Jiang Tao: The view of population in Chinese history

　　The concept of population is the idea of population, which generally refers to people's understanding or views on the phenomenon of population, and since there is a human society, there will be a view of population. China's traditional concept of population, which is compatible with the small-scale peasant economy, was formed during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, influenced China for more than two thousand years, and still plays a role to a certain extent. Studying the development and changes of China's traditional population concept has certain practical significance for us to correctly understand China's population policy today.

　　"Huafeng Three Blessings" - "more blessings, more longevity, more men", can be traced back to the legendary Tang Yao era, reflecting a social consensus of the ancients to pray for more children and grandchildren

　　During the Xia, Shang and Western Dynasties, the traditional Chinese concept of population has begun to sprout. Both history books and archaeological excavations have shown that at that time, the collective labor of the field, which concentrated a large number of laborers, was dominant. From the point of view of man's own reproduction (i.e., the reproduction of the seed), monogamy centered on male parenthood was established for three generations. Archaeological excavations of this period can be judged as the joint burial of adult men and women in the relationship between husband and wife, the most common burial style is the man's upright limb burial, the woman's side body flexed limb burial, and facing the man, indicating that the man began to dominate, and the woman was reduced to a subordinate and enslaved position. The marriage of three generations was supplemented by concubines. The Yin Shang Dynasty practiced monogamy supplemented by concubines. In the Zhou Dynasty, until the Spring and Autumn Period, the princes could still marry many times, and many of them had companions.

　　In the traditional Chinese era, the good wishes for the multiplicity of men, that is, "Tian Li". This wish can be traced back to the time of the legendary Tang Yao. In the "Zhuangzi Heaven and Earth" chapter, there is a dialogue between Hua Zhifengren (Shoubian Ren) and Yao, who wishes Yao a long life, wealth, and many boys. This reflects a social consensus at the time that people prayed for many children and many grandchildren. After the "Three Blessings of Huafeng", it was perfunctory as "Three More" - "More Blessings, More Longevity, More Men", and profoundly affected the fertility wishes of future generations.

　　During the Spring and Autumn Period, in order to expand their armaments and strengthen their strength, the various princely states used administrative measures to encourage fertility; after the prosperity of the people, Confucius's educational ideology of "teaching without class" was valued

　　The Spring and Autumn Warring States period was an era of great change in Chinese history, and it was also the formation period of China's traditional concept of population. Chinese society has undergone tremendous changes from the economic base to the superstructure. In the traditional era, people's means of subsistence were mainly "food" and "clothing". Because of the cultivation of iron and cattle, the grain production of the farmland no longer required labor to move the masses as before, but could be cultivated by "Pifu"; Mulberry was still a field crop during the Western Zhou Dynasty, and by the Spring and Autumn Warring States had also been planted in front of the house and behind the house, and could be cultivated by "Pi Women Silkworm". Individual small peasant families composed of cowherds and weaver girls have thus entered the stage of Chinese history and become the basic units of production and life in the traditional Era of China.

　　Small peasant families, which have the two major functions of population reproduction and reproduction of means of subsistence, began to play their role in the struggle for hegemony in the Spring and Autumn Period. In order to expand their armaments and strengthen their strength, the princely states often used administrative measures to force early marriage and encourage childbearing. The first overlord of the Spring and Autumn Period, Duke Huan of Qi, once ordered: "Husbands are twenty and rooms, and women are fifteen and married." In the late Spring and Autumn period, after the fierce defeat of the Yue king Gou Jian in the war with the State of Wu, he also ordered early marriage and rewarded childbearing. Some thinkers at that time, such as Mozi, who lived in the late Spring and Autumn Period, believed that only people in the world were the most difficult to multiply. If you want to increase the population as soon as possible, you can only have early children through early marriage.

　　After the goal of a large population is achieved, there is a socio-economic and cultural and educational pursuit. In the late Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius visited Weiguo (in present-day Puyang, Henan) and lamented the prosperity of his people. Ran You, a student, asked him what to do after the large population. Confucius replied, "Make them rich." Ran You asked again what to do after he became rich? Confucius said, "Educate them." Confucius himself was fortunate enough to become the first person in Chinese history to run a private school and achieve great success. He recruited students widely for the society and advocated "teaching without class". This made the education that was originally only accessible to a few nobles begin to become the cause of clothed commoners. Confucius, an educator, also had a different view of wealth and population growth than the rulers who were eager for success. He said: "I have heard that whether it is a prince or a doctor, there is no need to worry about not having much wealth, but only about uneven wealth; there is no need to worry about too few people, just worry about internal instability. If the wealth is even, there is no poverty; if there is peace and unity in the territory, there will be no feeling that there are few people; if the territory is peaceful, there will be no danger. In this way, the people from afar will not submit, and they will cultivate the politics of benevolence, righteousness, and liturgy to attract them. When they come, they have to be reassured. (Analects of Ji Shi)

　　The mainstream population ideology of the Warring States period can be roughly summarized as "the people of the vast land"; Mencius's idea of "no filial piety has three, and no posterity is great" profoundly affected the marriage concept and fertility willingness of later generations

　　During the Warring States period, the Chinese mouths increased unprecedentedly. This was in line with strict household registration management, especially the statistical system known as "shangji" began to take shape during this period. The mainstream population ideology of the Warring States period can be roughly reduced to the pursuit of "the broad land and the people". Some politicians and thinkers have put forward various propositions of "helping the people" in order to strengthen the competition for human resources, of which the Shang martingale of the Qin State is the most prominent. Shang Martin pointed out: Where the localities are small and the people are numerous, it is called "the people are victorious over their land" and it is necessary to reclaim the wasteland; where the locality is vast and the people are scarce, it is called "the land is better than the people", and it is necessary to attract the population. The "Guan Zi" put forward the proposition of "three fullness": owning a vast amount of land without development and utilization is called "tuman"; having a large population and not being able to govern it is called "full of people"; having a strong armed force and not knowing the cessation is called "Wuman". If the situation of "three fullnesses" is allowed to continue, the state will not become a state. This is the source of the theory of "overcrowding" in later generations.

　　At the time of the Warring States, on the one hand, the major powers were fighting for cities and land, killing people and killing people; on the other hand, it was the demise of the ancient clan feudal system - a large number of states were destroyed, and countless families were extinct. The reality of intense social change has made people realize that whether they are gentlemen or villains, their afterglow will be cut off for at most five lifetimes. Mencius proposed that "no filial piety has three, and no queen is greater", reflecting the concern of people at that time about whether the family had a "queen", that is, whether there were male offspring. In Mencius's view, all acts of "filial piety" should be based on the primary premise of reproduction and many descendants; starting from the premise of endless heirs, it has become irreproachable to marry a wife privately. This idea of his profoundly affected the concept of marriage and the willingness of future generations to have children.

　　In the Han Dynasty's view of population, Jia Yi's "people-oriented" thinking was extremely prominent, and his conclusion was: The people are the "foundation of all generations" and must not be neglected and bullied

　　After the fall of the Qin and Han Dynasties, China entered a period of development in which the great unified dynasties were successively replaced, and the traditional population concept that had been formed in the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period also had some new developments and changes in this long historical period.

　　In the Han Dynasty's view of population, Jia Yi's "people-oriented" thinking was extremely prominent. Jia Yi lived during the reign of Emperor Wen, less than forty years before Hanxing, and the lessons of the Fall of Qin are still fresh in his memory. He shouted loudly: "Don't forget the past, and the teacher of the future" (do not forget the lessons of the past, as a reference for future actions), and wrote political articles such as "Passing the Qin". He vigorously advocated the idea of "people-oriented" and pointed out: Although the people are lowly, they cannot be neglected, and although they are stupid, they cannot be bullied. From ancient times to the present, whoever is an enemy of the people, the people will sooner or later defeat him. He concluded that the people are the "foundation of all the worlds" and must not be neglected.

　　In society, some treatises on health care and treatment, as well as on human physical fitness, were also born in the Han Dynasty. The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic, written between the Qin and Han dynasties, comprehensively and systematically explores the mechanism of human growth, development, and disease, and is a classic of traditional Chinese medicine. Jia Yi even listed the "Prenatal Education Chapter" in his "New Book", which expounded the importance of pregnant mothers to educate their children through their own behavior. In the late Western Han Dynasty, the custom of early marriage was openly questioned. Wang Ji, a courtier at the time of Emperor Xuan, believed that husband and wife were the outline of human morality, and the length of human life was also determined by this. Secular marriage is too early, do not know how to be a parent already have children, education and indoctrination is not clear, so people often die early.

　　At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Xun Yue put forward the idea that "the people and widows are easy to use, and the land is wide, and the material is easy to live"; In the early Tang Dynasty, Wang Fanzhi vigorously advocated fewer births and fewer supports, so as to prevent the problem of "overcrowding"

　　Xun Yue, who lived at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, personally experienced the turmoil of the Yellow Turban Uprising and the depression after the war, which led to the impression that "the people of the ancients were prosperous, and now they are widowed". However, he believes that there are also advantages of fewer people, because "the people and widows are easy to use, and the land is wide, and things are easy to live." Yan Zhitui, who served in the Southern Dynasty Liang, Northern Qi, Northern Zhou, and Sui successively, used his own personal experience in the book "Yan Family Training" in the early Sui Dynasty to tell his children the truth of standing up, governing the family, and dealing with the world. He deeply appreciates the impact of the difference in natural conditions between the north and the south on the quality of people, and believes that "the people of Kyushu have different speeches" and must be correct and correct, so as to be conducive to the unified exchange of ideas of the country. He advocated the practice of prenatal education, which is unconditional, at least from infancy. He opposed the drowning of baby girls, but he was also unaccustomed to the untethered actions of women in the Northern Dynasty at that time, and even in the form of official governments, and advocated that women could only do household chores, not run household chores, and even more could not participate in social activities. The "Yan Family Training" is considered to be a model of traditional family training and has had a great influence on future generations.

　　At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, Fu Yi, who had served as the Taishi Ling, was deeply disgusted by the "wandering food, easy service and evasion of rent" of the monks and nuns of the monasteries who "had a surplus of 100,000 yuan", and advocated that these monks and nuns should be allowed to marry and marry, so that the country could suddenly have more than 100,000 households to "produce men and women", which was conducive to the proliferation of the population and the expansion of the imperial court's military resources. However, Wang Fanzhi, another person in the early Tang Dynasty, believed that if the population growth was allowed, it would cause the problem of "overcrowding", so he vigorously advocated fewer births and fewer supports. In the case of the population level of the early Tang Dynasty was still very low, Wang Fanzhi's view was indeed very "different".

　　The Song Dynasty attached great importance to strengthening population management, and the educator and thinker Li Qian favored the "restriction of land" and demanded that those who were "redundant" be banned, especially monks and nuns

　　As a compensation for population management, the armor protection system arose in the Song Dynasty and was gradually developed and improved. From the perspective of demographics, Chengding's development from both male and female to specifically men, and chengding's statistics evolved from both men and women to only males, which also began in the Song Dynasty. Li Qian, an educator and thinker in the Northern Song Dynasty, believed that the existence of "redundant people" other than the four peoples, that is, a large number of surplus people without occupations or engaged in improper occupations, and an excessive number of industrial and commercial populations, caused difficulties in the livelihood of civilians; and the reason was land annexation. Therefore, he favored the "restriction of the field" and demanded that those who were "redundant" be banned, especially the monks and nuns.

　　It is worth noting that since the Song Dynasty, the marriage age has been on the rise compared with the previous generation. The Northern Song Dynasty also stipulated in accordance with the Tang Kaiyuan Order that "men are fifteen years old and women are thirteen years old, and they are married"; in the Jiading period of the Southern Song Dynasty, it has been changed to sixteen years for men and fourteen years for women. The actual age of marriage is mostly around twenty years old for men and between fifteen and nineteen years for women.

　　At the end of the Ming Dynasty, people suffered more thinking and worry about "fullness"; in the Qing Dynasty, the concept of "many children and many blessings" in the traditional era was subverted

　　At the end of the Ming Dynasty, people had more thinking and worrying about "overcrowding". The literary scholar Feng Menglong said: If each couple always gives birth to a man and a woman, there will never be an increase or decrease, it can be maintained for a long time; if two men and two women are born, each generation will double, only increase or decrease, how to support them? Based on the growth of the population of the clan and nobility, the scientist Xu Guangqi concluded that the so-called large number of people in ancient times and few people in later generations are unfounded. The rate of human growth doubles roughly every thirty years. Without great wars, there can be no reduction.

　　In the last years of the Qianlong Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, the Qianlong Emperor, who was already in his old age, expressed his concern about too much population growth in an edict: the country was blessed by heaven, and for more than a hundred years it was peaceful and uneventful, but the population was more than ten times larger than in the past. By cultivating by one person and feeding more than a dozen people, it is impossible to produce as abundant grain as before, and the land occupied by the huts is also growing exponentially, the number of people engaged in production is small, and the number of people consuming food is very much related to the livelihood of the people. If grain is wasted at will because of the good year, the people's sentiments are lazy, and the fields and acres are barren, there will inevitably be a day when there is not enough grain to eat, and the economy is in distress. I am very worried about this!

　　Hong Liangji, a well-known political commentator and writer, also clearly put forward a warning about the dangers brought about by population growth: The time for peace is long, heaven and earth cannot not give birth to people, and the resources used by heaven and earth to support people are limited; when the time of peace is long, the state cannot but let people be born, and the means that the government can take for the people are also very limited. Where one person lives, it is not enough for ten people to live, let alone let a hundred people live! It is no longer enough for one person to let ten people eat food, let alone let a hundred people eat it!

　　Gong Zizhen, Wei Yuan, and others, who were active during the Daoguang years, were extremely anxious about China's "increasingly complex teeth and increasingly narrow weather", and they were also very sensitive to the great turmoil that might come. In addition to the ancient claims of "average", they also advocate the voluntary or compulsory migration of a large number of idle people in society who are "not scholars, not farmers, no workers, and no traders".

　　Wang Shiduo, a scholar who witnessed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom occupy Nanjing, directly attributed the reasons for the outbreak of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Revolution to China's "large number of people" and proposed a series of measures to exceed or even unreasonablely reduce the population. His central thesis was: "The cause of the world's chaos: there are many people (many women, so many people)." The large number of people is poor (insufficient land). Because "there are many women in the world, and the causes of the world's chaos", among the measures he proposed to reduce the population, in addition to the policy of slaughtering the "rioters", they were more aimed at women, such as promoting the law of drowning women, administering cold medicine for fetal breakers, strict remarriage laws, establishing virginity homes, and so on. The view of population in the traditional Chinese era has been subverted so far, and finally there has been a change from "many people are blessed" to "many people are poor".

Source: Beijing Daily