The most popular title
Little wives other than wives were generally called concubines by the ancients. Concubine, the oldest and most widely known name, is more common in written words, and its popularity is comparable to that of today's "Little Three". It should be noted that in the daily spoken language of the ancients, the little wife was often not called concubine, but called little wife, little wife and little woman (see Hanshu) to distinguish it from the first wife and the main wife; Educated people call the little wife a side room, an outer room, an outhouse, a foreign woman, a wing and so on. These are relatively popular, and they are also very common in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.
In ancient times, women usually used "concubine" as their humble title. In the folk, due to the variation of customs, the little wife has many common names, such as people around her, capable people, donors, predecessors, Mrs. Pin, and second class.
The least common name
From the perspective of cultural popularization, some titles of little wives are really far from popularization. For example, Caizhai (with money on the side) and Help me make my family's money (Spring and Autumn); Such as Yanshi, as opposed to Zheng Shi. If the wife doesn't live in the bedroom, there must be a small bedroom on both sides of Yan's bedroom. The wife lives in Yan's bedroom and the concubine lives in the small bedroom. If these uncommon names are suddenly exposed to the sun, many people will be at a loss and don't know why.
The most ambiguous title
For example, Ji, or beauty Ji, was originally a good name for all women in ancient times. Just like we call women today, we usually like to use the meaning of "beauty". Praise a woman and you will say, "This woman is really beautiful, a great beauty"! If it is the ancients, it will be simple, three words: beauty Ji.
But the ancients often called little wife Ji, or beauty Ji. For example, "Dongping Wang hired Zheng Jun as her concubine", and here is Wang's little wife. There is also a saying in Historical Records that "Ping Yuanjun beauties live upstairs", and the beauties here are also little wives. After the Tang and Song Dynasties, Song Ji and Jia Ji, who were kept by literati, also had the nature of little wives. Later, many emperors and princes simply called many little wives in the harem "beauties" and fixed them as a status class.
According to these written records, in Zhao Yan's view, if there is no subject and modifier, it is easy to make people feel "big head". I can't tell whether to praise a woman or a little wife, and I can't tell the size. A slightly more rigorous historian will call my little wife Renji and Jishi, which is more intuitive.
The most cultural title
The ancients often called the first wife "madam", so the scholar came up with a title of honoring the second wife. For example, madam means similar to madam. For example, "Zuo Zhuan" said that Qi Huangong "has a good wife and a good mother, and there are many pets, and six people are like wives", which means six little wives with high status and treatment like wives; In chapter 23 of The Scholars, there is another sentence "Because his seventh wife is ill", which refers to the seventh little wife of Wan Xuezhai, a big businessman.
These two words are very advanced, which not only summarizes the similarity in "function", but also strengthens the meaning of pleasing and praising. An uneducated person can't think of it even if he breaks his head
The most pleasing title
Have you ever seen anyone call his little wife "Jun"? What is Jun? Monarch, monarch and monarch are all special words of emperors; Gentleman, in traditional culture, also refers to some noble men, few women call him a gentleman, let alone a little wife?
During the Spring and Autumn Period, there were indeed some people who were good at flattery. They called the first wife of the vassal "Rujun" and the second wife "Xiaojun". In the Han dynasty, there was a system of adding the title of "Jun" to aristocratic women, which made the little wife more awesome for a while. After Wei Jinfeng surrounded it, no one called it Little Wife Jun any more.
The most elegant title
From the synthesis of The Book of Songs and The Book of Rites. The poem "Zhao Nan Xiao Xing" was originally written about the hard life of humble officials and small officials who stayed up all night in public, but the Preface of Poetry said that this poem praised the monarch's wife for not being jealous and "benefited all the concubines". There are words in the Book of Rites that compare husband and wife to the sun and the moon. Therefore, the literati who pursue elegance in later generations linked the two, calling the little wife "little star", which is a metaphor for monogamy and polygamy in which all the stars hold the moon and serve together for one day.
Generally speaking, the little wives in ancient times were most proud of such names as "Rufu" and "Rujun". Because words like "Maggie" are so popular that every woman will call it that; The name "Little Star" is hard-won, and I'm afraid it's once in a lifetime. As for the outer room and the side room, their status is obviously degraded, which is something that little wives collectively don't like to hear.