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Conditions of Becoming a Slave in China
Slaves could either be bought and sold to their masters or inherit their role through birth. The majority of the slave market consisted of adolescents and young adults. Chinese law stated that families could only sell their children under the condition that doing so would save the rest of their family from starvation. Despite this law, the restrictions of human sales were rarely enforced. On some occasions, slaves were born into the family house by an existing slave thereby becoming a slave under that household by birth.

Slave Contracts
If a slave was bought from their birth family and sold, a slave contract was created by the selling agency or agent (more commonly known as "people sellers" or ren fanzi). The contract stated the name of the person offering the slave, the name of the person buying the slave, the name of the selling agent, the name of the guarantor, the age of the slave and how many years the slave was to work for the new family, which was typically around 10-15 years. It also stated how much money was being exchanged for the slave. Most contracts for slave girls had a clause that the master was to choose a mate for the girl following the end of her time working. After the agreement was made, the slave was then transported, cleaned, trained, inspected and brought to their new master's home to start work.

Lives of Slaves in China
Slaves had very poor living conditions with little time to themselves and a small living space often shared with other slaves. Punishment and abuse were regular occurrences for slaves in China and could sometimes result in extreme permanent injuries or even death in some cases. Abuse was rarely reported or looked into. The only instances where slave abuse was questioned was if the family or masters were under investigation by the police for another offence.

Female Slaves
Women slaves were distinguished by their marital status rather than what kind of work they did. Married women who were slaves were similar to employees; they were paid wages and were free to leave the family house when they were not working. Unmarried women (called binu or yatou) however were unpaid and forced to remain on duty at all times. Married women were acknowledged by their married surname, while unmarried women were given names by their masters. Often times, women who found work outside of their family found themselves vulnerable to kidnapping, trafficking, and sexual violence.

Concubines
Concubinage in China was a regular part of Chinese history. A slave who had sexual relations willingly or unwillingly with her master was considered to be a second wife rather than a slave, regardless of whether the master himself thought of her as such. A slave could also become a concubine if she was sold or given to another master as a gift. According to Chinese law, a man could have only one legal wife (qie), but could have as many concubines as he desired. On some occasions, the wife would select a concubine for her husband for the goal of getting a son and heir to the family line. Whether a child was born from the wife or a concubine, the wife was considered to be the mother.