Before Han Dynasty, the government adopted encouraging policies to increase population mostly
The "leftover women tax" was not a matter of emptiness, but had its historical origin. At least in the Western Zhou Dynasty, China had the policy of encouraging birth, "three children with their mother, two with them", family with three children, enjoy the government allocated "public milk mother", help you feed milk; if you have two children, give them to livestock. In ancient times, it refers to "living animals for sacrifice or gift". As for mules or horses and cattle, it is not allowed to be tested. By the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the state strength of the Zhou Dynasty declined, and the various kingdoms were strengthened successively. In order to increase their national strength and dominate the Central Plains, most of the princes adopted policies to encourage population fertility, among which the two most famous ones were Qi, the first of the five hegemony in spring and Autumn period, and the other was the Yue state that Wu Yue was competing for hegemony.
Qi Huan, a citizen of Qi, visited the people privately. Seeing that a 70 year old man lived a poor life, he asked him why he was so. The old man replied, "there are three sons, because the poor family can not marry his daughter-in-law, they all go out to work and leave the old man alone at home.". Duke Huan of Qi went back to tell Guanzhong of the relative state about the matter and asked for solutions. Guan Zhong replied: "there are resentments in the palace, but the people have no wife". Some people have too many women, so some people only fight singles. So Duke Huan of Qi took the lead in releasing the concubines and concubines in the palace, and asked them to match the good people among the people, and ordered "the husband is twenty rooms, and the woman is married in 15". Duke Huan of Qi is the monarch of the early marriage of the states of Lords, and the woman must marry at the age of 15. Of course, this is all Guan Zhong's idea. Guanzhong also made another idea: "let the strong not take the old woman, the old man does not take the strong wife", the young people are not allowed to marry the old women of the old age, the old people are not allowed to marry young women. To stop the old cattle from eating tender grass, although there is a suspicion of interfering in marriage freedom, it is the need to encourage marriage to have children. The reason why Qi became the first hegemony in the spring and autumn five hegemony has a certain relationship with the success of population policy.
Another country goes further in population policy. Yue was once hurt by the country of subjugation and was destroyed by the neighboring state of Wu. In order to restore the country, King Gou of Yue practiced his courage to stay in the country and restore national strength. One of the policies was to encourage birth. The state of Vietnam stipulates that "if a woman does not marry, her parents are guilty; if her husband does not marry, her parents are guilty.". Although the marriage age of women has been delayed by two years compared with that of Qi, the punishment for parents has been added. The state of Vietnam also stipulated that "the people who will be exempted shall be informed and the medical officers shall be ordered to guard them.". He gave birth to a husband, two pots of wine, a dog; a woman, two bottles of wine, a dolphin; three people, the mother of the public; and a second son, and a man with him. "And the orphans, widows, rashes, and the poor shall be given the son of the eunuchs." The state will send special midwives to serve the midwifery. The mother who is about to give birth will give birth to a boy, two bottles of wine and a dog; a daughter, two bottles of wine and a pig; three children, the state is responsible for public feeding; two children are given, and the state grants live animals. The country will raise children for you, the widowed old people who can't afford their children. With the correct policy of encouraging birth, Yue became strong and finally destroyed Wu.
The last time the six countries were destroyed, Qin did not lag behind in encouraging fertility. Qin stipulated that "people with more than two men and no difference, twice their Fu." , a family with two boys, must grow up and have to split the other, if not, double the tax. Because of the policies of encouraging fertility in various kingdoms, some experts speculated that although the spring and Autumn Warring States had been in chaos for hundreds of years, countless deaths and injuries were caused, the population of the whole country in the early Warring States period was 10 million, but it grew to 20 million when the six states were unified in Qin.
The "leftover women tax" in Han Dynasty is reasonable to adjust marriage from the economic perspective
Han Dynasty, based on the 500 years of spring and autumn and Warring States period and the brief unification of Qin, the four-year Liu Xiang hegemony made the Han Dynasty's national strength to the lowest level, and even Liu Bang could not find four horses with the same hair color as driving. Some prime ministers can only take a cow's car to work. The fields were barren because a large number of people died of war. Confucius said: the land has more than the people are insufficient, and the gentleman is ashamed. Under such circumstances, it is urgent to take measures to increase the population.
Liu Bang, the Han Emperor, stipulated that "people give birth to children, and never do anything for two years.". What do you mean? If the people have sons, they can be exempted from taxes and military service for two years. It is important to know that ancient taxes and military service were very severe, because the birth of a son was exempted for two years, and the major problems of life were solved. Han Emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, more than Liu Bang, stipulated that "if a person has a child, he shall not be three years old" and the tax exemption period has been one year longer.
Liu Ying, the son of Liu Bang, was further than his father, and in addition to encouraging birth, he added economic punishment measures, and directly introduced the "leftover female tax": if the woman does not marry from 15 to 30 years, five calculation will be made. "Calculation" is a unit of measurement for the collection of head tax in the Han Dynasty. When the Han Dynasty was founded, Liu Bang invented a "head tax". All the citizens over 15 years old and under 56 years old were responsible for paying "head tax", and the amount of tax per person was 120 yuan, which was called "one calculation". This tax is not good enough. Maybe this bad idea is a little bit out. Five is 600, plus 120 dollars to pay, 720. Liu Ying stipulated that if a woman is not married at the age of the right age, she will pay a fine of 720 yuan. What is the weight of the fine? According to the grain price of the relevant historical materials, the grain price at that time is about 100 yuan, one stone is 120 Jin (30 jin is Jun and Sijun is stone). Then 720 yuan is equivalent to 864 Jin of grain. In that even food is not enough years, the remaining women's fine is 864 Jin of food, it can be said that heavy punishment. However, such a "wise" national policy was not the hands of the cowardly Liu Ying. At that time, the only one who was in power was Lu Zhi, the queen of Liu Bang. Although Lu Hou was cruel, it was very quick in the management of Jiangshan.
On the one hand, it encouraged more students, on the one hand, encouraged early marriage, on the one hand, on the one hand, the severe punishment of non marriage, and depended on the government's policy of marriage and childbearing on the population. The Han Dynasty increased from 18 million in the early period to more than 60 million in the last years of Western Han Dynasty. It can be said that a lot of results have been achieved.
After Han Dynasty, encouragement and punishment were often used together, which promoted the population of China to increase
The history of China is divided into two parts: one is one and the other is the same. The war fire often reduced the population, and the rest after the war often revived the vitality under the stimulation of the emperor's population policy. The lowest population of Han nationality was in the Three Kingdoms period, with a population of less than 10 million in three countries. In the period of Wuhu chaos in China, due to the massacre of nomadic people, the Han population was on the verge of killing ethnic groups. In order to restore national strength, the unified dynasties after Han Dynasty made every clever move to restore the national population and the continuation of Chinese civilization.
For example, another Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, was the same as that of Han Dynasty. In order to solve the problem that the poor can not afford their wives, Tang Dynasty called on the local Haozu to contribute friendship and support. Surprisingly, the Hao people also responded to the call of the state, and did not look at themselves for wealth. It can be seen that the civilization quality of Tang Dynasty is still relatively high. In Song Dynasty, the government adopted the method of establishing the official child assistance institution to solve the problem that cannot be raised. Poor families are under the state control in case of pregnant women, pregnant women and newborn babies. For children abandoned during the period of famine and hunger, the State shall take charge of them. In the Southern Song Dynasty, pregnant women were pregnant, and their husbands were exempted from the miscellaneous service, so that they could serve the moon at home and be more humanized.
Every dynasty has its own population characteristics. We cannot compare the policies of thousands of years ago from the modern point of view, which is historical materialism. The "leftover women tax" in Han Dynasty violated people's freedom of marriage, but it was the need of the times. In modern society, whether to marry or not is the freedom of individuals. But in the feudal society for thousands of years, you can not marry without marriage. To be a happy "single dog," you have to accept the corresponding punishment.
