Our country has experienced countless dynasty changes in ancient times. Among so many dynasties, one of the most direct and simple ways to judge which dynasty developed well is to look at the population at that time.
In prosperous times, when people live and work in peace and contentment and live a stable life, the population will naturally grow rapidly. In troubled times, wars continue and people are displaced and either die in war or starve to death, so the population will naturally decrease sharply.
Our country's population statistics began in the Warring States Period . At that time, the population was estimated to be about 30 million. After that, whenever dynasties changed, the population would decrease due to wars. The process of new dynasties slowly developing is also a process of population accumulation.
The population of ancient my country has remained around tens of millions until the Song Dynasty China's population suddenly exceeded 100 million, reaching 140 million people. However, the war in the late Song Dynasty dropped the population to less than 60 million, and until the Ming Dynasty the population was only 70 million.
But a miracle happened in the Qing Dynasty . The population of the Qing Dynasty suddenly surged to an astonishing number of 400 million. So how did the Qing Dynasty do it? What is the reason for this?
Those in power implemented appropriate policies
During the Western Han dynasty , my country implemented a "capita" tax system, which collected taxes according to the number of people in each family. Each family cultivated almost the same land and received the same amount of food. However, families with a larger population needed to pay more taxes, making their lives more difficult, and ordinary people did not dare to have too many children.
In the Ming Dynasty, the tax system was reformed and implemented the " one-whip method ", which was to combine all land taxes and corvees in various states and counties and pay taxes on a per-acre basis.
Although this change can reduce people's taxes, it was only implemented in a small number of areas. It was not officially promoted nationwide until the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty.
The promulgation of this system brought about earth-shaking changes in people's lives. This was also the main reason for the population explosion in the Qing Dynasty, because in the Qing Dynasty, people did not have to pay extra taxes no matter how many children they had, which made farmers dare and be willing to have more children.
In the agricultural economic and social period, one more child means one more labor force. When they grow up, they can help the family create more wealth.
In addition, the Qing Dynasty also implemented many marriage policies that were conducive to population growth. Qing law stipulated that men could get married when they were 14 years old or older, and women could get married when they were 12 years old or older.
This should be regarded as relatively early among the legal ages for marriage in ancient dynasties, and the court also had a department dedicated to matchmaking between men and women of marriageable age to help them solve the problem of being single.
The Qing Dynasty strongly encouraged men to have three wives and four concubines, so that families with good economic conditions could have as many children as possible. In feudal society, only men could divorce their wives. Although it was still possible to divorce their wives in the Qing Dynasty, the conditions for divorce had become much more stringent.
Divorcing a wife must comply with the "seven outs and three no outs". Divorce can only be done when the wife has done something seriously contrary to morality, and the husband is not allowed to divorce his wife when the wife has lost her parents, when both parents are observing filial piety, or when the husband becomes rich.
Under such a marriage system, women are afraid of divorce, because once divorced, it means that there is a problem with the woman's character. Men cannot divorce at will because the system does not allow it. Such stable marriages have allowed many families to grow rapidly.
New crops allow people to have enough food and clothing.
In order for the population to grow steadily, it is necessary to have a sufficient material foundation to guarantee it. Before the Qing Dynasty, my country's crops were mainly wheat in the north and rice in the south. The annual output was basically fixed.
The single crop and low yield severely restricted the development of the country's economy. The Qing government came up with various methods to develop agriculture. While the Qing Dynasty was communicating with foreign countries, a large number of Western cultural technologies were introduced to the country.
During the Kangxi period, the government spent more than ten years developing " imperial rice " with higher yield and better taste. This kind of rice grew taller and faster, making the rice production more than twice as much as before.
Later, during the Qianlong period, there were more than 3,000 varieties of rice and more than 30 varieties of wheat. There were excellent varieties suitable for growth in various places, and people's living standards were greatly improved in a short period of time.
The Qing Dynasty not only improved planting technology but also introduced many new crops, the most important of which was sweet potatoes. There is also a tortuous experience about sweet potatoes. It was brought to China by an old scholar from the Qing Dynasty. This scholar was called Chen Zhenlong and was born in Fuzhou, Fujian.
Chen Zhenlong passed the exam as a scholar at a young age, but he took the exam many times but failed to pass the exam. Disappointed, he gave up writing and went into business with his relatives to do business in Luzon..
Chen Zhenlong discovered a very magical crop there for the first time. It was not only easy to grow but could also be eaten raw. The yield of sweet potatoes was dozens of times that of wheat, which was very practical and convenient.
Chen Zhenlong worked hard to learn how to grow sweet potatoes and wanted to bring sweet potatoes back to the country to benefit the people. However, the Spanish government that ruled Luzon Island at the time did not allow sweet potatoes to be taken out.
Chen Zhenlong bribed local aboriginals to obtain sweet potato seeds, and then twisted the seeds into a water-drawing rope. The rope was covered with sludge, so that he could escape customs inspection and bring the seeds back to the country.
He planted sweet potatoes in his hometown and got a bumper harvest a few months later. At that time, there was a lot of drought in the south and the people had no food to eat. Chen Zhenlong used the sweet potatoes he planted in his hometown to help people have enough food and clothing, saving tens of thousands of people from starving to death.
Everyone has seen the great role of sweet potatoes, so that this crop was quickly promoted across the country. Sweet potatoes became the fourth largest crop after wheat, rice, and corn, and also became a life-saving food in times of famine.
The development of medicine has brought the epidemic under control
In addition to the above two major reasons, the medical technology of the Qing Dynasty has also been greatly improved. In ancient my country, infectious diseases were difficult to treat and would cause a large population decline in the short term.
During the Ming Dynasty, plague broke out continuously. People had no cure for the plague, and as long as they were infected with the plague, they could only wait to die. The plague was prevalent during the Chongzhen period. Hundreds of people died every day, and some entire families died of the disease.
People at that time were helpless in the face of many diseases, which resulted in a sharp decrease in population. Although plague would also occur in the Qing Dynasty, Western missionaries brought Western medicine to China when they came to the Qing Dynasty, and Western medicine brought the plague under control.
At the same time, Kangxi also discovered the vaccine through experiments. People can be protected from the harm of smallpox through vaccination. Since then, smallpox has slowly disappeared, and the population of the Qing Dynasty has grown rapidly.
Since then, my country's medical technology is no longer limited to traditional Chinese medicine. Western medicine has gradually been recognized by the Chinese people and has slowly developed to benefit the Chinese people.
It is precisely because of the above changes that the Qing Dynasty's economy developed, society was stable, and the healthy population continued to expand, from the original tens of millions to 100 million, and from 100 million to the astonishing number of 400 million.
Although the political corruption of the court at the end of the Qing Dynasty caused the land of China to be invaded by Western powers, the early Qing Dynasty was a very important dynasty in my country, which promoted the progress of China's economy, technology, and ideology in many aspects.
What are your different opinions on this?
