In the Song Dynasty, there was a trend of generous dowry. When a daughter got married, her mother's family had to prepare a generous dowry.
There is a saying: If there are five daughters in a family, thieves cannot steal the house. This means that if a family gives birth to five daughters, the dowry alone will drain the family's wealth, and even thieves will not care about it.
The opening of "Do You Know" is the joy of the marriage between Yuan Sheng and his family. There were a lot of guests in the outhouse, the banquet was very lively, and the grandmother of the Sheng family in the inner house had a heart-to-heart talk with Hua Lan.
Grandma said: You have the most docile character, and you are also tough and calculating. I am relieved, but the more the dowry, the better.
How much dowry did grandma give Hualan?
There are only two boxes in the drama version, a box of assorted jewelry and a box of contracts for the farm shop. This is a lot, but the original book still goes into more detail.
As the eldest daughter of the Sheng family, Hua Lan was extremely famous when she got married, which made Miss Lin, who was favored at the time, extremely jealous: Sister Hua had a dowry of 128 dan, as well as fields. Zhuangzi and many of his companions were so impressive!
The leader of the Sheng family also introduced: Although the old lady had made it clear that each girl would receive a dowry allowance of one thousand five hundred taels, but when Hualan got married, she paid far more than this amount!
That’s not all. The old grandmother specially gave Hua Lan a pair of ruby ??red gold head and face that she had given her when she was married.
This piece of jewelry is so precious and luxurious!
The original book describes this: As soon as the box was opened, the room was suddenly filled with golden light. The gold was so red that it had been cleaned recently. The rubies were huge and shiny, each as big as a thumb. They were bright red and dazzling. Even Wang, who came from a wealthy family, was shocked and couldn't move his eyes away.
Fang’s mother explained: The ruby ????on this piece was obtained by the old prince from the country of Kiev on the other side of the Snowy Mountains, and was beaten into a whole head and face to make a dowry for the old lady. From the head to the body to the hands, there are a total of eighteen, which are carefully inlaid with bare gold. It took two teams of craftsmen three months to make them. It is enough to wear it even when you go to the palace to see nobles.
This is the so-called rich lady!
How important was dowry to ancient women?
Gu Tingye’s biological mother was the Bai family, a daughter of a merchant family. Because of the generous dowry, she could even be said to be as rich as anyone in the country. The old man of the Ningyuan Marquis Mansion in Bianjing came to Yangzhou to propose marriage.
Lin Xiaoniang also had the extravagant hope of asking her husband to prepare ten miles of red makeup for Mo Lan to get married to the young prince of the Duke of Qi.
It can be said that the dowry represents the strength of the mother's family, and it is not only the economic strength. The dowry is rich. The married daughter does not have to rely on her husband's family for survival, and she has the confidence to live in her husband's family.
Although dowry was important to women in ancient times, it was of course only for high-class women. It was probably difficult for ordinary families. The original book also mentioned: In some elegant families where the food is the best, the elders have to save dowries piece by piece for those valued legitimate daughters from the time they learn to talk.
Even if the dowry is of the same thickness, there are two situations: more complex and more simple. The complicated ones include everything from dowry maids, mothers-in-law, stewards and fixed assets, to furniture as large as beds, tables, cabinets, boxes and other items, as well as clothing for all seasons, and even mahogany toilets and bathtubs with golden hoops. It might be a little exaggerated. The shrouds are all ready.
When Hualan got married, her father Sheng Hong was serving as a general magistrate with a low official rank. However, when Rulan and Minglan got married, Sheng Hong had already jumped from a local official to a capital official, with a different status and salary. different.
How much is Minglan’s dowry?
Minglan's dowry mainly consists of three parts: the first part is the dowry of the queen and mother of the Sheng family.
Although Minglan's father Sheng Hong was negligent when she was growing up, he paid special attention to the dowry.
It is written in the original novel that he specifically warned Mrs. Wang about this matter: I have made it clear to you! This time, whether overtly or covertly, as well as the house you bought for Ru'er before, you paid for the dowry of the two girls as generously as possible!
Moreover, he also threatened Mrs. Wang: No matter how much the old lady wants to give to Girl Ming, you are not allowed to say anything! If not... These words frightened Mrs. Wang so much that she turned pale and trembled all over.
The Sheng family gave Minglan silk and precious wood, as well as precious and exquisite jewelry prepared by Changbai Haishi.
The second part is the old grandmother’s dowry, which is gone.
In the play, on the eve of Minglan’s wedding, the old grandmother personally took out a box from the cabinet and counted the properties, properties, shops, storefronts, and a village in the suburbs of Beijing for Minglan one by one. , five to six hundred acres of fertile farmland, and comes with a small mountain forest with excellent Feng Shui.
In the original work, the grandmother of the Sheng family wanted to give all the remaining boxes from her dowry to Minglan, and Minglan persuaded her to leave them to brother Changbai. Grandma said: I can’t say this box is priceless, but it’s enough to keep you worry-free for the rest of your life. Do you really don’t want it?
My grandmother loved Minglan the most. She took her by her side when she was young and raised her with great care. She gave the lonely Minglan a lifetime of warmth. She also prepared a generous dowry, but she was always worried that it would not be enough tomorrow.
The third part is Gu Tingye’s betrothal gift.
The play introduces that when Gu Tingye proposed to marry Minglan, he moved more than 20 large boxes to the Sheng family, and these were placed in Minglan's dowry.
The original work describes it like this: The betrothal gifts sent filled a yard.
One hundred and twenty-eight pairs of pure gold pigs, a total of five or six hundred taels; the fabrics include eighty-eight pieces of silk yarn from Jiangnan, eighty-eight pieces of feather silk from Jiangbei, and Yun brocade and Shu embroidered in various colors. One hundred and eight pieces of satin; eighteen pairs of red gold bracelets with three or four layers of dragon and phoenix, eighteen pairs of red gold hairpins with dragon and phoenix inlaid with beads; there are also abalone, oysters, clams, mushrooms, dried shrimps, squid, sea cucumbers, shark's fins and fish maws, Plus Nostoc and other top-quality seafood. After Haishi and the old lady looked at it, they seriously suspected that these were tributes from Jin. As for other various types of Sansheng fish wine, four seasons tea candies and other items, there are countless others. Finally, there was a pair of fat geese squawking wildly.
As for the gold beads and jewelry among them, the two maids spent half an hour counting them, filling the nine-story, eighty-one-box ebony, pear, carved and lacquered dossier box to the brim.
How big of a room does Minglan’s dowry need to fit in? Of course, as a new rich man in the dynasty, the wedding room prepared by Gu Tingye was also surprisingly large.
It can be said that among the four sisters of the Sheng family, Minglan’s dowry is the most generous.
On the eve of Minglan’s wedding, her grandmother was still worried that Minglan would have a hard time in the Gu family. People and things she didn’t worry about would lead to more places to spend money, so she always thought about giving her dowry some more. Add a little more.
Dowry is indeed important, but having a generous dowry does not equate to a guaranteed happy marriage.
Hualan, who was in red makeup for ten miles, struggled for more than ten years before she could truly live a happy life. However, Minglan’s mother-in-law, Bai, ended up with a tragic ending of one body and two lives even though she had a dowry of thousands of dollars. , how many people can really be as happy as Heide from the moment they get married?
Speaking of which, dowry is important, luck is also important, and even more important is the business after marriage.