A footnote on the issue of abduction in old China

This is not my own blog, but a footnote blog on the issue of abduction in old China, which reader Valerio had asked about.  It's historical knowledge, lifted from googling.

(from googling) 

Quote

... in pre-1949 China, the abduction and sale of girls for forced marriage, concubinage, or prostitution was significantly more common than boy abduction, driven by deep-rooted patriarchal traditions and economic hardship, though boys were also trafficked, especially later due to son preference, but the scale for girls was historically larger, often involving families selling daughters or outright kidnapping for the marriage market.

Why Girl Abduction Was More Prevalent:

• Patriarchal System: China's patrilineal society valued sons for lineage and labor, but daughters were often seen as a temporary asset, sold for dowries or to improve family finances.
• Economic Desperation: Poor families frequently sold daughters to brothels, as concubines, or into arranged marriages to survive.
• Marriage Market: A significant market existed for kidnapped or sold women to serve as wives (often in polygamous or forced unions) or sex workers, a practice called dianqi (wife-mortgaging) also existed. 

Boy Abduction (Different Context):

• While boys were also trafficked, especially under the later One-Child Policy when the demand for sons soared, this was often distinct from the pre-1949 pattern.
• In older China, boys were abducted for adoption (due to son preference) or labor, but the sheer volume of female trafficking for marriage/sexual exploitation was a defining feature of the era. 

In essence, the cultural preference for sons created a huge demand for females, leading to widespread abduction and sale of girls for various exploitative purposes long before the One-Child Policy exacerbated the gender imbalance.

Unquote

The dianqi / wife mortgaging mentioned above would be like modern-day surrogacy.  So did the Chinese invent yet another practice??  (Googling for teaching material one year, in the early 2000s, I found that loads more things were invented in China than we realise.  Common knowledge [to me] Chinese inventions:  gunpowder, fire crackers, fireworks, paper, silk, tea, porcelain.)

典妻（Dian Qi），又称租妻、搭伙，是中国古代一种以契约形式将妻子有偿租借给他人做临时夫妻（通常为生育）的陋习，盛行于宋元明清时期，反映了底层人民的贫困，是封建婚姻制度下对女性权利的剥夺，后虽有法律禁止但禁而不绝，最终在新中国成立后消失。这一习俗中，丈夫以获取财物为目的，将妻子出租，期间妻子承担生育责任，期满后回归原家，子女归典者所有。

(google translate) "Wife-renting" (Dian Qi), also known as "wife-sharing" or "partnership," was an ancient Chinese custom where a wife was rented out to another person for a fee under a contract to serve as a temporary spouse (usually for childbearing). Prevalent during the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, it reflected the poverty of the lower classes and represented the deprivation of women's rights under the feudal marriage system. Although later prohibited by law, it persisted and eventually disappeared after the founding of the People's Republic of China. In this custom, the husband rented out his wife for financial gain; during this period, the wife bore the responsibility of childbearing, and upon completion, she returned to her original family, with the children belonging to the renter.