In the 21st century, the total number of Chinese population is already the first in the world, but the total population continues to grow, the amount of land remains unchanged, and the pressure on life given by society is increasing, at which time the population problem has become a major problem to be solved by a country.
During the Qing Dynasty, the number of people in China grew rapidly from tens of millions at the beginning to nearly 400 million people, so what caused the population of the Qing Dynasty to grow significantly?
As we all know, the Qing Dynasty is the existence of the last feudal dynasty in China, and the foundation of the Qing Dynasty at that time when Emperor Taiji reigned was unstable, and many former imperial court ministers simply could not accept the change of dynasty, so they would lead the masses to overthrow the imperial government ruled by Emperor Taiji.
This situation continued until the Shunzhi Emperor came to power, and although the goal of unifying the country was already there, there were still social contradictions at present. The biggest contradiction is the contradiction between the nationalities, at that time the Qing Dynasty was all Manchus, and the Ming Dynasty was all Han, for their homeland was invaded, the Han people launched a brave rebellion, but the Han people eventually lost to reality, the Manchu Qing introduced a lot of good policies to the Han people, and the Han people finally compromised.
But this is only a little sweetness given to the Han by the Manchus, and when their regime is secured, the true face of the Manchus is revealed, especially the Eight Banners, who often beat the Han for no reason.
Under such circumstances, social contradictions continue to deepen, which is also the reason why the population cannot grow. After the Shunzhi Emperor took power, these problems were improved.
The main reason for the population boom
During the reign of the Shunzhi Emperor, he abolished many of the old regulations and banned all enclosure movements, and he also reformed the system of criminal law, which greatly alleviated the contradictions between the various nationalities. In 1661, the Kangxi Emperor ascended to the throne, and the first thing the Kangxi Emperor did after he ascended the throne was to take Taiwan back. Subsequently, he also unified Mongolia back, so that the qing people had more places to live.
Immediately after the Kangxi abolished the "people's tax", the people have a large amount of land to use at their disposal, and with land they can produce crops to sell for money, so that the pressure on the people's lives is much reduced, and the population ushered in the first growth after the pressure of living was small. In 1722, the Yongzheng Emperor officially ascended the throne, and on the basis of the previous emperors, he paid more attention to the integrity of officials, and optimized and improved the expropriation policy, so that the living burden of peasants was once again reduced. After this, the population of the Qing Dynasty led to explosive growth.
Do you think that this is the policy of benefiting the people promoted by the Yongzheng Emperor?
It can be said that this policy of adapting measures to local conditions is very effective, and it not only reduces the living burden of the ethnic minorities to a large extent, but also effectively reduces the frequency of disasters, and directly and effectively promotes the rapid development of social economy and the progress of cultural heritage. During the thirteen years of the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor, he issued many policies that benefited the country and the people, as evidenced by the rapid increase in population.
After the death of the Yongzheng Emperor, the Qianlong Emperor officially took over the imperial government. During the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, the whole country made greater progress in all aspects than before. In this way, the population of the Qing Dynasty increased to the greatest extent during the Qianlong period, and the late Qing Dynasty reached a population of 400 million.
The end of the Qing Dynasty
Looking back at my history, it is not difficult to find that in order to increase the population, it is necessary to solve the most basic social problems, the first is to solve the problem of food and clothing for the people, and then to solve the problem of agriculture and breeding, because only in this way will the quality of life of the people be improved.
The second is the heavy tax problem, reducing taxes is to reduce the pressure on the people's lives, the people's economic pressure is small, then natural consumption will increase, and the life will be better than the population. Who wants to have children and suffer without enough food and clothing?
The third is to reduce people's mortality, that is, to achieve good sanitation and to solve the problem of disease. The medical techniques of the Qing Dynasty were on a higher level than before, so the problem of high mortality rates was greatly alleviated.
However, although the surge in the number of people represents the national strength of the Qing Dynasty, this does not mean that it will never fail and fall, and in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, with the promulgation of erroneous decisions such as "closing off the country" and "emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce", the Qing Dynasty could not escape the sad fate of decay in the end.
Summary: The old ideas of the feudal era cannot make a country move forward, and if we want to be strong, we must constantly absorb the good ideological and theoretical systems from outside, rather than standing still and closing the country.