang was so ashamed that she immediately agreed to the poem: "If the master also pities Gao Jie, don't give a single thorn to the wild branches." Han Qi His eyes lit up, and the young man had a second thought. I have said that I have never met anyone else, and because of face, Han Qi spent 100 yuan to buy a female slave as a gift.
Eating and reselling are normal expenses for the people. The main consumption of officials in the Song Dynasty was entertainment. Usually they cost a lot of money and are stunning. Prostitutes in the Song Dynasty were not prostitutes in today's general sense. Prostitutes in the Song Dynasty, such as courtesans, geishas, ??camp prostitutes, prostitutes, etc., were similar to courtesans, song and dance artists, and sex workers. The culture of the Song Dynasty was extremely developed, and the general quality of prostitutes was the highest in all dynasties. They are proficient in various chess games, calligraphy and painting, and have reached the state of "never tire of it, never tire of it"
In Kou Zhun, there were official prostitutes dancing the sexy branch dance of the Western Regions, which was similar to the lap dance. Speaking of rising, Kou Zhun "wrapped the heads" of official prostitutes, and the guests rewarded the actors after the performance. What Kou Zhun gave was silk, silk and other high-grade silk fabrics. One of his concubines, Tao Xi, didn't like this. She wrote a poem to persuade him, "A pure song and a bunch of silk make a beauty feel inferior. I don't know how many times the weaver girl throws her shuttle under the cold window." When the geisha dances and sings, you give her a bunch of silk, and she doesn't know how to do it. really. Silk is hard to come by. Please cherish the fruits of labor of female textile workers.
It can be seen from Tao's poem that "a song with silk" means that it is impossible to sing only one song during a meal, and Kou Zhun also rewarded several pieces of silk after the entire banquet. horse. At that time, a large piece of silk cost six to seven crowns, and a small one cost 0,660, which was close to two crowns, enough to feed a family of five for half a year. Moreover, geishas have “too few means” and people don’t take them seriously. Obviously, there are many officials who are more generous than Kou Zhun. Kou Zhun laughed at the poem and replied: "What will happen to your fame and wealth? It's like a shock. Why do you have to ask about everything in the world and listen to the colorful songs in front of the bottle?" This poem The poem expresses the desire to be an official. A more extravagant person was Zhao Chongzhi in the Huizong era.