From a certain perspective, in fact, the progress of this society is essentially the progress of human rights.~~~~
And human rights will always be the issue of greatest concern to mankind, even thousands of years from now.
Because human rights means so many things.
But it is almost impossible for everyone to be equal. Because of natural selection and survival of the fittest, this world is divided into strong and weak. The strong will definitely have more rights and interests than the weak. In the animal world
The same is true, then it is impossible for a world where everyone is equal. This can be said to be an infinite value. You can only approach it infinitely, but you can never reach that point.
After primitive society, mankind entered the slave age. However, entering the feudal age was a very big progress. The most intuitive manifestation is the embodiment of human rights. In any case, human rights in feudal society are always higher than those in the slave age.
However, feudal society still has problems left over from the slave era, which means there are still slaves.
One is those criminals, who are demoted to slaves. This is a kind of punishment.
The second one is the Geisha, which is the most representative point.
Most singing prostitutes and concubines have no human rights. They can be exchanged and bought and sold freely, just like a piece of goods. Of course, Feng Yinu and Li Shishi are exceptions, because they are the best in this field, so they naturally have to distinguish
However, most of the singing prostitutes are despicable.
In the Song Dynasty, geishas were very popular and had extremely high cultural literacy. This improved their status to a certain extent, but this was just an illusion. Geishas still had to rely on their talents and beauty to gain more rights and interests. This kind of
Pathological phenomenon.
In Zhao Kai's grand plan, labor force is a very key factor. How to obtain more labor force and how to generate more value will become very important before the advent of the industrial age. Unraveling women's
It is only natural to restrain and let women create value.
After all, men have to fight. If everything depends on men, the manpower will definitely pale in comparison.
In fact, after Li Qi's arrival, women have begun to enter various industries, such as bartenders, craftsmen, chefs, and even shopkeepers and businesswomen. There is no way. Business is too developed and there are not enough men, so businessmen can only recruit women to come in.
The ambitious Zhao Kai is informal. In order to achieve hegemony, he will not care about this little bit of male supremacy. It is easy to see from his ability to allow Bai Qiannuo to enter the court as an official. Therefore, he has already decided to improve women.
social status.
Since we want to change, of course we have to start from the most basic. The first step is to give back the freedom of the singing girls in the world.
Under the emperor's secret instructions, the Legislative Yuan overcame all difficulties and risked being attacked by scholar-bureaucrats all over the world. It promulgated the first law specifically targeting women, collectively known as the Women's Protection Law.
Palace prostitute.
That is, the private prostitutes kept by the emperor, women who were responsible for singing and dancing for the emperor.
At Mao Shu's suggestion, Zhao Kai decided to upgrade the status of palace prostitutes from slaves to officials. These officials were the lowest civil servants in the Song Dynasty. They had no power. They were paid to do things, but compared to slaves, their status was
It's been greatly improved.
A minister can molest a maid, but if you molest an official, it is against the law.
For this reason, Zhao Kai also formed a new department called the Music Department, which was responsible for the palace banquets and was under the control of the Ministry of Rites. In order to comply with the economic concept of the new law, Zhao Kai allowed the Music Department to go to folk performances in his free time, as long as
Others could afford the money. After paying taxes, the rest of the money earned belonged to the prostitutes. However, the court also reduced the salaries of court prostitutes to reduce the court's expenses.
Even so, the court prostitutes still made money. As a court prostitute, the cost of going out to perform must be high. How can they take advantage of such a small salary.
As soon as this law came out, it immediately caused an uproar, and men all over the world paid great attention to it.
But palace prostitutes are the emperor's personal prostitutes. The emperor is willing to do so, and no one can make irresponsible remarks.
Subsequently, the Legislative Yuan issued a law again, abolishing the contract of sale of private prostitutes. You can keep private prostitutes, but it must be based on an employment contract. It must be changed from the original master-servant system to the current one with the consent of both parties.
employment system.
Anyone who sells or exchanges private prostitutes shall be sentenced to fifty canes and a fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years.
This is the general program, which also involves the issue of wives and concubines. Originally, concubines could be bought and sold, but now they cannot. Concubines are protected by the law. Concubines will have to be registered like wives. They will be registered in more elegant places.
Say, whoever falls in love with your concubine is cuckolding you. A concubine has the human rights of an ordinary woman and is no longer a commodity. In this way, a concubine is actually a wife, but in terms of etiquette and morality,
The status of a concubine is lower than that of a wife, just like the difference between a queen and a concubine.
However, some improvements have also been made regarding the wives and daughters of criminals. After the death of Wang Fu, Cai You and others, their wives and daughters will be confiscated and then given to meritorious officials as slaves and maids.
Because this is ancient times, there is currently no way to change the situation of implicating family members. To be honest, many children of traitorous ministers are also very vicious, and they often bully the people, so this kind of implication is still reasonable.
But now, once a criminal's wife or daughter is implicated, they will have to serve a prison term. The new penalty is three to ten years.
In the past, the emperor waved his hand and rewarded a certain minister with dozens or hundreds of maids. These were lifelong, and the ones awarded to you belonged to you forever, unless you also became a criminal. But these maids just changed their masters.
, this is a piece of goods, but it is no longer the case. The emperor can no longer reward maids easily. If these maids are the wives and daughters of criminals, then the emperor will reward the ministers, and a period will be added later. Once the sentence is up,
They can regain their freedom.
This seems to mean that women have a low status, but it is not the case. At least women are rarely killed because women pose little threat to the emperor, so the emperor does not have to kill women. Being a slave is better than beheading. Many men
If you are imprisoned for any number of years, or sentenced to death, your life will be more miserable. So from this aspect, this is actually a kind of protection for women.
As soon as the Women's Protection Law came out, Zhao Kai was immediately promoted to the nation's male god, and those women regarded Zhao Kai as their savior.
On the morning of the next day, 90% of the singing girls in Tokyo gathered in front of Donghua Gate under the flag that the sun never sets, sang the national anthem and praised Zhao Kai, and refused to disperse for a long time until Zhao Kai came to Donghua Gate in person and had someone read it out
The imperial edict praised the virtues of the women of the Song Dynasty, and after repeated persuasion, the singing prostitutes reluctantly left.
But the scholar-bureaucrats did not agree, because ordinary men could not afford to keep private prostitutes. Generally, those who kept private prostitutes were from scholar-bureaucrat families. They were talented and wealthy. This private prostitute was indispensable in their lives. I worked hard to cultivate them.
Private prostitutes, if you just say a word and you are free, I still have to pay them wages, so I am at a huge loss.
There are also some illegal brothels, and their singing prostitutes are all forced. So once this law comes out, it will be difficult for them to control their singing prostitutes, because they have all regained their freedom, and you have to spend money.
They have to pay a lot of money to hire. Otherwise, they can change jobs. On the contrary, the brothels also known as Yingchun Tower have not been greatly affected, because the wages of singing girls in Yingchun Tower are already high. No one will leave, because these women rely on their talents to make a living.
, don’t do this business. They don’t know what to do, just modify the contract.
But ordinary people applauded unanimously. These applauds are all people who cannot afford to support private prostitutes. Of course they are happy. You have so many private prostitutes in your family. I can’t even find a wife. This is so unfair. Private prostitutes
With the human rights of prostitutes, we singles will have opportunities, especially those talented people from poor families. Because geishas like talented people, so with the human rights of geishas, they will have more opportunities, and the quarrels between the two parties will be very understanding.
This may be the most intense internal struggle between scholars and scholar-bureaucrats since the founding of the Song Dynasty.
The Legislative Yuan has once again been pushed to the forefront.
As Li Qi said, if the Legislative Yuan can handle this matter well, then the status of the Legislative Yuan will be elevated to a very high position. After all, even scholar-bureaucrats have to submit to the Legislative Yuan. This is a very high credibility. In other words,
Even if it's just one sentence.
Zhao Kai also understood in his heart that this law would either not be promulgated, or once promulgated, it must be strictly implemented, otherwise the Legislative Yuan would lose its credibility and no one would believe in the law.
In the court hall, Zhao Kai stood up to support the Legislative Yuan and strictly ordered the ministers to implement this law.
But even so, there were still many scholar-bureaucrats who refused to submit and turned a blind eye. You do what you do, I do what I do, and my singing girls are mine. This is also the case in the Song Dynasty, where the power of scholars was too high.
Although the Legislative Yuan is at the forefront, it is not Mao Shu who is having a headache, but Li Gang.
The Legislative Yuan enacts legislation, but it is the Judicial Yuan who enforces the law, which means that this offending thing was done by Li Gang.
But Li Gang is also a fierce man. He dared to challenge the envoys of the Kingdom of Jin in a single fight. He was absolutely right about this, and he also had reasons. This was a law promulgated by the Legislative Yuan, and it was not done by our Judicial Yuan.
Yours is the Legislative Yuan, and we are only acting under orders. This injustice has its owner, and if you want to blame it, blame it on the Legislative Yuan. But if anyone obstructs the Judicial Yuan's enforcement of laws, then let's see him at Dali Temple.
In fact, when the Legislative Yuan was studying this, Li Gang was already making preparations. As soon as the law came out, the Judicial Yuan immediately dispatched all the government officials to go to the homes of various scholar-bureaucrats to register the singing girls.
Some big families, including some who had made great contributions to the founding of the country, refused to submit and openly confronted the Judicial Yuan without even opening the door. Li Gang became so angry that he took his people there in person and ordered people to tear down the door.
, took all the people to the Judicial Yuan, and then filed a lawsuit with Dali Temple against them for obstructing official duties.
This time it’s Dali Temple’s turn to have a headache. All of the people who sued are all distinguished figures with great power, but they have no choice. The Legislative Yuan is supervising it. Whether Dali Temple makes the judgment according to the law, the judicial department below
The court is also watching. I have conclusive evidence. If you give an unfair verdict, I will arrest you and bring you to the Judicial Yuan. The Yushitai is also acting secretly. They are responsible for investigating whether officials engage in malpractice for personal gain. They also keep an eye on Dali Temple.
Judge.
It is said that the judge of Dali Temple cursed the Legislative Yuan and the Judicial Yuan in his room for a whole day. In the end, he became short of breath and fell ill, and handed over the task to the deputy judge.
In the end, Emperor Zhao Kai came forward in person and fined each person a hundred guan by head count. He urged them to cooperate with the work of the Judicial Yuan. Those who offend again will not be so easy. Maybe your wives and daughters will become
Someone else's concubine.
Those scholar-bureaucrats walked around the Dali Temple and came out. They were still frightened. The trial environment was really frightening to death. They quickly secretly instigated their favorite singing girls to stay in their homes and gave them high rewards.
The rest of the scholar-bureaucrats were frightened when they saw that they had all gone to Dali Temple. Dali Temple represents the highest judgment, and even the prince and the others can make judgments. What's more, even if they are unwilling, they can only cooperate with the Judicial Yuan.
They just hope that after this gust of wind passes, the court can turn a blind eye to it.
People who think this way obviously haven’t understood the significance of the Legislative Yuan. As soon as this law comes out, unless the law is revised, you must not take any chances. If we really find you, Dali Temple
It's not that they don't want to show mercy, it's just that they don't have enough, because they are sandwiched between the two houses.
From this moment on, the last slave law officially entered history.
The Second Courtyard shined brilliantly in this battle, became famous in one fell swoop, and began to enter the lives of ordinary people. (To be continued...)