The ancients abused and killed baby girls, and how to have three wives and four concubines

Fish and Sheep History. See fresh history

Author: Dream tapir

EDIT: Eat hard drives

Illustration: Developed mosquitoes

The late Ming and early Qing dynasty historian Tan Qian recorded in detail the population data of Shanghai County in Songjiang Province in the Ming Dynasty in the Zaolin Miscellaneous Tricks and Yidian .

In 1391 (Hongwu 24), the registered population of men in Shanghai County was 278874, and the number of women was 253929, and in 1412 (Yongle 10 years), the registered population of men was 199781, and the number of registered women was 178647. This shows that in the early Ming Dynasty, the proportion of male and female population was basically equal.

By the middle of the Ming Dynasty (1502 AD), the number of registered men in Shanghai County was 179524, and the population of women was only 81,297. The ratio of men to women has fallen to 1:0.45.

In 1572 (the sixth year of Longqing), although the population of men was negative, but it did not change much, for 158532 people, the number of women showed a cliff-like decline, has dropped to 34435 people, at this time the ratio of men to women is 1:0.22.

The imbalance in the proportion of men and women in the middle and late Ming Dynasty shows us a very common and cruel social phenomenon in the folk at that time - "female infanticide".

#01.

The abuse of female infants has occurred very early in China's history. Some scholars believe that this custom can be traced back to the pre-Qin period. The "Han Feizi Six Anti-Chapters" states that the parents' abuse and killing of female infants is for their own long-term interests: "If the male is born, the male will be congratulated, and the female will be killed." This is out of the arms of the parents, but the man is congratulated, and the woman who kills, after the consideration of the long profit. ”

During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the famous educator Yan Zhitui strongly condemned one of his distant relatives in the "Yan Family Training and Ruling the Family". The relative had many concubines in his house, and whenever these women were about to give birth, he arranged for the janitor of the family to stand guard outside the delivery room.

The mother began to have seizures, and the servant peeked through the window against the doorpost, and if a baby girl was born, he would immediately go in and take the child out and try to kill her on the spot. The miserable cries of those pregnant women made others can't help but cry when they heard it.

After the Song Dynasty, the abuse of female infants became a custom in many regions. The degree of infanticide of female infants in that period was so bad that we can see from a recital by Fan Chengda, a famous minister of the Southern Song Dynasty: "The small people are poor in the mountains and have a little more men, so they refuse to raise women." If you don't ask, you can know that there are no wives to marry in the villages, buy them in other states, and kill them without knowing how many. ”

As a result of the prevalence of female infanticide, the number of marriageable females in some villages is close to zero. This serious imbalance in the sex ratio can only be eaten by the locals themselves - when men reach adulthood, they have "no wife to marry".

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the phenomenon of female infanticide can be described by the term "flooding", according to expert research, at least 12 provinces in the country have this bad habit.

We can find from some articles and local chronicles at that time that the phenomenon of "drowning women", which lasted for a long time, was widely distributed, and the proportion of abuse and killing was high, had become a social chronic disease in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

For example, according to the "Guangzhou Tongzhi", when Mao Kezhen, a Ming Dynasty official, served as the county commander of Zhuji County, he used the law of sitting together to deal with the bad behavior of "many drowning women in local customs". (Guangdong)

The Ming Dynasty official Zhu Guozhen compiled the "Yongdong Sketch", which describes: "Jiangxi people are the most fond of drowning women. The people have four daughters in a row. Drown them all. (Jiangxi)

"Ming Shilu Xianzong Shilu • Chenghua 20th Year September" said: "The custom east of Zhejiang is that many daughters are sterile. (Zhejiang)

There are clouds in the "Jiangnan Tongzhi": "Jia Yinglong, Xiangfu people, Zhishangyuan County, the villagers are drowning women." (Jiangsu)

In the "Notes on Tingxing" written by the Qing Dynasty official Shan Demo, it is said: "The Ting genus (Tingzhou region) has been known for the vice of drowning women, since the Song Dynasty, especially in the Qing and Ning dynasties. (Fujian)

During the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, Zhu Gangjin, the governor of Fujian, once made a statement on this page: "When I was the former governor of Hunan Province, I heard that the people of Hunan had the evil custom of drowning women. (Hunan)

The famous Qing Dynasty philanthropist Yu Zhi edited the "DeyiLu With Drowning Baby Micro-Examination" recorded: "Mr. Wang Xiajiu of Luling (王給芳, 号霞九). Inspector Chu Bei, smelling the most prevalent vices of drowning women, showed persuasion. (Hubei)

The "Selected Materials of the Ming and Qing Dynasties" excerpts an epitaph of the Confucian Shang Zhang ce of the Qing Dynasty, including "I have a grudge two: my people are poor and numerous, and they want to imitate the ancient Yitian and the Yishu as a long-term plan; there are many drowning women in my hometown (Jixi), and they want to advocate wide donations, and those who give birth to daughters have to pay fees to change their customs." (Anhui)

The "Anping County Miscellaneous Records , Customs and Righteous Deeds Supplementary Examination" says: "Tainan township women often have drowning women. A girl all her life, Weng Gu did not like it, was forced by the heart, and drowned the girl in the water. (Taiwan)

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Li Zongxi said in his "Four Forbidden Notices": "The wind of drowning women in Jin Province is inevitable for all subordinates. Pingding, Yuci and South Road are particularly important. The first daughter was born, barely survived, gave birth to several litters in a row, and drowned. Even when she sees a woman, she drowns and does not leave a single child. (Shanxi)

#02.

Historically, this practice of infanticide has not only spread throughout the country, but also involved all levels of society. Many people may think that only in disaster years, or only those living below the poverty line, will kill their own flesh and blood because they cannot afford to take on more parenting responsibilities. Not really.

Just like the distant relative of Yan Zhitui mentioned above, since there are many concubines in the family, it is naturally a rich and noble family, not because they are unable to raise several baby girls, but because they are unwilling.

The "History of the South" and the "Book of Song" invariably record the killing of women by Liu Zhan, an official of the imperial court of the Southern Song Dynasty: "The killing of the daughter of the child is strange to the scholars. Liu Zhan was born as an official eunuch, and his father Liu Liu also served as Shang Shu Ling during the Eastern Jin Dynasty. His colleagues were puzzled by the fact that a family member had tortured and killed his own baby girl.

The Qing Zhaotang Series of Books, Forbidden To Drown Female Women (Ji Erxiao), edited by Li Yuanchun in the Qing Dynasty, clearly pointed out: "Yan (Zhou) has the custom of drowning women, whether rich or poor. The husband is poisonous and does not eat children, but what about people? ”

There is also a record in "The Origin of the Baby-Saving Society": "Not special births of women are drowned, and even males are drowned." Those who are not particularly poor drown, and even those who are not poor are flooded. Turning against the grain, day by day. ”

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, in addition to the wide range of regions and involving all levels of society, the phenomenon of female infant abuse and killing was also characterized by the fact that the number of abuses exceeded the imagination of our modern people. Looking at the historical materials cited above, it can be found that most of the recorders use the word "many" to define the evil deeds of "drowning women".

There are also some historical materials that give us further quantitative data. As written in "The Origin of the Baby-Saving Society": "There is a family that has drowned more than ten women. There are dozens of women in each village who drown in the middle of the year. Homecoming sightings. Unbearable. The "Deyi Lu Yue Dong Discussed the Rules of Enlightenment And Righteousness" also said: "In recent times, I have drowned many women, and there will be thousands of drownings in Yiyi every year." ”

In the Qing Dynasty Du Shijin's "Liancheng County Chronicle (Kangxi Ben), the last volume of the addition": "Liancheng County's vulgar women will drown, ten do not exist, cruel and thin and evil." Ten baby girls may not survive one, and it is no wonder that the county commander Xu Dahua commented on its customs as "cruel and vicious".

#03.

Ancient methods of infanticide were extremely cruel, and the most common method was drowning. Su Shi described this behavior in a letter to his friend Zhu Shouchang: "When he was born, he was killed with cold water, and his parents could not bear it, and often closed their eyes on the back, and pressed their hands in the basin of water, and died for a long time." ”

In addition to the drowning of baby girls, there is also the method of burning baby girls, and the late Qing Dynasty scholar Yu Fan recorded in the "Notes of the Right Tai Xianguan" that a guest from Ningbo told him about the burning of baby girls in his hometown: "Accumulate salaries in the open space, put the baby girls on them, and set them on fire." At first, it croaked, then it squirmed, and for a long time, the skin and bones were scorched, and it was no longer in human form. Nai Jin threw himself into the river with stones, and hundreds of spectators sighed. Hundreds of people watched the whole process, and apart from sighing, no one stood up to stop this atrocity.

Someone asked the child's parents why they did this, and the other party also vigorously defended: "Our family gave birth to two daughters before, both of which were drowned by me, and this time I gave birth to another daughter, so I can no longer use the method of drowning to kill her. Only in this way can her soul feel afraid and dare not appear in our house next time. ”

In the 1890s, a female explorer from Britain, Isabella Bird, came to China and took some photos of Chinese customs, including a group of photos called "Fujian Baby Tower". In the 1920s, the British novelist William Samsett Maugham also described the "baby tower" in his travelogue "On the Screen in China: A Small Town Landscape".

It is said that these small towers, as small as tree stumps, are the places where local villagers abandon their babies, most of them with female babies.

Baby towers generally have a hole in the height, the baby is thrown into the tower from this hole, some adults in order not to let the child fall into the deep pit in the tower, but also bring a small basket holding the rope, with the rope can slowly put the child into the bottom of the tower. On the morning of Maugham's trip, four children were sent into the tower.

#04.

Why was infanticide prevalent in ancient times?

The main reason for this is poverty, in the social conditions at that time, there was a lack of safe and effective birth control measures, and poor families could only deal with the excess population in their families by means of post-child abuse and killing. And Chinese stubborn idea of "son preference" makes these families passively prefer baby girls as victims.

Why do some wealthy families also abuse and kill female babies? Some researchers believe that the abuse of female infants by rich families stems from the trend of thick marriage.

During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Ouyang Yongqi, the envoy of Jiangxi Province, mentioned in his article that "Jiang Youyou has a bad habit of drowning women, or because of his family's poverty, it is difficult to raise him." That is, the family is slightly rich, and it is also worried that it will be married in the future. ”

Liang Gongchen, a Qing Dynasty literary scholar, told the custom of marrying women in Pucheng, Fujian Province, in his work "Beidongyuan Records and Honey Immersion", "When marrying a woman, she must use honey to soak fruits, and more is more expensive, at least hundreds of bottles." There is no place to buy this item, it must be prepared at home, and it is extremely troublesome. A few months before the wedding date, it must be prepared, and the work is hard day and night, and the poor work is extremely skillful. When the day is artificial, it is not together, and the color and taste are poor. The son-in-law's family often uses honey soaked essence to be thick, and the woman is auspicious or not. Poor families, worried about the difficulty of marriage, and women do not dare to stay more, half because of this. ”

Finally, the author concludes: "The wind of drowning women begins with miserliness, and the disadvantage of miserliness is due to thick marriage, honey soaking is a special matter." And it is incomprehensible that the whole country is shocked by the benefits of doing no good or harm. ”

Due to the prevalence of folk abuse and infanticide, it has caused great social problems, such as the demographic structure of more men and fewer women in the middle and late Ming Dynasty shown at the beginning of this article, which in the ancient times when polygamy was popular, the inevitable consequence of which was the difficulty of marriage and mating. Due to the increase in men and women, the dowry has risen, and the poor family has no hope of marriage.

Some people have glimpsed business opportunities from the crisis, and the phenomenon of trafficking in women has emerged. For the government, these drawbacks will inevitably cause social unrest. As a result, the governments of various dynasties have been working to improve this folk vice. Some non-governmental organizations, Buddhist and Taoist institutions have also come forward to advocate for the people to be kind.

Because the feudal ruling class cannot change the social roots of the abuse of female infants, we see that the phenomenon of female infant abuse is repeatedly prohibited and intensified, becoming a stubborn disease that has always plagued feudal society.