When it comes to "family planning", people generally understand it as "less birth" and "better birth". Some people even think that "only one good birth" is family planning. In fact, this understanding is biased. Family planning refers to the planned birth, which is the relevant policy of the national government to encourage more or less birth according to the country's population and economic development. To stabilize the population within an acceptable range of social development. Therefore, the so-called family planning may be to encourage less or more children.
In ancient China, the concept of population, while encouraging fertility, had long worried about overpopulation
In ancient China, many people were encouraged to have more lives
Compared with the present, the population of ancient China is extremely small. During the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the total population of the vassal states was 10 million. The population in peacetime, whether in the powerful Han Dynasty or Tang Dynasty, was limited to 50-60 million. The song, Ming and Qing Dynasties, according to scholars' estimates, were just over 100 million. At one time, it reached 200 million in the Qing Dynasty. However, compared with the population of 1.4 billion in modern China, this figure is obviously insignificant.
Why was the population so small in ancient times? It matched the economic development at that time. China is a big agricultural country. In ancient times, the yield of one mu of land was only tens of Jin, even if it was more than a few hundred jin. Compared with the current grain output of more than 1000 Jin or even several thousand jin, it is obviously not in a heavyweight. Moreover, the food crops in ancient times were not as rich and colorful as they are now, and there were no warm rooms and greenhouses. If there are too many people, eating is the first problem. Even if the population is so small, there are many records of famine in history, and people live a life of insufficient food and clothing.
In ancient China, the concept of population, while encouraging fertility, had long worried about overpopulation
In addition to the level of economic development, cruel wars, plagues, natural and man-made disasters such as earthquakes, floods and droughts often occurred in ancient times, which reduced the population. Every time we change the Dynasty and look for a new generation, it is a time when the population is greatly reduced. During the Three Kingdoms period, China's population dropped to 10 million, which was equivalent to that of the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. During the period of Wu Hu rebellion, Han people were slaughtered to the verge of extermination. The destruction of the Song Dynasty in the Yuan Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty in the Qing Dynasty were the low ebb of China's population. In this case, the state can only adopt the policy of encouraging fertility to ensure the rapid growth of population. According to statistics, the average life span of the ancients was 18 years in the Xia Dynasty, 20 years in the Qin Dynasty, 22 years in the Eastern Han Dynasty, 27 years in the Tang Dynasty, 30 years in the Song Dynasty and 33 years in the Qing Dynasty. Of course, this life span is influenced by war, plague, natural disasters, infant mortality and other factors, but we can also see the living conditions in ancient times. It is also the need of survival of the fittest.
Therefore, we can see that from the pre Qin Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the country encouraged childbearing almost most of the time, relying on the rapid increase of population to restore the vitality of the country. Before the Qing Dynasty, the population of China in the prosperous period was about 50 million. In the world at that time, it was also the country with the largest population. The slogan of "vast territory, abundant resources and large population" had been used for thousands of years.
In ancient China, the concept of population, while encouraging fertility, had long worried about overpopulation
In order to encourage procreation, every dynasty and every generation has issued corresponding policies. Confucius, the sage, believed that a man can get married and have children at the age of 16 and a woman can have children at the age of 14. "If a man is proficient at 16 and a woman becomes proficient at 14, then people can be born.". During the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the state of Yue carried out the policy of forced early marriage, forbidding Twilight love and love between the old and the young, "so that the strong can't take an old woman, so that the old can't marry a strong wife, the woman can't marry at 17, her parents are guilty, and her husband can't marry at 30, her parents are guilty."; For twins, the government arranges free nannies; for triplets, the government arranges free nannies. And the state is responsible for delivery, all free. During the reign of emperor Hui of Han Dynasty, the state adopted the method of economic punishment to encourage early marriage and more births. "If a woman is 15 to 30 years old and does not marry, it will be counted as five." During the reign of emperor Zhang of Han Dynasty, the state promulgated the order of fetus support, which states that "all pregnant women today will be granted the right to raise three Dendrobium in the valley", and the husband's taxes and taxes will be exempted, so as to take care of pregnant women and lactating women. In order to solve the problem that the poor could not afford to marry, the Tang Dynasty issued an imperial edict to urge the rich to sponsor the poor to marry. At that time, people's ideological level was very high, and many rich people responded to the call of the state and paid for the poor to marry their daughter-in-law. In the Song Dynasty, "it was forbidden for the poor to give up their children, and money was given to those who could not raise their children." In the Yuan Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, the government implemented the policy of subsidizing families with multiple births. In the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Kangxi went a step further, saying "breeding people, never adding taxes", while Emperor Yongzheng "spreading people into Mu", abolishing the thousands of years of capitation tax, which greatly stimulated people's desire to have children. During the Qing Dynasty, the population of the whole country was estimated to reach 200 million at its peak.
There was a long history of concern about overpopulation
On the one hand, encourage more life, on the one hand, some people with insight worry that too many people will cause imbalance between population and economic development level, and cause many disasters. Many ancient figures of "family planning" pioneers appear.
In ancient China, the concept of population, while encouraging fertility, had long worried about overpopulation
If we look for the theoretical basis of family planning, it can be traced back to Laozi, the founder of Taoism. He advocated "small country and few people", opposed to the large population, and thought that "disaster is not greater than not contented, blame should not be greater than desire". In Tang Dynasty, another pioneer of family planning appeared in China. He was the poet Wang Fanzhi, who wrote in his poem, "rich children and young men and women, poor men and women, poor people have a group of students", "no need to have more children, and have one foot to deal with." The poem became the earliest source of "a couple only has one good life".
The third pioneer of family planning was ma duanlin, a historian in the Song Dynasty, and Ma duanlin's father, and Ma tingluan, the right Prime Minister of the Southern Song Dynasty. However, he was in a bad time and was the end of the Southern Song Dynasty. After the fall of the Song Dynasty, Ma Duan was in seclusion and devoted himself to writing. The most famous work was the general examination of literature. The book is divided into 24 books: Tianfu, coins, household registration, service, solicitation, discussion, city buy, tugong, national use, election, school, official, suburban society, ancestral temple, Wang Li, music, military, criminal, Jing Ji, imperial system, feudalism, Xiang Wei, material difference, public opinion, and four Americans. In this book Ma duanlin holds that "the people are rich and few are not enough for the prosperity and decline of the country", and puts forward the theory of "planning for life" which is "less life", "better life", and paying attention to population quality and overall quality.
The fourth pioneer of family planning is Feng Menglong, a novelist in Ming Dynasty. He first proposed that a couple only gave birth to two good theories: "if two men and two women, twice each birth, the daily growth will not decrease, how can we eat?", "if you live a man and a woman, there will never be any increase or decrease, and it can last for a long time." "A couple has a boy and a girl" proposed by Feng Menglong is highly coincident with the current people's ideas. However, he was hundreds of years earlier than us.
In ancient China, the concept of population, while encouraging fertility, had long worried about overpopulation
The fifth pioneer of family planning is hongliangji, a scholar of economics, literature and geography in Qing Dynasty. He calculates the growth rule of population by increasing his Hukou by five times every 30 years. It is believed that the population of Qing Dynasty will increase by 5 to 20 times in a hundred years, and thus form overpopulation. Hongliangji became the pioneer of modern population theory by discussing the damage theory of population growth too fast.
The sixth pioneer of family planning was Wang Shiduo, a scholar in the late Qing Dynasty, and Wang Shiduo's family was hit by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the two daughters died. He first proposed the concept of "late marriage" in Wang repentance and his diary of ethylene and propylene, which suggested that "women marry 25 and marry while men marry 30". In that early marriage and early childbearing era, the concept is a natural surprise. In addition, Wang also proposed that the government should widely apply "no fertility medicine" to women of childbearing age to control the growth of population. This theory is highly consistent with modern family planning, and it is doubtful whether it will be crossed. However, Wang also put forward many extreme views on family planning. He hoped that the government "would not indulge in women, promote the method of drowning women, and give cold medicine to cut off the fetus, and twice the Fu of two women in the family" He even suggested that "the rich should not marry, not have a daughter, and drown in it, that is, they should have children, who are not in proper shape, unsophisticated appearance and poor eyebrows". Some people call Wang Shiduo "Malthus" of China, and he is the first person to think deeply about the population problem in China, but the solution reflects the limitations of his time.
In ancient China, the concept of population, while encouraging fertility, had long worried about overpopulation
The seventh pioneer of family planning is Emperor Qianlong. Although Emperor Qianlong continued many policies of Kangxi and Yongzheng encouraging population growth, he raised deep doubts about the overgrowth of population: "how can the household registration increase in the future, why do you take the job?", "I checked the number of people recorded in each Province last year, which is more than ten times higher than that of Kangxi, and the number of people who live is few and the people who eat are the most important ones. I am "I am very worried." The reason why Qianlong made the number of reported population increase in each province. But he has not made further policies on population growth.
In addition to the above figures, Gong Zizhen and Weiyuan are also worried about the "growing number of teeth and increasingly passing the weather". However, the measures proposed by the two of them are "migration", and the "non personnel, non farming, no work and business" idle population are transferred out. If they do not leave voluntarily, the state can forcibly move.
The undeveloped contraceptive method is the main reason of not having fewer children in ancient times
For the ancients, it's not that they didn't want to use contraception. Do you think ancient women were happy to have more than a dozen children or even more, and half or more of them died prematurely? No. The undeveloped contraceptive methods and backward science are the main reasons why women in ancient times could not give birth less.
We all know that there was birth control in ancient times. But this kind of birth control is a kind of punishment for both men and women. Men are called "palace punishment", which is the punishment of great historian Sima Qian. Many men who volunteered to be eunuchs also accepted this so-called "operation"; women are called "claustrophobia", and many maids or concubines who committed crimes only accepted this kind of sterilization punishment. Both palace punishment and claustrophobia belong to passive punishment, which has nothing to do with "family planning".
In ancient China, the concept of population, while encouraging fertility, had long worried about overpopulation
There is also a kind of contraceptive method of taking medicine. In ancient times, there was "contraceptive". This kind of "contraceptive" is called "Qingfen". It is a kind of sterilization drug that can kill people and seriously affect people's physical and mental health. Generally, prostitutes in brothels use this method of contraception. However, this contraceptive method is usually forced by the pimps to prostitutes in order to avoid their pregnancy. Many prostitutes are infertile and even lose their lives because of taking this unsafe "contraceptive".
Of course, there were also methods of birth control in ancient times. For example, there was a folk prescription of "sticking navel" in the harem of Han Dynasty. It is said that if you put this kind of plaster on the navel of concubines, you won't get pregnant. In Qing Dynasty, there was also a method of "acupoint pressing" in the imperial palace. After the emperor had sex with concubines, you won't get pregnant if you point a certain acupoint of concubines. However, these methods are too magical and are now in a state of "lost". Whether it's true or not is not known.
It is worth mentioning that in the Qing Dynasty, a "safe and harmless" method of reducing population was invented. In order to reduce the number of Mongolians, people in the Qing Dynasty vigorously developed Tibetan Buddhism yellow religion in Mongolia. Many of the Mongolians became lamas, but lamas did not marry, and there was no birth without marriage. Therefore, the Mongolian population in the early Qing Dynasty developed to the end of the Qing Dynasty for more than 200 years There is no growth. This is similar to the modern theory of reducing the population by increasing the number of unmarried people.
