Can we see how open the Tang Dynasty was from the discovery of the Tibetan Sutra Cave in Dunhuang?

All along, as long as it comes to ancient dynasties, there are bound to be some negative comments. For example, the word "dirty Tang" will appear when evaluating the Tang Dynasty. Why do you say that? Because the relationship between men and women in the Tang Dynasty was too open, we can see the dress of women in the Tang Dynasty in TV dramas, but these are all things of the upper class. So how open were the people in the Tang Dynasty? A site was discovered in Dunhuang, revealing the true face of the Tang Dynasty. This kind of openness may make modern people stunned, so that scholars think that the Tang Dynasty is too open and incredible.

1965, a large number of classic ancient books of the Tang Dynasty were found in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes. In addition to the subset of classics and history, there are a large number of official documents and private documents of the Tang Dynasty, which provide extremely valuable information for scholars to study the history of the Tang Dynasty. Among them, there is a book called Statue of People in Dunhuang Township, which reflects the real situation of the people in the Tang Dynasty. This is actually an accusation against Xiang Kang in Dunhuang. He complained to the government that his younger brother was taken away by Tuyuhun people, hoping that the government would uphold justice and get his younger brother back. From this point of view, the Tang government is still very prestigious and has done practical things for the people, so Kang will appeal.

So who is his brother? Kang's younger brother is not his own brother, but a child born to his mother after his father's death, because she does not obey women. What is even more puzzling is that there is such a sentence in the complaint: "A Niang doesn't know who she will meet." This sentence brings a lot of information. If his mother has only been through the storm with two or three men, he will naturally know who the father of the child is. The key is not knowing who the father is, because there are too many people, so "I don't know who I will meet."

A village woman in Dunhuang Township can be so enlightened and accepted by the society, which shows how open the Tang Dynasty was. If such a thing were put in other dynasties, it would certainly be severely punished. In addition, a book "Leave a surplus and let your wife go" was unearthed in the ruins of the Mogao Grottoes. This book is equivalent to our current divorce certificate, and it also says that the husband and wife dissolve their marriage under the witness of their elders, and the two sides do not interfere with each other. Since then, they have lived far apart.

In our impression, in ancient times, the man divorced his wife through a piece of paper, and from this book, we can see that women can also break up on their own initiative, which means that husband and wife have the same status in marriage. It is also for this reason that the love relationship in the Tang Dynasty is particularly complicated.