Some time ago, I saw "Emperor Wu of Han" in the brush drama, which has a storyline that makes me feel very curious, and there is also an idiom hidden in this story, saying that after the young Emperor Wu of Han saw Ah Jiao, he thought she was very beautiful, so he said to his subordinates: "In the future, if I can marry her, I will build a big golden house and hide her." That's where kanaya comes from, but that's not what I'm going to focus on today.
Today I want to discuss with you another topic, as we all know, between Liu Che and Ah Jiao, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, is a cousin and brother, and the marriage relationship between them is now considered to belong to the marriage of close relatives, and the Mainland Marriage Law clearly states that close relatives within three generations are not allowed to marry. The reason we all know is to reduce the proportion of deformed children. The ancients did not have advanced medical technology, did not know the harm of marriage between close relatives, they only thought that it was relatives and relatives, or that the fertile water did not flow to the fields of outsiders. Such an example also includes the great poet Lu You and his cousin Tang Wan; in "Dream of the Red Chamber", Jia Baoyu is also considered a close relative between Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochao!
In order to consolidate the imperial power and maintain the authority of the Lü family, she actually married her granddaughter Zhang Yan to her son, which is like a niece marrying her uncle. This is categorically unacceptable to us now. So, why did the ancients like marriages so much? And since there are so many examples of close relatives marrying, why do we rarely hear about deformed children? With these questions in mind, let's take a look:
Pro-superior and pro-pro-protection of family interests
The ancients liked to marry close relatives, in addition to the above we mentioned in order to kiss and add relatives, there is also a reason to protect the interests of their own family. Since the ancients believed that their own people would not deceive their own people, first, to know the roots; second, everyone had the same goal, so introducing these interest factors into the marriage relationship became a marriage of close relatives. For example, in the early days of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the imperial family clearly stated that the Manchu and Han dynasties were not allowed to intermarry, which was to ensure the purity of the royal family's blood, but this also led to the phenomenon of marriage between close relatives within the Manchu royal family becoming more serious.
In addition, there are such examples abroad, as was the case with the British royal family in the nineteenth century. At that time, Queen Victoria, although her ability was outstanding, was a resolute enforcer of the marriage of her close relatives, which led to a "blood disease" in her descendants, almost destroying the entire royal family. Our neighboring country, Japan, was the same, the emperor family at that time, in order to maintain the authority of the emperor and symbolize the nobility of the bloodline, they intermarried within the clan for many years, so that many of the children of the Japanese tengu clan suffered from serious family genetic diseases, which were difficult to treat with modern science.
Second, since we have so many examples of close relatives marrying in ancient China, why do we rarely hear about the deeds of deformed children? This is mainly due to the following reasons:
There is a chance probability
The "marriage of close relatives" mentioned by the ancients is only between cousins, that is, it is possible to marry relatives of the matrilineal family such as cousins, cousins, cousins, cousins, etc., but not to marry relatives of the patrilineal family such as cousins and cousins, because the ancients believed that the same blood flowed between relatives with the same surname, and if relatives with the same surname married, it would be unethical. Marriage between cousins is "kissing and kissing".
That comes back to our question, since the genetic similarity between cousins is not very large, the probability of having a child with obviously observable genetic defects is about a quarter. And because in ancient times, it was very normal for men to have three wives and four concubines, and the contraceptive methods at that time were not particularly effective, so it was relatively common for a family to have six or seven children, and problematic situations such as mentally handicapped children and disabled children may only appear. Therefore, a disabled child will not feel that it is the trouble of marriage caused by close relatives among many healthy children.
The clan reputation is higher than anything else
The mainland has paid attention to the "patriarchal system" since the Zhou Dynasty, which shows that the development of clan organizations and systems on the mainland has a long history, and it often embodies the moral ethics and ideology of traditional Chinese Confucianism. The family is the cell of the clan, and the clan is a federation of many families. Therefore, the maintenance and compliance of the face and culture of the clan is a compulsory course for every clan.
Moreover, the ancients believed that the ugliness of the family should not be publicized, and when a certain family of a certain ethnic group appeared deformed, some ignorant and backward clans would think that they had not done a good job as parents, so they were punished in the children. At the same time, the appearance of deformed children is regarded as a scandal, so it leads to the clan's tolerance for "problem children" is very low, not to mention the hype, and even in order to maintain the face of the clan, they will personally kill their own children. When someone asks, their answer may often be that the child was sick at birth and did not save. Because of the backward medical conditions in ancient times, this reason will not be doubted.
Low survival rate
Now we will do a marriage examination before marriage in order to have eugenics, and expectant mothers will also do obstetric examinations after pregnancy, mainly to check the physical condition of the fetus in the abdomen, so as to ensure that the baby born is healthy. The ancients did not have modern medical technology, they will not judge whether the fetus in the abdomen is healthy, but will only infer the state of the baby based on the health of the mother. Therefore, when there are close relatives married between the ancients, on the surface, there is no difference between the baby conceived by the baby and the baby conceived by other people who are not married by close relatives, but this "similarity" will not appear until the baby's development period or birth or even after birth, and the fetus married by close relatives is prone to miscarriage during pregnancy due to differences in genes, chromosomes, etc., and even if the child is born, it is very likely that the child will die early.
This is why in ancient times it was rare to hear of deformed children, because they did not live to be born or live to grow up. It can be seen that the ancient deformed children are actually not as many as we think, and even if there are, many children have died for various reasons at birth, and they have not lived to adulthood, and there are even fewer deformed children who can be recorded. Therefore, this is why there are many things about cousins marrying cousins in ancient times, but we rarely hear of deformed children.
Conclusion: In modern times, we know that there will be many harms to the marriage of close relatives, and the marriage law of the mainland has also made relevant provisions on this, but at present, in some remote areas, there are still things related to the marriage of close relatives, so in any case, in modern society, we should establish a correct view of marriage and love and fertility. Because these are important prerequisites for the future of the country. It is also the key to a happy life for every individual and family. What other examples of this are you aware of? Welcome to leave a message to discuss