Chapter 137 The 'cake' Hou Ji drew for the slaves of Sima Mansion
Instead, he continued to be a Han minister like Xun Yu until his death. "Dong, dong, dong." There was an unhurried knock on the door of the Sima Mansion.
"Come here, come here, why are you in a hurry? My master has just recovered today. I want to come and visit him as I have plenty of time. There is no rush today."
Although the tone of the servant's response to the knock on the door was still a little calm, he still walked quickly to the door. After all, since the owner of Sima Mansion, Sima Yi, was unfortunately infected with malaria in the past few months, nothing happened in Shuzhong.
High-ranking officials from the court came to visit, but the main door had not been opened for several months.
And now that the master Sima Yi has just recovered from his illness, it is already good to have someone come to visit him. Even if the visitor has a lower official position, it does not matter. After today, as the master Sima Yi recovers, more and more officials will come to visit him.
Maybe he can recover himself and other servants cannot imagine it. Only Hou Ji, a loyal old servant who followed his master Sima Yi all the way from Luoyang, the capital of Wei, to Shuhan, can hear from time to time the scenery of the Sima family in Luoyang at that time.
The people who come to visit every day are all of high status and official positions, and they are all three princes who are on the same level as the master Taifu Sima Yi. The relatives of the Cao family such as Cao Zhen and Cao Shuang are seen many times, and they are already commonplace.
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As for the people who came to Sima Mansion to find a way to seek employment, I saw so many people that I can no longer remember clearly the faces and names of most of the people who came. After all, these little people were not important at that time, only the dignitaries of the Wei Dynasty and the emperor.
is what needs to be remembered most,
Those little people have to go into the mansion to meet their master Sima Yi to ask for an official position and give them some financial bribes. Whenever they hear Hou Ji talk about this, they, the servants of the Sima Mansion, are eager to recreate the past glory of the Sima Mansion in Shu.
In this way, these servants will have a lot of face when they go out, and it is not just as simple as making some extra money to supplement the family...
In the past few months, they, who were slowly "found" from the human trafficking transactions in various places in Shu after the Sima family settled down in Shu, were quite cheap and innocent, and these servants who were bought and sold were as if they were in the master's house.
I just accepted my fate,
But they also hope that the owner who buys them will treat them better, that they will have a higher status in front of outsiders, be respected by others, and have extra money to earn. This is a wonderful thing that can only be realized in the homes of a very small number of well-educated and noble families.
wishes. In this era, the treatment of slaves is generally unspeakable.
In the sparsely populated period of the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, many "non-productive" people flooded the society, which would lead to overwork of "general producers". The most miserable people for these "general producers" were slaves, but in the early Eastern Han Dynasty
The treatment of slaves has gradually improved, but it plummeted during the Three Kingdoms period.
During the reign of Emperor Guangwu, three edicts were issued on matters related to slaves. The first one demanded that slaves should not be killed indiscriminately, the second one pointed out that slaves should not be burned, and the third edict ordered the abolition of the law that "if a slave hurts someone, abandon the market."
Emperor Guangwu also issued an edict to encourage the emancipation of slaves and enacted laws prohibiting the sale of human beings. First of all, all those who were punished as slaves during Wang Mang's period were pardoned and made into common people.
Secondly, those who are suffering from famine or being threatened by thieves in Qingzhou and Xuzhou must be released as long as they want to be free. Otherwise, the detainees will be sentenced to the crime of human trafficking.
Finally, it is requested that those who were reduced to slavery in Longxi and Yizhou should be exempted from becoming common people as long as they have not been reported through official approval.
During the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, the situation of buying and selling people resumed. After all, the Han Dynasty had declined at this time, and local separatist warlords continued to emerge. Even if the Eastern Han Dynasty wanted to pacify the local separatist forces one by one, it was unable to do so.
Later, Dong Zhuo, Cao Cao and others took turns to take the throne and hold the emperor in order to control the princes. The orthodox status of the Eastern Han Dynasty was constantly shaken. At this time, no one had the energy to control the buying and selling of slaves in the world, and there were many
Local warlords participated in it to seek benefits,
Yang Jun once participated in the redemption of slaves. In "The Biography of Ren Gu", it was pointed out that he and a person jointly purchased a slave, with a total of sixteen pieces of cloth. Later, the slave's family came to the door and redeemed it with sixty pieces of cloth. In addition, in "The Biography of Chen Tai"
"" also describes some situations about the sale of slaves.
Of course, in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, in addition to beating criminals and their families into slaves, the government basically treated prisoners obtained by winning battles the same as slaves.
The situation of slaves during the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period was very miserable. At that time, there were many slaves who served the government and were called official slaves. If they reached the age of seventy or were disabled or seriously ill, they would be ruthlessly dragged to the streets to sell for money.
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In the seventh year of Zhengshi, Cao Fang issued an edict stating that there is still the practice of buying and selling official slaves in the market, and many slaves are over seventy years old or disabled and seriously ill.
Nowadays, all localities are required to demobilize the above-mentioned people and restore their status as good citizens. If there are people who cannot take care of themselves, the counties and counties should also provide them with necessary help.
Friends who are familiar with the Three Kingdoms should know very well that when Cao Fang succeeded to the throne, he had already issued an edict to exempt official slaves over sixty years old from becoming good men. However, seven or eight years later, official slaves were still resold in the market.
It seems that slaves continued to be used, and many people ignored the edict. In fact, as long as people's views on slaves are deeply rooted, it will be difficult to completely eliminate them administratively.
Yang Yong once found Zhuge Liang. In the conversation between the two, Yang Yong compared slaves to chickens, dogs, cows and horses, which shows the status of slaves in his eyes.
Yang Yong, courtesy name Zizhao, was born in Xiangyang, Jingzhou (now Xiangfan, Hubei Province), and was an official of the Shu Han Dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period. Yang Yong successively served as the governor of Bajun, the prime minister in charge, and the prime minister Dongcao.
He was deeply trusted by Zhuge Liang. When Yang Yong served as the prime minister's chief clerk, he persuaded Zhuge Liang not to overstep his authority, compile books by himself, work hard all day long, and "invade the superiors and the subordinates." This would only waste energy and accomplish nothing.
Yang Yong's words were affirmed by Zhuge Liang. After Yang Yong's death, Zhuge Liang wept for him for three days and believed that Yang Yong's death was a loss to the Shu Han court. Therefore, Wang Anshi wrote a poem: "Weeping for Yang Yong is just one word, the remaining wind"
Who will tell you more today? It’s just mediocre Shu’s support for Wu and Wei. If you don’t have an open mind, how can you be virtuous?
Even such a talented person who was highly valued by Zhuge Liang also viewed slaves in this way. It also shows that slaves' status at that time was really very low.
Mao Jie, who was in Cao Wei's camp, once lamented his sympathy for those who were not slaves. Cao Cao actually almost killed Mao Jie because of this. He knew that few people in power would sympathize with slaves and improve their status for them, like those in Sima's mansion.
The treatment of servants is quite good, not that bad.
The servant opened the door of the house and found that an official he had never seen before came to visit him. Before he could ask the visitor's name and official position, a servant of Li's house came forward and said, "Please tell me, your master."
Therefore, I asked Li Yan's son, Li Feng, the governor of Zhu Ti, to come and pay his respects."
As he spoke, the servants of Li's Mansion stepped forward and climbed up the steps of the mansion's door. They stuffed some five hundred stems into the hands of the servant who came to open the door.
The servant of the Sima Mansion said with a smile: "It turns out that he is the son of an old friend of my master. It's easy to talk to. Distinguished guests, please wait here for a while, and I will go and report."