According to the Book of Han, Xiang Yu's height is "eight feet and two inches", and the unit "ruler" here is han ruler, according to the actual calculation of archaeological excavations, one foot of the Western Han Dynasty is about equal to 23 centimeters (about 23.4 centimeters in the Eastern Han Dynasty), so the height of Xiang Yu is close to 1.9 meters.
Also, with the excavation of the Terracotta Warriors, coupled with academic literature, it was found that the height of the Terracotta Warriors was generally above 170, was it that ancient people were taller than modern people? There is a saying that ancient people hunted meat and took more protein. Survival conditions are also difficult, so basically those who survive are tall.
So, when did Chinese average height start to get shorter, and there was a clear watershed in history, that is, the Tang Dynasty. Checking historical sources, it can be seen that the Tang Dynasty was followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. The Five Dynasties refers to the Later Liang, Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han, and Later Five regimes established successively in the Central Plains.
As a result of the war, the tall and powerful people were eliminated, and the frail and diminutive people survived. The strong survive and the weak are eliminated, but because of the war, the strong are eliminated, and the weak are able to survive. As a result, the long war also caused the gene of the weak to continue.
According to the research of historian Mr. Peng Wei, the pattern of high north and low south was a very serious problem a long time ago. At that time, nearly 90 percent of people over eight feet tall were people in the area north of the Huai River, and less than 10 percent of the Yangtze River basin. When you raise your height to nine feet, you won't find anyone in the South.