Xiao Jun's wife is a Taoist priest in Longxi, born in the Li family in Longxi. She is the ninth granddaughter of Li Gui, the great ancestor of Wu Zhao, the Emperor of Xiliang in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and a member of the Li Tang royal family. Li's great-grandfather Li was a general in Jiangzhou, Sui Dynasty. His great-grandfather Li was human. His father, Li, served as a righteous doctor and a young official of Dali Temple in the Tang Dynasty, and ordered the assistant minister of the official department to be in charge of election affairs. Judging from Li's family background, her husband Jun Xiao was born in the Xiao family, a famous family in Lanling.
Preface to the epitaph of Li, the wife of Xiao Jun who joined the army in Hengzhou before the Tang Dynasty: His wife is a Taoist priest in Longxi, the ninth ancestor Wang Yan, the sixth ancestor Wei Shechong, his great-grandfather (Sui) is the governor of Jiangzhou, the general, and his great-grandfather is the ancestor, while his father Yuan Gong is negotiating with the doctor of Dali Temple, Youqing, and sentenced him to be the assistant minister of the official department.
Li has been infertile for many years after marriage. Xiao Jun didn't say "if you have three sons, you will have no children" like some men. He throws cups all day and complains about his wife. He never moved out of the principle of "carrying on the family line". He indulged his concubines, collected ladies-in-waiting and neglected his wife. He has been married to Li, and his love is as always. Maybe their love touched God. Last year, 42-year-old Li was pregnant. After the diagnosis of Ximai, the whole family, friends and relatives rejoiced and sent them sincere and warm wishes.
Preface to the Epitaph of Shi Li, the wife of Xiao Jun, who joined the army in Hengzhou before the Tang Dynasty: it has been applied for a long time since the Ming Dynasty; Wei Xiong bandits shout, unknown next generation. These years in know life, suddenly pregnant, Chinese and foreign celebrate each other, will inherit the virtuous.
It is conceivable that Li, an elderly pregnant woman, has experienced many hardships in the nine months since she gave birth to a new life. With a longing for a happy life in the future, she endured all the pain and discomfort in her body. Xiaojun must be more patient and considerate of her than usual and take care of her carefully. Finally, the time for delivery came to Gengzi Day in February of the 7th/Kloc-2nd lunar month.
However, God played an extremely vicious joke on Li and Xiaojun, first giving them a great surprise, and then cruelly turning the warm red surprise into a dark tragedy. Li, an elderly woman, died at Gengzishuo in February of the 7th/Kloc-2nd lunar month. The child she paid for her life died with her mother before she could lie in her father's warm and thick arms and cry.
Preface to the Epitaph of Li, the wife of Xiao Jun who joined the army in Hengzhou before the Tang Dynasty: It's almost my birthday, so I will choose all the way ... In February of the first year of Taiji in Guangdong, Renzi was born, and Gengzishuo finally set up a private office in Lixingfang, Luoyang County in the spring and autumn of the third year.
Before the Tang Dynasty, Four Duke of Hengzhou joined the army, and the epitaph of Xiao Jun's wife Li was merged. The rubbings are taken from the Epitaph Collection of Luoyang Diaspora written by Mao Heyu in Tang Dynasty.
Cycas bloomed, but it bore the bitter fruit of the death of mother and son. I can't bear to imagine Xiao Jun being heartbroken by thunder. However, amid the wailing of Xiao and Li's relatives and friends, perhaps Li's relatives will send a sigh of regret to Xiao Jun: "Alas! If you don't have concubines, in order to have children, and reduce cohabitation with your wife, she may not die of dystocia because of old age and pregnancy ... "
Note: Tang people call their son-in-law a "prodigal son".
Under the background of ancient society, this view is reasonable in a sense. As Jiang Feiyu, a senior epitaph researcher, said: "In ancient times, there were no reliable contraceptive measures. Some women take concubinage for their husbands, perhaps not for the so-called female virtue, but to save their lives. "
In the era when Li and Xiao Jun lived, people would take contraceptive measures according to the guidance of the following medical works:
1. Three methods recorded in Xiao Pian Fang written by Chen in Southern Dynasties: 1. Chop Fructus Trichosanthis, Cortex Cinnamomi (three or two of the above two herbs) and Semen Glycines (one liter), add four liters of water to boil, drain out one and a half liters of medicinal juice, and take it in batches;
2. Mash two handfuls of aconite into powder, make medicinal liquor with pure bitter wine, and apply it on your right foot;
3. Take an old cloth with an area of 1 square foot, burn it into ashes and swallow it with wine. It is said that it has the effect of lifelong contraception.
"Xiao Pian Fang": Treat pregnant women who want to go and stop giving birth. Cut Trichosanthes kirilowii, Cinnamomum cassia (three each) and black beans (one liter), boil four liters of water for one and a half liters, and eat them separately. Also, smash two pieces of aconite into pieces, mix them with pure bitter wine, apply them on your right foot, take them out and make them well. Producer: So the cloth is one foot square and all the scraps are burned. Drink wine instead of wine, and you will not produce for life.
Second, at the turn of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Sun Simiao's Prescription for Emergency Use: You can use acupuncture to prevent pregnancy at an acupoint one inch above your right ankle.
"Be prepared for 1000 yuan": In addition, if a woman wants to have a baby, she will be cut off by moxibustion on her right ankle by an inch.
Third, the Tang Dynasty Wang Tao's "Secrets of Outer Taiwan": the mercury was fried with food for a whole day, then kneaded into jujube-sized pills and swallowed on an empty stomach. It is said that contraception can also be used for life without harming human health.
The Secret of Foreign Taiwan Province: A thousand dollars to break the producer: fry mercury for a day without rest, and eat a jujube on an empty stomach. Never hurt anyone.
The actual effect of the above measures is doubtful. Assuming that these contraceptive methods handed down from generation to generation are reliable, why do poor people sometimes kill and abandon newborn babies because they can't raise too many children in history? As a result, the imperial court and the government have repeatedly issued decrees prohibiting "no birth" and implemented various relief and subsidy policies, but they cannot be completely banned? Why don't people who can't afford children use contraception in advance? For example, "Southern History" records: "If you are not born, the cloud (Yixing satrap) will be strict, and the crime is the same as murder. Pregnant people provide their expenses and help thousands of rooms. " However, after the historical evolution to the prosperous Southern Song Dynasty, the phenomenon of infanticide and abandonment not only still existed, but also seriously alerted Song Gaozong. "Song history according to? According to Records of the Emperor Gaozong, Song Gaozong issued a decree in Shaoxing in the eighth year that "the poor are forbidden to raise children, and those who are infertile are given money to raise them", and implemented supporting rescue measures.
Facts have proved that contraceptive methods handed down from ancient times are not effective and even harm women's health. Until the 1960s, folk women still suffered from poor contraception. The article "A Hundred Years of Curious Contraceptive History" records the oral memories of many historical witnesses, and most of them used dark contraceptive methods, including sprinkling incense ashes on the woman's body, the woman eating tadpoles raw, the man eating soybeans raw, and washing the woman's body with salt water. There is a more scientific method-using sheep urine bubbles as condoms. However, sheep urine bubbles are not durable, and they will be scrapped after being used for more than ten times. All these, to name a few, lead people to use contraception ineffectively, or not to use it at all.
It is precisely because of the long-term lack of safe and effective contraceptive methods that in ancient times, in addition to the elderly childless women like Li who longed for children, they also risked their lives to actively pursue pregnancy. Many women continue to have uncontrolled pregnancies and children, and eventually become pregnant women of their age. In the era when there is no medical imaging system to assist delivery and no emergency rescue by caesarean section, giving birth to a child is tantamount to rushing into the jaws of death, and elderly pregnant women are bound to face great risks of dystocia and death. Take the Tang Dynasty as an example. According to the statistics of scholars, about 38% of female deaths in the Tang Dynasty were directly related to fertility. Even if dystocia is not encountered, frequent and uncontrolled delivery will seriously damage women's health.
What shall we do? The only foolproof solution is to reduce sharing rooms, or even completely separate husband and wife within a certain period of time. However, new problems have come again. Sleeping together is an elastic demand for ancient women, but it is mostly a rigid demand for healthy young and middle-aged men. It is unrealistic to ask husbands to abstain from sex often, and it is probably extremely inhuman in the eyes of the ancients. After all, "Mencius" has a cloud, "Men's and women's rooms have a great relationship with people"!
On the other hand, the most important productive force in ancient times was people. Because of the bad medical and health environment at that time, the infant mortality rate was relatively high. Even in aristocrats and royals with superior medical conditions, it is not uncommon for children to die young. For example, among the five children born before Li Yuan Jinyang in Tang Gaozu, 1 child (Li Xuanba) died, with a mortality rate of 20%; Song Shenzong Zhao Yong gave birth to 24 children, 14 of whom died young, more than half of them. There were 1 children of the ninth daughter in Ming Dynasty who died prematurely, accounting for 1 1%, which is really not low. In order to reserve enough labor force, continue the family bloodline and maintain the survival of ethnic groups, the ancients could not give up the tradition of childbearing.
Therefore, in wealthy families, women who suffer from childbirth have to offer a "killer weapon"-allowing their husbands to take in lucky concubines and handmaids, so that women with relatively low status can share the burden of childbirth, spread the risk of dystocia and take into account the needs of reproduction. Later, the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan, the general's harem "Daao", formulated a system of "no more sleep after 30 years old", which looked inhuman. In fact, it is based on the consideration of avoiding pregnancy at an advanced age and preventing the risk of dystocia.