The Tang Dynasty was a prosperous and powerful dynasty. With the recovery and development of agricultural production, urban handicrafts and commerce also became increasingly prosperous. This developed urban economy combined with the luxurious lust of the ruling class prompted the rapid rise of an unproductive industry, prostitution. The Tang Dynasty was a dynasty when the prostitution industry in my country was relatively prosperous. At that time, there were "palace prostitutes" in the royal family, "house prostitutes" among high-ranking officials, "camp prostitutes" in military stations, "official prostitutes" in cities, and "official prostitutes" in teahouses and restaurants. There are many types of "singing prostitutes" and "drinking prostitutes" who specialize in accompanying wine. In the Tang Dynasty, there was no ban on officials at all levels "staying in prostitution". Therefore, from the powerful ministers in the court to the newly rich, down to the urban and rural wealthy businessmen and literati, they all regarded traveling with prostitutes as a romantic interest. At that time, in Chang'an, Luoyang, Yangzhou, Huzhou and other metropolitan cities, there were a large number of tourists, and tourists from all over the country also traveled here. *** In order to facilitate the management of prostitutes, they were all registered and various regulations were formulated to restrain them. A set of prostitute management systems was gradually formed. "Beili Zhi" by Sun Bo, a scholar of the Tang Dynasty, is a documentary work written after investigating the life of Kangli in Beiping, Chang'an City. It more comprehensively reflects the folk customs, sentiments and politics of the Tang Dynasty. * Life. Sun Bo recorded in "Beili Zhi":
Official regulations stipulate that prostitutes are divided into three types (third class). Nanqu and Zhongqu are superior, while the others are despicable and insignificant, so they are mostly called Erqu. . The residents in the two songs all have spacious and quiet halls, each with three halls, flowers planted in the front and back, or strange stone basins. There are small halls on the left and right opposite, which are called hanging couches and curtains. All prostitutes are privately owned. All halls are decorated with color plates to commemorate the death anniversaries of emperors and empresses.
The mothers of prostitutes are mostly fake mothers, commonly known as charcoal, and they are probably all declining prostitutes. *** There are three origins: those who have been beggars since childhood, hired by poor families, hunted by unruly people, those who have lost their virginity, and are employed by their families in exchange for generous bribes, and fall into it by mistake. After entering the song, he was taught songs and orders, and he was very urgent in assigning poems and poems. They all assumed their mother's surname and called themselves female brothers and sisters, but none of them were under thirty years old. False mothers also have no husbands. Those who are still alive are probably the masters of various residences and generals, or they keep their wives privately, and they do not treat each other with the courtesy of their husbands. There is a lazy man who is supported by various advocates in Sanqu, so he is called "Temple Rong". I don't know what it means, but he is probably a husband but not a husband. The prostitutes in Chang'an have high prestige and high prices because they are favored by public ministers. The Dazhong Emperor (Li Chen, Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty) visited Beili, and many courtiers gathered here for banquets. The prostitutes who lived in Pingkangli, raised their sons to the new rank, and were promoted to the third shogunate, but those who did not pass the imperial registration and did not have direct access to the palace, they were successful. If no expense is spared, the vehicle will be prepared on land and water. Among them, most of the prostitutes are good at conversation, and some of them are quite knowledgeable in writing and speaking. From the ministers on down, they are all praised for their virtues. It distinguishes the quality, weighs the people, and deals with the ranking. It is beyond the reach of the good. The letter can leave the uncle and grandson's dynasty, causing Yang Bing's confusion. It is often said that Xue Tao, a prostitute in Shu, is talented and will be accused of being exaggerated. If I see the disciples of two or three sons in Beili, Xue Tao is far more virtuous.
Sun Piao described the prosperity of the prostitution industry in Chang'an, but what is the situation in other cities? We can take Yangzhou as an example to see the prosperity of its prostitution industry. Yangzhou was the hub of water and land transportation between the north and the south in the Tang Dynasty. Salt, tea, rice and agricultural and sideline products from the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers were first gathered here, and then transferred to Guanzhong and other places in the north. For this reason, *** specially set up salt and iron transshipment envoys and foreign trade centers here. Municipal shipping department and other institutions. The development of commodity economy and the role of Yangzhou economic center. The prostitution industry here is much more prosperous than in other cities. After many literati traveled here, they left many more colorful poems to record the prosperity of the prostitution industry in this place. For example: Yu Ye's "Under the prosperous Yangzhou, every city faces the evening, above the prostitutes, the streets are full of pearls and green, like a fairyland" Du Muzhi's "Spring Breeze Ten Miles Rolling Pearls" Zhang Hu's "Ten Miles Long Street with Markets", Watching the gods on Yueming Bridge, life is only for death in Yangzhou, Zen wisdom mountain is bright and has a good tomb field. "Wang Jian's "Thousands of lights in the night market illuminate the blue clouds, and the high-rise buildings are full of customers. Today is not like usual, but I can still hear the sound of singing." Xu Ning's "The world is divided into three parts on a bright moonlit night, and two parts are in Yangzhou."
In these poems, we can see to some extent the prosperity of the prostitution industry in Yangzhou and the debauched life of the poets "walking around in Zhangtai, sleeping in flowers and drunk in willows". In the higher-level brothels of the Tang Dynasty, prostitutes had to be proficient in music, singing, dancing, poetry, painting and other skills and knowledge. For the upper-class nobles, the main purpose of going there was not to vent their sexual desires, but to Get mental relaxation and peace. For men of the leisure class, it is the best place to get away from the troubles of family and daily chores by enjoying fine wines and delicacies and enjoying poetry and songs. It may be related to the cultural background of the Tang Dynasty. There were many famous prostitutes at that time who were good at poetry. The literary foundation of some policemen was far superior to that of ordinary literati students, so much so that in places such as Chang'an and Luoyang, some policemen actually served as temporary tutors for young scholars who came to study or take exams. The more famous poets and poets recorded in biographies at that time were: Zhang Yaoyao, Xue Tao, Liu Caichun, Liu Fengxian, Yu Xuanji, Li Ye, Xue Xiaocong, Zhao Yingying, Shen Dongdong, Ah Ruan and many others. Among them, many of the romantic poems that are excellent works and have been handed down to later generations were also written by ***, and their number exceeds the total number of works by Chinese women in all dynasties that have been handed down to later generations.
If we conduct an in-depth study of this special cultural phenomenon, can the prosperity of prostitution in the Tang Dynasty be regarded as the main reason?
As far as *** is concerned, his thoughts and writing style are relatively open, and his own painful experience has given him the deepest understanding of the emotions between men and women. Otherwise, it would be like "the scenery is getting old, but the good times are still there." It is impossible to imagine out of thin air such ancient romantic quatrains as "It is easy to find priceless treasures, but it is rare to find a man with a heart". For example, Xue Tao, a famous prostitute, knew the rhythm of music when she was 8 years old. Later, she became a prostitute due to family changes. She was good at poetry and poetry throughout her life. She left more than 500 poems handed down from generation to generation and had a great influence in the poetry world. Historical records once said: "The woman Xue Tao was also a prostitute in Chengdu, so she was named after her poem. Although she was humble and humble at that time, she still had the charm of a forest dweller. Therefore, as soon as the poem came out, people rushed to pass it on as a joke. There is no feminine style in the writing, and the writing is strong. Ji, whose calligraphy skills are so good, is learned from Wang Xi's method. He likes to write good sentences every time, and he also writes elegant and elegant sentences, hence his name. People at that time called him "literary demon".
It is precisely because the prostitutes were good at poetry and prose that poets often went to brothels to drink fine wine, eat delicacies, and compete with prostitutes for poems and verses, thus forming the poets of the Tang Dynasty. The culture of prostitution. For example, when Xue Tao was a prostitute, the famous poets who sang with him successively include Wei Gao, Yuan Zhen, Bai Juyi, Niu Sengru, Linghu Chu, Pei Du, Yan Shou, Zhang Ji, Du Mu, Liu Yuxi, Wu Wuling, Zhang Hu , "The rest are all famous people, and there are twenty people recorded." Among the poets of the Tang Dynasty, Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi are the most famous. It is said that when they were officials abroad, they had two major hobbies: one was traveling around the mountains and rivers and composing impromptu poems; the other was drinking wine, having sex with prostitutes, and having banquets with them. Bai Juyi once had a romantic history of "boating on Tai Lake, having sex with prostitutes for five days and nights, and never leaving". In addition, Du Mu and Cuihua and Liyu, Zhang Jianfeng and Guan Panpan, Rong Yu and Qionghua, Fu Chun and Jinyun, Li Shizhong and Jia Aiqing, Yuan Zhen and Liu Caichun, Han and Liu Shi, Zhou Yan and Liu Fengxian, Dou Gong There are many romantic and interesting words with poets such as Shen Dongdong and Jianye County.
The social atmosphere of poets and prostitutes in the Tang Dynasty and the prostitutes' ability to sing and compose had a significant impact on the development of literature in the Tang Dynasty and even in China. Between poets and lovers, either out of fun, or out of true feelings, a large number of romantic works praising lovers and praising the love between men and women have appeared. At the same time, these works also reveal the tragic situations and fate of women who are oppressed, ravaged, and abandoned. As we mentioned before, Bai Juyi, "the worst prostitute", once used poetry as a form of literary expression to express his personal experience and loudly shouted to the society many times: "Don't live like a woman, and the joys and sorrows of a hundred years will be left to others." , "You must know that women are suffering, and never look down on each other from now on", which reflects the author's humanitarian spirit of sympathy and pity for women in poetry creation. As for the author's own behavior, it is subject to historical limitations and cannot be transcended. He neither asked himself not to engage in prostitution nor had the ability to change the situation. We cannot be harsh on the ancients in this regard.
In the creation of Chinese novels that have only been formed since the Tang Dynasty, they are basically dominated by romance novels, which involve ***. The most influential and ideological representative work is Bai Xing. There are two romantic romance novels, "The Biography of Li Wa" by Jian (Bai Juyi's younger brother) and "The Biography of Huo Xiaoyu" by Jiang Fang. The authors of these two romance novels may have experienced it personally or were inspired by real people, so they used pen and ink to exaggerate it, and successfully portrayed Li Wa and Huo Xiaoyu, two people who were reduced to fireworks and prostitution. The image of a noble, graceful and moving woman praises the woman's spiritual state of being kind and noble despite her extremely low social status, thus revealing the prosperity of prostitution in the Tang Dynasty. The fault was not caused by women, but by the social system. Such a political theme.
Since most of the romantic poems and novels of the Tang Dynasty were about praising women or describing the love affair between scholars and women, they were more in line with the ideals and interests of intellectuals in feudal society. Therefore, there are many various literary works created based on this theme in later generations, and their impact on society is correspondingly much greater than other works. In addition, there are some literati and scholars who have observed brothels from a broad social and cultural perspective and have written many stories about brothels in the form of notebooks and novels. These all occupy an important position in the history of Chinese literature, customs and sexual culture. .
Taking the impact of the prosperity of prostitution in the Tang Dynasty on Chinese literature as an example and extending it, it is not difficult to see that the emergence of prostitution is by no means a single social phenomenon, but also economic, political, and cultural phenomena. As well as the comprehensive reflection of people's moral standards developing to a certain stage, there are many things, accidents, and events derived from it, which react on the entire society through various forms. However, in a male-centered social system, prostitutes can only survive by meeting the needs of men. Therefore, the prostitution industry that has flourished since the Tang Dynasty has endured and continued into China's modern society.