Chapter 606 The Sage's Heart is Compassionate, He Loves Women
After the Longevity Festival, several rains fell, and as the saying goes, "one autumn rain brings one chill," the weather has finally turned cool.
Although the weather has turned cold, the lively atmosphere in Chang'an City, fueled by various topics, remains as intense as in summer, keeping people eager to discuss.
More than twenty days ago, long caravans could be seen entering Chang'an City from its various gates, stretching like streams. There were also quite a few caravans leaving the city, all of them families responding to the call for migration to the northern border towns.
Moreover, the officials were quite responsible; they allowed a group of people who had volunteered to relocate to gather before arranging for them to follow a troop of imperial guards northward.
In this way, their safety is guaranteed, allowing them to get through the initial period more safely and quickly.
However daring they were, this group only numbered a thousand, which was just a drop in the ocean compared to the million people in Chang'an.
However, the official in charge of this matter was very optimistic about it. According to the official, "People are naturally inclined to seek profit and avoid harm. Those who are willing to go to the border city at this time must be living a very unsatisfactory life in Chang'an City, or even living a very bad life. They have no choice but to take the risk and go to the border city to seek a way to survive."
But people have relatives by marriage, and even if someone is all alone, they can still have a few friends to visit.
Once this group of people arrives in the north, settles down, and establishes themselves there, and when news of them arrives in Chang'an next year, we'll probably be so busy we won't have time to breathe.
Furthermore, don't forget, there's only so many people in Chang'an. If people migrated from all over the Tang Dynasty, the total number would still be quite large.
Today, besides the ongoing discussion about the relocation of people to the north, another major event concerning people's lives has captured everyone's attention.
Nearly a month later, news finally came out regarding the "prohibition of consanguineous marriage" mentioned in Li San Niang's report presented by Wang Shuzheng of the Imperial Medical Bureau in court that day, as well as the "raising of the marriage age of young women" mentioned in Li San Niang's report, which was later supported by Xu Jingzhen. All of these matters were incorporated into the law.
The paper posted at the entrance of the Jingzhao Prefecture had every word clearly written on it.
Furthermore, the Jingzhao Prefecture also had the heads of each ward give them a lesson, making sure they fully understood these two points, and then issued them a task, instructing them to go back and have a good talk with the people in their wards.
"Close relatives include those within three degrees of kinship. If you don't want to give birth to a child who is weak and mentally challenged, you'd better remember this rule."
Most of the people sitting below were elderly men with gray hair. They were all ward chiefs from various neighborhoods in Chang'an City. Occasionally, a few young people were mixed in among them. Everyone was truly surprised by what they heard.
Everyone stared wide-eyed, mouths agape, incredulous expressions on their faces.
The clerk from the Jingzhao Prefecture who was speaking naturally noticed their confusion, so he raised his hand to the hundred wardens below him. After they quieted down, he took out the example he had prepared earlier and explained it to them.
"In a certain family, the young master married his cousin from his maternal aunt's side. After three or four attempts, he finally gave birth to a sickly child with a heart condition, but the child did not live past the first year."
That's considered good. Some people are born mentally challenged, only knowing how to eat, drink, and relieve themselves. They can't recognize people and can't do anything.
What's the point of having a child like this?
"It would be better not to have children at all!"
After giving a few more examples, the clerk stopped speaking when he saw that everyone below the stage had taken them to heart.
Then a different person came up, this clerk was mainly there to explain the specifics of the second point, "raising the marriage age of young women".
"This is something the doctors in the Imperial Hospital discovered: if a woman marries and gives birth after she turns eighteen, the child's survival rate will be higher, and the woman herself will also have a higher chance of a natural birth."
This means that women over the age of 18 have a greater chance of survival during childbirth and are more likely to give birth to healthy and easy-to-raise children than women under the age of 18.
However, this is not a rigid rule like the previous one; it is an option.
An elderly man standing in the front row cupped his hands in greeting and asked, "May I ask, what does 'optional' mean?"
"Hey, that's easy. If your family has some wealth and spare money, and you feel sorry for your daughter, then you can come to the Jingzhao Prefecture to pay money to extend her marriage age."
For example, originally, a woman had to get married at the age of fifteen, but if you paid money, you could keep her at home for a year, or at most three years. After she turned eighteen, she had to get married.
But if you still insist on following the old custom of marrying off your daughter at fifteen, that's also acceptable, and you won't need to pay any money.
As soon as the clerk finished speaking, the crowd standing below the platform began to whisper among themselves. One of them stroked his beard and said, "The emperor is kind-hearted; he's just showing concern for the young lady."
For every person who agrees, there is someone who disagrees.
Humans are such a species; within a group, there will inevitably be two groups of people with completely different opinions. Sometimes, for the same issue, there will be multiple groups or even a dozen groups of people with different opinions.
"absurd!
A woman of marriageable age should be married off; otherwise, it's ridiculous to have to spend the family's money to buy her a "flowering season"!
There are also those who remain silent. Whether they support or oppose it doesn't really matter. After all, once the rules are set up above, there are ways to get those below to follow them.
Furthermore, when others benefit from this new rule, those who did not follow it will inevitably regret it.
With such examples, people will naturally have their own ideas about how to choose.
After explaining the situation, the clerk bowed and left.
The hundred neighborhood officials left the capital in small groups, each pondering how to explain these two points clearly to the people in their neighborhoods on their way back.
The old man Wang, who was riding in a donkey cart back to the outer three cities, was the same one who had just said in the capital that Emperor Wu was a kind-hearted person.
As for why Old Man Wang was able to stand in the front row?
This is because although he was the ward head of the three outer cities of Chang'an, the number of people under his command was much larger than that of the people in a single ward.
Old Man Wang was honest and kind-hearted, and very fair and righteous. Because of this, he was elected as the neighborhood head in a very short period of time after the outer three sections were built.
Because of this, Old Man Wang had more influence in the Jingzhao Prefecture than other ward heads, which is why he could stand in the front row of the Jingzhao Welfare Station among the hundred ward heads.
As for why Old Man Wang could say such things in the capital, it was not only because he genuinely believed that the emperor was compassionate and loved women, which led him to make such a regulation, but also because such pitiful things were indeed happening in the outer three cities where Old Man Wang lived.
The donkey was walking slowly, and there were many people in Chang'an City. After walking for so long, they still hadn't reached Anhua Gate.
Zhao Da, who was idly whipping the donkey's rump, was stunned after hearing what Old Man Wang said. He turned his head blankly to look at Old Man Wang sitting on the cart and asked, "Lord, what the Emperor said must be true, right?"
"That young woman from Old Man Li's family just died in childbirth!"
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