Many things are inevitable caused by the environment. The phenomenon of early marriage and early birth in the 16th century may be considered strange and unacceptable by future generations, but that is the fact.
Even the Holy Emperor sometimes finds this fact very strange, but he doesn't say much about it.
Because Li Xuan himself became a grandfather many years ago.
The eldest son of the emperor, King Li of Qi in Beihai Province, gave birth to his first son when he was sixteen years old in the 20th year of Xuanping. This was also Li Xuan's first grandson.
How old was Li Xuan at that time?
Li Xuan was only thirty-six years old at that time!
Now, Li Xuan is only fifty-four years old, but his eldest grandson is already eighteen, what else can Li Xuan say...
After all, early marriage and early birth are common these days, and it is not just the royal family, it is also the case among the people.
Nowadays, the general age of marriage for young men and women in the Tang Dynasty is about sixteen years old, and it does not matter whether they are high or low, regardless of whether they are royal families, nobles, ordinary citizens, or peasants.
Generally speaking, if you are 17 or 18 years old and do not have a husband (including an engaged wife), you are basically an old girl, and the market situation will not be very good.
But in future generations, I was still a student at the age of seventeen or eighteen!
Therefore, in Datang, many students studying in the Tang Dynasty often got married when they were in middle school, and many of those who went to preparatory courses and went to university were married men.
What causes this phenomenon actually has nothing to do with so-called traditional concepts or ignorance. The most important thing is that people's average life span is relatively low. If we don't get married early and fall in love early, we can't maintain the population.
Therefore, you cannot simply look at the surface of many things. You have to understand them deeply, and then you will find that the truth of things is often completely different from what appears on the surface.
Even now, the average life expectancy of people in the Tang Dynasty is only about forty years old, and this is the result of more than 20 years of hard work by the Tang Dynasty.
Looking at the contemporary world, the average life span of forty years is the highest in the world. The average life span of people in no country or region can exceed that of the contemporary Tang Dynasty.
Some areas without war and with relatively good material conditions may have people in their thirties, but in most areas the average life expectancy is only about thirty years old, and in war-torn areas this number does not even reach thirty years.
The Tang Dynasty was able to surpass other countries around the world in one fell swoop, allowing the average life span of the people of the empire to reach forty years. This was not due to progress in a single aspect, but to the progress of society as a whole.
The biggest driving force is naturally the expansion of productivity.
Since Datang solved the problem of high-pressure steam engines and allowed high-pressure steam engines to be used as stable power for factories, ships, and trains, the steam revolution of Datang was officially launched.
Although low-pressure steam engines have been used in the Tang Dynasty for a long time, they were only used on a small scale in mines, and their role was actually quite limited. Before the 19th year of Xuanping, the main driving force in the manufacturing industry of the Tang Dynasty was mainly hydraulic power.
It was not until the 19th year of Xuanping, when the high-pressure steam engine appeared, that the steam engine completely replaced water power and became industrial power, and continued to develop ships and trains.
The huge development of manufacturing and transportation also brought the Tang Empire completely into the steam age.
Production efficiency has increased significantly, and a large number of industrial products have begun to flood every corner of society.
At the same time, it indirectly promoted the abundance of living materials, especially grain. According to statistics from the Ministry of Household Affairs of the Tang Dynasty, the current per capita grain consumption level in the Tang Dynasty far exceeds that of other countries and regions. The per capita grain level in mainland China remains at about 400 kilograms.
, and in some overseas mainland or overseas territories in grain-producing areas, the number is even higher.
For example, in the Americas, per capita grain has reached 800 kilograms, almost double that of the mainland.
In fact, in North America, especially the relatively well-developed Xinnanzhou, Sanhezhou and other areas, it is a typical area with few people and more land, and they are all fertile fields. The local food is very abundant, and the local imperial subjects
Their staple food for three meals a day is already abundant, and they are more pursuing meat and other foods.
The per capita grain consumption level of 400 kilograms per capita in the empire's mainland was achieved through comprehensive efforts from many aspects, including reclamation of wasteland, development of border areas, extensive use of guano fertilizers, huge investments in water conservancy and irrigation facilities, and the construction of water conservancy and irrigation facilities from Southeast Asia and even from China.
A large amount of crops were brought back from America.
It took a lot of hard work to reach this number.
But what about other parts of the contemporary world?
Datang officials in Europe once evaluated Spain's living standards and came up with a figure of two hundred kilograms!
Although this data is inaccurate and has certain deviations, it can still reflect the living standards of contemporary Spanish people to a certain extent, and then infer the standards of the entire country.
The abundance of living materials is an important condition for increasing the average life span of the population!
How can you live longer if you don’t have enough to eat?
In addition to progress in eating, the increase in life expectancy in Datang is also due to medical progress.
There is no doubt how important medical development is to the development of average life expectancy.
In order to promote the development of Datang Medicine, Datang has made tremendous efforts, both in terms of manpower and funds.
Among the many research projects at the Royal Institute of Technology, many have invested huge amounts of money, but have never produced much. Among them, medical research is definitely the biggest contributor.
Even other theoretical research, such as theoretical physics, has little output, but theoretical research relies on genius and does not require expensive experiments every day.
But medicine is different, and researching it is very troublesome.
Not to mention all kinds of theoretical research, just looking for drugs is a huge trouble.
Datang's medical research has been walking on two legs for so many years. One is to organize and research traditional Chinese medicine. Organizing is nothing, it is just sorting out prescriptions and promoting them. The focus is on research.
A group of people from the medical department tried to figure out why various treatments of traditional Chinese medicine, including acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, can cure diseases!
It is a pity that even in the 21st century, this problem cannot be understood, let alone the Tang Dynasty today.
However, they have still achieved results, that is, although they still do not understand the principle, it is still possible to use some of the active ingredients in some traditional Chinese medicines to treat diseases.
One of the more important achievements is the extraction of quinine, which was extracted from the cinchona tree, because the Tang Dynasty people discovered that the cinchona tree has an excellent therapeutic effect on malaria. After a long period of experimental analysis, it was finally extracted from
Quinine is extracted from the cinchona tree.
This thing is a huge progress for the development of medicine in Datang!
Especially for immigrants, quinine is an essential drug.