The Widow's and the State Why is it that a man of fifty can wear silk and silk

Fifty-year-old people can wear silk fabrics; seventy-year-old people can eat meat; Oligarch's and the country also said, "Five mu of the house, tree with mulberry, fifty people can be dressed in silk. The animals of chickens, dolphins, dogs, and swine are not out of season, and those who are seventy can eat meat." Readers not only ask, why only "fifty people can dress silk", "seventy people can eat meat", while others can not "dress silk", "eat meat "What about the others? In fact, this is related to the productivity level and the custom of respecting the elderly in ancient times. In "Mencius - the heart", it is said that "fifty is not warm without silk, seventy is not full without meat". The so-called "fifty is not warm if it is not silk" means that people at the age of fifty cannot keep warm if they do not wear silk fabrics. In China's ancient society, due to the relatively low level of productivity, food production is quite unstable, coupled with poor medical and health conditions, the mortality rate of the elderly is quite high, so the average life expectancy of the population is relatively low, fifty years old at that time can be considered an old man. Coupled with the fact that successive rulers used the people's power as much as possible, the people aged rather quickly, and by the time a person reached the age of fifty, he was already weakened in qi and blood, and his body was so weak that he could only wear silk clothes to keep himself warm through the winter. At that time, the productivity level is relatively low, the average person can not wear silk fabrics, only a little silk fabrics at home to the old man as a matter of course, this is a reflection of the ancient custom of respect for the elderly, the text of the "fifty" is only a general reference to the elderly (the same below). The so-called "seventy non-meat is not full", meaning that seventy-year-old people do not eat meat can not eat enough. Elderly people due to a reduction in the amount of meals, the consumption of energy is also reduced, but the body's nutritional needs can not be reduced, especially the body's essential amino acids can not be reduced, "because the human body cells have a certain life expectancy, the death of the cells can be regenerated by the cell division of the new cell replenishment, while the nerve cells are more difficult to regenerate division, replenishment of sufficient protein, you can alleviate the death of the nerve cell. of death." According to research, "Meat contains nine amino acids, which keep blood vessels supple, prevent atherosclerosis and stroke, and improve immunity to infectious diseases." That's why protein supplementation is especially important for seniors. This is the reasoning behind the fact that older people can have fewer meals, but not fewer essential amino acids (i.e., meat). On the other hand, as the amount of meals for the elderly decreases, the amount of protein from the meal side also decreases, which makes it even more important to increase meat protein supplementation. Ancient society was one that honored the elderly, and when there was not much meat to eat, the elderly were of course given priority. From this passage, we can also know that the people at that time were extremely poor and poor, and could only maintain a minimum living, "clothes and silk" and "meat" were regarded as the enjoyment that only the elderly could have at that time, that is why Mencius put forward the proposal of "making the people's constant production". That's why Mencius proposed the idea of "making the people's property constant".