"This servant believes that Chengfeng's suggestion is inappropriate."
The person who spoke was quite old; his name was Chengxu, and he was nearly sixty years old with some gray hair. In ancient times, the average lifespan was around forty, so almost sixty was indeed quite old.
This man is quite senior. The reason he came along this time is because his hometown is in Jinan, and the late emperor had a high opinion of him, so Yinzhen did not refuse.
This man was a Han Chinese who greatly admired the Neo-Confucianism of Zhu Xi and Cheng Yi, believing that women should stay at home and obey their husbands in everything.
“A woman’s duty is to stay at home, support her husband and raise her children. If women are allowed to stay at home, wouldn’t that mean women are allowed to show their faces in public? I think this is inappropriate. Women will get married in the future. Who would want to marry a woman who shows her face in public?”
Upon hearing this, Chengfeng immediately retorted, "Lord Cheng, there's a problem with what you're saying. Since you've decided to establish a female household, you've naturally made up your mind and are mentally prepared. There are plenty of men willing to marry into the family. Lord Cheng can't represent all the men in the world. Besides, establishing a female household doesn't mean you have to show your face in public. It's just to protect women's rights. Women are inherently in a vulnerable position. Take the Chen family case, for example. If it weren't for the Emperor and Empress's kindness, wouldn't it have been a miscarriage of justice? Lord Cheng, as an official, you should naturally have the common people in your heart. These men are citizens of the Qing Dynasty, and so are these women. Lord Cheng, don't say you don't consider your own mother a citizen of the Qing Dynasty. If you think what I said is wrong, why don't you go home one day and ask your wife to take back the dowry for your daughter and distribute it all to your son? What do you think?"
It's not that great.
Lord Cheng's first wife had only one son; the rest were all illegitimate children. When his daughter got married, she gave her daughter almost all of her dowry intact, with some additional subsidies from the public funds.
If Lord Cheng really dared to do this at home, his wife would probably hang herself in front of his mansion.
The programmer's face turned red with anger: "You're just making excuses."
Chengfeng looked bewildered and said, "Lord Cheng, you can't possibly be wronging me. I'm just telling the truth. Besides, all of this is the fault of women. It's said that a good man should have ambitions beyond his hometown. A capable man would never covet even a little bit of a woman's affections. Don't you think that makes sense, Lord Cheng?"
Chengfeng was indeed eloquent; he left the program speechless.
Seeing this, Yinzhen said, "I think Chengfeng's suggestion is good. Let's settle this matter here. For the time being, Chengfeng will be in charge of it."
This matter had already been arranged privately, so Chengfeng was naturally happy to accept it.
"Your Majesty, I accept the decree and will certainly live up to your expectations."
Yinzhen smiled and said, "Well, it's settled then. I'll have the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Rites cooperate with you."
"This servant thanks Your Majesty."
"All of you, get out!"
What was already established was simply a regression, so a few days later, laws in this area were introduced.
Besides what Chengfeng mentioned at the beginning, there is also the requirement that the dowry of the legal wife must be truthfully recorded in the government office, and only the legal wife's children have the right to inherit this dowry.
Anyone who tries to take advantage of this dowry will be imprisoned for a year and banned from taking exams for three years.
It was no small matter, and the law clearly stipulated that the wife's dowry was her own decision, and the husband had no right to interfere.
If the legal wife dies without children, she can designate an heir to her dowry. However, this designation must be made in person at the government office and must be done publicly. If there is no inheritance document from the government office, the dowry will be confiscated.
There were also some minor, detailed details. This law was quickly sent to the capital by express courier, and all the existing newspapers published reports on it.
As the location of the incident, Jinan was naturally the first to receive the news.
The Chen family mansion was large enough that it wouldn't be short of money to subscribe to newspapers. In addition, Chen Yingjiao's mother had a habit of reading newspapers, which led Chen Yingjiao to develop the same habit.
Upon seeing the newspaper's explanation of this part of the law, Chen Yingjiao burst into tears of joy. Putting everything else aside, with this guarantee, whether she used the Chen family's assets as dowry to marry or established her own household, her life would at least not be as helpless as her mother's.
Chen Yingjiao immediately exclaimed, "Your Majesty is wise!"
This matter had a significant impact. It is said that concubines are not respectable, but in most wealthy families, concubines are more favored than wives. Sometimes, if the wife's family is weaker, there are indeed cases where the wife's dowry is used to support concubines and illegitimate children.
In such matters, the legal wife can only watch and try to prevent it. Now that there are legal provisions, these legal wives can at least provide their children with a guarantee.
So recently the government offices have been busy with the dowry lists of the wives of various households. Their thinking is simple, especially in the current state of the world. Who knows when they might die in the inner quarters? If they leave behind children who are not loved, at least they will have money to get by.
Moreover, this caused many families to break up. To be honest, some families, even if they didn't care about the wife's dowry, felt that what the wife did was an insult to them, but they couldn't stop her no matter what.
We can't suppress the wife because of this. If word gets out, people might think he's just after her dowry!
Because of this, Yinzhen's status among women rose considerably. There's a saying that goes, "Better to be a poor man's wife than a rich man's concubine." Most women still hoped to be wives, so this legal provision that protected the legitimate wife and the interests of women was naturally highly praised by women.
After receiving this news, Chen Yingjiao's uncle sent people to pick her up and take her to the capital. Now, she had no close relatives left in Jinan.
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