During the mid-Qing period, population growth in China was fueled by economic prosperity, peace, and improved agriculture. Irrigation, fertilizer, and new crops from the Americas increased food production and nutrition. As a result, the Chinese population doubled to 300 million by 1800 and was healthier and more geographically mobile. However, traditional Confucian social structures persisted, favoring sons over daughters. Women's responsibilities outside the home coexisted with practices like foot-binding that caused lifelong suffering.

1. DAILY LIFE IN MING AND QING
CHINA

2. A handful of factors lead to a fast
population growth during the mid
Qing period. The first source for the
population growth was of course the
economical prosperity and relative
peace under the century of the three
Emperors Kangxi, Yongzheng and
Qianlong.

3.  Furthermore, in the
1600’s and 1700’s, a
greater rice
production meant a
better life for most
Chinese. It is
during this period
that the population
doubled to about
300 million by 1800.

4. Most Chinese families farmed using
techniques their ancestors had used for
thousands of years.

5. However, irrigation and fertilizer was used
more widely during the Qing Dynasty,
effectively increasing production.

6. Moreover, new
crops such as corn
and sweet potatoes,
brought by the
Europeans from the
Americas, were
grown and
consequently
improved nutrition
and diet.

7.  The result of this was a
Chinese population in
better health, which in
turn, encouraged
families to expand.
There is evidence
suggesting that the
empire's rapidly
expanding population
was geographically
mobile on a scale never
before seen .

8.  The three dominant
influences on 17th century
Chinese thought and
belief were Confucianism,
Daoism and Buddhism.
These are primarily
philosophical and ethical
systems rather than
religions, and each of
these traditions have
schools of thought and
sects.

9.  Chinese sons were favored over daughters. Sons were
the only ones allowed to carry on vital religious
rituals. Sons would raise their families under their
parents’ roof which assured aging parents’ care in
their old age. Men dominated the workplace,
household and their wives.

10. Women did work in the fields, manage
the home, oversee the children’s
education, and some even found jobs
outside the home as midwives or textile
workers.

11. Despite these
important
responsibilities,
female infants were
not valued and many
were killed as a result.
Although attitudes
have changed, even
today, a culture exists
which does not value
females.

12.  One example of a
woman’s suffering is
depicted in the traditional
practice of foot-binding.
Young girls' feet, usually
at age 6, but often earlier,
were wrapped in tight
bandages so they could
not grow normally. The
feet would break and
become deformed as they
reached adulthood. The
feet would remain small
and dysfunctional, prone
to infection and paralysis.