Seven Chinese Wives and Concubines

It doesn't happen that way, but that's how I want it.

So, one Chinese official had seven wives. I’m generally silent about concubines; there were many, many of them. And it so happened that our official left. Well, sometimes there are business trips, trade deals. As you understand, there were no planes, trains, or cars at that time, so he left by traditional transport, on a horse. The official was not only poor, he had something in his pocket, and a lot, but he was also not very rich by the standards of that time, so he had to get to the big city on horseback, and the roads from the estate to the big city were soggy after rain. The only transport he could use was a horse. Our official left, and without a word, without a word. The six wives, not counting the concubines, were bored and sad. Sometimes they even fought. Yes, yes, there were fights, to be honest. Each wife lived in a separate mansion, with her own servants, trusted people, nannies, aunts, and eunuchs. That's how they fought, tower to tower. When the official left, everything was in order, discipline, peace and goodness. However, the fact is that during the official’s absence, his mother died, who held the entire female kingdom of the estate in her fist. Yes, yes, the estate was orphaned. The eldest wife, who seemed to be entitled to it by rank, tried to take power, but it didn’t work out for her. The other five wives did not want to obey the sixth wife. The fact is that the eldest wife was, as it were, the eldest, but at the same time she was not the eldest. She was now, as it were, the first, but in fact the second wife. How is this, you ask? And I'll explain! There were actually not six wives, but seven, as I already said. But the official took the very first, main wife with him on the trip. The first wife was a kind, worthy, and, most importantly, beautiful woman, by the standards of that time. If she had remained on the estate, then naturally there would have been no fight. Because everyone obeyed her unquestioningly, well, according to her status, this was due to her. She had an excellent relationship with her mother-in-law, the mother of an official. She wasn’t exactly friends with the other six wives, but she was on even terms. She understood that polygamy was an evil that she could not eradicate from this single estate, such were the traditions of that time. The higher the rank of an official, the more wives and concubines he was required to have. Whether the official wanted it or not was of no interest to anyone. So, let’s summarize our story, let’s summarize the introduction, so to speak. The official's estate was left without a rudder and without sails, because the official took his most beautiful wife with him on a business trip. He left for a long time, leaving behind his estate and the noisy kingdom of women. The official knew that he was leaving for a long time, but he was confident and calm, since the official’s mother remained on the estate - she was a woman with an iron will and not yet at all old. The mother herself died or one of the wives or concubines contributed to this, history is silent. So, what do we have, and we have six sexually unsatisfied wives and a certain number of concubines. I won’t indicate the number yet; there will be a separate discussion about concubines.
So, back to the fight.
I’ll tell you a secret, the fight happened over a newborn child. Until the birth of this child, the official did not have an heir. The eldest wife had a child with the official, but, unfortunately, it was a girl, a daughter. The daughter was treated like a princess, but the fact remains that the official needed an heir. And then the child was born. The official, of course, knew that his youngest, seventh wife was pregnant, but as you understand, the gender of the unborn child was unknown at the time of his departure. Ultrasound, as you understand, was not available then. The child was born six months after the official left. The child turned out to be, as I already said, a boy - the heir. So what, you say, was born and born. What is the problem?
And the problem was very serious. The other five wives did not have children from the official. Do you understand what I'm talking about? No, don't understand yet?
Okay, I'll explain. The heir's mother automatically received high status. Of course, she would not have become the first wife, but before the second wife, the official, upon his return, would definitely have raised her.
But there was a catch: according to the laws of that time, the first wife could declare the child her own, and the child’s mother had no right to object, but this only if the real, first wife was on the estate at that moment. By the way, the seventh wife, a very young woman, had a close family relationship with the first wife, well, the one who left with the official. If the first wife had declared the heir her son, the seventh wife would not have made a tragedy out of it. It was a completely different matter now. The second wife tried to lay her raking hands on the main treasure of the estate now - the heir, and the mother of the child could not let this go. A fight broke out, the servants, nannies and other people did not allow the second wife’s people into the seventh wife’s mansion. Everyone living on the estate was divided into two camps. The dispute is whether or not the second wife, who is now the first to remain on the farm, has the right to nameThe idea of having an heir as his son now occupied the minds of everyone who lived on the estate. People from the mansion of the fourth wife and three concubines decided to fight for the second wife, and the rest of the people of the estate decided to fight for the nursing mother. The young mother’s henchmen began to build barricades and arm themselves with whatever they could, including kitchen knives and hatchets for cutting meat, but the fight was stopped for a while, there was a knock on the gate.