What is the role of ancient Chinese population thought in solving contemporary population problems?

The course of human civilization is the process of coordination between human beings and nature, and the history of human beings' transformation of nature is a history of conflict between environmental protection and destruction. The most ideal state of economics is the harmony between economic and ecological benefits, and between economic and ecological mechanisms. However, the course of civilization has often neglected to grasp the structure of man and nature, and after the deep worries of history are proved by reality, people have to re-examine the journey they have taken. Thesis Pepsi When we rescan the historical coordinates of the rise and fall of China, we will clearly find that the ancient Chinese idea of sustainable development and the connotation of sustainable development advocated by the contemporary is the same way.

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The idea of sustainable development has a long history in China. The Yellow River Basin is the cradle of Chinese civilization. Starting from the Yangshao culture and going through the Longshan culture period of agricultural technology advancement to the beginning of the Xia Dynasty, agriculture here has had a history of 3,000 years. At that time, "slash-and-burn farming" was practiced on a large scale, and "Guanzi? Premium" said: "The king of the Yellow Emperor,...... unfavorable to his tools, burned the mountains and forests, and broke the increase of servitude". And our ancestors very early sprouted the idea of sustainable development, initially unconscious, even superstitious. People used to worship the mountains and rivers together with a hundred gods. In the Book of Songs, there is a saying that "it is appropriate to offer food and drink, and there are many blessings" ①, and in the Book of State, it is pointed out that the mountains, rivers and lakes of the nine continents produce material resources, so they should be protected and worshipped.

The most essential meaning of sustainable development lies in clarifying the extreme importance of the relationship between man and nature, making clear the sustainability of natural resources, making human economic activities rational, and forming a virtuous cycle between human society and the ecological environment, whose prominent symbols are the perpetual utilization of resources and a good ecological environment. After a long evolution, people's protection of ecological resources developed from an unconscious and vague stage to a conscious and clear stage. By the time of the Eastern Zhou, its purpose was quite clear. It recognized the undeniable exploitation of natural resources by economic development, but advocated a rational and planned application. In the Spring and Autumn period, there were already the idea of protecting pregnant and spawning birds, animals, fish and turtles for sustainable use, and the decree of sealing off mountains and cultivating forests; Confucius advocated "fishing without outlining, and cruising without shooting at a lodging place"② to avoid intergenerational contradiction in the supply and demand of ecological resources; Xunzi, in the "System of the King," said, "When the grasses and trees are flourishing and fruitful, then axes and catties do not enter the mountains and forests, do not abort their growth, and do not kill them. Xunzi said in "The System of Kings": "When the grass and trees are prosperous and fruitful, the axe and catty will not enter the mountains and forests, and will not abort their growth or cut off their growth". Moon Order" has the idea of coordinated development of climate, ecology and society: in the spring of Meng, when the grass and trees are sprouting, "sacrifices should not be made with female animals, cutting down trees, covering nests, or killing children and insects". Guanzhong pointed out that "if the spring government is not prohibited, then the hundred long does not grow; if the summer government is not prohibited, then the five grains do not grow".

This idea of perpetual development in pre-Qin, which mainly served agricultural production, had a great influence on later generations, and by the time of the Qin and Han dynasties, the theory had reached a higher level. Liu An, a descendant of Liu Bang, the founder of the Han Dynasty, invited guests to co-write the "Huainanzi", a systematic summary of pre-Qin environmental protection ideas, which is the most comprehensive exposition of ecological environmental protection in ancient times. Among them, there is a passage in the "Lord Art Training", which focuses on the connotation of the idea of sustainable development: "It is the human ruler, the upper due to the time of the day, the lower exhaustive ground wealth, ...... so the law of the first king, ...... not drying up the river and fishing, not burning forests and hunting ", that this is the only way to appear grass and trees, many species, vibrant scene.

Ecological efficiency is the formation of economic efficiency of the environmental basis, while economic efficiency is the ecological efficiency to improve the external conditions and social environment. Jia Si-feng for the relationship between ecological and economic benefits, pointed out that: "under the abundant forest, there must be a warehouse of him". Many poems of the Tang and Song dynasties also reflect this idea. Zhu Xi of the Ming Dynasty put forward the "heaven and man a reason, heaven and earth, all things one," said to determine the basic connotation of the relationship between man and nature and principles, and today we advocate the harmonious development of man and nature point of view is consistent.

History has shown, however, that economic development often pays a heavy price, that is, the destruction of the ecological environment, the economy is dependent on natural resources and environmental support, and therefore, the development and utilization of resources (objectively speaking, a certain sense of plunder) is inevitable. However, rational human beings should learn to find a balance between ecological and economic benefits, rather than killing the chicken to get the eggs, fishing to the last penny and exceeding the carrying limit of resources and the environment, because ecological degradation is often irreversible. There are countless painful lessons in history. "Water Classic" recorded in the logging of King Goujian, "so that more than 3,000 carpenters, into the mountains to cut wood for a year"; soon, and "so that the rate of 2,800 people to cut pines and cypresses for the beam". If, "Born to be useful", and his behavior for the era of abundant forest resources, the harm can be ignored, then, successive generations of large-scale construction, deforestation, resulting in desertification, desertification and vegetation degradation, cumulative, resulting in the Great Wall south of the Huaihe River to the north of the original forests shrinkage, is devastating. In particular, the Yuan built the metropolis, mass deforestation of primary forests, someone wrote angrily in a poem: "Luan people destroyed the giant pine, Tongshan 800 miles". This at the same time caused soil erosion, siltation, many rivers had oars such as clouds, the situation of a thousand sails has become a smoky past. In addition to the long-term strife of the powers, cutting down trees to establish a fortress, and even destroy the forest to destroy the enemy, the endless destruction owed the ecological debt is difficult to make up. People are the biggest beneficiary of nature, but also become the biggest destroyer. In this regard, Zhu Xi pointed out in the "Mengzi set of notes" to "take sometimes, with the section". Qing Dynasty essayist Mei Zengliang analyzed that the reclamation of mountainous areas caused by soil erosion spills over into the flatlands and fields. But these valuable ideas more in the blood and fire fall, the plunder of the environment but accumulated over time, become the historical roots of today's miserable scene of many areas full of holes. Pepsi

Engels said: "We rule over nature, never as conquerors rule over foreigners. ③ "Referring to heaven and earth is at the heart of ancient Chinese thinking on sustainable development. Although destruction has occurred throughout the ages, it is fundamentally different from the path of conquering everything and nature that the West has embarked on since the Athenian era. In China, from Zhuangzi's naturalism and harmony of "Taoism and nature, return to simplicity and truth" to the ethical harmony of Confucius and Mencius's "knowing the nature of the heart" and "participation in heaven and earth", the harmony between man and nature as equals, and the "unity of heaven and mankind". The idea of "unity of heaven and mankind" has continued to this day and has become an important school of thought.

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Resources are scarce, but human needs are endless. It is this scarcity that makes sustainable development bear the heavy responsibility of rational allocation of resources and realization of sustainable supply of natural resources. Population, as a special form of resource, and sustainable development constitute a relationship of promotion and constraint. An important element of the ancient Chinese idea of sustainable development is the proportion of population, resources and environment, and how to rationally allocate resources and improve the productive capacity of resources.

Scarcity of resources exists in all times and societies, with different manifestations in different periods. For a long time, China had a unique resource advantage. China is an ancient agricultural country, and agricultural resources include natural resources, human resources, land and labor are the most important factors of production. During the pre-Qin era, the land was vast and the people were sparse, and the lack of producers to combine with the vast land production resources was extremely unfavorable to agricultural production. Population is the main body of social and economic life, labor force is the productivity factor and the embodiment of production relations, from the human race into the written history, population and economic relations in the ancient literature has been discussed. The earliest can be seen in the "Yi" and "Poetry". The hexagrams of Yi advocate population increase, and many chapters of Shijing? Many chapters of "The Winds of the State" directly focus on the themes of love, marriage, and family, valuing population and land as equally important. The idea of hoping for population increase was compatible with the natural economy of agriculture at that time.

Land and labor are indispensable in agricultural production. Mo Zhai is regarded as the first thinker who systematically analyzed the population problem, and clearly advocated the idea of "enriching the country and the people". He linked land, population and agricultural production, and noted the ratio of land to population, mentioning that "a city of ten thousand families is three miles square". Whether or not such a ratio is distorted, it is rare in the context of generals and prime ministers who took pride in defending their cities and deploying their people. Shang Yang suggested that "people over land and land over people" were not good, and used the example of Han and Zhao to prove it. He believed that a wide area of land might not be rich and powerful, and a narrow area of land might not be poor and weak, but the question was whether the population and the land could be utilized to the fullest extent, which was the prototype of the contemporary idea of intensive economy; he also started a population census in order to correctly implement the policy of enriching the country and strengthening the army. Guanzhong suggested that simply increasing the population and land may not be rich and strong, the population and land must correspond in quantity in order to form the real productive forces, which is very meaningful to the rational use of land resources, he also pointed out that: "although the mountains and forests are close, although the grass and trees are beautiful, the palace must have a degree of forbidding the hair must be sometimes," and opposed to the excessive construction of houses to crowd the land.

Xunzi pointed out on the basis of his predecessors to the existing amount of land resources to increase the population, estimate manpower to develop production, due to historical conditions, he did not combine with the mode of production to examine, but his amount of land to establish a country, counting the benefits of the rich people, the income and expenditure on the formulation of the population policy and the implementation of the idea is still of great significance. According to Han Fei, the key to contend or not to contend lies in the amount of wealth, not the absolute amount, but the relative amount compared to the population. He asserted that population grows exponentially, examining the population-to-wealth ratio more than 2,000 years before Malthus, and wrote a glorious page in the history of world population.

During the pre-Qin period, the scarcity of land and resources was not evident due to the relatively small population. Subsequent rulers, especially at the beginning of the establishment of the dynasty, mostly rested and recuperated, light corvée, coupled with the centralization and simplification of the form of taxation, the progress of agriculture, the population continued to increase, the arable land continued to expand. Some scholars speculate that during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the population had exceeded 100 million. By the first and middle of the Qing Dynasty, the area of reclamation had advanced to the western hills and mountains. Agricultural society has created a huge population, and people as producers is an element of the reproduction of material materials, as consumers of consumption is a link in the reproduction. Hong Liangji's "The Book of Governance and Peace" of the Qing Dynasty, with its wide-ranging discussion and specific analysis of the population issue, is the peak of the ancient idea of sustainable development. He analyzed the contradiction between the population size and the growth of production and means of living, discussed the relationship between the population and the price of goods, employment, and the social order, and mentioned that the population growth should be compatible with the growth of production and means of living, which is still regarded as scientific today.

Historical progressives on the relationship between population and resources, the environment of the incisive insights, we can be reduced to one point: the increase in population size, the use of resources can not exceed the rate of resource development and renewal, otherwise, the basis for sustainable development is lost, which is one of the core of the ancient sustainable development - economic and ecological. Glory is *** glory, wither is *** wither, development must be understood as a sustained and coordinated, equal interaction between man and nature and the society of the unity of the process, never the economy alone. Pepsi

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A major reason affecting sustainable economic development is the negative external effects of the economy. When economic activity spills over outside the economy, that is, external effects are created. And the negative external effects we are talking about are, in essence, the socialization of private costs. In the productivity level and social consciousness of the limitations of ancient China in the economic development, social progress at the same time, caused a huge negative external effects, mainly the destruction of natural ecology and the decline in economic efficiency, the successive dynasties in order to solve the negative external effects have made positive exploration and and and attempts, in today's still have important reference significance.

1, one of the ways to solve the negative external effects is through the rule of law and financial taxation, so that those who cause external uneconomical bear the social cost. Here, the main method of taxation adopted in ancient China was to levy a tax on mountains, rivers and gardens (similar to the current resource tax). The purpose of the Shanze garden tax (called differently in different dynasties) was certainly to expand fiscal revenue, but objectively it played a positive role in curbing negative externalities.

Acquiring resources, itself, must come at a cost. Many resources, its cost and price is difficult to determine. Such as beautiful environment, prosperous city life, are a resource, but because it is impossible to get through market transactions, can only be measured by another method of its price, that is, in order to get this resource must be spent. Such as physical and financial expenditures, the cost of relocation, the cost of obtaining a household registration, the ancient Chinese residents, in order to get resources, sometimes also have to buy the government, through the links, and bear all kinds of taxes. According to the Rites of Zhou, there was a tax on mountains and lakes in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and later on, there were many kinds of taxes such as mining tax and salt tax. At the same time, the improvement and implementation of laws were also strengthened. As early as the time of Yin and Shang, there were regulations prohibiting the dumping of garbage on the streets, and it was regarded as a crime, which had similar content with the Code of Hammurabi. The Code of Hammurabi is similar to the Code of Hammurabi. The Law of Yin states, "Those who discard ash on the road will have their hands cut off"; the Western Zhou "Fazhong Decree" stipulates, "Do not break the house, do not break the well, do not move the six animals, and those who are not as good as the decree will be killed without amnesty" (The Fazhong Decree is the earlier decree in China to protect the ecological environment and it is extremely (severe); Shang Yang in the state of Qin to implement the rule of law, also stipulates, "step over six feet of people have punishment, discarded ash in the road by the penalty"; Qin tomb unearthed the "field law" is the world's earliest one of the environmental legislation, reflecting the idea of safeguarding the sustainable development according to the law, "spring in February, do not dare to cut down the trees and yongti water, not the summer months, do not dare to night grass for ash. Do not dare to night grass for ash ...... "; the Northern Song Dynasty even reiterated the protection ban by way of an imperial edict from the emperor, ordering grass-roots officials to capture those who violated the ban. Similar regulations are numerous, so over-exploitation and utilization of resources, and sometimes the risk of being punished, penalized, and ethically and morally condemned, at great or even life-threatening cost, helps to reduce negative externalities.

Regrettably, the ancient government introduced a narrower range of mountain and garden taxes. Many resources are state-owned, but the use of the right to decentralize the private sector, the definition is not clear. People in this case, it is difficult to consider the external impact of their behavior on others. Coupled with the distortion and destruction of officials during implementation, this often resulted in civil disobedience and was counterproductive. Enforcement of the law, but also subject to the limitations of dynastic succession. Ecological environment in the "ban" and "relaxation of the ban" in the continuous plunder, and the government in an attempt to make the external diseconomies weakened, if not from their own start, and continue, will not be able to achieve the desired effect. Historically, events such as the "Shushan Woods and the A-fang" have occurred, and the relevant policies have not been effectively implemented. The lessons of history are still relevant to contemporary China.

2. The second way is to strengthen the state's monopoly on resources that have a bearing on people's livelihoods but are not strongly protected by the public. The decentralized exploitation by the private sector not only leads to the inefficient use of resources, but also is very likely to cause the destruction of vegetation and soil erosion.

Both in slave and feudal societies, natural resources were mostly owned by the state, and such regulations were in place before the era of Guanzhong. Western Han Sang Hongyang presided over the salt and iron official camp, set up in each county salt and iron government offices, strictly prohibit private production "dare to private cast iron, salt boiler, titanium left toe, not into its artifacts". The Northern Song Dynasty on the looser control of mining lessons, but still the implementation of the law of the official debatable, the provisions of the Yuan Fu, Shao Sheng mining lessons for the amount of the people to buy (punt to buy), and then, the sale of the official, prohibiting the private trading of the private sector. This practice not only ensured the state revenue, but also inhibited the private blind mining.

This kind of control, there have been constant opposition. According to Lu Zhi, an economic thinker of the Tang Dynasty, "the three dynasties established a system where mountains and swamps were not prohibited, and the material benefits of heaven and earth were ****ed with people "4 . The idea of opposing the government's monopolization of the benefits of mountains and swamps and allowing people to operate freely has a certain degree of rationality, but it is not applicable to the resources discussed above. Again, such as gold and silver and other precious metals, if you let the private sector, a large number of involved in the market, is bound to impact on the social order, resulting in financial system disorders; relaxation of salt and iron and other bulk product control, but also not conducive to social stability. Thus, for this resource, must strengthen government control. Pepsico

3, the third way is to strengthen the administration, set up the appropriate institutions, water conservancy, maintain and improve the ecological environment, focusing on the ecological effect of agriculture.

According to the "Historical Records" and "Shangshu" records, our country as early as in the period of Emperor Shun set up the management of the mountains, forests, rivers and lakes, grass, trees, birds and beasts of the officials - Yu, and later set up Yu under the Department of the great doctor, the big Sistu and so on. The Zhou Rites" stipulates that the big Stuart "to the law of the soil, ...... to the people, to tomato birds and beasts, to Yuk grass and trees, in order to the earth affairs", to examine the state of life of plants and animals, so that the normal reproduction. Guanzhong summarized the experience of previous emperors in the disposal of mountains, forests, rivers and swamps on the basis of a clear proposal to protect biological resources by legal means, and set up the corresponding officials. These institutions and officials are the carriers of the implementation of laws and policies, the Hexi Corridor in the Tang Dynasty, so the emergence of "coccyxes and yams, mulberry and hemp cataracts, the world said that there is no affluent as Longyou" ⑤ the flourishing situation, it is the validation of these ideas.

Water is the life of agriculture, the rational use of natural law. Building water conservancy and improving agro-ecology is the key to sustainable agricultural development. In prehistory, China has set up a water management official - Sikong; the Dujiangyan built by Li Bing of Qin became the source of affluence of "Tianfu"; since Han Dynasty, "Shofang, Hesi, and Jiuquan all drew the rivers and valleys to irrigate their fields" (6), and overcame and improved water conservation. Since the Han Dynasty, "Shofang, Hexi, and Jiuquan have all diverted rivers and valleys to irrigate their fields. Rarely, the ancients also realized the negative effects of building water conservancies. Because it was difficult to take environmental constraints into account, many inland rivers became thinner and thinner, with less and less flow, and drought and wind and sand raged. According to "Wuliang Quanzhi" records, "move the hill to open up the land, bath river chess, to make the river is thin, ze Liang day dry, land ze bountiful, into the past". However, mankind has experienced a number of times from the great chaos to the great governance and then there is a cycle of chaos, a lot of practical significance of the governance of the idea of the implementation of the wilderness in the starvation of the obliteration of the ancients and spend a lot of effort in the zeal of the land annexation, and finally the ecological deficit will be doubled left to the future generations.

4. The fourth way is to establish an ethical and moral concept of environmental sustainability, which is bound to be a long journey. Traditional Chinese culture has always regarded the nature of the world as the fundamental conditions for human survival, has always believed in the "born of, the ground to raise, people into the", the slave society will recognize "food for the people of heaven, food to the soil as the basis" and " When the slave society was in existence, it was recognized that "food is the basis of the people and food is the basis of the earth" and that "when the grass grows, the beasts and fowls flock together, and when the trees become the shade, the birds rest there. This kind of thinking has been exemplified in the previous article, so I will not repeat it.

Economic, legal, and administrative means cannot solve all problems, and so far, the wave of ecological degradation is surging because almost most people have not formed an ethical and moral concept of sustainability that is compatible with modern industry, technology, and society. The core of this ethical and moral concept of sustainability is to respect nature, to truly integrate human beings into nature, and to equally divide the power to enjoy nature and life between present and future generations.

"Please do not shoot the geese coming from the south, for fear of sending letters from home to people far away", the ancient Chinese idea of sustainable development is not only based on the developed agricultural foundation, but also on the simple folk customs. Wu Guosheng said in "Modernization Worries", "The shallow basis of all claims to protect the environment is to protect the survival and continuation of the human species and to maintain the sustainable development of the human society, while the deeper basis comes from the understanding of the meaning and scientific value of the existence and the essence of life." However, in the wave of commodity economy, once a commodity is found its use value, people tend to flock to it, and to this day, the plundering of nature has formed a huge inertia, and the repeated brakes do not stop. The destruction of Mayan civilization, the collapse of Mesopotamian civilization, are the victims of ecological destruction. Recall that we have been interpreting the "unity of mankind and heaven" of sustainable development ideas, in order to better construct the future, perhaps the grim reality is slowly awakening the conscience of mankind, but, sustainable development is still a long way to go.

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