Dear friends, let's go deeper, in that special period, what kind of clever plan did the famous Han Gaozu Liu Bang come up with to solve the population problem? In this matter, we need to start with the special background mentioned above - the serious war when the Western Han Dynasty was first built.
As we all know, agricultural production in ancient times had an extremely strong demand for arable land, and the number of people was particularly important in order to clear wasteland to increase food production. However, during that special period, many counties in the Western Han Dynasty were gradually abandoned because they were uncultivated, which made the problem of food shortage worse. However, this key factor, the number of people, was surprisingly small during that time!
Although Liu Bang did not receive a systematic education, he always saw this issue very clearly and thoroughly, so since he ascended the throne, in addition to implementing the policy of recuperation, another important task is to promote the people's fertility. How?
It's a challenging task and a dream for men, but it can be a nightmare for women. To put it simply, the emperor decreed that all women who had reached the age of fifteen must marry, and if there were women over the age of fifteen who had not yet had time to complete the marriage, the imperial court would levy the so-called "single fee" on them.
In that difficult era, the people's own belongings were already stretched, and most families could not afford to bear the additional burden, so there was a phenomenon in society: families who gave birth to baby girls would voluntarily send their girls to other people's homes, and those bachelors who had difficulty finding daughters-in-law in the past became a hot choice in the market due to the promotion of this policy.
It is rumored that in the process of promoting this policy, a family surnamed Wang in Ruyang County even went directly to the county government because of marrying a daughter. The family has two daughters under their knees, of which the eldest daughter is called Jiao'er and the second daughter is called Qiao'er. At first, the Wang couple planned to wait for their daughter to become an adult, and then marry a wealthy family in the next county, and negotiated that the eldest daughter would marry the eldest son and the second daughter should marry the younger son.
Unfortunately, the emperor's demand that women must complete the marriage before the age of fifteen could not be resisted, and in desperation, the family had to ask others to go to the neighboring county town, hoping that the other party would agree to advance the marriage. However, what is puzzling is that in this world, due to the decree of the Son of Heaven, the women of the entire county have become ashamed to marry, so the families who were willing to accept their daughters have now become picky. The family's interest in their Wang family's daughter was much less than before, and they watched as their daughter's status was affected.
As the saying goes, "a soldier can be killed, but not humiliated", which made the two sisters of the Wang family feel embarrassed, and they unanimously decided to go to Huangquan together with their resolute personalities, leaving their young lives at home. This is a shame! The Wang family and his wife lost their beloved daughter, and angrily sued each other to the county yamen. The two sides of the original kinship relationship turned against each other because of this matter, and there was an uncommon enmity in life, and even paid the price of life for it.
However, history always follows the tide of rise and fall. Although this great policy dealt a heavy blow to feudal society, it was eventually implemented, and the population gradually showed a momentum of growth. In those days, fertility became stronger, the country's access to labor was improving day by day, and the economy began to have good opportunities for development.
However, I have to admit that women in that era have always been in an extremely painful situation, the fate of marriage and love is completely out of their own hands, and they began to bear the burden of childbirth at a young age, and the number of children is also not the right to decide.