Why did the people of the Song Dynasty have a popular view of fertility between two boys and one girl: Did the Song Dynasty favor boys over girls?

In Mr. Jin Yong’s martial arts series, the only ones that touch on the history of the Southern Song Dynasty are the shooting vultures and the sacred eagles. Unfortunately, the old man has a good grasp of the historical background, but the description of the folk customs is slightly omitted. For example, the concept of wealth, fertility, etc. You must know that although Jianghu characters belong to a marginalized group of society, they may not be deprived of their social democratic status, nor may they be able to completely exile themselves from the mainstream customs of society without leaving any trace.

People in the Southern Song Dynasty had a special view on fertility. Due to the war, a large number of northerners moved southward, and the population of major cities expanded unprecedentedly. As a result, a strange phenomenon was formed where citizens and villagers spontaneously carried out family planning. It has been a custom for a long time, and one of its representative fertility customs is the ideal number of children of "two boys and one girl". This is mentioned many times in the "History of the Song Dynasty" compiled by the Yuan Dynasty, the notes of Song people at that time, and "Marco Polo's Travels". For example, in the entry "Not raising children", there is a clear record that "(raising) two sons and one daughter is common, but by the fourth child, the rate is not raised". "Children are not raised" is also called "washing children", which means parents abandon or kill babies to control the number of children. By the time the fourth child is born, both boys and girls need to be "washed" in the same way. There is no gender discrimination.

There may be three reasons for the formation of this custom. First, for families in the middle and lower classes of society, giving birth to one more child they didn’t want means having another mouth to eat, as well as a heavy financial burden, and they have a last resort mentality. There are also many people in the upper class of society who are affected by this folk custom, because the average inheritance behavior of the disciples will make the originally small inheritance after moving south to be divided even more finely. In order to control the population, the imperial court also encouraged officials and gentry to "not have many children." Of course, this "encouragement" did not clearly stipulate how to match the number of children, which had its reasonable side. After all, the "two sons and one daughter" model will lead to a serious imbalance in the ratio of men to women in the future, causing profound social problems.

The second is housing shortage. The major cities in the Southern Song Dynasty, such as Hangzhou, did not actually expand in size. However, the immigration waves from the northern provinces came one after another in the first ten or twenty years. In order to resettle the northerners, the imperial court tried every feasible method. Eventually even monasteries were allowed to become their safe haven. Later, residential buildings were built on a large scale, but there were more people and less land. "Meng Liang Lu" wrote: "Lin'an city is vast, with many households, high-rise residential buildings, one after another with eaves, no square inch, and alleys are congested. The streets are narrow. "Even with the addition of buildings to higher areas, there is still a lack of housing, and many people have to rely on renting to make a living. "Most of the official and private houses and bases are rented, and the money for the land or the land is paid, but the money for the house and land is divided into three categories: large, medium and small." We have no way of knowing the specific amount of rent, but the imperial court frequently appears in the records. It can be seen from the issuance of an edict to postpone the payment of rent that rent is also a considerable burden for ordinary urban residents. Having one more child means building or renting one more house in the future, which is a real worry.

The third is the rebellion against the imperial ban and the lack of concern for the lives of abandoned babies. Some readers may understand the former but not the latter. This is not surprising, because everyone has rebellious psychology. Not worrying about the life of abandoned babies belongs to the depth of historical awareness. If you don’t understand that period of history, you will naturally not be able to understand it. Due to the prevalence of the trend of "not giving birth to children", the imperial court had to take relevant measures to stop it. However, "forbidding rewards is a common practice in villages and towns, and neighbors and relatives all hide from it." This is rebellion. The phenomenon of infant drowning among common people is not all cruelty and killing, most of them tend to abandon newborns on the street. The imperial court adopted charitable relief measures for abandoned babies. "It is forbidden for the poor not to give birth to children, and those who are infertile will be given money to raise them." Marco Polo also has relevant records in his travels: "(Southern Song Dynasty) The small people in the states of his country who cannot raise their babies will abandon them after giving birth. The king can adopt them." The institution responsible for adopting babies is called "Salesian Bureau" or "Salesian Village". This can be said to be an original creation of the Song Dynasty, so the people are not worried about abandoned babies without anyone to support them. It is impossible for a child as young as Yang Guo to still live alone in the suburbs of Jiaxing after Mu Nianci's death. He should have been "adopted" by the Communist Party long ago.

In Mr. Jin Yong's writings, we can't read any clues about this birth custom. Except for Guo Jing and Huang Rong, who gave birth to two girls and one boy, which is slightly in line with the ideal number of children, the other knights and characters involved, Some have no children, some have children but no children, or some have children but no children. There are few who "reach the standard".

However, Lin Pingzhi's maternal grandfather, Wang Yuanba, had two sons and one daughter. The sons were Wang Bofen and Wang Zhongqiang, and the daughter was Mrs. Wang, who was Lin Pingzhi's mother. But that was Ming Ming. It's the middle of the dynasty. Could it be that Mr. Jin Yong is also playing with the Moonlight Box?