"Han Shu" records that Xiang Yu's height is "eight feet and two inches", and the unit "chi" here is Han feet. According to actual archaeological findings, one foot in the Western Han Dynasty is approximately equal to 23 cm (approximately 23.4 cm in the Eastern Han Dynasty). Calculated, Xiang Yu's height is close to 1.9 meters. So what standard did Xiang Yu's height belong to at the time? Is it taller or medium?
Last year, a screen was unearthed from the Tomb of Haiyunhou in Nanchang, which recorded that Confucius was seven feet nine, which is about 1.82 meters tall. According to the unearthed folding copper ruler of Lu, Confucius is about 1.97 meters tall. "Historical Records" once said that Confucius was "different from older people", and he was considered quite a tall person among the ancients before Qin.
The male skeleton of the Warring States Period unearthed in Hunan is 1.58 meters long, the male body of the Western Han Dynasty in Hubei is 1.63 meters long, and the male skeleton unearthed in the Han tomb in Shanxi is 1.84 meters. It can be seen that Xiang Yu, who is 1.9 meters tall, was indeed a tall and mighty image at the time.
So, what was the average height of the adult Chinese at that time?
"Lü's Spring and Autumn" took height of more than seven feet as a sign of male adulthood. It is recorded in the "Hanshu" that Huo Guang is seven feet three inches tall (about 1.68 meters). The "Huang Di Chuan Shi Chuan" stated that Huo Guang's height was "not short and not long" at the time.
According to the statistics of the literature by Mr. Peng Wei, 89% of the people who are over eight feet tall are from the north of Huanghuai (especially Shandong area), 8.7% are from the Yangtze River Basin, and those who are over nine feet tall All in the north. Z1z
later scholars’ research also confirms that during the Qin and Han dynasties, the average height of adult men in the Yellow River Basin and the north was about 1.66-1.68 meters (female: 1.5-1.52 meters). The average height of an adult male in the Yangtze River Basin and the area to the south is about 1.61 meters (1.5 meters for women).
Therefore, the height distribution of Chinese at that time was about a trend of high north and low south, with the highest average height in the Bohai Rim.
During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Wei's riding general He Xi was considered taller at that time, reaching "eight feet five inches", while the average height of other generals was seven feet five inches (about 1.73 meters).
During the Sui, Tang, Song and Ming Dynasties, the average height of an adult male was 1.66 meters, while that of a female was 1.56 meters. This is also based on the statistics of later archaeological excavations. During this period, the height of men remained unchanged (excluding errors), but the average height of women showed an upward trend. An elderly woman from the Yuan Dynasty unearthed in Shandong was 1.7 meters long.
In summary, the average height of adult men in ancient China was about 1.65-1.68 meters, and the average height of ancient women was about 1.5-1.56 meters. This was the upper-middle standard in the world at that time, compared with Europe and the United States. The average height gap of people is not as large as in modern times. For example, when the United States was founded, the average height of adult men was 1.67 meters; in the middle of the 19th century, the average height of newly recruited Swedish soldiers was 1.66 meters.
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