In 1953, after the first census, Ma Yinchu, president of Peking University, frowned at the data, believing that according to the population growth rate at that time, Chinese would not be able to afford to eat in 50 years, which was too serious, so he proposed "family planning" to the state.
In that era of "many people with great strength", the idea of family planning was unacceptable to people, so at the npc meeting, Ma Yinchu boldly advised Chairman Mao, saying that there was no electricity in the countryside, so those peasants kept giving birth to children. ”
At first, Ma Yinchu's family planning was difficult in China, but in the end it was still adopted, as a population expert, Ma Yinchu himself had 7 children, why did he put forward the idea of limiting population growth? How did he get the plan to work out?
demographer
Speaking of "family planning", we have to understand Ma Yinchu first.
Ma Yinchu was born in 1882, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, Ma Yinchu's parents spent a lot of energy on him, but he was also glad that Ma Yinchu himself worked hard enough, so he was knowledgeable at a young age, far surpassing all the children around him.
In 1901, Ma Yin first went to Tianjin Beiyang University to study, and then because of his excellent grades, he was recommended to study at Yale University in the United States, in the United States, Ma Yinchu successively obtained a double doctorate in economics and philosophy, with such an honor, Ma Yinchu returned to China as a university teacher to live a lifetime.
But Ma Yinchu did not stop studying, but entered New York University to study business.
In 1915, Ma Yin returned to China as a high-ranking economic student who had returned from overseas gilding, and as a highly talented student of economics who had just set foot on Chinese territory, he was invited by various parties, including businessmen, politicians, and even warlords.
The reason why these people invited Ma Yinchu was only to promise benefits, and then take him under their command, in the face of those high-ranking officials Houlu, Ma Yinchu did not show half an interest, but turned around and threw himself into the cause of education.
For Ma Yinchu, no matter how well individuals do, they are not as direct as educating more capable people, after all, a person's ability is limited.
Ma Yinchu did win the admiration of all walks of life with his knowledge, perhaps because his ideas were embraced by more people, so that his speech became more and more bold later.
During his teaching, he often attacked and commented on current politics, because of his special status and great influence, so the Nationalist government at that time attached great importance to it, and repeatedly invited Ma Yinchu to serve as an important post in the Nationalist government.
In the face of the invitation of the National Government, Ma Yinchu scoffed, believing that the National Government had an empty name, and even openly denounced and opposed the National Government.
Ma Yinchu, a prestigious scholar and educator, publicly declared his support for the student strike and also gave a speech in Nanjing, exposing the stupidity of the Kuomintang in launching a civil war and saying that it had betrayed the interests of the nation.
Ma Yinchu's remarks also infuriated the Nationalist government, and even sent people to threaten Ma Yinchu, saying that if he continued to speak around, someone would not mind killing him.
Ma Yinchu was a soft-hearted and not hard-eaten, and in the face of threats, he directly wrote a suicide note, and then continued to speak around regardless of his personal safety.
In the winter of 1947, when Ma Yinchu was giving a speech at school, someone secretly told him that there might be agents at the meeting and asked him to cancel or postpone the meeting.
At that time, Ma Yinchu smiled, he went directly to the front of the stage, straightened his chest and said, "Will I be afraid of spies?" I am standing here now, if you have the ability, you will shoot at me, if Ma Yinchu is afraid, he will not come to this place at all, I am not afraid of you, but I believe that you must be afraid of me! ”
In this way, Ma Yinchu completed the speech in front of the eyes of these spies, and not only did he have no fear on his face, but he even criticized corruption within the Kuomintang on the stage and opposed Chiang Kai-shek's dictatorship, saying that no matter how much money he gave him, he would not go to the National Government...
After the speech, the entire venue erupted into thunderous applause, and Ma Yinchu also stepped off the podium with his head held high.
Abandon the dark and cast the light
Speaking of which, Ma Yinchu and Chiang Kai-shek still have a relationship, he once served as Chiang Kai-shek's teacher, based on this relationship between the two, so Chiang Kai-shek invited Ma Yinchu to serve in an important position in the National Government several times.
Chiang Kai-shek
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chiang Kai-shek, in his capacity as chairman of the committee, invited Ma Yinchu to dinner, but Ma Yinchu directly refused to accept him when he saw the visitors, saying, "Chiang Kai-shek is my student, and if he does not come to see me, he will forget it, and he will let me go to see him, and all the sages and books will be read in vain." ”
After eating the closed door soup, Chiang Kai-shek sent people to the door for the second time, and promised benefits, so that Ma Yinchu would be his minister of finance, or the governor of the central bank, both of which were fat and oily errands, but Ma Yinchu refused without thinking about it, and he laughed: "Do you want to use money to seal my mouth?" Whimsical, I don't make a fortune in the country, you please be smart! ”
After eating the closed door soup twice, Chiang Kai-shek gave up lobbying Ma Yinchu, thinking that a literati should not be able to toss out a flower.
When Ma Yin first saw that Chiang Kai-shek had no way to do anything about himself, his remarks against the Nationalist government became more and more explicit, and then the Nationalist government found a reason to detain him, and for two years, this move of the Nationalist government also directly pushed Ma Yinchu to the Communist Party.
Party insiders admired Ma Yinchu's talent, especially Chairman Mao, and admired Ma Yinchu's courage to "speak out" and directly hired him as president of Peking University.
In 1953, after China's first census, Ma Yinchu saw the problem and spent three years investigating population growth to prove his suspicions.
At the beginning of the founding of New China, although the situation was temporarily stabilized, it was still difficult for the people to live a worry-free life, especially in the rural areas, every household could not eat enough, but even in this situation, the people still kept giving birth to children.
The medical environment coupled with the reasons of the living environment has led to many children being born unable to survive, even if they survive, they cannot guarantee their education, and it is impossible for the country to rely on individuals for national development, which is the concept that Ma Yinchu has always believed in.
If China's population continues to grow every year at that rate, in less than fifty years, Chinese everyone will not be able to afford to eat, everyone will not be able to afford to go to school, and the country will not mention any development.
Thinking of this, Ma Yinchu was worried, so he put forward the viewpoint of "family planning" at the political association, not only advocating family planning, but also advocating late marriage and late childbearing, fewer births and eugenics, encouraging the people of the whole country to carry out successful birth control in a planned way, and advocating fines for overbirth.
He believes that it is more normal and appropriate for each family to have two children.
Ma Yinchu's remarks are contrary to the concept of "passing on the generations" handed down by China for thousands of years, so as soon as this remark came out, it was immediately condemned by all walks of life, especially those who advocated "many people have great strength", he issued a text attacking Ma Yinchu, calling him a typical "double standard person", what he could not do, and asked others to do it.
This statement points directly to Ma Yinchu's life, and it turns out that Ma Yinchu himself is a typical "multi-birth" family.
Ma Yinchu's marriage was handled by his parents, when he married his wife, he did not have any concept of the word love, and his wife married only to pass on the generations, fortunately, the wife chosen by his parents for him was very virtuous and treated well, so the husband and wife got along very well.
Ma Yinchu's wife gave birth to a total of three daughters and a son for him, and on the day of the son's birth, the Ma family was very happy, and Ma Yinchu himself felt that he had finally completed a major event in his life, and finally there was someone to follow.
Ma Yinchu's son died of illness shortly after, and his wife fell ill during the confinement period due to excessive sadness, and the doctor said that she would never be able to have children again.
This is simply a thunderbolt on a sunny day for the Ma family, but fortunately, Ma Yinchu's wife is a "general knowledge", and she does not want the Ma family's incense to break on her hand, so she persuades her husband to take a concubine.
At first, Ma Yinchu did not agree, on the one hand, because he received an advanced education in monogamy abroad, and on the other hand, because the child had just left and had no intention of thinking about anything else.
Ma Yinchu
Although Ma Yinchu himself did not agree, the rest of the Ma family did not give up, especially Ma Yinchu's wife, who always found a suitable girl for her husband from time to time.
Until a girl named Wang Zhongzhen appeared in front of her eyes, this Wang Zhongzhen was a classmate of Ma Yin's eldest daughter, who had often come to play at home before, and the husband and wife were also familiar with this girl.
Wang Zhongzhen's family conditions are average, only graduated from primary school, although the education level is not high, but this girl is beautiful, the tutor is good, very obedient, so Ma Yinchu's wife has the idea of letting her husband take her as a concubine.
Wang Zhongzhen was 13 years old at the time, a full 22 years younger than Ma Yinchu, perhaps out of admiration, she was actually happy to be Ma Yinchu's concubine, his idea shocked Ma Yinchu, although his mouth felt inappropriate, but from then on he would also pay attention to this girl from time to time.
During the Republic of China period, monogamy had begun to be implemented, especially for people with status and culture like Ma Yinchu, who promoted this system, but when Wang Zhongzhen appeared, his ideas completely changed, after all, who would not like young and beautiful girls.
For the outside world, Ma Yinchu was forced by the pressure of the family to "pass on the generations", so he married Wang Zhongzhen, but in fact, Ma Yinchu had a good feeling for Wang Zhongzhen, thinking that she was young and beautiful, and she knew the general body.
After Wang Zhongzhen entered the Ma family, she carried the responsibility of passing on the inheritance on her shoulders, and finally she also lived up to the expectations of the people and gave birth to two sons and two daughters for Ma Yinchu.
Recalling Ma Yinchu's practice of taking concubines, it is somewhat similar to the famous painter Zhang Daqian.
Ma Yinchu's emotional experience has also become a resistance to "family planning", and many people who oppose family planning have taken this point to refute him, saying that his words and deeds are inconsistent.
Because of this obstacle, family planning was not only not successfully implemented, but even once the good reputation that Ma Yin had established over the years plummeted.
When everyone was criticizing Ma Yinchu bitterly, his good friend Hu Shi jumped out to relieve the siege for him, Hu Shi said that everyone misunderstood Ma Yinchu, he did not take a concubine for the sake of passing on the lineage, but because Ma Yinchu was physically strong, his wife was not in good health, and a woman in the family was not enough, so he took a concubine, the so-called succession for the succession, just a cover.
Hu Shi's speech was quite amusing and joking, but it made everyone temporarily divert their attention from the "population theory", but this situation did not last long, and Ma Yinchu's straightforward personality caused public anger.
After all, Ma Yinchu's "population theory" shook the foundation of every family, so there were very few people in the country who supported him.
"Family planning" landed
Although the government did not adopt Ma Yinchu's suggestions, he did not abandon the study of the population.
Ma Yinchu has also maintained a outspoken style, sharing the data from his survey and analysis with the public, and his behavior has not been recognized by the public, but has been criticized everywhere, and even so, he still believes that the state should reduce the population.
Even Guo Moruo once said bluntly that Ma Yinchu was a "copper pea", not cooked, steamed, and not blown!
Ma Yinchu's persistence was fruitful, and after the reform and opening up, a new generation of leaders put the proposal of "family planning" on the table again according to the current social development situation.
According to the results of the discussions of all parties, they believe that reducing the population is indeed more conducive to the development of the country, and it is also conducive to giving the people more energy to pursue a quality of life, so after 30 years, "family planning" can be implemented.
After the implementation of the family planning policy, every family in the country has been affected to a greater or lesser extent, although there are still most people who cannot understand this policy, but it turns out that since then, people's living standards have improved significantly.
The national policy of family planning has fundamentally curbed the soaring population and reduced the burden on every family, which is equivalent to reducing Chinese the burden on the state and freeing up more time and resources for the development of the economy.
Family planning has changed the demographic structure, and has also implemented the "eugenics and fewer students" to the real place, there are fewer children, and the attention of parents is more concentrated, which is also a great help for the reform of education.
Although family planning is not perfect, we have to admit that the benefits of it outweigh the disadvantages, and to some extent, we all have to thank this strategy.
Many people will also put Ma Yinchu's proposal in the present to discuss, believing that he has indirectly affected the lives of contemporary people, resulting in the serious aging of the current Chinese population.
This kind of thinking is somewhat biased, the times are always in the process of constantly discovering problems and solving problems, different times will encounter different problems, we can not use the policies of decades ago to cope with the difficulties encountered today, but should be specific analysis of specific problems.
The sages of the past could find good solutions to the problems of the present, and we can do the same now.