Did Li Ruzhen take a concubine in the Qing Dynasty?

Li Ruzhen shouldn't have married a concubine. Li Ruzhen (about 1763—— about 1830), whose real name is Taoist. Zhili (now Beijing) Daxing people. /kloc-when he was 0/9 years old, his brother Li came to Banpu (now Banpu Town, Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province) and lived in the ambassador's yamen of Banpuchang Salt Protection Department. Since then, he has lived in Banpu except for two trips to Henan as an official. Li Ruzhen studied under Ling Tingkan, a master of Confucian classics, and was classmates with Qiao Shaofu, Qiao Shaoqiao and Lin. Shortly after arriving in Banpu, Li Ruzhen married Xu's elder sister, and married his second son, Xu. Li Ruzhen strongly opposes concubinage by making men "self-defeating". To sum up, the viewpoint put forward by Li Ruzhen in "The Edge of Mirror Flowers" is to oppose dressing up, piercing ears and binding feet, fortune-telling marriage and concubinage, to recognize the equality of wisdom between men and women, and to advocate women's participation in politics. His most incisive insight is that women are good people, just like men, and men make them "artificial" and "different", and then they become accustomed to it.

For example, he opposed fortune telling and marriage, and said through the mouth of the character Wu in the novel:

Marriage is a lifelong relationship between men and women. Be cautious, how can you be careless? If you want to get married, if your personality is pure, your age is similar and your family is relative, it is an excellent marriage. Why do you have to do it again? ..... What is particularly ridiculous is that women's lives are handed down from the secular, and the sheep in the north are bad and the tigers in the south are fierce. I don't know what it means, but I can't live without it. People are born before their age, so what is better than sheep? Born in a cloudy year, why did you become a tiger? And all the people who are afraid of their wives in the world are not necessarily the wives of tigers. Rats love to steal, but snakes are the most vicious. Are all rats and snakes thieves? Cattle are beasts with heavy burdens, so naturally they will not suffer from this; Are ugly cows born of karma? This is all ignorance. It is ridiculous to create this fallacy, and scholars often feel the same way.

Li Ruzhen criticized the fallacy of fortune telling and marriage, and put forward that marriage between men and women should be completely centered on personality, age and family status:

Parents, if they can see the absurdity of marriage, only care about family status. As for the fate of wealth and longevity, there is no danger in the future. This heart can also treat its own children, and their children seem to have no complaints.

Li Ruzhen strongly opposes concubinage by making men "abandon themselves", which he often uses to criticize and satirize men's oppression of women in the Mirror Flower Garden. For example, in the fifty-first time, the robbers of the two countries wanted to take Tang's boudoir minister as a concubine, which touched his wife's great anger. The wife hit her husband 40 times and counted his charges:

..... In that case, why do you just want a concubine? If I want to find a male concubine and neglect you every day, will you be happy? As men, you used to talk about ethics when you were poor. Once you moved to a rich field, you gave birth to a lot of cold faces and forgot your true colors. Not only do you care about your relatives and friends, but you are also very proud, and you will also ignore the feelings of those dross. -this is robbery, it's time to dismember; You just want to buy a concubine. Where is the way of loyalty and forgiveness? If I don't hit you anything else, I will hit you "only know yourself and don't know anyone"; I will be content to beat you, without any pride, with a feeling of loyalty and forgiveness. I called today, and then I will leave you alone. To sum up, I don't want a concubine, I have to ask male concubine for me first, so I can do it. My male concubine was called "Shoushou" by the ancients. Face Wan Li and take its beauty; First, take its beauty. I didn't invent this classic, it has existed since ancient times.

Li Ruzhen's recognition of the wisdom of equality between men and women and women's participation in politics is a very positive contribution. His Flowers in the Mirror is mainly written to promote the development of women's talents. Among them, 100 talented women, "Is Lin Qiong and Shu Qi really a perfect match?" In the imperial edict of Wu Zetian, he said clearly at the beginning: "Heroes of heaven and earth are not chosen by others"; He also said: "Today, the spirit is not in people's hands." Because men and women are equal in wisdom, women should study like men and take science exams. One hundred talented women in the book were later assigned to high-tech companies, some of whom were officials and some were kings. He not only broke the dominant psychology of despising women in society at that time, but also insisted that women's status should be the same as that of men. This view is very brave and bold, and he was really one of the representatives of progressive thought at that time.