Preface
We Chinese were short in the old society, and we can't complain that our genes are not strong, but can only complain that the Qing Dynasty is too "pit".
During the sixth year of Guangxu (1880 AD), the average height of Chinese men did not exceed 162 cm, which means that most of the old and young masters of the Qing Dynasty were about the same height as the little girls now.
The Peking apes in the museum are 167 cm tall, and the males in the late Qing Dynasty are not as tall as primitive people.
Isn't this a proper "degradation"?
Qin and Han per capita "macho man"
Our modern Chinese short head has always been a relatively heavy topic, many Europeans and Americans like to make a fuss in this regard, and many Europeans and Americans laugh at us for this, thinking that we are born a "small nation".
Europeans and Americans laugh at us for not being tall because they have a big physique, but we don't know that the ancestors of Europeans and Americans may not be as tall as our ancestors, especially in the Qin and Han dynasties.
The best evidence is the Qin Terracotta Warriors, the Internet search for relevant data can shock you for a whole year, the average height of the Terracotta Warriors is 185 cm!
This height is almost the perfect height that today's boys dream of, but let's not be in a hurry to envy it first, this is the average height with the terracotta base and crown scarf.
If you calculate the height of the humanoid terracotta warriors alone, the average height is also 178.5 cm, which means that the soldiers of the Qin Dynasty represented by the terracotta warriors are all strong men of almost 1.8 meters (average), even if they are put into the present, they can be regarded as big men.
Even the shortest terracotta warriors and horses are 166 cm, which is much better than the average height of men in the late Qing Dynasty, but we cannot arbitrarily assume that this data can represent the height of people in the Qin and Han dynasties.
Although the Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses are all made according to life-size proportions, it should be noted that these soldiers are all Qin Shi Huang's "forbidden army", and they are all tall and elite soldiers who have been carefully selected, and they can be counted as the upper limit of the average height of the period.
According to the 2015 study of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' "Qin and Han Height Survey", the average height of men at that time was between 166.5 and 171.6 cm, and the data was based on the bones of more than 100 men unearthed from the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang.
These are the data measured by the bones of the ancients, and the authenticity is much stronger than that of the Terracotta Army!
The ancients in the Qin and Han dynasties were very tall, even if they were not as tall as the modern ones, as long as they were stronger than the 1.62 meters of the Qing Dynasty.
These data show that the height of Chinese people in history has gradually changed from tall to short, and the downward trend of height has not been reversed until modern times, so that our height has gradually recovered, and the height of Chinese has been increasing year by year in the 21st century.
On the right are Japanese prisoners
The ancestors of Europeans were "short"
Modern Europeans are indeed among the highest in the world in terms of height, we have to admit this fact, but this does not mean that they have a genetic advantage, they are only modern and taller.
If their ancestors would have been shocked to see the large physique of modern Europeans and Americans, it was not easy for ancient Europeans to grow big, even the British people who were only 200 years ago had an average height of only a pitiful 1.67 meters.
This height is only half a head higher than that of men in the late Qing Dynasty, which is almost the average height level of our men in the Qin and Han dynasties, which is completely incomparable with modern Europeans and Americans.
Then let's take a look at the top Nordic people, Sweden is one of the three Nordic countries, and the average height of men is now quite scary, reaching 180 cm.
But if we look back at Sweden in the mid-19th century, the average height of a Swedish soldier was only 166 centimeters.
It is still similar to the data of our Qin and Han dynasties, and it is not even the upper limit of 171 cm.
Europeans only grew a similar height to our ancestors thousands of years ago hundreds of years ago, which shows that the height of Europeans ancestors was not excellent.
In other words, the height of the ancestors of the Qin and Han dynasties of the Chinese was hundreds of years ahead of the Europeans, so why not compare them with the Europeans of the same period, because the way of recording the civilization of the same period in Europe is too backward, and the historical records are very scarce.
When we trace the history of the Qin and Han dynasties, there are at least bamboo slips and "silk books" as references, and there are no such records in Europe at the same time.
Back to the question of Europeans and Americans being tall, they were obviously not tall in ancient times, but they instantly rose in modern times?
Modern Europeans still have to rely on the "Industrial Revolution", after which the whole of Europe has taken the lead in terms of productivity in the world, and the standard of living of Europeans has risen like a rocket.
Everyone can afford to eat bread and drink milk, Europeans with better conditions can still eat beef regularly, and the increase in protein intake has prompted Europeans to begin to grow taller.
After generations of "long genes" superimposed, modern Europeans have a large physique, and our impression of Europeans is tall.
Before that, there was not much difference in height between the East and the West, and after the Industrial Revolution, there was a trend of high in the west and low in the east, and we had to throw this pot to the Qing Dynasty.
Because when Westerners were vigorously engaged in industrialization, the Qing Emperor Qianlong was still playing birds in the Forbidden City at the same time!
You can't complain about the genes when you don't grow tall
The reputation of the Qing Dynasty on the Internet is indeed seriously polarized, some people think that it has made a lot of contributions to us, and some people think that "the Manchu Qing Dynasty mistook me for China", and people on both sides have their own reasons.
Height trends among Chinese from 1810 to 1890
But when it comes to height, the Qing Dynasty can only honestly carry this pot, not only because it did not catch up with the industrial revolution, but also because other reasons are even more outrageous.
The population of the Qing Dynasty skyrocketed and broke through the barrier of 100 million, and then the population has been soaring year after year, and the common people are crazy to have children.
Too many people can easily cause a shortage of resources, and our high-quality arable land itself is not rich, not to mention that in ancient times when agricultural technology was backward, the carrying capacity of land was really limited, and it really couldn't feed too many people.
This is the main reason why the population of our Han and Tang dynasties has never exceeded 100 million, but the Qing Dynasty not only broke through the previous upper limit, but also had the dilemma of overcrowding.
It's not how powerful the Qing Dynasty was, but the credit of high-yield crops, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes and other imported crops are much higher than our local crops.
The people can barely make ends meet by growing these crops, and it is almost impossible to eat well, and other high-quality grains and meat have almost nothing to do with the people.
The people really can't grow tall by eating these things, and the dietary protein intake is too low, just to sustain life and starve to death.
After the industrial revolution in the West, the living standards of the people soared, but the quality of life of the people of our Qing Dynasty declined, and the people of the Qing Dynasty may not eat as well as the people of the Qin and Han dynasties.
The Qing Dynasty dug a big pit for future generations to be "short", resulting in us still catching up with Europe and the United States.
Our height is getting rid of the "Great Qing Dynasty"
According to the relevant reports of Xinhuanet in 21 years, it can be learned that the height of our new generation has grown rapidly, with the average height of 19-year-old men being 175.7 cm, the largest increase in the world, and the average height of women being 163.5 cm, the third highest increase in the world.
The height of our new generation of young people has increased amazingly, and now you can see a lot of big people in the north, and even some junior high school students have grown to 180 cm, which is much taller than the older generation.
Many post-95 guys are taller than their parents, and our rise has officially entered a period of rapid growth, which is the same as the upward cycle of our economy.
A group photo of students from a junior high school in Shandong
People can afford to eat eggs and beef, and they can drink milk for breakfast, and the increased protein intake provides the foundation for our new generation to become bigger.
We are stepping out of the pit left by the Qing Dynasty, and the future is just around the corner for the physique of Europeans and Americans.
epilogue
Our height has skyrocketed with the improvement of living standards, which also shows that the lack of height was not a genetic problem, but a simple nutritional problem.
As long as the nutrition can keep up, we can also grow a strong body, and productivity and economic construction are the real "big man genes"!
Information References:
Official media Xinhua News Agency released on January 23, 2021 "8cm increase in 35 years, the world's first! Since ancient times, Chinese's height has fluctuated so much"
Guizhou Internet Radio and Television Station released on January 23, 2021 "8cm increase in 35 years, the world's first! Since ancient times, Chinese's height has fluctuated so much"
Shangguan News released on November 18, 2020 "The per capita height of the mainland has reached the first place in East Asia!
The terracotta warriors data comes from Baidu Encyclopedia and is for reference only