In ancient times, concubines were rented to give birth to sons.

Renting a Concubine to Bear a Son: How Miserable Were Women in Ancient Times? Look at the Plight of Concubines
. Although it's commonly said that ancient men had "three wives and four concubines," in reality, from the Western Zhou Dynasty onwards, with the establishment of the patriarchal clan system, the status of wives and concubines was basically stable. One wife and multiple concubines was the most common and compliant practice.

In ancient times, it was actually "one husband, one wife, and multiple concubines."
The wife held a very high position in the household, while the concubine had no status whatsoever. Let's talk about the vulgar customs of borrowing, renting, and gambling on concubines.
Zhou Mi's "Qi Dong Ye Yu" from the Southern Song Dynasty tells a bizarre story.
There were two officials, Chen and Pan, who were very close friends. Pan had been married for a long time but had no sons, which caused him great distress. Chen, on the other hand, already had several sons. One day, the two were chatting and discussed this matter. Chen, seeing his brother in trouble, decided to help.
So, he told Pan that he had a concubine who was very fertile and asked if he could lend her to him. Pan was delighted and took the concubine home. As it turned out, she did indeed give birth to a son, much to Pan's delight. He quickly prepared generous gifts to thank his friend.
This concubine bore sons for both Chen and Pan, and both children grew up to become famous scholars in the Southern Song Dynasty. Both scholars were also very kind to their biological mothers. Thus, this chaotic relationship was surprisingly celebrated.
This is a typical example of "borrowing a concubine," where, due to social norms, the wife's position was unshakeable. However, if the wife did not bear a son, the only hope lay with a concubine; if one's own concubine was unsuitable, one could borrow one from another.
However, the most common practice among the common people was renting concubines.

The *Qing Dynasty Anecdotes* records that before the Yongzheng era, Gansu had a custom of "renting wives (concubines)." Those who were poor and unable to afford a wife would save money to rent one from another family. Both parties would sign an agreement, such as renting for two or three years, or simply until a son was born. On the agreed-upon date, the woman's husband would immediately take her home, not allowing her to stay even a day longer. Such customs also existed in Zhejiang and other places, indicating that they were extremely prevalent at the time.
After the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty rulers discovered that the practice of renting and pawning concubines was prevalent in the Jiangnan region, and thus enacted laws to regulate it. However, this practice persisted despite repeated prohibitions, and seemed to have become even more rampant during the Ming Dynasty. The "Household and Marriage Law" of the Ming Dynasty stipulated that "anyone who pawns or hires his wife or concubine for money shall be punished with eighty strokes of the cane… Anyone who knowingly pawns or hires such a person shall be punished accordingly, and the couple shall be divorced, with the money confiscated by the government." In the Qing Dynasty, the "Great Qing Code" stated it more explicitly: "Pawning or hiring someone is shameless; driving them away is immoral, corrupting morality and harming public morals."
In other words, the rulers prohibited the pawning and renting of concubines primarily because they felt it "corrupted human relations and harmed public morals."

In ancient times, it was common for poor people to sell their wives and daughters
; after all, there were too many impoverished people, and selling their wives and daughters became a desperate measure to overcome hardship. Therefore, the "Great Qing Code" also specifically stated that because there were so many poor people, sending wives and daughters to other families for "service" was not punishable as long as no contract was signed. This effectively gave the green light, tacitly approving the practice of "renting concubines."
Those who rented concubines were generally landlords and wealthy gentry. Although they also took concubines, they preferred to "rent" concubines in order to produce sons. Poor women, especially young women who had already given birth to sons, were the first choice. For landlords, a fixed-term "rent" was much more cost-effective than formally taking a concubine and keeping her indefinitely.
If the rented concubine did give birth to a son, it wasn't difficult to keep her as a formal concubine by paying more money. If she didn't produce a son, it was still an extra worker, and she could be dismissed when the term expired. Thus, renting concubines became a common practice between landlords and the poor, and among landlords themselves.
Gambling on concubines was also frequent, as illustrated by a story recorded in *Qing Dynasty Anecdotes*.

In TV dramas, the common portrayal of "multiple wives and concubines" is prevalent .
During the Kangxi era, there was a wealthy man in Wuxi named Wang Rong. Due to his gambling addiction, he eventually lost all his wealth, leaving only a beautiful concubine. To recoup his losses, he invited his cousin, surnamed Qin, to gamble with his concubine for a few more rounds. Although Qin was not good at gambling, he had always coveted Wang Rong's beautiful concubines, so he agreed to gamble away several acres of land.
As it turned out, although Wang Rong had always had bad luck at gambling, he was experienced and won all of Qin's fortune in one night. However, when he returned home happily, the concubine had already run away. She knew that Wang Rong was penniless and would only gamble away herself if he went out again; to avoid falling into the tiger's den, she had no choice but to leave and fend for herself.
The *Wanli Yehuo Bian* records that Yan Xu, the prime minister of the Southern Tang Dynasty, was very wealthy and had many beautiful concubines. One day, he heard that Tang Hao, a censor, possessed a rare rhinoceros horn belt and desperately wanted to possess it. So he approached Tang Hao, offering to gamble away his concubines to see if he could win the belt. However, Tang Hao was a very good gambler and won several times in a row, causing Yan Xu to lose several concubines. Knowing he was no match for Tang Hao, Yan Xu had no choice but to give up.
This shows that in the eyes of some high-ranking officials, concubines were private property, which could be bought, sold, rented, or even used as gambling stakes. Given this, one can easily imagine the fate of a concubine once she was pawned, rented, or sold.
In short, in ancient times, a concubine's status was only slightly higher than that of ordinary servants. If she could bear a son for her master, she might have a chance to live a better life. Otherwise, being tortured, abused, or sold to brothels was a common occurrence.

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In ancient times, concubines were rented to give birth to sons.

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