Judging from the performance of the past two years, China's fertility data is constantly declining. On the one hand, this result is because with the development of the economy, many people's enthusiasm for childbirth will decline; On the other hand, it is also because the cost of raising children is getting higher and higher, which is unaffordable.
For example, in recent years, various prenatal education centers have become very popular, attracting the attention of many parents, and the fees of such institutions are quite high. Many people believe that prenatal education is a means of eugenics and parenting from abroad, and they highly respect it.
But in fact, prenatal education actually appeared very early, and many scholars in ancient China had in-depth research in this area, and a complete concept of prenatal education appeared in the Han Dynasty.
According to historical records, the Han Dynasty had strict requirements for expectant mothers, not only to carry out relevant training, but also to follow the relevant regulations in the process of pregnancy, and to carry out prenatal education for the child.
Woman. What is certain is that in traditional Chinese culture, the content of "prenatal education" appeared very early, and it was born much earlier than many people imagined.
The reason why the culture related to prenatal education has appeared is because the ancient Chinese highly respected a concept, that is, "the original, ten thousand physics, the slightest mistake, the difference of thousands of miles; Therefore, the gentleman is cautious".
From this sentence, some scholars derive a truth: if you want to cultivate children into talents, you must do a good job from the beginning.
And this so-called "very beginning" refers to the fetal stage, and these people believe that from the moment the child is conceived in the mother's body, it must be educated. Only in this way can we cultivate talents with excellent ability and excellent quality.
According to the records of historical books, in the pre-Qin period, the first professional book about women's fetal care and prenatal education appeared in China, called "The Woman's Fetus Collection". It's a pity that this book has been lost due to war and other factors, and future generations can no longer see it.
Pregnant. After the Han Dynasty completed the unification of the world, after a long period of recuperation, the country's development was on the right track, and many industries made great progress.
Among them, the content of women's fetal care and prenatal education also began to appear, and gradually became popular among the upper nobility.
Liu Xiang, the minister of the Western Han Dynasty and a famous literary scholar, wrote such a passage in his compilation of the work "The Biography of the Daughters of the Lie: The Mother Rite": (Tairen) and his body (body pregnancy), his eyes do not look at evil colors, his ears do not listen to evil voices, and his mouth does not speak proudly, and he can teach his son with a fetus and give birth to a king of Wen.
The meaning of this passage is that King Wen of Zhou's mother, Tairen, was a person of outstanding virtue, and after becoming pregnant, she attached great importance to the protection of her eyes, ears and mouth. And she continued to read the classics during pregnancy to educate the fetus in her womb, and finally gave birth to the virtuous king Zhou Wenwang.
King Wen of Zhou. This is the first time that the word "prenatal education" has appeared in a book. Considering that "The Biography of the Daughters" is an important book compiled by the Western Han Dynasty, it can be inferred that prenatal education has been recognized by many people at that time. After the publication of this book, it was gradually promoted to all parts of the country.
In addition to Liu Xiang, Jia Yi, a famous minister in the Western Han Dynasty, also admired "prenatal education", he believed that if you want your child to grow into a talent, you must start education from an early age, and the earlier the education, the better. Based on this, Jia Yi believes that allowing mothers to educate the fetus during pregnancy will achieve twice the result with half the effort.
Not only that, Jia Yi is also sure that all the mother's behaviors and her surrounding environment will also invisibly affect the mental development of the fetus. Therefore, these contents should also be regarded as the key to "prenatal education" and need to be paid special attention.
Jia Yi's concept of education was recognized by Emperor Liu Heng of the Han Dynasty, and he soon popularized it in the court, and many of the royal children received "prenatal education".
Later, this concept gradually became popular among the powerful families and won the strong recognition of the upper class of the Western Han Dynasty.
Emperor Wen of Han. What is certain is that whether it is Jia Yi's theory or Liuxiang's understanding of "prenatal education", its essence is the same. They emphasize more on the influence of the mother's behavior and the surrounding environment on the child's mental development, so the "prenatal education" of the upper class of the Western Han Dynasty has strict requirements for expectant mothers.
According to the records of the Book of Han and other relevant classics, after the powerful families became pregnant, they would first arrange the expectant mother in a specific environment to avoid the influence of the surrounding things on the child. Then we will hire excellent Confucian students and related talents to educate the mother-to-be, so that her every move in the future can meet the requirements of etiquette.
After the words and deeds of the expectant mother, the fetus will be exposed to the relevant content of the ceremony early, and it is easier to grow into a pillar of talent with excellent character and learning after birth.
Judging from the content recorded in the history books, there are many things that expectant mothers need to pay attention to, first of all, they must maintain a dignified and calm demeanor in their daily walking, sitting and lying.
For example, at that time, Hanshu paid attention to "sleeping on the side", which meant that you could not lie down casually when sleeping, and you must have a good posture to give the child the best example. Similarly, expectant mothers should also be upright when walking and sitting down to rest, and must conform to the female manners prescribed by the "weekly etiquette".
In addition to the regulations on walking, sitting and lying down, the "prenatal education" of the Han Dynasty also has a very important content, that is, the expectant mother must not look at or listen to incivility.
Because Jia Yi and others believe that if expectant mothers see or hear some discordant or unhealthy content, it will first affect their emotions, and emotions can be infected to children through the mother;
Secondly, these indecent contents will also invisibly affect the fetus's thoughts, and too much contact will even hinder the development of the fetus's character.
Educate. This is why expectant mothers of elite families raise their babies in specific areas or quiet manors to avoid seeing or hearing indecent content to the greatest extent.
As mentioned earlier, scholars in the Han Dynasty believed that mothers' emotional changes would be passed on to their children, while ancient medicine believed that negative emotions were very harmful to the body.
Therefore, another key part of the "prenatal education" of the Han Dynasty is to keep expectant mothers happy and try to keep them in a positive mood all the time.
Only in this way can the child remain stable and have a good temperament and moral character.
Prenatal. Finally, the rational combination of pregnant women's diet also began in the Han Dynasty, and it was also regarded as a key part of "prenatal education".
Obviously, the doctors and scholars at that time did not know anything about nutritional elements, but they just thought that a reasonable diet was more in line with the "moderation" idea put forward by the sages, and was also more in line with the principles of the Tao, and was more beneficial to the development of children.
In this way, the expectant mothers of the Han Dynasty had to contribute a lot in the process of "prenatal education", and there were many places that needed attention.
Infant. In fact, the Han Dynasty had a complete system of "prenatal education", and not only expectant mothers had to make efforts. In the process of pregnancy, the people that the father-to-be comes into contact with also need to meet certain standards, such as excellent scholars who meet the standards of benevolence, righteousness and filial piety.
In fact, from this perspective, it can be seen that the "prenatal education" of the Han Dynasty has a very clear core content, that is, to expose the fetus to more content about Confucianism.
This is true both for expectant mothers and beyond.
This is also very normal, with the implementation of the national policy of "overthrowing the hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone" by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Confucianism has become the prominent study of the Han Dynasty. If the children of the family want to get ahead and become officials in the court, they must learn this aspect.
Emperor. In fact, the Confucian doctrine is also in line with the minds of most parents-to-be, because its core content is to focus on "benevolence and righteousness" and advocate "filial piety". At any time, educating children to be "filial piety" is what parents like to see the most.
The prenatal education advocated by the Han Dynasty was actually to let mothers and fathers set an example and achieve the purpose of educating their children by regulating their own behavior.
Moreover, in the process of prenatal education, all kinds of training will also strengthen the mother's virtue and manners, which can play a very big role in promoting the education of children in the future, so that children can be exposed to the "etiquette" advocated by Confucianism earlier.
Of course, those who are familiar with history know that the Han Dynasty did not only promote Confucianism, but also Taoism. The prevalent "prenatal education" at that time naturally contained many Taoist ideas and elements, which could be matched with Confucianism to form a complementary effect.
Infant. In addition to complying with some Confucian norms during pregnancy, expectant mothers also need to pay attention to the physical and mental conditioning. The latter is obviously the content of Taoist doctrine, and from the perspective of modern medicine, this Taoist idea is indeed of great help to the "cultivation" of children.
Moreover, in the "prenatal education" classics of the Han Dynasty, it is also mentioned that the content of cultivating expectant mothers to learn to respect nature and live in harmony with the world is also mentioned. This is obviously also a Taoist idea, and they believe that it is very helpful for expectant mothers to read more such books to strengthen their children's perception of "Tao".
After a comprehensive analysis, it can be seen that the "prenatal education" model of the Han Dynasty did have some truth in it, and these contents were all drawn by scholars at that time through observation and summarization of the lessons of their predecessors. Many of the contents are still of reference significance for modern education.
Prenatal. What is certain is that if the "prenatal education" of the Han Dynasty wants to be successfully realized, the most important thing is the intellectual accomplishment and moral level of the expectant mother herself. Therefore, the reason why the ancient big families paid attention to the right family is to ensure this.
Of course, if you want to let the expectant mother have rich knowledge and good cultivation, it must be based on receiving education, otherwise it is empty talk. Before the Western Han Dynasty, even the families of the powerful would not provide education for their daughters, so naturally they could not talk about academic knowledge and cultivation.
After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, many scholars emphasized the influence of mothers on children, so the education of women gradually began to be valued.
At first, the royal family first adjusted, and they established a special aristocratic girls' school, so that noblewomen and princesses could learn the Confucian and Taoist classics. Even the concubines who enter the harem need to learn this aspect in order to better teach the prince by word and deed.
Imperial concubine. This attempt of the royal family has achieved very good results, and the princess and noble daughter of the Liu family have been praised by everyone.
As a result, the wealthy and powerful families also began to find teachers for their daughters, teaching them Confucian and Taoist classics, and training them in the content of "prenatal education" in advance.
Slowly, the elite became aware of a new problem, that the Confucian classics were not necessarily suitable for women's education, and that special books were needed. As a result, Liu Xiangcai, the aforementioned minister of the clan and a famous literary scholar, compiled the book "The Biography of the Daughters" at the behest of the royal family and used it as a book for educating noble women.
Later, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the famous historian and writer Ban Zhao wrote "The Female Commandment", a private book that taught the women of the Ban family to behave as people. As soon as this book came out, it was quickly recognized by the aristocratic and wealthy families, and quickly became a must-read book for families to teach their daughters in private.
In this way, China has recently established a relatively complete "prenatal education" system in the Han Dynasty, and its concept has gradually matured with the efforts of generations. Of course, in retrospect, there are many stereotypical and old-fashioned contents in this "prenatal education" system, and there are also many restrictions on women. But at that time, it did have a certain degree of advancement.
The content of the emphasis that "parents must pay attention to teaching their children by word and deed" is an unbreakable truth even today. Nowadays, many parents are not aware of this, so that they spend money in vain, but there are always serious problems with their children's education.