Drowned Babies Demographic Composition Child Brides
Fujian Since the Ming Dynasty, gender-specific population records have been found in Chinese local histories, and up to the Republic of China period, systematic figures for male and female populations on a nationwide scale have been available. However, most of these figures show that there is a serious sex imbalance in China, that is to say, the proportion of males is much higher than that of females. It was not until the late Republican period that this disparate sex ratio was alleviated. Scholars have disputed this issue, with some arguing that the sex ratio of men and women was actually not too disparate in China's history, and that the historically out-of-whack sex ratio figures are mainly due to the fact that surveyors recorded fewer women in the population. In my opinion, demography is never just a matter of demography itself, but also a matter of social history. In the past, experts in population history have given less consideration to the drowning of female babies that existed in Chinese history, while in reality, this problem was very serious in Chinese history. Since the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, the custom of drowning female babies has been popular in Fujian, thus creating the social problem of too many males and too few females. During the Republic of China period, with the popularity of the child bride system and the custom of high bride price, as well as the role of war in reducing the number of men, the male to female ratio in Fujian gradually eased. By extension, sexual disproportion did exist in Chinese history, and the existence of this condition cannot be lightly dismissed.
One, the custom of not lifting the child in Fujian during the Song Dynasty, the custom of not lifting the child was once widely existed in Chinese society during the Song Dynasty, which can still be found in the Song Dynasty History: Wang Ding migrated to Jianzhou, the custom of not lifting the child, Ding for the prohibition of the article. The Jianzhou in the article is Jianzhou in Fujian Road, located in northern Fujian. It can be seen, at that time, the drowning of babies in northern Fujian has attracted the attention of the official, and then, Du Qi know Jianyang County, Fujian custom, old and births are often not lifted. QI make five insurance phase inspection, offenders will be seriously offended . The above is the material of the Northern Song Dynasty. At the turn of the Northern and Southern Song dynasties, Zhao Shanjun, a member of the clan, prohibited the drowning of infants in the area, and he also pointed out that: the Jianliang custom of giving birth to a child is often not lifted. Li Gang "ou yue ming": the stream of the Shi Shi, it is said that ou common birth, only one or two, the rest are drowned. Two hundred years, killed geometry? Karma, it is appropriate .
In fact, this kind of custom in the southeast widely existed: Qu, Yan, Xin, Rao's people, the birth of a child more than not to lift, the son of the day, please prohibit it . Southeast does not raise the child of custom, injury to the human reason, please cite the Han "tire raising order" to live in full, or also Goujian born gathered to report the meaning of the Wu also . When Wang Xin was the governor of East Zhejiang Province, he built a dike to prohibit people from raising children, bought a field of study, set up a righteous burial mound, and repaired all the work. It can be seen that the custom of drowning babies was widely existed in the southeast, but the Fujian area is more famous. The earliest record of the custom of drowning babies in Fujian can be traced back to a poem by Gu Fong of the Tang Dynasty, which reads: "When a child was born in Min Fang, the Min officials got him and cut off his yang. He was given gold by the officials of Min, who cut off his yang. He was so cruel to me that I was killed by them. I was poisoned by the ignorance of Heaven. The gods are ignorant, and they are blessed. I regretted giving birth to you, and now that you have been born, I am persuaded not to do so. I didn't follow the advice of others, and this is the result of my suffering. When I said goodbye to Lang Strike, my heart was destroyed and blood was spilled, and I could not be in front of Lang Strike until I reached the Yellow Springs. During the Tang Dynasty, Fujian was regarded as a barbaric region with some rather backward customs. Gu Fong's poem reflects the custom of drowning babies and selling eunuchs in Fujian during the Tang Dynasty. After the Song Dynasty, the custom of selling eunuchs was banned by the officials, but the custom of drowning babies was preserved, which was called "not lifting up children". Song Dynasty Fujian people do not raise children because of the following aspects: First, the birth of a child. Song Dynasty rationalist Yang Shi said: Min of the eight states, but the people of Jian, Jian, Ting, Shaowu, more than counting the birth of a child. It has become a trend. The idea of deciding how many sons and daughters to raise based on the amount of money in the family is very progressive. This concept is very progressive. If we do not specify the age, it is difficult to imagine that it is the concept of the ancient Fujian people. This shows that the ancient people did not always give birth to children blindly. However, since the ancients did not know about contraception, they had to resort to drowning their babies. Yanpingfu Zhi" on the Song Dynasty Fujian: Fujian people have many children to the fourth son rate are not raised for their wealth is not enough to support. Because the people of Fujian generally feel the difficulty of raising children, so there are more than one, probably to be drowned in the fate. In general, the counting of production and child-rearing directly reflects the contradiction between population growth and the limited productivity.
Secondly, the fear of multiple births divided the family. Ancient Fujian is the land of the Min Yue ethnic group, and later, although the ethnic group dissolved in the Han, but their legacy of the Han people in Fujian has a great impact, such as inheritance, the Han people in the Central Plains is after the death of their parents to split the family, and the Fujian people as long as the children adult, even if their parents are still alive to carry out the split: men and women **** discussion, private division of the main, and the parents of the same. In this way, adult children are very reluctant to parents to add younger siblings, both after the division, after the succession, less than infancy, all killing and drowning. If the parents could not tolerate it, the brothers were afraid of the division of their own wealth, and they would always take it from the side and kill it. In some places, people simply raised only one son for fear of splitting the family with many sons. For example, the Song Dynasty Chong'an people Liu Pingshan said that the local custom: He state no war, Min Yue disaster has not been eliminated. The reason for the killing of children is that the hostility is caused by it. The barren and narrow land of the barbarians is not fertile, and the family's inheritance is not fertile. A woman's trousseau is divided into two, while a man's son is divided into two, and often there is no heir to a family with a crown of garments. Hong Mai's Yijian Zhi records the story of Huang Chong, a native of Chong'an: at the beginning, Chong's mother was dead, and his father was over sixty years of age, when he bought a concubine who was pregnant and was about to go into labor, and Chong was in the county school. Father and Chong brother seek: 'late in life suddenly have this, I am very ashamed. This will not be raised? Or with someone? Otherwise, the aunt to raise, to wait for its growth, so that the monk, if so? He said: 'This is also common sense, only the orders of the Lord. It would be better for me to raise her and give birth to a son, so that my elder brother could return to me, and there would be a place for him. The concubine then gave birth to a man. My brother sent a letter to report to Chong, and Chong immediately returned and greeted my father in the hall. The father told him what had happened before and ordered him to take the baby out. When half of the fall, the Minzhong family to make wine, draw a few huge barrels full of water in the court, in order to test its leakage. Chong picked up the baby with his hand and threw it into the bucket to drown it. This is a story of an older brother drowning his younger brother, reflecting the custom of Fujian at that time. This concept is different from the northern people's many sons and many blessings. The custom of inheritance of the only son of the northern people of Fujian also had an impact on the local land system. Originally, due to the existence of an equalization system of inheritance in China, large estates acquired by the landowning class by trickery were very likely to be returned to a small land system due to the separation of families. This resulted in a relative balance between the large and small land systems. However, due to the birth control of Chong'an people, the rich families did not have many children, and their property was not easy to divide, so this balance was broken, and the large land system of Chong'an was especially developed in the Song and Yuan dynasties. According to "Yuan Shi - Zou Boyan biography": the Yuan Dynasty, Chong'an County, more than fifty large landowners accounted for as much as five-sixths of the arable land in the county, the other people have only one-sixth of the land. This shows that the rich people of Chong'an are indeed drowning their babies for fear of family separation.
Thirdly, the tax on human labor is harsh and unbearable. In ancient times, there have always been manpower corvée and manpower tax in Fujian. In many places, people drowned their babies because they could not bear the harsh taxes. Zheng Xingxu of the Southern Song Dynasty said: "Since the rise of the military, the households have been withered, and the corrupt officials and traitors have been wreaking havoc, and the salt and silk have been put to death, and the stupid people would rather kill their children than lose their taxes. As most dynasties in Fujian's history had heavy taxes, the unaffordability of taxes has always been an important reason for drowning babies.
Fourth, the fear of thick marriage bankruptcy. Chinese history, there is a proverb: theft, but the door of the five women, is that the daughter to raise more family to be poor, and even the theft of wealth is not willing to patronize. Due to the influence of the MinYue legacy, Fujian ancient popular thick marriage style, such as Liao just on the Zhangzhou wedding and funeral customs: marrying a woman's family, must be a large set of relatives, up to hundreds of people. The family of the married woman must gather relatives from the neighborhood, as many as hundreds of people. They will drink wine with cows and still share the money and silver, and then consider it as a rite of passage. Women's marriage, to trousseau thick and thin outsiders are not allowed to see, there must be money with the car. Most of them are more than a thousand coins and less than a few hundred kan. If not, the neighbors laugh, and men and women are dissatisfied. ...... rich people to luxury high, poor people ashamed of its not caught, often trade to lift the loan to do, if not as much as the force, rather Nunzui and not for. Therefore, men and women have had a time and may not marry,...... I heard that the spring Fu Xinghua also have this wind, and this county especially, I tasted the inquiry, although the stupid people also know its wrong, and fear of the flow of custom, can not be reformed.
The fifth, no birth control measures, give birth to a child does not look at the male or female, unable to feed, upside down into the toilet, so that the newborn baby suffocated and died.
Sixth, medical diagnostic equipment, medical technology is outdated, can not determine whether the fetus pregnant women carry deformities, congenital mental retardation. After birth, these babies are drowned by artificial elimination.
People often say that having many children is a traditional Chinese idea, but it does not seem to fit the historical facts. At least the northern Minbei people of Fujian in the Song Dynasty did not have the idea of having many children and good fortune. The Southern Song court's ban on the practice of drowning babies. As mentioned earlier, as early as the Northern Song Dynasty, there were some magistrates who prohibited the practice of drowning babies in northern Fujian. However, this prohibition was only a moral issue at that time, while in the Southern Song Dynasty, the court lost a large amount of territory in the north, and very much hoped that the population in the south could have a greater growth in order to strengthen the state. Therefore, the call from Confucianism to prohibit infant drowning gradually became official policy. First of all, Yang Shi, a rationalist, made a significant contribution to changing the practice of drowning infants. When his friend Yu Zhongkuan was the governor of Shunchang, Yang Shi wrote a letter to Yu Zhongkuan asking him to ban the practice of drowning babies in the area. Therefore, Yu Zhongkuan wrote a text on the prohibition of killing children, summoned all the township fathers and elders to sit under the hiatus for those who were convinced by the public, and paid for them to put mash and sweet wine and urge them to do so in a pro rhyme. Yu Zhongkuan wrote the text and urged his fellow townspeople to refrain from killing their children. The years of living thousands of people. Therefore, the birth of a child more to 'Yu' for small words. Cao Fu, a transshipment magistrate, was praised by the court for his work. The court praised him, and he changed one of Zhongkuan's officials and ordered him to reappoint him to the post, and then he resumed his legislative work and pushed it all the way through the country. A few years later, Yu Zhongkuan returned to his hometown and passed through Shunchang, where hundreds of children named Yu greeted him in the suburbs. The court popularized Yu Zhongkuan's method and encouraged the people to have more children. Shaoxing eight years, the Shangshu Liu Dazhong preaching: since the fall of the Central Plains, the people of the Southeast died in the fire, plague, drought and water, and even for the soldiers, for the Velvet Yellow, and go for the thieves, the remaining people of the survivors of the ten no two or three, the traitorous ministers abused its people, the death of the number of requests, but the salt, oil, silk, the most suffering, the fools would rather kill the son and do not want to lose, give birth to a woman and more than not to raise the begging of the guardianship order of the full days, the increase or decrease of the teeth for the temple, and also the imperial edict should be the state county countryside, the fifth class of the Square Kwok, the seventh class of the following Households and no equal poor family, born men and women can not support the support of the people in the money in the constant flat support four Guan Wen province, still commissioned by the order to persuade the father and the old man, Xiao Xiao, such as the blessings and misfortunes, if practiced in accordance with the law, the number of live, the superintendent of the Division of the Bao Ming to push the rewards. Zheng Xingxu especially emphasized in Fujian to prohibit the drowning of infants, he said: I heard that the human edge of the heart of intolerance, at first sight of the child will be into the well, fear and compassion, out of nature, out of love, without reluctance, in the ordinary people and so, but if the father and son of the nature of the cruelty of habit, to the birth of the child constant and more do not lift, the injury to the harmony of heaven and the destruction of the greatness of the human relationships, the end of the customary along the same place, there are many. And build Jian Ting Shao four states for especially. Covering the military since the rise, the household withered, corrupt officials and treacherous Xu, and then wantonly its abuse, but salt and silk, put to death without art. Stupid little people, the word kills the son and do not want to lose the tax, I was honored by the Holy Enlightenment to mention the punishment of the Fujian Road, two years in this, I heard and saw, the tragic situation can not be described. I see that His Majesty is sympathetic to the people, each play a big open up, and seek a way of life, the red son of why know to tolerate the killing and maiming to this point. I would like to follow the laws of this dynasty, so kill the children and grandchildren in two years. It is appropriate to apply for a strict ban on the order of the next four states, the guardian of the Minister of the people's law, to show the woes, call people to sue the government, the truth, to the prisoners to keep the money to give. Customers also instructed the landlord in addition to the order of the JI. Outside of the command of the commanders to apply for strict. I hope that Your Majesty to pay attention to the province, the implementation of the quick, the people's teeth gradually flourish, the account of a large number of people, the state, hundreds of millions of years, the blessing of the boundless, not better than the most fortunate. Under the guidance of this policy of the Song Dynasty, local officials in Fujian tried in various ways to change the practice of drowning infants, which was popular in the mountainous areas. Zhu Xi's father, Zhu Song, when he was a lieutenant of Zhenghe County, had written "Quit Killing Children," I came to Minzhong, heard that the Min do not like many children to kill as a rule, but not not sympathetic. Killing children and grandchildren without reason is a very clear official law. He advised the people not to drown their babies, and his words were so earnest that he said to his children and grandchildren, 'The one who lives in you is Xin'an Zhu Qiaonian (Qiaonian is Zhu Song's word)'. Wei Ixuzhi also adopted a persuasive approach, building a customary birth of more than one child without lifting, for the text of the precepts, the full live a lot of people. Some officials rewarded births, but Liu Yunji in Nanjianzhou was strict in this regard. Those who raise give corn relief goods, those who do not raise the crime. The common people for the easy . Another example is Yu Duanli, Zheng Qiao said, fujian land is narrow and dense, no support, more children are not raised. Fujian, Song Zhirui begged to be exempted from selling Jian, Jian, Ting, Shao no official land, collect its rent to help the people to raise children's fees, the imperial decree from the . The court has given money to raise children of the decree, gengzi, prohibited the poor people do not raise children, and those who can not raise money to raise them. Outside Fujian, there is also the implementation of similar policies, jihai, to Yong, Dao, Chen three states, Guiyang supervision and Chaling County people more than not to raise children, Yong remit their body Ding money silk rice wheat. Zhu Xi and other Taoist scholars also cooperate with the official action, Shao Wu army of glossy county there is the custom of drowning babies, middle and lower homes, when the birth of a child, the force can not be lifted to the or abandonment of the kill also. But under the influence of Zhu Xi and others, the local establishment of the child warehouse and social warehouse, which the child warehouse income, dedicated to feeding abandoned babies. It should be said that the change of folk customs is not so easy, despite the official ban, but in practice, the practice of drowning infants in Fujian has long existed. However, due to the official ban, this custom was restricted in the Song Dynasty after all. The change in the custom of drowning babies to a certain extent caused the population of Fujian to grow. For example: Lin Jiren, Zai Ou Ning three years, the people's households increased by more than 15,000 when the 'four most six good' class group of officials, Ou Ning for the first . It can be seen, the Song court on the drowning of the custom of banning the baby, or to achieve certain results.
It should be noted that: the Song dynasty Min people drowning baby, not only drowning baby girls, and drowning baby boys, for example, the Song dynasty Confucian Hu Yin is Min Chong'an County people, "Song History - Hu Yin biography" records: Hu Yin at birth, almost drowned fate: Yin will be born, sister women to more than male desire not to lift, An Guo wife dreamed of a big fish jumping pots in the water, and urgent to take the son of the child . But for the Min people, male babies have more preservation value, so the folk drowning babies to female babies more, rich people's homes, but two boys and a girl, middle and lower homes, the rate of a male only. This custom has continued to the Yuan Dynasty, such as the Yuan Dynasty "system of articles" on the drowning of women specifically provides: after the girl has been rooted in the water skimmers each, half of the family's wealth did not have the official and the military every one of them. The existence of this historical material, indicating that the Yuan dynasty drowning baby girl custom is very popular, under the guidance of this custom, will inevitably cause gender imbalance between men and women - more men and less women. Second, the popularity of the custom of drowning female infants in fujian since the Ming dynasty, fujian drowning baby custom has changed a lot. From male and female babies and drowning, gradually evolved to only drowning female babies.
We know: the Song dynasty fujian people drowning baby mainly for four reasons: First, counting the birth of a child; Second, afraid of more than one son to split the family; Third, the people of the tax is harsh, unbearable; Fourth, afraid of thick marriage bankruptcy. Up to the Ming Dynasty, these four reasons have changed. First, in terms of counting the number of sons, in the Song Dynasty, northern Fujian was a place where there was a shortage of food, and there were often food shortages, so the people did not dare to raise more sons. However, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, northern Fujian became the granary of Fujian, and a large amount of grain was constantly shipped downstream on the Min River, so farmers in northern Fujian did not have to consider the problem of not being able to feed their sons and daughters. Secondly, on the issue of the fear of separating the family with many children, the Min people's viewpoint gradually came closer to the majority of Chinese people, and the idea of having many children and good fortune became a universal viewpoint that was accepted. We know: the Southern Song Dynasty Minbei for Zhu Xi and other rationalists activities, due to the influence of these rationalists, originated in the north of Confucianism, some of the concepts, gradually by the people of Fujian, which is understandable. Such as Fu'an County: men and women are safe plowing and weaving, brothers do not leave each other. Thirdly, in terms of the tax on people, there was a de facto tax on people in Fujian during the Ming Dynasty, which was the salt tax calculated on the basis of headcount. However, the key to the question of whether or not a manpower tax was levied in Fujian in the Ming Dynasty did not lie in the actual amount of manpower, because it was common knowledge in the history of Fujian in the Ming Dynasty that there was a general concealment of manpower figures in Fujian in the Ming Dynasty, and that the number of the population of Fujian in the hands of the government was far lower than the actual figure. Therefore, even if the people had multiple births, they could conceal them in various ways, thus reducing the manpower tax. Fourth, in the fear of thick dowry bankruptcy, Ming and Qing Fujian people still maintain the custom of Song Dynasty: such as Shaowu, its custom of rich in dowry thrifty in teaching children ...... dowry all want to be rich in capital and makeup. Or to benefit the trousseau field, the woman to be proud of her aunt and uncle. Fuzhou, the marriage only to the wealth of the male, the city wells powerful family, trousseau value of thousands of gold, to sell the property of the ruler. If you are a teacher, you will have to learn every detail. Proverb: 'money to marry a daughter, no money to teach children'. The trend has gone down. Due to the dowry is too heavy, people have to do their best to organize the dowry, such as Chong'an County: the birth of a daughter a few years old, the mother is to organize the dowry capital, the husband does not think it is wrong, there are not stingy thousands of gold. Heavy dowry burden often leads to family bankruptcy, such as the Qing Dynasty Gutian County: Gutian dowry, the upper household costs more than a thousand gold, the cost of hundreds of gold in the household, the lower household more than a hundred gold. Often sell their homes and incur debts. Men's families are full of flowers and candles; women's families are full of calls and demands. What is their trousseau? Chan in the hall: three immortal jewels, double-stringed table type is also. The trousseau is displayed in the room: the bat seat, Taiwan box type is also. Decorated in the head: pearl ring, agate maturity, white jade hairpin is also. Then where is the frugality? Said: 'Fear for the townspeople ridicule, and aunt sister women Boxi voice, can also be afraid of'. Because it is a last resort, just gave birth to a daughter that is drowned, drowning women in other euphonies mostly belong to the poor, Gutian turned to the rich. In fact, this situation is very common. Another example is the Haicheng County in the Qing Dynasty: the dowry of a woman to load money wasted,...... thin evil customs, and thus drowning women, thieves and harm to the conscience of God, all for the other day to load money to worry about ear . Obviously, the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Fujian is still popular thick marriage customs, and this custom leads to the popularity of Fujian drowning female infants custom. The change of custom in the Ming and Qing Dynasties Min people changed the custom of drowning male babies, but the custom of drowning female is still circulating, which caused the change of the composition of the sex ratio of the population of Fujian in the Ming Dynasty.