In ancient times, where did all the abandoned children go? In ancient times, there were orphanages?
In modern society, with the continuous improvement of the social system, those orphans who have lost the protection of their parents, although they have missed out on a happy family, can also grow up healthily in a safe environment.
But have you ever wondered how those orphans without parents could survive in an ancient society with backward economic development and frequent wars?
In ancient times, whenever a war broke out, the state would recruit a large number of soldiers, even in the form of catching strong men, and send some young men to the front.
Most of these people have no combat experience, so after going to the front line, they basically go and never return, and many of them have wives and children at home.
Since most families in ancient times relied on men to live, if they lost the pillars of the family, women alone could not support a family, which meant that they could only live a life without food and clothing.
Some people may have made the decision to abandon the child out of helplessness and hope to find another way to live for their child.
But in addition to this situation, there is another phenomenon of abandoned babies in ancient times, that is, the number of female babies is relatively large, because in feudal society, the idea of preference for sons over daughters is particularly serious.
In ancient times, people called the birth of a son as "the joy of making a son", and the birth of a daughter was called "the joy of making a tile", where "zhang" represents jade, a symbol of status and power in ancient times, and "tile" is a part of the ancient spinning wheel.
From this point, it can be seen that the ancient people treated male and female babies differently.
In addition, in ancient times, people did not have contraception, so there were many children, so some financially constrained families would choose to abandon them after seeing that they were born girls.
And this choice of "abandonment" is still relatively good, after all, the baby may still be taken in by well-wishers, and there can be a trace of life, but the other option is unacceptable, that is, directly drowning the baby girl.
As early as the Warring States Period, it was recorded in the famous work "Han Feizi" that "if you give birth to a man, you will congratulate each other, and if you give birth to a girl, you will kill her." ”
It can be seen that the abandonment of children was a very common phenomenon in ancient times, and a considerable number of these abandoned children were sent to the "orphanages" opened by the imperial court.
Although it may sound strange at first glance, as if the orphanage is a modern facility, it has been around since ancient times, but it was not called that name at the time.
During the Song Dynasty, the imperial court decreed the creation of the "Salesian Bureau", and in 1249, 500 acres of land were specially allocated for the construction of the Salesian Bureau.
For those abandoned newborns, as well as orphans who have lost their parents and are unable to support themselves, the imperial court will come forward to adopt, and at the same time, the imperial court will appoint custody and management, and regularly allocate money, food, and cloth to the Salesian Bureau.
For those children who are still breastfeeding, the Salesian Bureau will also ask wet nurses to feed them, and it also declares that families without children can go to adopt.
Later, with the fall of the Song Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty did not continue this measure, and it continued until the end of the Ming Dynasty, when it began to gradually recover.
After the Qing Dynasty, a charity called "Nursery Hall" appeared, and just by listening to the name, you know, this is a place dedicated to the adoption of abandoned babies and young children.
But unlike the Salesian Bureau, the Foundling Hall was mostly adopted by local religious figures and gentry, who could be retired officials or wealthy people with good intentions, and the Qing government was only responsible for supervising them.
The Foundling Hall will place a large wooden box near the city gate to be guarded, and the abandoned babies will be sent there when they are found, and then transferred to the Nursery by the caretaker.
And the nursery has a very strange facility, that is, there will be a hole in the outer wall, in which a large drawer is placed, and the abandoned baby will be placed in the drawer, and then sent to the hospital to be taken away.
This is because no matter which dynasty, it is a very shameful behavior to abandon a child, and this practice can be regarded as protecting the identity of the abandoned baby, which shows that the nursery was still very humane at that time.
In addition, the nursery also maintains a special "baby book", which will record the arrival time of abandoned babies and the health of their health.
In order to alleviate the pressure on the operation of the nursery, they also encourage the public to adopt children, but not everyone can adopt, only people with high morals and good hearts can.
As for those who are prostitutes or have committed crimes, they will be rejected by the nursery.
For those children who have not been adopted, the Foundling Hall will continue to develop their survival skills so that when they grow up, they will be able to get a job, and if they are girls, the Foundling Hall will match them and arrange for them to marry.
This is the specific situation of the ancient "orphanage", although the conditions at that time were relatively backward, but as a public welfare, they were able to save the lives of those abandoned babies and give them a chance to survive, which is worthy of recognition and praise.
