Guide to Fetal Health, Healthy Pregnancy, and Optimal Child-rearing

Author: Zeng Qiangwu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: Interesting Discussions on Eugenics in Ancient and Modern Times
China has long had the sayings "May the son be a dragon" and "May the daughter be a phoenix." These reflect people's aspirations and expectations for eugenics and optimal child-rearing. In ancient Greek history, the eugenics practices of Sparta have been vividly described by many classical writers as amusingly interesting. In the 6th century BC, Sparta, after establishing itself as a major power among Greek city-states through military strength, was not only a leading military power in the world but also a powerhouse in sports. Before the Peloponnesian War, it was the dominant force in the main competitions of the ancient Olympic Games. This was no coincidence. Apart from socio-economic factors, Sparta's early implementation of an eugenics system was a significant reason. Classical writers Plutarch and Xenophon provided many vivid and specific accounts of this.
The ancient Spartan regime had specific laws that regulated the age at which young men could marry and imposed severe penalties on early, late, or illegal marriages. They prohibited women from serving as soldiers, believing that women fighting in wars would affect their physical condition. A nation without physically strong mothers would find it difficult to produce and raise excellent, robust soldiers. In Plutarch's writings, there is a vivid description: "Spartan girls were required to run, fight, throw discuses, and throw javelins to ensure their bodies remained strong, so that children could develop normally before birth. This made it easier for mothers to give birth due to their good health."
"Active young girls, during exercise, would leap fiercely, resembling a deer's hops; when sprinting, their hair would fly like that of a foal, leaving the ground covered in dust." At that time, the health, beauty, and courage of Spartan women were unparalleled in the world, and as a result, they gave birth to mighty, strong, and brave soldiers. The Spartan regime also intervened in the private and family lives of its citizens, believing these were part of national life and could directly influence the birth of strong, healthy children, which was crucial for the prosperity and strength of the nation.
After a baby was born, it had to be examined by elders. After the examination, the baby was given a bath with wine to test its physical condition. As children grew older, they were taught to be content, self-pleasing, not to be picky eaters, not to fear darkness or solitude, not to be willful, and not to be noisy. At the age of seven, they were all enrolled in children's camps to learn throwing, wrestling, running, jumping, swimming, and grappling. They placed special emphasis on cultivating the perseverance and courage of young people. Their training methods were particularly severe: they were forced to walk barefoot in extreme heat and cold, swim in rivers during windy, snowy, and rainy weather, and spend long years camping by the riverbanks among reeds. They were deliberately given poor and insufficient food to make the children fight hunger. There was also an unbelievable and cruel regulation: the ancient Spartan regime set up (abandonment grounds) at the foot of nearby mountains. When a baby was born and examined by elders, if it was found to have physical defects, deformities, or weakness, it was sent to the abandonment grounds to die. It was claimed that this was responsible for the nation, the family, and the child itself.
In modern times, with the advancement of science and civilization, people can use scientific and technological methods to examine tissue samples, genetic fingerprints, etc., to predict whether a fetus has defects, allowing for timely attention and pregnancy termination. During pregnancy, it is necessary to undergo "ABO Hemolytic Disease of the Fetus and Newborn" prenatal screening at the hospital. Even healthy couples can have healthy children who are susceptible to this disease, especially those where the husband is type A blood and the wife is type O blood. Couples with this blood type combination must undergo this test as early as possible to detect and prevent it.
Eugenics has attracted human attention, and more and more countries are formulating or implementing eugenics protection laws. The world's first eugenics law was formally enacted in Indiana, USA, in 1907, which explicitly prohibited individuals with severe genetic defects from having children. Japan formulated and revised its eugenics protection laws three times in 1940, 1948, and 1960, establishing the "Eugenics Protection Committee" and setting up eugenics protection consultation offices, gradually improving its eugenics legal system. Japan successively enacted laws such as the "National Eugenics Law" and the "Eugenics Protection Law," which played an important role in improving the population quality of the Japanese nation. Some countries also stipulate legal liabilities for any marital union that results in children with severe genetic diseases such as idiocy. Many countries also teach love, marriage, genetics, and eugenics in secondary school textbooks to foster societal awareness and responsibility for eugenics, helping people understand which behaviors and factors align with eugenics and which violate it.
In China, our ancestors have long understood the scientific principles of eugenics. The famous Tang Dynasty monk Wang Fanzhi wrote a poem advocating that a couple should have only one child: "Many children are not needed, one is enough. Continuously giving birth, the world will have no place to sit. If you don't hurry and step back, you will see the sky break." Setting aside the poem's artistic merit, from the perspective of eugenics, it tells us that having fewer children is the prerequisite for eugenics, which is not a modern concept but was understood and promoted as early as the Tang Dynasty. In fact, many current hot topics in eugenics, such as late marriage and fewer births, physical condition, consanguineous marriage, and environmental factors, can all be found in ancient texts, where they are corroborated by modern theories.
The "Zuo Zhuan" from the Spring and Autumn Period contains the saying, "If a man and a woman share the same surname, their offspring will be weak," considering the factor that children born from consanguineous marriages often suffer from low intelligence, idiocy, or genetic diseases. During the Song Dynasty, laws were even enacted stipulating, "Children of paternal and maternal uncles and aunts cannot marry." The literary giant Cao Xueqin meticulously crafted the characters Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu in "Dream of the Red Chamber," yet skillfully introduced the touching and resonant plotlines of "Lin Daiyu Burying Flowers" and "Jia Baoyu Losing His Jade," revealing the prohibition of consanguineous marriage.
Today, we advocate late marriage and fewer births, a principle that our ancestors also recognized long ago. The Song Dynasty female scientist Chen Ziming advocated late marriage, stating, "Although men reach sexual maturity at sixteen, they must marry at thirty. Women have their first menstruation at fourteen but must marry at twenty." Scientific research confirms that the quality of a fetus is closely related to the quality of sperm. Therefore, smoking, excessive drinking, sexual indulgence, and overeating or exhaustion are all detrimental to eugenics. The Song Dynasty medical scholar Ge Hong pointed out, "Do not engage in sexual activity after drinking, after exhaustion, after hunger, or after overeating." Here, "" refers to the twelve two-hour periods of the day, with "" time being 9 to 11 a.m., also known as the "yang middle" period. Medical meteorology tells us that weather and environmental conditions are also important factors in eugenics, so sexual activity should not occur under poor weather conditions or in noisy environments, otherwise, the offspring may be unhealthy or unintelligent.
Our ancestors in China had long held the beliefs, "Do not engage in sexual activity during thunderstorms" and "pregnant women watching plays often give birth to strange offspring." On the other hand, on sunny and pleasant days, with harmonious emotions and a quiet living environment, the offspring tend to be strong and intelligent.