What is the reason for the huge gap in per capita height between northern and southern China?

Viewpoint 1:

Mainly due to climate and diet. Southerners are no less likely to have high noses, deep eyes, and lots of body hair than those in the north. The difference in climate makes the animals and plants in the north grow taller. For example, plants such as cabbage, radish, eggplant, tomatoes, watermelon, winter melon, and poultry such as pigs and cows are much fatter than those in the south.

As far as humans are concerned, northern Chinese are taller than southerners. Northern Europeans are taller than southern Europeans and are the tallest race in the world.

It is mainly a matter of latitude.

The higher the latitude (north), the further away from the equator, and the colder the weather. People need to reduce unit energy loss and increase body surface area, so northerners are taller. On the contrary, people from the south are closer to the equator and have hot weather, so they have to reduce their body surface area, so they are shorter.

View 2:

1. The Qin and Han dynasties were the first stage: In 36 BC, Gan Yanshou, the governor of the Western Regions, and Chen Tang, the deputy captain of the Western Han Dynasty, led 40,000 soldiers to conquer the Xiongnu westward at Zhizhi City (Zhambul City, Kazakhstan)... During the campaign, The soldiers of the Western Han Dynasty noticed a very strange mercenary army under Shan Yu. They had high noses and deep eyes, red hair and green eyes, and tall bodies. They formed a square formation when fighting, just like the Roman Empire army of the same period. In the battle of Zhizhi City, the Han army won a complete victory, beheading 1,518 people, capturing 145 alive, and surrendering more than 1,000 people. Gan Yanshou, Chen Tang and others brought these prisoners of war back to China. He organized these Romans into the army, placed them in Gansu, and established a county named "Liqian". There is a record in "Book of the Later Han Dynasty": "Liqian County was established in the early Han Dynasty and the country was named the county." "Liqian" was the Chinese name for Rome at that time. Since the country was "named a county", this new county must have been set up to accommodate the Romans. This Roman army became the first European people to be assimilated.

2. The Wei and Jin Dynasties were the second stage: "Book of Jin" and "Shishuo Xinyu" recorded that Emperor Ming of the Eastern Jin Dynasty had "yellow beard" and "yellow head", which are typical Caucasian racial characteristics. He also called him a "Xianbei slave", called his mother "from the Yan Dynasty" (today's Beijing area), and said that his mother's appearance was similar. It can be seen from this that the Xianbei tribe at that time, and even the locals in North China, contained a large number of Caucasian elements.

During the Western Jin Dynasty, the nobles of the Western Jin Dynasty kidnapped and sold local women from the Liao River Basin to become wives and concubines, mainly for the pursuit of strangeness, because the local women looked different from the Han people, with yellow hair and blue eyes. Later, the Mohe ethnic group appeared Well, it can be logically concluded that a small number of ancient Finns may have gone to Northeast Asia. As we all know, Finns are Nordic people with tall and powerful physiques. ) After the Hu people intermarry, fair skin became a recessive gene and has been retained in the modern Northeastern people.

3. The Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties periods were the third stage: "New History of the Five Dynasties", "Siyi Appendix" and "Shi Wei Biography" of "Old Tang Book" and "New Tang Book" all recorded that among the Shi Wei tribes there was a "Huangtou Shi Wei". Also known as "Yellow Head", Shiwei is the predecessor of the Mongolian tribes.

The "Biography of Li Duozuo" in Volume 110 of "New Book of Tang" records that "Li Duozuo was the first Mohe chief, named 'Huangtou Governor', and later entered China, and his lineage was far away", which shows that the Tang Dynasty There are also tribes with yellow hair and blue eyes among the Mohe people.

During this period, the northern nomads and the European Aryan peoples further intermarried and formed a new ethnic composition, which laid the foundation for the rise of the Khitan, Jurchen, and Mongolia in the future. Zhang Ji, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote in his poem "A Journey to Yongjia" that "Huangtou Xianbei entered Luoyang" and there are poems to prove it.

4. The Liao, Jin and Yuan dynasties were the fourth stage: "Three Dynasties Beimeng Huibian" records that a Jurchen "has many yellow hair, all yellow temples, and green eyes is called a 'yellow-headed Jurchen'"; "Songmo Jiwen" The "Yellow-headed Jurchen" article says that "the mustache and hair are all yellow, and the eyes are green"; the "Yellow-headed Jurchen" article in the "Miscellaneous Notes of Zhufan Kingdoms" in the "Khitan" volume records that its appearance characteristics are "the mustache and hair are all yellow, and the eyes are green". "How green" is obviously a Caucasian trait. This proves that the people of all ethnic groups in the Northeast have to some extent Caucasian genes. Genghis Khan and his father Yesugei also had blue eyes, and their clan name "Boer Jijin" means "blue eyes".

5. The end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty was the fifth stage: During the Mongolian Western Expedition, they conquered the Asov people, a tribe in the Caucasus. The Asov people originally believed in Orthodox Christianity. They were tall, fair-skinned, and had blue or green eyes. Later, they often joined the army and entered the Central Plains. The formation of the Asu Army was known as the "Green Eyes Huihui". The Semu people and the Mongols were nobles at that time, and the low-status Han people had no right to intermarry with the nobles. Later, Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, ordered various garrison troops to "recruit communities wherever they are, and organize civilians, etc." Most of these troops were stationed in the north. Therefore, the descendants of these early European immigrants were mainly assimilated by the Mongols, Xixia people, and Jurchens, forming the northerners in the future.