Introduction
The famous thinker and philosopher of the Pre-Qin Dynasty Xunzi said in "Encouraging Learning": "Therefore, if you don't accumulate small steps, you can't reach a thousand miles; if you don't accumulate small streams, you can't build a river."
Before the 1980s, the main work done by Chinese people was physical work. Over time, a young man in his 20s could basically carry about 400 kilograms of goods.
However, after the times changed, with the expansion of industries and the improvement of agricultural production technology, Chinese people either engaged in industries unrelated to farming, or they no longer relied entirely on manual labor in farming life.
Entering the new century, people are exposed to fewer and fewer physical jobs, so it is difficult to see people who can carry 400 kilograms of cargo. So, is this human progress or degeneration?
1. Rural people who can carry hundreds of kilograms on their shoulders
my country’s mechanized production in rural areas only became common in the 1980s. Before this, the use of machinery in agricultural production was very rare. Carrying it on the shoulders and pulling it by hand was the most profound memory of many people born in the 1970s and 1980s.
In rural areas, there are many people who can carry goods weighing about 400 kilograms on their shoulders. For them, this is just commonplace and a necessary skill.
Rural people basically have little leisure time and spare time. Apart from doing heavy manual labor, the rest of their time is spent entertaining guests or walking around the streets.
However, the time for entertainment is still relatively short. After all, the harvest brought by farm work is the material source that supports individuals and families to continue to live, and people must work non-stop.
Over time, basically every adult rural person can challenge the limits of the human body, and it is not a problem to carry hundreds of kilograms of goods on their shoulders. This is similar to the practice of martial arts, and it is also the same as the learning of knowledge.
Although the rural people at that time did not know martial arts, their physical strength was no weaker than that of martial arts experts and bodybuilders. They could even do things that these people could not do. As of now, the only people who can lift hundreds of kilograms of goods are professional bodybuilders and athletes.
Therefore, some people have to lament that no matter whether they are rural or urban people, we no longer see people with such explosive power.
At that time, it was not only rural people who could carry a load of about 100 kilograms, but many urbanites living in cities could also do it. Although life in the city does not require heavy lifting, physical exertion is also a skill for surviving in the city. Moreover, after mastering this skill, it can also bring many subsidies to the family.
In fact, many of the jobs held by urbanites before the 1980s were manual labor. Even if you are engaged in the third industry, it still requires a strong body, and there are fewer people in the mental labor industry.
From this, we can know that the reason why people at that time could carry a weight of about 400 kilograms was related to the accumulated practice and work over time.
So, why can’t people nowadays?
2. Reduction of manual labor
Today, the vast majority of Chinese people are engaged in manual labor, including farm production, construction sites, and factory production. Their daily physical expenditure is no less than that of rural workers back then, so why can't they carry a hundred kilograms of goods on their shoulders?
With the arrival of agricultural technology, Internet information technology, etc., the production and life of Chinese people have already undergone revolutionary changes. Even if people do physical work, their physical expenditure is not as good as it was in the past; because at that time, people did purely manual labor, and now more physical labor is combined with machinery.
For example, from the 1950s to the 1980s, machines were only used in farming life in the northeastern region. But now it is different. Agricultural machinery can be seen in any kind of field.
Migrant workers working on construction sites are not purely physical expenditures. The emergence of various mud mixers, excavators and handling machines not only allows them to improve their work efficiency, but also greatly alleviates the physical impact of heavy physical expenditures.
There are several main types of factory work. The first one is heavy physical work in heavy industry; the second one is manual work in light industry; and the third one is a general factory that requires only slight physical exertion. In general, jobs that require people to completely exert themselves are hard to find nowadays.
Therefore, although they are all iron laborers, they are basically not laborers who challenge their physical limits, so their physical fitness is also affected to a certain extent, making it difficult to carry goods weighing more than 100 kilograms.
Being able to do this is even more difficult for city dwellers or others engaged in non-manual labor. In addition to these factors, changes in the industry also greatly affect people's physical fitness.
3. Changes in the industry
The 1980s can be said to be a landmark period. Before that, people could only make a living in manual labor industries; after that, more and more people were engaged in jobs that had nothing to do with manual labor, and the number of such people became more and more.
The second and third industries are the main industries that people are currently engaged in. Although agriculture as the first industry plays an important role, Chinese people no longer make a living from farming, because the income brought by manual farming is no longer suitable for high consumption, and has been eliminated by many people.
From the side, this not only does not affect agricultural production, but instead brings agriculture to a new stage of development. Through scientific management and capital concentration , science and technology will invest more in agricultural planting than before, and the industry and appearance of society will also undergo profound changes.
In the past, farmland work basically relied on physical labor, but now as long as you can operate the machine, with the help of the machine, the output of the farmland is several times or even dozens of times higher than before.
In fact, this is also a combination of physical labor and mental labor. Technological production represents the impact of mental work on physical work. The most fundamental reason is that people are trying to improve production efficiency and obtain more income.
Under the dual combination of physical labor and mental labor, new rural agricultural labor has undergone revolutionary development, which means that the past era of shoulder-to-shoulder and hand-to-hand labor has passed, and new methods of production and labor have arrived.
We can also learn from this that people today cannot carry a weight of about 400 kilograms. This is not actually "degradation". It is just that with the profound changes in society, people's physical fitness is no longer fully utilized.
If analyzed from a physiological perspective, people's physical fitness is indeed not as good as before, but from a civilization and intellectual perspective, today's human beings have been purified to a new level. In the process of developing science and technology, human society has entered a new stage and created a better life.
Conclusion
only measures the advancement and backwardness of human beings based on physical labor and physical fitness, which is too simplistic and absolute. Human development is comprehensive, so its evaluation should also be comprehensive, without defects in one aspect. Xunzi has long said that repeated practice will change a person, and the same is true for the improvement of physical strength.
If necessary or there is an unavoidable situation, people can also regain their former explosive power under the influence of heavy physical labor. Therefore, the current inability of people to carry objects weighing more than 400 kilograms is related to people's lack of practice in physical labor.
But we can’t kill them with one blow. Although many people are still engaged in manual labor, its nature has changed. The physical work that seems very heavy now is actually a combination of physical expenditure and machinery, and the aspects that require people’s physical strength are becoming smaller and smaller. Combining these factors, industry changes and the development of science and technology are also one of the important reasons affecting people's physical fitness.
