As the world's most populous country, Chinese mouth is not always so large. For most of China's history, the total population has always been around 60 million. The "Century of Emperors" records that in the first year of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Emperor Yuanxing (105), "the whole country had 53.2 million mouths". This period is usually considered by historians to be a peak period of the total population in the early period of Chinese history, "since the Eastern Han Dynasty, there have been nearly one million households, more than half a billion mouths, and one of the peaks of the prosperity of Kyushu." Since then, the total number of Chinese has increased slightly, but has been stable at about 60 million, and this situation continued until the Qing Dynasty entered the customs. After that, the total number of Chinese soared, breaking through 100 million for the first time during the Kangxi period and reaching 200 million in the Qianlong dynasty.
Although the total population of China has generally stabilized in history, there is a huge trough: from the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the beginning of the Three Kingdoms period. The total population plummeted sevenfold in just a few decades, with fewer than 7 million people at its lowest. The rapid decline in population and the large number of people during this period once pushed the Chinese nation to the brink of "extermination". If it were not for the fact that the major separatist forces at that time stabilized the situation in a relatively short period of time and resumed production in a timely manner, the consequences would have been unimaginable. However, due to the confusion of household statistics during the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, in order to fully discuss this issue, here is a brief mention of the difficulties and confusion of household registration statistics at that time.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, frequent wars caused officials specializing in demographic statistics to be unable to work normally for many times, and even if they worked, they were of little significance. At that time, the officials in charge of household statistics were hucao and hucao of the county or county, and they were often unable to make statistics because of the frequent changes in the boundaries of the county or county. For example, the Book of the Later Han Dynasty states that "Huang Huanzheng worshiped Yilang, and the history of the Shengqing Prefecture Thorn ... Yellow Turban Chaos, Lloyd... and Dong Zhuo Bingzheng, Marquis of Fengyangquan Township", and then Huang Huan "for the history of Yuzhou Assassination... The Yellow Turban is rampant, slightly Runan". In just a few years, the Counties of Le'anguo in Qingzhou and Runan, Yuzhou, which Huang Huan was in charge of, frequently changed owners due to the Yellow Turban Rebellion, resulting in frequent changes in the northeastern border of Qingzhou and the southern border of Yuzhou, which were national at that time, making household registration statistics difficult and futile.
In addition, because there was a chaotic war at that time, there were many people who fished in muddy waters, and many officials not only embezzled money and perverted the law, but also completely disregarded their duties. For example, the "Records of Emperor Wu" records that "the chief officials were greedy, relied on the noble power, and did not see each other before", they took advantage of the chaos to do wrong, accepted bribes, and "did not see each other before", indicating that successive successors have been like this. These officials thought about these things all day long, and naturally did not have time to go door to door to do censuses. These reasons directly caused the lack of household statistics from the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the beginning of the Three Kingdoms. However, the historical data still provides us with some conclusive evidence.
During the Three Kingdoms period (180-280) at the end of the Han Dynasty, the total population clearly recorded in historical records was less than 7 million. Among them, the population of the Shu Kingdom, the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, contains "Liu Chan sent ShangshuLang Li Hu to send the household registration book, male and female mouths of 940,000", that is, when the Shu Han fell in 263, the total population of the Shu State was 940,000. The population of the State of Wei, the Book of later Han states that "In the fourth year of Jingyuan, (Wei)... With Shu Tong counting 5.37 million", the fourth year of Jingyuan is 264 years, this year the population of Wei and Shu totaled 5.37 million, minus 940,000 people in Shu in 263, then the total population of Wei during the Jingyuan period (260-264) was about 4.43 million. The total population of the State of Wu, only one record of the Western Jin Dynasty destroying Wu in 280, has survived to this day, "male and female mouths of 1.3 million". Therefore, even if we do not consider the situation at the lowest population at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the early Three Kingdoms period, but only consider the situation after the Three Kingdoms after the Restoration of the Wei, Shu and Wu States after several decades of development, the total population of the country at that time was less than 7 million, and at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, this number would only be lower.
There is also a historical record in the "Imperial Century" that says, "Nanyang households are 500,000, and Runan households are 400,000, which is less than two counties today." This is a historical record from Cao Wei during the Jian'an period, which was the most violent and the population was the smallest. According to this historical record, the number of households in the country at that time was less than the sum of the number of households in Nanyang County and Runan County, that is, less than 900,000 households. At that time, the average household had 4 to 5 people, and the number of people in the country was less than 4.5 million. Since this historical material does not directly record the number of household registrations, it can only be used as a reference, but it is also the only historical material that can glimpse the lowest population at that time.
After discussing the total population of the three countries at the end of the Han Dynasty, let's look at the intuitive scene and reasons for the sudden decline in population at that time. There were three main reasons for the population decline: war, famine and plague. The demographic decline caused by the war is evident. From Dong Zhuo's entry into Luoyang to the western Jin Dynasty's destruction of Wu, there were countless wars and chaos. The warlord melee before the Battle of Guandu, the Pacification of Hebei after the Battle of Guandu, and the subsequent Battle of Chibi, the Battle of Hanzhong, the Battle of Xiangfan, the Battle of Xiaoting, and so on, were all major wars of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people, and these wars directly caused a sharp decline in population.
In addition to the big battles, there are countless skirmishes. For example, after Dong Zhuo's death, li dai and Guo Feng's battle in Chang'an caused a sharp decline in population. The "Biography of Dong Zhuo" records that "Li Dai and others besieged Chang'an City, the City of Ten Days fell, and in the battle with Lü Bu, Lü Bu was defeated." Li Dai and others sent troops to the old and the young, and the killing was exhausted, and the dead were in disarray." Warlords like Li Dai, who grew up among the Qianghu people of Western Liang, were often cruel in character and had little sympathy or compassion. In order to make their generals and soldiers obey their orders, they had to satisfy their appetites, and from time to time they carried out robberies or killings to satisfy their survival and material desires.
Another example is, "When the three auxiliaries (sanfu refers to the area around Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty), the people still had hundreds of thousands of households, and Li Dai and others let the troops rob and plunder, attacked the city, the people were hungry, and in two years they ran out of food." Hundreds of thousands of households, indicating that at least about a million people, so many people, almost all died within two years, indicating that Li Dai and his subordinates not only robbed money at that time, but also became murderous, which shows how terrible the scene of the sudden decline in population at that time was.
In addition to combat deaths, there were also deliberate killings. The Chronicle of Emperor Wu states that "Taizu attacked Xuzhou, crossed tancheng, broke through it, attacked and uprooted Xiangben, and slaughtered too much", and Sun Sheng commented that Cao Cao was "cutting down crimes and hanging people". The word slaughter was really just a reason why Chen Shou had no choice but to protect Cao Cao. Cao Cao's eastern conquest of Xuzhou was to occupy Xuzhou in the name of revenge for his father, "Autumn, Taizu conquest Of Tao Qian, more than ten cities, Tao Qian defended the city and did not dare to go out", Cao Cao went all the way down more than ten cities, almost all of which slaughtered the city. For example, at that time, Liu County, Pengcheng, Lü County, Fuyang, Wuyuan, Lanling, Xiangben, Tan County, and so on in the west of Xuzhou, Cao Cao was killed all the way to the siege, and the people in these places were not spared. At that time, the population of the counties under the jurisdiction of Xuzhou often ranged from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of people, and even if all of them were calculated according to the minimum, Cao Cao slaughtered no less than hundreds of thousands of people in this battle.
For another example, after the Battle of Guandu, because Cao's army did not have enough grain to feed the surrendered enemy, Cao Cao directly ordered that more than 70,000 yuan Shao's army that surrendered be killed, the Notes on the Living of Emperor Xiandi contains "Taizu Fan beheaded more than 70,000 ranks", and Pei Songzhi's annotation in the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms states that "all the books are Yun Cao Gong Pit killing Yuan Shaozhong 80,000, or Yun 70,000 ..." Massacres like Cao Cao's massacres in battles were not uncommon at the time, like the battles between Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zhan and Zhang Yan, and the massacres carried out by Yuan Shu in the State of Chen, which were all similar things, but not all of them were recorded in the historical records. Massacres were one of the important reasons for the sudden decline in population at that time.
In addition to the war, famine was also an important cause of the sudden decline in population at that time. For example, during the Yanzhou War between Cao Cao and Lü Bu, the Book of Emperor Wu states that "locusts rose, and the people starved... The locust plague caused a grain harvest failure, the economy was out of control and hyperinflation was caused, and the people could not harvest grain or buy grain, only cannibalism. Another example is the Book of Wei, which records that after Cao Cao moved the capital Xu County, he "suffered panic and lacked grain and grain." Armies rise together, there is no plan for the end of life, hunger is plundered, full is abandoned, disintegration and displacement, invincible self-destruction is innumerable. Yuan Shaozhi was in Hebei, and the soldiers relied on mulberries... The people cannibalize each other, and the state is depressed." When Yuan Shao's army was in Hebei, the soldiers and soldiers had to rely on mulberries to fill their hunger, which shows how serious the famine was at that time.
The last major cause of population decline was plague and disease. The Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty was a period of great plague. For example, in the defeat of Cao Cao's Chibi, the plague was one of the main culprits. The Chronicle of Emperor Wu states that "Cao Gong went to Chibi and fought against Liu Bei, which was unfavorable. As a result of the great epidemic, many officials died, but the army was returned", and as recorded in the "Biography of the Ancestors", "Liu Bei fought with Cao Gong in Chibi, and the great destruction, when the Cao army was sick and sick, the Northern Army died many deaths, and Cao Gong returned". In fact, the main reason for Cao Cao's defeat at Chibi was plague, not defeat in battle, and the records in the Biography of the Ancestors were suspected of beautifying Liu Bei. Due to the backward conditions at that time, the Cao army was very hasty to go south, and the distance between the Chibi battlefield and the important town of Jiangling in Jingzhou was relatively far, so the soldiers infected with the plague of the Cao army did not receive timely treatment, so they suffered heavy casualties. War, famine and plague were the three main causes of the sudden decline in population at that time, and it is not surprising that the population has plummeted sevenfold in just a few decades.
After the Battle of Chibi, the rudiments of the three-legged stand were formed, the world gradually got rid of the chaotic war situation, the Qiangrong Yidi in the southeast, southwest, and northwest gradually settled down, Cao Wei Tuntian, Zhuge Liang ruled Shu, and Sun Quan ruled Wu, so that the national economy gradually recovered and then developed. For these reasons, the sharp decline in population in the late Han Dynasty was curbed, otherwise, if the war and chaos continued to prolong, the population of the whole country continued to plummet, and the consequences were unimaginable. In fact, the total population of the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty was not as large as that of the Xia Dynasty in the late Neolithic period. The "Later Han Shu Junguo Zhi" quotes the "Imperial Century" as recording the population of the Xia Dynasty, "and at the beginning of the nine prefectures, the people had a mouth of 13.5 million", that is, the population of the early Xia Dynasty was about 13.5 million, which was more than twice that of the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, which shows how serious the crisis was at that time.