In the development of China's ancient society, the population of the society was generally smaller than that of modern times, and even the average life expectancy was greatly reduced.
But we look back at the life of the ancients, and the daily life is strictly followedSunrise and sunsetThe food eaten is also self-sufficient pure green products.
According to the normal and regular life of the ancients, the life expectancy should not be lower than now, but in fact, the life expectancy of the ancients in all dynasties was relatively low, the average life expectancy in the Xia and Shang periods was only a few years, according to statistics, in such a prosperous Tang Dynasty, it was only 27 years old, and even in the Qing Dynasty, the average life expectancy was only in the thirties.
So why did the ancients live so healthily but so shortly? What were the factors that caused the life expectancy of the ancients to be generally shorter? Isn't there such a thing as a long-lived person?
The life of the ancients seems to be very regular, the sunrise and sunset and rest, not as rich as the nightlife now, there are still people on the street at two o'clock in the morning boxing, drinking, eating supper, the ancients have to wake up at two o'clock in the morning, so everyone thinks that the ancients have a very sufficient sleep time, very healthy.
But everyone ignores that the ancients need to get up when the rooster crows, everyone often needs to get up before dawn, ordinary people need to rush to the fields before dawn to start a day's work, and in the imperial court, whether it is ** or the emperor, they also have to get up in the morning to go to the court.
Although the ancients got up early for work, they returned home very late. Ordinary people often wear stars and moons and carry hoes home, and they must also be busy with a whole day of government affairs before they can go home.
In such a high physical labor life, the ancients could only eat two meals a day, and in the long run, such a high-intensity work and rest and long-term lack of food are easy to bring a burden to the human body.
At the same time, the most lethal reasons for the very low average life expectancy of ancient people are: mainlyThe level of medical care is low
In ancient times, due to the restrictions of sanitary conditions, some areas were prone to outbreaks of plague from time to time, and people often could not judge the source of such a large plague, and they could not prescribe the right medicine, which often led to large-scale population deaths in villages and towns.
Although the plague is terrifying, in terms of medical conditions, the medical skills of doctors are also very limited, and doctors are not the same as the current licensed work, most of them may just beBarefoot doctorThey are sometimes unable to make an accurate judgment about the patient's symptoms and condition.
Even many ancients had poor families due to the limitation of productivity levels, and when they encountered themselves or their family members getting sick, everyone would choose to solve it by themselves in order to save money.
In ancient times, people may only encounter a small amount of appendicitis, but under the influence of the medical level and conditions at that time, they had to "reopen".
In addition, the food shortage caused by numerous battles and miscellaneous taxes was the last straw that "crushed" the people.
In ancient societies, wars between countries were very common, but as everyone knows, every time a war starts, it means that the looting of the people begins.
When the country needs to march to fight, it naturally needs a large amount of food to meet the life needs of soldiers in the war, and at this time, a large amount of food needs are also solicited from the people by the first harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and the people may spend a whole year saving food, and the state must hand it over if it is needed.
In addition to the need for food, the country also needs a large number of soldiers, and a large number of strong labor force will inevitably be transferred by the state in the face of war, and the family that loses the strong labor force will also affect the food output of the family, and the people will once again fall into a state of poverty without enough to eat, and the long-term food shortage will cause famine and war among the people, and the cycle will go on and on, and the people will be miserable.
From this point of view, the life expectancy of ancient people was devastated under the influence of medical standards and wars, and everyone's life expectancy was naturally reduced, which is why the ancient emperors adopted a policy of recuperation and recuperation in order to improve the quality of life of the people and restore the vitality of the people's lives.
Throughout ancient history, we will find that not only ordinary people have a short lifespan, but also the emperors who shout "long live, long live, long live" in the world's population are also generally shorter.
In ancient times, the short life expectancy of ordinary people can be attributed to the limitation of medical conditions and production levels, but the emperor has the best living conditions in the world, eats delicacies, and is equipped with a skilled imperial doctor when he is sick, why do they often have a short life?
Although the ancient emperors had superb imperial doctors, they could not escape the torture of illness, and we can find the most common description of the emperor's death in historical records"Death from illness".
Due to the poor medical conditions and environment, the imperial doctors held them in the palm of their hands to care for them, an area that could not be reached by the medical skills and cognition of this dynasty, and the emperor was powerless to deal with the torture of illness like ordinary people at this time.
In the ancient imperial palace, the purity of the emperor's blood was a matter of great concern, which meant that many emperors sought a mate within the range of close relatives in order to maintain the so-called "purity" of the imperial family.
The biggest disadvantage of consanguineous marriage is that it can cause children to suffer from someCongenital genetic disordersUnder the torture of diseases, the lifespan of these emperors is naturally shorter, and even these disease genes will be passed down from generation to generation under the promotion of customs, and everyone will form the stereotype that emperors have a shorter lifespan.
In addition, the emperor's huge harem is also one of the reasons for their short life, as the saying goes, "three thousand beauties in the harem", where the emperors sleep every night is decided by flipping the brand, indulging in the beauty of these harem concubines, the emperors will also overconsume people's energy.
During the day, he was busy dealing with various affairs in the court, and at night he had to deal with different concubines, which led to a long-term physical deficit, which also caused the emperors' life span to be greatly reduced.
There are even some emperors who are obsessed with women, obsessed with the life of the harem and ignore the government and politics, and only know how to go back and forth in the wine pond and meat forest all day long, which can be said to be even more short.
It is inevitable that the emperors will easily "lose" themselves in the slogan of "long live, long live, long live, long live" among the ministers and the common people of the court, and when the emperors have made certain political achievements, they will begin to construct themselves with this slogan in their minds, and try their best to want itImmortality
As we all know, immortality is against the laws of the world, but even so, the emperors who hold the power of the world still will not give up. In ancient society, there have been many stories of "cultivating immortals" that emperors wanted to live forever.
In the superstition of the emperors, they believed that the elixir could make people immortal and healthy, and even legend had it that Qin Shi Huang had found the elixir, which also made these emperors even more determined to find the elixir.
In fact, the so-called "earthwork" and "elixir" contain a lot of themLead elementLong-term use not only does not lead to longevity, but also leads to trace element poisoning, which reduces one's life expectancy.
Looking at the reasons for the emperors' short lifespan, we will find that although their living conditions are much better than those of ordinary people, reducing the risk of accidental death, they cannot stand the emperors' own "work".
Through the above understanding of the ancient people, we find that both ordinary people and high-ranking emperors seem to be unable to escape the fate of "short life", and different classes always have different class difficulties, so is there really no longevity in ancient times?
In fact, in ancient times, there were also some longevity "players" who stood out in this troubled era.
As far as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period are concerned, the official average life expectancy is only thatIn his thirtiesBut this is mainly due to the fact that some babies who die early have lowered the average.
Under the influence of war, most people are not able to live in the palace, and a small number of them are able to live a relatively long life.
For example, Mr. Confucius, a representative of Confucianism, has an official ageHe was 73 years oldAt the average age of the time, his life expectancy was particularly long, and by studying the life and deeds of Confucius, we can also find some secrets of his longevity.
Although Confucius was born in a declining aristocratic family, he still has a certain status and connections after all, and he has entered the official career through the Zhongji clan and has achieved good results, and in terms of salary, Confucius's annual salary can be reached60,000 Sutreatment.
In addition to the main business of being an official, Confucius's side business is also very powerful, the decline of official learning, the rise of private learning, Confucius is the originator of "private learning", Confucius began to lecture and become a teacher all the way, and the ** received as much as 3,000.
In ancient times, it was not free to study and apprentice, but Confucius's standard of recruiting students and tuition fees were"Ten strips of jerky".As long as he gives jerky tuition, he will teach every student without class.
It can be seen from this that Confucius's wealth and social status are much higher than ordinary people, not only rich but also thoughtful, so full and worry-free people will naturally live a long life.
Mencius and Xunzi are the same, one lived to be 84 years old, and the other lived to be 75 years old, both of them are "scholars" like social status, solid economic foundation and full thinking are the secrets of the ultimate longevity.
The economic base determines the superstructure, since ancient times, the ancient people can be said to have experienced all kinds of hardships in life, but still have no economic strength to fight in the event of an emergency, and the emperors have economic strength, but too much wealth will inevitably lead to people cranky and make some unbelievable behaviors.
In the end, we found that people with a little money and a full life are the best candidates for longevity, so we should all learn to be content and happy, and get that little beauty in ordinary life.