Chapter 6 Section 4 Chinese Passion for Fertility

Why did Chinese farmers in the traditional era have such a strong urge to give birth? People in the old days could not live without the family.A powerful family with a large number of people tends to be the strongest and wins the upper hand, while a weak family with a lonely population is often in a position of being abused.In this case, the more the population, the better.The need for survival competition made the old family have an inner impulse to expand the population infinitely. Chinese people in the traditional era are locked into a link in the chain of family succession, and are engraved as a few Chinese characters on the ancestral tablet.In traditional families, the head of the family is the absolute authority.Therefore, having more children and grandchildren is the most important way to realize and expand this authority.When I was young, one of the most common ways of swearing among children was to declare "I am your father", and the opponent's return was of course "I am your grandpa", and the two sides accumulated infinitely in terms of seniority.Of course, another path goes back infinitely from "I fuck your mother" and "I fuck your grandma".In the traditional cross talk and the current duo, it seems that taking advantage of each other in terms of seniority can always be exchanged for a large area of ​​laughter.

As Lu Xun said, the most incompetent person can always have a few children to show his authority, so as not to sink to the bottom of despair.If you can't realize your "upward will", then use your strength downwards to have more children. Although it sounds a bit absurd, can this also be used as a psychological reason to explain the Chinese people's desire to have children?As for whether the child can be educated after birth, and whether the future life can be happy, it seems that they have not seriously considered the issues.Therefore, even though his whole life was up and down, Zhu Wusi still spared no effort to grow here and there one by one like a pumpkin throwing its vines.

In other countries in the world, there are few fertile passions like China.For thousands of years in European history, abortion and infanticide have been used as means of population control.Europeans don’t rely on their children to support themselves when they get old, and they don’t know that people have to rely on paper money as a source of income in the underworld after death.Therefore, from the beginning of civilization, Europeans have been wary of childbirth. Ancient Greek thinkers have always emphasized birth control.Aristotle believed that population growth was closely related to the economic and political conditions of the city-state: "If there is no limit to reproduction, it will inevitably lead to poverty... and poverty will lead to civil strife and robbery." (Aristotle, Political Science 》) He said: "All city-states known for their political refinement have restrictions on their population." He advocated, "The country should control the population according to economic conditions such as the amount of land. In a city-state with relatively fixed wealth resources , the population should also remain relatively stable. Each family should have a certain number of offspring. If the number of newly conceived fetuses has exceeded this limit, the proper solution is to perform artificial abortion (abortion) before the embryo has no feeling and life. )."

Young people in ancient Greece had a more up-to-date concept than the Chinese thousands of years later. They paid attention to personal achievement and did not want to be trapped by marriage prematurely and affect their pursuit.Late marriage is popular in Greek society, and most men get married around the age of thirty.Although the ancient Roman imperial government vigorously promoted fertility, it had little effect.At that time, in order to escape the shackles of marriage and avoid family responsibilities, many people in the upper class chose to be celibate for life.According to the records of the ancient Roman historian Svitonius, Augustus found that many men tried to create fraudulent marriages in order to escape the punishment of the ban on celibacy.Quite a few men purposely became engaged to women well below the minimum age for marriage (an engagement was considered marriage and exempt from celibacy statutes).After the fiancée reaches the age of marriage, she abandons the marriage contract and pursues an engagement with a younger girl, so as to insist on celibacy.

Although the barbarians invaded and impacted the Greco-Roman civilization, birth control was inherited by the civilized barbarians.The British aristocracy in the Middle Ages also consciously practiced birth control.Due to the primogeniture system implemented in the United Kingdom, the eldest sons waiting to inherit generally marry after inheriting the family property, while the youngest sons who have no property either pursue an heiress or are simply celibate.At that time, the average age at which British upper-class men got married was close to forty.This is why the lovers in classic British novels are usually a middle-aged man in his forties and a young girl in her teens.Only in this way, when the previous generation dies or becomes old and loses the ability to work, the next generation will just start a family, inherit the property, and take over from the previous generation.

Therefore, before the economic take-off, the population density of the West has been lower than that of China.This made the per capita natural resources of Europe much higher than that of China, which laid a good material foundation for the ideological enlightenment of Europeans.