In today’s life, there are countless costume TV dramas about the Qing Dynasty, but do these really reflect the real life of the Qing Dynasty? At least the hairstyle is wrong. After all, before the late Qing Dynasty, men had extremely ugly money rat tails on their heads. On the other hand, in the lives of ordinary people in film and television dramas, although the extras wore patched clothes, they were still pretty Healthy, well-fed, well-clothed, is this really the case? If you have heard the older generation talk about hard life, you will definitely not think so. How difficult was it for the poor in the past? How poor were the poor in ancient times? Qing Palace Opera is a lie, this set of old photos from a hundred years ago is unbearable
Historically, many historians refer to the period of Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong as the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong periods, while the West calls it Known as "high qing", during this period, the Qing Dynasty had the strongest national power, stable society, rapid population growth, and vast territory, establishing the territory of today's China.
Is the life of ordinary people in the late Qing Dynasty worse than that of the Kangxi and Qianlong periods? Not necessarily. During the Qianlong period, the Qing government's annual fiscal revenue reached a maximum of 80 million taels of silver. However, during the Guangxu period, the productivity of the Qing Dynasty was liberated after the reform movement. In the second half of the 19th century, the average revenue was 90 million, and later it was even more Hundreds of millions, which shows that no matter how powerful the powers are, the domestic economy has generally remained stable.
This is a photo of a family of seven in the Qing Dynasty. In fact, it reflects the most basic appearance of poor farmers at that time. Their bodies were wrapped in tattered cotton cloth, and two or three children were even barefoot. Ya, the clothes are not covering the body, and the woman in the picture does not have feet bound. This bad habit mostly only exists in wealthy and wealthy families, while the lower-class residents, including women, have to engage in agricultural production. At that time, there was no suitable birth control method, which caused the family to become poorer and poorer, barely maintaining a balance.
When the people of the Qing Dynasty saw a camera for the first time, their faces were filled with fear and curiosity. The camera was first invented in 1839, and it was not long before it entered China, in 1846 Brought in by the French who worked in the customs, more and more missionaries later used cameras to take pictures of folk customs, but most of them were boycotted. Because of the Qing court, the image of these missionaries among the people was first exaggerated into Demons that eat children, and the instruments in their hands can also seduce people's souls, so many residents refused to take pictures. By the Guangxu period (1871), there were still many people who had never seen a camera.
The two men in the picture above are two beggars who have just come out from a wealthy family to beg. From their skinny bodies, it is easy to see that they have not had a full meal in a long time. The big bowl was also empty.
This is an old man from a close distance with a haggard face. The front teeth are already scarce, and the clothes are in tatters. It can be said that they are completely shabby, which makes people feel sad and uncomfortable.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the population of the Qing Dynasty ushered in a large-scale explosion, breaking through the 100 million mark at the end of the 17th century. During the Qianlong Jiaqing period in 1800, it exceeded 300 million, and reached 4 in 1850. billion. Although the population shrank slightly in the late Qing Dynasty due to foreign wars and the Taiping Rebellion, it still maintained a number of more than 400 million.
Some people may ask, since the population can increase so much, it means that the food of the people has always been sufficient, why do the people in the photos look weak and weak? The growth of the population of the Qing Dynasty was firstly due to the policy of "never increasing taxes to increase population" implemented in the early Qing Dynasty, and secondly, the introduction of high-yielding and drought-tolerant crops such as corn and sweet potatoes from the West.
The most basic solution is to provide people with food rations. However, it must be pointed out that these crops can only sustain survival. If they are eaten every day, they will still cause malnutrition and even body defects. When edema occurs, it’s no wonder that most of the people in the photo are disheveled.
I also hope that people will not use TV dramas to interpret history, but learn about the painful lives of the past from history books and use this as a lesson.