In the glorious history of the Chinese nation for thousands of years, a considerable amount of feudal dregs and customs are still preserved, and marriage is an important choice in life, and many people are unable to make their own decisions. Whether it is in the princely and aristocratic class, or ordinary people living in the people, only a handful of people can choose their own marriage partners, and most of them can only be arranged by their parents or matchmakers.
In this context, the ancients often resorted to consanguineous marriages, such as having cousins marry cousins, although for modern people, this is undoubtedly consanguineous marriage, because it will cause great damage to the health of future generations. What is puzzling is that despite such a serious hidden danger, there are few records of deformed children in ancient China, which cannot help but arouse the curiosity and thinking of many historians.
The famous historical allusion of "Kanaya Zangjiao" must be familiar to everyone. The story tells the story of Liu Che, a young and promising Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, who fell in love with Chen Ajiao, the beloved daughter of his aunt Princess Guantao, when he was young, and then publicly announced that he would build a gorgeous golden house to settle her. However, from the perspective of blood relationship, Gillian is actually Liu Che's cousin, and the sibling relationship between the two is indeed very close.
If modern marriage philosophy and ethics are followed, such behavior is obviously not allowed. Whether it is from the legal level or the moral level, it is a serious departure from the principles of social civilization. It is worth emphasizing that, according to the clear provisions of China's Civil Code, the scope of prohibiting marriage between close relatives includes, but is not limited to, the following situations: both men and women must not only have direct blood relations, but also have collateral blood relations within three generations; If the marriage relationship falls under any of the above listed circumstances, it will be regarded as an invalid marriage and will not be protected by law.
However, people in ancient times did not understand this, and they did not realize the great hidden dangers of intermarriage. Throughout the costume dramas on TV screens, such intricate marriage scenes within families are not uncommon, yet many viewers are confused about what constitutes a close relative. What is the definition of a close relative?
It is generally accepted that the vast majority of marriages between royal families in contemporary society are subject to this exclusion zone because both lineal blood relatives and collateral blood relatives within three generations are included in the category of close relatives. Despite this, ancient societies have always had a positive attitude towards the issue, even considering it a fortunate thing, and have persisted in this tradition for thousands of years.
Some experts pointed out that people in ancient society attached more importance to family interests and personal lineage inheritance, and in order to maintain the stability of family assets and rights and ensure effective control of social politics in the future, they resolutely chose to follow the advice of their elders and chose to find a suitable marriage partner in the clan. Modern medical research has shown that inbreeding is very likely to lead to genetic defects, and the likelihood of producing offspring suffering from genetic diseases is greatly increased, especially within a family, relatives often share a part of the common genes, this phenomenon is called the common ancestor effect.
It is important to emphasize that not all consanguineous marriages result in offspring exhibiting significant genetic defects. In fact, although many members of the ancient Chinese royal family had such marital relationships, they did not show too prominent negative effects, which involved some probability, or perhaps because the family did not carry the relevant disease-causing genes, so the offspring born were still in a healthy state.
However, in any case, consanguineous marriages do have greater potential health risks than marriages in general. Therefore, in today's society, we should strengthen the management and regulation at the ethical and legal levels to avoid possible risks as much as possible. It has long been confirmed that certain inherited traits are caused by single gene mutations, such as common conditions such as thalassemia and cystic fibrosis.
Most notably, between about 1046 BC and 256 BCE, the Zhou dynasty implemented an ingenious strategy to successfully get rid of the negative effects of inbreeding on future generations. At that time, the social system and legal system were not yet perfect, and in order to enhance the strength and influence of the family, marriage was usually based on family background, social status and even blood relations as the main reference factors, and the decision had to be made by the elders. In the regulations, it is also clearly stipulated that marriage between families with the same surname is not allowed, and in this way people are guided to the path of interracial marriage, so as to expand the family's power reputation.
Therefore, it is clear that even when choosing to marry between relatives, the relevant etiquette and ethics should be followed. Assuming that the proposed person does not have the same surname, the risk of potential genetic defects can be greatly reduced, thereby radically reducing the birth rate of deformed children in the future.
As for the traditional concept of the principle of "matching the family", it requires that both men and women have a considerable degree of compatibility in terms of family background, wealth status and educational level. The purpose of this move is to avoid contempt and exclusion caused by economic interests, cultural differences and other factors, and to ensure the stability and longevity of the marriage. It is worth mentioning that in history, this kind of high matching is rare, and often the officially optimized mate selection partners are from non-close relatives, so it is difficult to constitute the phenomenon of close relatives marrying, thus avoiding the occurrence of many genetic diseases.
Although there were no sophisticated medical skills in ancient times, many folk customs and habits were preserved. One of the most interesting is the so-called "exchange of blood"** practice, once a marriage between close relatives occurs, in order to avoid the pain caused by genetic diseases, they often use a variety of food or acupuncture and other methods to try to modify the composition of the blood, although there is no scientific basis, but if you consider the environment at the time, this attempt may be regarded as a best effort.
It should be noted that although Chinese dynasties allowed almost free marriage, the male-dominated social structure of the time encouraged men to have multiple wives. As long as you can afford and maintain the cost, you can leave the matter of marrying a wife to fate. For the birth of a deformed baby, due to the limitation of medical standards, the child's defects may not be detected. In fact, malformation does not only mean the external appearance of the child at birth, but also includes damage to various internal organs and brain function, which means that we cannot determine whether a person is a malformed child based on the naked eye alone.
In the distant past, the birth process was undoubtedly full of great dangers, and pregnant women could be in danger of their lives at any time, and even the death of both mother and baby. Some scholars have pointed out that many deformed babies will show various adverse symptoms in the early stages of pregnancy, and these symptoms are extremely difficult to survive, resulting in most early maternal deaths.
Comparatively, most of the children who are lucky enough to be born are perfectly healthy. With the rapid development of modern biotechnology, human beings have gradually deepened their understanding of genetics, and only then have they begun to realize the genetic diseases that may be caused by consanguineous marriage. According to statistics, people of close relatives are up to 160 times more likely to have a sick child than non-close relatives! This is really worrying.
Looking back at the history of our country, as early as the beginning of the founding of New China, the liberated areas promulgated relevant marriage laws and regulations, strictly prohibiting intermarriage between close relatives. After many revisions and improvements, this provision is still written into the laws and regulations of various judicial countries to this day.
However, in the course of world history, European royalty and aristocracy have become the most enthusiastic group of geneticists because of their admiration for the purity of blood. So much so that they married each other within the royal family, but their descendants went through hardships and misery. Looking at Mr. Charles II, the last heir of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty, from a distance, his typical "shoehorn" face and empty eyes seem to tell some kind of physical defect. Some may say that this is an isolated case, but it is not. Looking back at Charles II's father, this blonde man did have a face similar to his young son, but his eyes appeared brighter, as if he were a normal person. Then let's go back to his grandparents.
If you look at this picture, you will find that the king named Charles II, whose grandfather also had the same face, only slightly disguised. In our culture, this phenomenon is called"The earth covers the sky", that is, the jaw is more prominent, not very eye-catching, which is different from the traditional aesthetic concept, but it is not considered a physical defect.
According to the existing genetic science research, the formation of Charles II may be due to the strong genetic factors of this type in his ancestors, which affects the appearance characteristics of the entire family members. However, it is important to recognize that the intermarriage of European royalty had a profound impact on the course of history, especially the venerable Habsburg family, which had ruled over many European powers, including Austria, Hungary, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany, but which gradually collapsed due to the lack of male heirs since the 18th century.
Many people can't help but wonder why the royal family, which originally had great wealth and power, fell into decay in such a short period of time. Through the in-depth study of scientists**, the past of the royal family can be said to be based on the main line of intermarriage, and the birth of many offspring with congenital intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities has made them unable to protect the family wealth, let alone defend the honor of their ancestors who fought bloodily.
It is worth noting that Charles II, mentioned above, did not speak until he was four years old, and could barely walk at the age of eight; At the age of 24, the height did not exceed that of a child from a slave family, his body was thin and weak, and his life span only lasted for more than 30 years before the curtain came to an end. Other members of the family also suffer from slurred speech, frequent facial paralysis, and salivation, and the head and torso ratio are extremely unbalanced, as if a strange picture is displayed in front of the world. With the continuous progress of human society in the direction of more civilization, more and more people have begun to pay attention to a comprehensive physical examination before marriage, and try to avoid factors that are unfavorable to the health of offspring. At the same time, medical technology is also developing rapidly, and the best means for deformed children are becoming more and more mature, perhaps in the near future, by solving the mystery of genetic science, we are expected to shape a new era of civilization.