We know that the average life expectancy of ancient people was much shorter than it is now, but in the same way, the age of marriage and children in ancient times was many years earlier than now. To put it simply, many people who have just become fathers now should be grandfathers at an age that in ancient times. You know, it is now popular to marry late and have children later, but in ancient times, it was required to marry early and have children early, and this age difference will be about ten years long.
In ancient times, men could get married as early as thirteen or fourteen years old, and eighteen or nineteen years old were older leftover men. Ancient women were fifteen years old and married, of course, there were many girls who married at the age of cardamom, and Zhang Yan, the granddaughter of Empress Lü, was made empress at the age of eleven and married to her own uncle Liu Ying, the Emperor of Hanhui. This age is an extreme case, and it is even more unique to have a child at the age of eleven.
In the final analysis, even if the ancients married early and gave birth early, but after all, people's development is there, too early is not appropriate, so the ancient fifteen years old has been considered a relatively mature age for men and women, at this age marriage and children are relatively good, too early will face a problem, that is, increase the possibility of children dying, the survival rate of ancient children is very low, too early birth is one of the reasons.
But the ancients did not seem to be aware of this problem, or did not care about this problem, so getting married early and having children early is the long-cherished wish of every parent, especially the family is big, and even the family has a throne to inherit, and getting married and having children is the first priority. So we look at the ancient royal family, the age of marriage and children is relatively low, of course, the war years are not counted here.
In the Northern Wei Dynasty, Emperor Jingmu Tuoba Huang gave birth to the Wen emperor Tuoba Jun at the age of thirteen, and Tuoba Huang was only 27 years old when he was a grandfather, which is still a virtual age, and now, many boys of this age may still be single. Speaking of having children at the age of thirteen, there were many in ancient times, of course, when children are born at this age, the survival rate of children is lower.
Even so, it can not stop the enthusiasm of the ancients for early marriage and early childbearing, it is said that the age of the first child born by Emperor Wen of Han is relatively small, Emperor Wen of Han was born in 203 BC, and Emperor Liu Qi of Han jing was born in 188 BC, so it is calculated that Emperor Wen of Han had Emperor Jing of Han at the age of 16, but Emperor Jing of Han was not the first child of Emperor Wen of Han.
Emperor Jingdi of Han also had an older sister of a mother, Princess Liu Ofae, who was probably born in 189 BC, that is, Emperor Wen of Han had his first daughter when he was fifteen years old. But whether Liu Yan was the first child of Emperor Wen of Han is still doubtful.
It should be known that Liu Yan and Emperor Jingdi's biological mother Dou Yifang was originally only a concubine of Li Heng, the daiwang, then known as Dou Ji, and Liu Heng's acting queen had other people, and gave birth to four sons for Liu Heng, but in 180 BC, before and after Liu Heng ascended the throne, the dai queen and the four sons she gave birth to died successively.
The Empress Dowager gave birth to four sons after marrying Liu Heng, and no matter how intensive the birth, these four sons took at least five or six years, but the ranking of these four sons among Liu Heng's children is difficult to say, or they are all smaller than Emperor Jingdi of Han, that is to say, Emperor Wen of Han's first child is Liu Yan, and the second child is Emperor Jingdi of Han, and then the four sons of Empress Dai.
Or maybe Emperor Wendi of Han's first child was born to Queen Hedai, that is to say, Emperor Jingdi of Han may have had an older brother, so this child may have been born in 189 BC, or he may have been born in 190 BC, that is to say, Emperor Wendi of Han had his first child at the age of fourteen, but it should not have been earlier.
It should be known that The Han Hui Emperor Liu Ying only had an empress in October 192 BC, when Liu Ying was already nineteen years old, then Liu Ying's brothers should not marry earlier than this time, that is, Emperor Wen of Han could only have a queen in at least 191 BC.
Therefore, no matter how much Emperor Wendi of Han had his first child, the age would not be earlier than fourteen years old. Then, having children at this age is very normal in ancient history, and it is not too early to give birth. Ancient men had fertility around the age of twelve, but giving birth too early was of no benefit to the next generation.
It's just that the emperor may not care about this, after all, the emperor's harem has countless beautiful women, and the child is not born if he wants to? However, There were not many children of Emperor Wen of Han, at least in the number of children of ancient emperors, they were completely incomparable. He had only ten children, eight sons and two daughters, all four of whom had been born to the queen.
As for the cause of death, it is still a mystery, of course, posterity mostly believes that the cause of their death is related to Lü Hou, but this is only speculation. As soon as the empress dowager and these four sons died, Dou Ji and her two sons and daughters became Liu Heng's favorite beings.
After Dou Ji became empress and empress dowager, she was extremely fond of her children, especially Liu Yan and her second son Liu Wu, so that Liu Yan became the eldest princess of the powerful opposition and later the lord of Dou, while Liu Wu the Prince of Liang was extremely ambitious because of Empress Dou's favor, and the Western Han Dynasty almost had the human tragedy and political tragedy of "Zheng Boke Duan Yu Yan".