Why did the population of Qing Dynasty increase rapidly from 70 million to 400 million? What is explosive growth?

At the end of the Ming dynasty, the registered population was only about 50 million, but by the Qianlong period of the Qing dynasty, the registered population had reached about 400 million. What happened? Did the Qing Dynasty also have the spirit of "many hands make light work"?

In fact, the population explosion must be caused by the improvement of objective conditions. Just like the situation we are facing at present, if we want to have three children, regardless of mental and material conditions, who wants to suffer this crime?

The same is true in the Qing Dynasty, where spiritual conditions, policy conditions and material conditions have indeed made great strides.

First, the household registration system in the Qing Dynasty was much richer than that in the Ming Dynasty. Many people miss the Ming Dynasty. In fact, if you fully understand the household registration system of the Ming Dynasty, you will definitely change your mind. Because the household registration system in Ming Dynasty is absolutely the strictest in history.

After Zhu Yuanzhang seized the world, he began to sum up the failures of the Yuan Dynasty. He believes that the Yuan Dynasty perished mainly because they were too lax in managing the people. The descendants of farmers like him can also be monks and soldiers, which seriously affects social order.

To this end, Lao Zhu began to carry out reforms. He classified all the people in the country by occupation. Such as civilian users, military users, craftsmen and so on.

Without special circumstances, it is difficult for a person to leave the household registration. This is a bit of the difference between high caste and low caste in India, which is basically unchangeable.

In addition, if you want to make a long distance, you must go to the government to issue a road guide if it exceeds 1, otherwise you will be arrested as a refugee. In addition, the Ming dynasty also issued a decree:

What do you mean by that? In other words, the scope of farmers' actions is generally only about 1 Li, leaving early and returning late, without any entertainment activities, and everyone is encouraged to supervise each other.

If you throw modern people into the Ming Dynasty, you will be depressed to death unless you are in charge of people. I want to go to town for a drink after planting. Sorry, that's impossible! A bunch of neighbors are waiting to report you!

The Qing dynasty was completely different, because they were cruel when they entered the customs, which made everyone particularly disgusted. So they relaxed a lot in the household registration system.

For example, if you immigrate, you don't need to buy a house locally, and you don't need to pay the corresponding social security. You can move your hukou to any place in the country and come whenever you want. And there is no restriction on your freedom at all. With the ID card, you can travel around the world as long as you have enough money.

This is too flexible, and the entertainment activities of ordinary people have increased a lot. In fact, this is conducive to the improvement of GDP, but at that time they did not care about this thing and always looked down on what foreigners invented.

The promotion of spiritual civilization makes the life of ordinary people interesting, thus creating the spiritual conditions for giving birth to children.

Second, there was no tax increase during the Kangxi period, and the land was spread into acres during the Yongzheng period, which completely laid the policy foundation for the population explosion. If the relaxed household registration system is the spiritual condition for having children, then never raising taxes and spreading land into mu are the policy conditions for having children.

Never add fu:

In the feudal era before Kangxi, taxes were paid according to the total family population. How many people are there in the family? How many people do you have to pay taxes? This can drive the poor to death, because there are few acres or even no land at home, but some of them have just given birth to three children. What do you think they will pay taxes on?

Rich landlords have seven or eight little wives and dozens of children, which is nothing, because their family has tens of thousands of acres of land. The gap in income ratio is reflected.

So it is normal for the poor to refuse to have children anyway! Kangxi also realized the harm of negative population growth, so in the fifty years of Kangxi, he introduced the policy of "supporting the people without increasing taxes".

The main meaning is that on the basis of the national Ding number in the fifty years of Kangxi, the number of Ding numbers increased in the future does not need to bear taxes. To put it simply, there used to be three men in your family. If 1 is born again in the future, this 1 does not need to pay taxes or take corvee. If the old man dies, the new 1 will make up for it.

Now the people are boiling, and they go home to have children one by one. Because having more children not only does not increase taxes, but also becomes a free labor force at home.

Tandem:

Yongzheng felt that this was not enough, so he simply implemented the policy of spreading land into mu. This is even more awesome. In the past, taxes were levied according to population. After the Yongzheng reform, we didn't come by population. Let's follow the land at home.

Pay more taxes if you have more land at home, and pay less taxes if you have less. If there is no land at home, you don't have to pay taxes. In short, it is to kill large families and save small ones. Now the people are exploding again, singing all night: Today is a good day. By the way, I'm going home to have a baby.

This policy is a terrible blow to landlords all over the country. Most landlords are still scholars, so it is understandable to paint Yongzheng as a big devil with a pen.

The population explosion period actually started from the last years of Kangxi to the early years of Yongzheng. It can be said that never increasing taxes and spreading land into acres have played a great role.

Third, introduce high-yield crops such as sweet potatoes, corn and potatoes. Mental conditions and policy conditions are not the most important conditions. Eating and drinking is the most important thing for people to live. It is almost unimaginable to feed hundreds of millions of people with ancient grain output.

In the feudal era before Kangxi, it would be very good to reach 50 to 60 million people. This is determined by the objective material basis, and the output of crops is less than that of the great old Yuan Man Longping at that time.

However, from the late Ming Dynasty, after the large-scale production of sweet potatoes, corn, potatoes and other crops were gradually introduced to China, the situation was completely different. These crops have a large yield, are easy to survive, can be born when they land, and have a short harvest cycle, so they are excellent foodies.

In the face of survival, don't think about whether it is delicious or not. Obviously, although these things taste ordinary, they can definitely feed a large number of people. With the increase of food, the material conditions for the increase of population will be met, and it is not impossible to survive. Why not have two more children?

Summary: Modern society has higher requirements for having children. Because we are currently in an involution society, the conditions for having a child are actually very high. In addition to spiritual, policy and material conditions, there are many requirements.

For example, education, medical care, nutrition, growth and other aspects have broken parents' hearts. If all this can be properly solved for children before 18 years old, it will surely usher in a period of rapid population growth again.

References:

Draft of Qing history

There are three main measures: canceling poll tax, spreading crops into acres, and vigorously promoting high-yield crops such as sweet potatoes, corn and potatoes.

First, don't increase taxes. Divide a person's salary into one acre and three points. In ancient China, poll tax was implemented for a long time, that is, adult men (,Ding Nan, Ding Zhuang) were taxed, which was called ding tax. In addition, Ding Nando must perform military service.

In the fifty-first year of Emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty (17 12), Emperor Kangxi promulgated the famous imperial edict "Raise the people and never increase taxes", so that the amount of salaries tax was fixed and the newly added population no longer had to bear salaries tax.

After the promulgation of this policy, China people who have the concept of "having more children is more happy" began to have more children.

Anyway, in ancient times, the cost of raising a child was very low, as long as there was food and clothing. When I was a teenager, I became a labor force. I can earn money with my family and increase my income. So many families began to have children, which led to a large increase in the population of the Qing Dynasty.

Yongzheng period went further: "Tanding entered Mu". Yong Zhengdi officially abolished the Ding tax and allocated the quota of Ding tax in the last years of Kangxi to the land tax, which made it impossible for people without land property to pay taxes.

In other words, families with more land pay more taxes, those with less land pay less taxes, and those without land do not pay taxes. These peasants who have no land and little land rejoice, while those landlords and rich people who have more fields are sad.

After the cancellation of this measure, it promoted the development of population and delayed the land merger. Because whoever has more land will pay taxes, the society is in a long-term stable state and contradictions among the people are reduced.

The second is to vigorously promote high-yield crops. With the opening of new sea routes, high-yield crops such as sweet potato, corn and potato were introduced into China.

In order to solve the problem of feeding the population, the Qing government began to vigorously promote high-yield crops. Moreover, these high-yield crops don't need much land, and even very poor land can grow with high yield.

Although the taste is not as good as wheat and rice, it can at least fill the stomach. Do you still need a bike?

Therefore, some people on the Internet joked that "Kanggan Prosperity" is the prosperity of sweet potatoes, which makes sense, hahaha.

3. Long-term peaceful environment. After the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, Kanggan flourished 100 years, and the people lived in a long-term peaceful environment.

Only when there is a long-term peaceful environment and the people get rid of the turmoil of war will the population increase slowly.

In a long-term peaceful environment, people can live and work in peace and contentment, and the population will increase when men plow and women weave.

Imagine the long-term war in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, how could the population increase?

However, the population explosion in Qing Dynasty had extremely dangerous consequences.

Due to the population explosion, people have to cultivate more land, so deforestation and reclamation around lakes often occur, leading to the deterioration of the ecological environment.

The increase in population has also led to the intensification of contradictions. In order to compete for water and fields, many villages often fight, mostly in the south, such as the fight between locals and tourists.

An important reason for the Taiping Rebellion was the struggle between local people and tourists, which led to the intensification of contradictions. Many leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are Hakkas, which is the reason.

Later, the Nian Army was also caused by the population explosion.

Therefore, the population must adapt to the output of land and crops, otherwise it will cause extremely serious social problems, leading to great turmoil and great turmoil!

Dividing fields into acres is the core reason, and merit lies in Yongzheng. There are other external reasons.

There are four main reasons:

Introduction of high-yield crops. With the lifting of the sea ban in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, high-yield crops such as potatoes and corn were introduced and planted on a large scale. By the Qing dynasty, with the stability of the situation and the technical improvement of these high-yield crops, the problem of rations was largely solved.

Second, tax reform. The poll tax, which lasted for thousands of years, was abolished in the Kangxi period. Let population growth no longer have tax burden pressure!

Third, the progress of medicine. The method of smallpox vaccination was invented in the Ming Dynasty, which reduced the mortality rate of smallpox.

Fourth, expand the territory and encourage reclamation. During the Qing dynasty, with the expansion of territory, a large number of people migrated. Land reclamation has increased cultivated land, and at the same time, it has further increased the scope of population activities.

Based on the above four points, coupled with the efforts of several emperors in the early Qing Dynasty, the population of the Qing Dynasty has exploded!

Thanks mainly to the introduction of high-yield crops from South America in the late Ming Dynasty, mountainous areas can also feed a large population.

First of all, there is a relatively long period of peace and stability;

Second, the policies implemented by the government are more conducive to population growth;

Thirdly, after the introduction of potato and sweet potato, large-scale planting is formed, which improves the survival probability of the population;

These conditions complement each other, and the lack of any link is not conducive to population growth!

Ancient people didn't have family planning, didn't know contraception, and gave birth to seven or eight children at every turn ... It's hard to imagine that the population would be so small! The only explanation can only be that there was no census in ancient times and scientific and technological communication was underdeveloped. The data of these people are completely inaccurate and have no reference value.