Fragments of a brothel in Wei Zi.

In the costume TV series we watched, there were many scenes of brothels, and many stories of men and women took place in brothels. However, the nature of brothels is well known. Does the existence of a large number of ancient brothels really represent the open mind of ancient people? The answer is no, the ancient people were influenced by the traditional Confucianism, and the conservative thoughts would not change easily. Brothels are just a means for rulers to maintain their own rule.

Although there are many brothels, it does not mean that the ancients are open-minded.

Although there were a lot of brothels in ancient times, this alone does not mean that ancient people's minds were open. In fact, the ancient people's thoughts were influenced by Confucianism, and their thoughts were still very conservative. Brothel is just a window for the ancient people to vent their desires, and it can't actually represent the development degree of the ancient people's thoughts. If we think about the development history of Confucian culture, we will know that it is impossible and will not destroy the traditional feudal thought only by virtue of the prevalence of brothels.

The role of ancient brothels in maintaining rule

The earliest record of brothels was in the Spring and Autumn Period. In ancient China, wars occurred from time to time. However, no matter how the dynasties changed and the society was turbulent, the frequency of rape and other crimes committed on women was not very high, because the appearance of brothels met the needs of young men, which was conducive to maintaining social stability at that time and increasing the income of the court. Therefore, for the rulers, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, so the ancient emperors did not vigorously suppress them but gave them some support.

Humanized setting of ancient brothels

It can be seen that the number of ancient brothels was not because the ancient people were open-minded, but because the ancient emperors established them to safeguard their own political parties and their own rule. Man is an animal with desire. If the desire is not properly released, it may have more serious consequences as time goes by. Therefore, many brothels are also human considerations.