The Medieval Medici family was an Italian nobility in Florence and played a very important role in the Renaissance. According to their family profile, the vast majority of commoners did not live to be 30 years old, but many nobles lived to be in their 60s, because the sanitary conditions of the nobles were very good.
Excluding people who died before the age of one, on average, the average life expectancy of Westerners in their 30s is relatively reasonable.
During the Song Dynasty in China at the same time, the figure below shows a statistical record of the age of death. Most of the deaths of the "scholar" class in the Song Dynasty were after the age of 56, which means that the probability of living to the age of 60 is very high. Looking at the picture, the average age should also be between 65-70.
The figure below is the data of the Ming Dynasty, and it can be seen that the average age of death of people with tomb owners in the Ming Dynasty reached about 60 years old.
Source: Ge Jianxiong and Cao Shuji, History of the Chinese Population (Volume IV), Fudan University Press, 2000, p. 397.
"Research on Women's Married Life in the Song Dynasty" is based on the research of epitaph data, mentioning that the peak of death in the Song Dynasty was concentrated in 61-70 years old, accounting for 24.44%, followed by 51-60 years old and 71-80 years old, accounting for 20.81% and 19.80% respectively. After calculating the average age of death of the couples, it was found that the average age of death was 60.69 years for men and 62.31 years for women.
Historical information is vast, limited by space, just to cite the above examples, interested readers can find more information, but it is basically no problem to conclude that "the average life expectancy of ancient Chinese was longer".
You may ask, the scholars and grave bearers on the mainland are not among the low-level civilians, right? In fact, the "civilians" who can be recorded in historical materials in Western countries are not the people with the worst conditions.
When historians study ancient populations, they basically abide by the following rule: Most of the statistics are those who have stable incomes, good financial conditions, and those who can afford rent, both in urban and rural areas. The poor, the laborers, the tenants, the temporary workers, who made up the lower strata of medieval society, the poor who lacked wealth and land, the lower strata of tenants, the temporary workers, and the like were excluded, and therefore there was no need to write about them, since they could not afford any taxes.
In fact, it is more convincing than the middle and upper class people, because they have a certain amount of financial resources and can afford to hire Langzhong. They can fill their bellies, or they can be spared from war. Lower-class civilians are more likely to suffer from famine, or to be sent to the army, and at the same time have no money for treatment, and the probability of unnatural death is greater, which does not reflect the quality of medical conditions.
It is often said that Western medicine has greatly increased the average life expectancy, on the grounds that the average life expectancy of Chinese before liberation was 40-50 years old, and now it has jumped to 79 years, which is the credit of Western medicine. It sounds reasonable at first glance, but it's just a subjective hypothesis, and it's time to debunk this rumor.
The entry of Western medicine into China is to make Chinese people live short! And not longevity too! In ancient times, when there was no Western medicine, the life expectancy of Chinese was always longer than that of Westerners, and the life expectancy of Westerners in the same period was even less than half that of Chinese.
According to the general statistics of "Special Research on Ancient Chinese Population History", the life expectancy of the population in the Western Han Dynasty was 60.5 years, and that in the Eastern Han Dynasty was 64.5 years. However, in the troubled times, the Three Kingdoms dropped to 57.3 years old, and the society of the Western Jin Dynasty was even more turbulent, and the life expectancy of the population dropped to 52 years. The Sui Dynasty had frequent wars and an average life expectancy of only 55.3 years. However, in the Tang Dynasty, the glorious prosperity provided people with a stable living environment, and the average life expectancy increased to an unprecedented 65.6 years.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, due to the long duration of peace, coupled with the introduction of high-yield crops such as corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, people's living standards improved, and the average life expectancy reached 70.4 years. In the early Qing Dynasty, it was even rarer to reach 71.3 years old!
If we look at the life expectancy of the population in ancient Britain and the United States, according to the data published in the Encyclopædia Britannica, the average life expectancy in the Neolithic period was only 20 years, and the average life expectancy increased to 28 years in the classical period (including the ancient Roman and Greek periods). The average life expectancy in the UK was 30 to 45 years in the early twentieth century. In 2006, the American journal "Statistics and Economics of the Elderly Population" gave the curve of the average life expectancy of the American population in the 20th century, and the average life expectancy of Americans in 1900 was only 47.5 years, 60 years old in 1930, 70 years old in 1960, and 75 years old in 1990.
The main factors affecting the life expectancy of Chinese are war factors and food factors, and during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, due to the introduction of high-yield crops such as corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes, people's living standards improved, and the average life expectancy of people at that time actually reached more than 70 years!
It stands to reason that now that China has been peaceful for a long time, the problem of food and clothing has long been solved, people should live longer, and the average life expectancy of Chinese should exceed that of Westerners, but this is not the case under the leadership of Western medicine, why is this? Perhaps the article "Why do patients treat more and more" published in the "People's Daily" can answer the doubts in people's hearts!
Westerners have been reflecting on their medical practices, such as the overuse of antibiotics; over-surgical problems for cancer; Excessive chemoradiotherapy, etc. In the process of reflection, they have discovered more and more the correctness of Chinese medicine, and they are constantly approaching the thinking of Chinese medicine!
However, our Western doctors regard the reflection of the West as a treasure and continue to praise it, but they have always said that Chinese medicine is unscientific and has always stayed away from Chinese medicine!
Why has Chinese medicine always been the "protector" of the Chinese nation? Traditional Chinese medicine is a treasure in traditional Chinese culture and the "protector god" of the Chinese nation, protecting the Chinese people to multiply and become stronger and more prosperous.
Some people say that Western medicine also has some credit. What is the merit of Western medicine? Western medicine has only been introduced to China for more than 100 years, while the Chinese nation has only a written history of civilization for more than 5,000 years, and its ancestors have been reproducing on the earth for hundreds of thousands of years, relying on the predecessor of Chinese medicine at that time.