From 1959 to 1961, it was a very difficult three years in the history of New China, because of various natural and man-made disasters, grain production was greatly reduced, and the people of the whole country, including ***, were tightening their belts to live.
There is a widely circulated saying that in the past three years, 30 million people in the country starved to death, and it was once widely spread.
So, is this statement true or false? What is the truth?
First of all, it should be noted that this statement did not appear during those three difficult years, but only after 1983, because in 1983 the National Bureau of Statistics published demographic statistics for each year from 1949 to 1982, in which, from 1959 to 1962, the population did decrease by almost 30 million.
That's the truth of that statement, and it's based on this demographic data, and it doesn't seem to be unfounded.
But in fact, this is a very serious dogmatic mistake, that is, only look at the statistics, but do not analyze the specific causes, as long as you analyze the specific reasons, the problem is easy to understand.
After a long period of investigation and research, relevant experts have found out that there are three main reasons for the gap of "30 million disappeared population".
First, since the founding of the People's Republic of China, China has begun to focus on the development of industry, and a large number of rural people have moved into the cities, and their hukou has also moved from the rural areas to the cities, but in this process, there are many loopholes in management.
After these rural people settle down in the cities, their household registration in the rural areas will be cancelled, but because the management cannot keep up, and because many people do not want to cancel their rural household registration, they can get a little more land, resulting in many people having both urban and rural household registrations, and in this way, the number of people with household registration will increase out of thin air.
How much? According to surveys, by 1959, there were about 11.92 million people who had made false claims.
Second, in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, all kinds of waste were waiting to be rebuilt, various industries were not standardized, and the same was true for population statistics, especially in rural areas, people in the family did not report their deaths, and managers had no experience, resulting in a large number of underreported deaths.
By 1959, about 7.5 million people had died, but they had not been deregistered.
Thirdly, starting in 1960, because of major economic difficulties, the state began to massively downsize the urban population, with a total of more than 30 million people returning from the cities to the countryside.
According to statistics, about 14.82 million people have been deregistered in urban areas, but they have not been registered in rural areas in a timely manner, and this is not reflected in their household registration.
So, these three figures add up, a total of 34.24 million people, which were "disappeared" in the later recount.
This is the truth of the matter, not that these 30 million people were "starved to death".
Of course, those three years were indeed very difficult, and the phenomenon of people dying of starvation occurred in many parts of the country, but it was by no means as serious as some people spread the rumors, so we should stop spreading false rumors.
In fact, similar problems existed as early as the Sui and Tang dynasties.
There was a saying circulating on the Internet that during the "reign of Kaihuang" in the Sui Dynasty, the population of the whole country was 8.9 million, and during the "reign of Kaiyuan" when the Tang Dynasty was the strongest, the population of the whole country was only 8.2 million.
This statement, in fact, is the same as the above statement, only looking at the numbers, but not analyzing the reasons.
Let's take a look at two sets of data:
1. In 581 AD, the last year of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the registered population of the country was about 9 million; In the same year, the Sui Dynasty was established, and by 589 AD, the registered population had surged to 40 million.
2. In 618 AD, the last year of the Sui Dynasty, the registered population of the country was about 9.2 million; The Tang Dynasty was established in the same year, and it was not until 726 AD that the registered population reached 41 million.
In other words, from 9 million to 40 million people, it took only 8 years for the Sui Dynasty, but 108 years for the Tang Dynasty!
What does this mean? There is a basic common sense here: in just 8 years, even if the Sui Dynasty can give birth again, it will not be able to give birth to more than 30 million people.
Therefore, the rapid increase in population in the Sui Dynasty is actually a problem of household statistics.
In the hundreds of years before the Sui Dynasty, it was a great turmoil in Chinese history, the people were poor, displaced, and all levels were vying for power and profit, no one did the census seriously, even if someone did, because of the constant war, it was difficult to count an accurate number.
Therefore, the population of 9 million by the time of the establishment of the Sui Dynasty is inaccurate.
After the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, in order to increase tax revenue, began to recount the population, and even used violent means, as long as there was a concealment, all of them were assigned to the frontier, and the neighbors were also implicated.
It was by such means that the population of the Sui Dynasty could skyrocket from 9 million to 40 million in just 8 years!
On the contrary, after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, it adopted a very relaxed household registration system, allowing the people to "conceal" the population and hide the wealth from the people, and as a result, it took 108 years for the Tang Dynasty to increase the registered population to 40 million.
This is the truth of history, not just looking at a statistic and coming to the conclusion that "the Tang Dynasty is nothing more than that".
(References: "The Soul of China", "China Social Science News", "*Historical Facts and Hot Spots").