Before reading this article, please click "Follow", which is not only convenient for you to discuss and share, but also can bring you a different sense of participation, thank you for your support.
Text: Sleeping sheep
Edit|Sleeping Sheep
Preface
Population, as a basic factor in the development of a country's comprehensive strength, is the basis of all military operations and economic changes, whether in ancient feudal society or in modern society, its position in a country should not be underestimated.
One of the important factors influencing the decline of Japan, a once developed country, is its population, which has decreased a lot due to its aging population, which limits its economic development.
In the international community, there are many countries with the problem of aging population, and these countries have been seeking solutions, but they are all difficult to achieve their goals due to economic conditions, ideology, social and other factors.
But in the history of China, the Qing Dynasty was a dynasty that was very successful in increasing the population.
As can be seen from the figure, before the Qing Dynasty, the population of all Chinese dynasties was in a trend of slow growth or great ups and downs.
Only the population of the Qing Dynasty was growing explosively at a rate of "lightning speed", soaring from tens of millions all the way to as much as 400 million recorded in the "General Examination of Qing Continuation Literature".
So the question is, what the rulers of other dynasties did not do, and how did the Qing Dynasty and the rulers of the Qing Dynasty do it?
Before talking about the reasons for the growth of the Qing Dynasty, we must first clarify a truth, that is, what are the main factors that affect population growth in feudal society.
The reasons for this are none other than agricultural production, natural geographical environment, war, political system and traditional thinking, and it is precisely because of these reasons that the Qing Dynasty pushed these reasons to develop in a good direction, so that it had its later demographic achievements.
Reasons for the political system
First of all, let's look at the Qing Dynasty's policy support for population development, as we all know, in China's feudal society for more than 2,000 years, the imperial court's money was obtained by collecting taxes, and the poll tax was one of the more important taxes.
Before Kangxi implemented the policy of abolishing the poll tax, the people at the bottom became miserable because of taxes, whether it was a disaster year or a harvest year.
Whether poor or rich, every family has to pay a certain tax according to the population of the family.
Such a regulation has led to the phenomenon of the people at the bottom fleeing the famine and the concealment of the population, and since the poll tax is collected by the local government, many government officials have taken this opportunity to enrich their own pockets.
Even the original tax revenue was increased again to exploit the people.
This phenomenon was significantly changed after Kangxi ascended the throne, and he ordered that the number of people in Kangxi's 50 years should be used as a fixed number to levy a poll tax, and newborns born after that did not need to be paid.
However, there are certain drawbacks to this phenomenon, that is, if a person who needs to pay the poll tax dies, who should pay his taxes? This problem was improved by Yongzheng, who took over power from Kangxi.
Yongzheng directly introduced the political system of "apportionment into mu", as the name suggests, that is, the fixed poll tax base was evenly apportioned into the field tax, and the tax was changed from leviing taxes on the population to the number of fields.
That is, "those who have more land will receive more, those who have less land will receive less, and those who have no land will not pay", such a regulation can be said to have freed the peasants at the bottom from the burden on their bodies, put pressure on those rich people, and for the imperial court, it also gave taxes a solid guarantee.
After the pressure of the poll tax was gone, the general public was no longer afraid of the growth of the family population, and those who did not report for tax evasion also had the courage to register, and such a policy was continued by Qianlong even after the abdication of Yongzheng.
As the population grew, so did the labor force, and in this context, the handicraft industry and the commodity economy flourished during this period.
In addition to the changes in the tax system, the Qing Dynasty's marriage policy also contributed to population growth to a certain extent, as stated in the "Qing Statutes":
"Men over the age of 16, women over the age of 14, and those who are married to the officiant, can take it for an indefinite period of time. ”
Moreover, the age mentioned here is still imaginary, which is relatively early compared with the legal age of marriage in other Chinese dynasties, and there is also a system that advocates three wives and four concubines and harsh divorce conditions.
Take divorce as an example, as we all know, in feudal society, men can "divorce their wives", but women have no right to "divorce their husbands", but in the Qing Dynasty, men's "divorce of wives" was also strictly restricted, and they need to follow the principle of "seven out of three do not go".
However, these systems were already in place in other dynasties, and the Qing Dynasty only continued them in their entirety, or changed them, but these policies did play a role in promoting population growth.
The reason for the significant increase in crop yields
Although the population has increased, the country also needs to have enough food to feed so many people, so in all dynasties, food production has also been one of the main reasons limiting population growth.
After all, in that period, there was no such high-yield hybrid rice and wheat as now, and the yield of wheat per mu at that time was only about 300 catties, even so, only one season could be planted a year, and although rice could be planted for two seasons, the yield per mu was only about 600 catties.
Coupled with the strict requirements for land for these main crops, the food production in the feudal society was very limited, and if this trend continues, even if the population grows, it can only face the dilemma of starvation.
However, fortunately, during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, many foreign crops entered China one after another, alleviating the crisis, such as corn, peanuts, sweet potatoes, etc.
Take sweet potatoes as an example, such a crop that can be planted in two seasons a year, the yield per mu can reach thousands of catties, although the yield per mu of spring potatoes and summer potatoes is different, but it can also reach about 6,000 catties a year.
The most important thing is that sweet potatoes do not have such strong requirements for the growth environment, and have the characteristics of cold tolerance and strong use ability.
It is such a treasure crop, and its road to China can be said to be full of ups and downs, thanks to a man named Chen Zhenlong.
At that time, Chen Zhenlong was a talent in the Ming Dynasty, because the road to study was not feasible, he began to do business, back and forth with Fujian and the Philippines, in the Philippines, Chen Zhenlong discovered this transplanted plant from South America.
As soon as he saw the sweet potato, Chen Zhenlong had the idea of bringing it back to China to plant, but at that time, the Philippines did not allow such a phenomenon to occur, and set up multiple checkpoints to prevent such a situation from happening.
In desperation, Chen Zhenlong could only evade the search by putting the sweet potato vine into the water rope, secretly brought the sweet potato seeds back to China, and successfully cultivated them after returning home, playing an important role in the famine in Fujian.
When Emperor Qianlong heard about this treasure crop, he ordered it to be promoted throughout the country, and the population of the Qing Dynasty grew rapidly against the background of such a wide variety of crops.
Reasons for medical technology
Due to the lack of medical technology in the feudal society, some simple colds and fevers may also lose their lives because they are not treated in time, which leads to the average life expectancy of people in ancient times is not high.
By the time of the Qing Dynasty, as the last dynasty of the feudal period, its medical technology and system had been relatively perfect, not only with famous medical works such as the "Compendium of Materia Medica" as a reference, but also inherited many of the health systems of the previous dynasties.
Laws and regulations such as the "Clean Body Case" and the "Clean House Law" are the products of this period, which have improved the hygiene Xi of residents and prevented the occurrence of some infectious diseases.
As morbidity and mortality decreased, the rate of population growth naturally increased.
Socio-environmental reasons
As we all know, there will be many wars behind the change of each dynasty, and the price of these wars is the sharp decline of the population and the consumption of resources, which is also an important reason for the ups and downs of the population of all dynasties.
However, during the Qing Dynasty, due to the policy of closing the country and the signing of some unequal treaties, there were few large-scale wars in the Qing Dynasty.
The common people in the country are also able to eat enough and live in peace and contentment, and there are few peasant uprisings, so the social situation will naturally allow the population to achieve steady growth.
Among these reasons for the population growth of the Qing Dynasty, we can actually see the shadow of India, which is now a populous country.
Reasons for India's Early Population Growth
In the 18th century, India was also a country plagued by famine and disease, with nearly 10 million people dying in the Great Famine of 1769-1773 alone, but India had the British colonizers behind it.
It not only brought India trade that helped to grow its economy, but also built 22,000 kilometers of railways during the colonial period of India, which made a huge contribution to India's transportation.
Not only that, but it also established a complete education system for India, and through compulsory immunization laws, it helped India control the spread of smallpox, which enabled India to grow from more than 100 million to 400 million in more than 100 million years from 1800 to 1945.
epilogue
Population, as the foundation of a country, can only promote population growth from multiple aspects and control the intensification of aging can human society achieve more healthy and stable development.
We can take the essence of these reasons for the population growth of the Qing Dynasty and remove the dross, and persist on this road of heavy responsibility and a long way to go.
After reading this article, please follow + comment, so that you can quickly pay attention to the new developments in the remaining follow-up events
(Disclaimer) The process and pictures described in the article are from the Internet, and this article aims to advocate positive social energy and no vulgar and other bad guidance. If it involves copyright or character infringement issues, please contact us in time, and we will delete the content as soon as possible!