How did ancient people want children? What are the ancient methods for predicting fetal sex?

How did ancient people want children? What are the ancient methods for predicting fetal sex? I will provide you with detailed related contents.

Speaking of pregnancy, it has been nearly ten months before and after, and I believe many expectant mothers and prospective fathers will be curious about whether this upcoming life is male or female.

But at present, our country's laws do not allow us to check men and women in advance, so we can only wait patiently until the day when the baby is born to solve this mystery that has plagued us for ten months. However, for the ancients, how to predict the sex of the fetus during this pregnancy is a major event. After all, based on the ancient environment, giving birth to boys has become the "lifelong career" of most women in ancient times, which has to be said to be a tragedy under the background of the times.

I want to put a picture like this at the moment.

All right, let's put aside the ethical aspects. After all, there are many such critical articles. Based on the underdeveloped medical technology in ancient times, people urgently need to know the sex. How did the ancients predict the sex of the fetus? Are these methods accurate or not?

In fact, there are still some folk methods to predict men and women, such as the following. It is estimated that every pregnant mother has heard one or two sentences more or less:

(1) The mother looks serious and will give birth to a boy; Kind expression, there will be girls. (2) If the sides of the stomach are wide, girls will be born; A boy will be born in the middle. (3) If the mother's diet changes, a boy will be born; If you don't change, girls will be born. (4) The fetus kicked to the right side of the mother's stomach is a boy, and the one kicked to the left is a girl. (5) If the mother wants to eat sweets (spicy), she will have a girl; Like to eat sour food, maybe there is a boy. (6) The fetus in the mother's belly moves frequently and is a girl; On the contrary, for boys. (7) Families with wives will have boys; Girls will be born in the husband's family: (8) girls will be born if they react slightly; Serious will give birth to a boy. (9) The mother is gentle and will give birth to girls; Soon, a boy will be born. (10) Mom often eats meat and gives birth to girls; Eating green vegetables often will give birth to boys. (1 1) After the abdomen bulges gradually, the navel is more prominent and a boy will be born. (12) If the hair or eyebrows of the hand become thinner, a boy will be born; Constant meeting gives birth to a girl: (13) At the moment, the fetal movement reaction is intense, and it is a boy; I have a stomachache. It is a girl. (14) When there are black spots and freckles on the face, it is difficult to make up, and a boy will be born. (15) The mother's stomach bulged and gave birth to a boy; A bulge near the belly will give birth to a girl. (16) Boys will be born to mothers with deeper depression, and girls will be born to mothers with less depression. (17) If the first-born baby has horizontal stripes on his thighs, the next-born baby has a high probability of having a boy; If there are two stripes, the probability of giving birth to a girl next time is high. (18) If the first child is a boy and gets pregnant within 1~2 years, the second child will also have a boy; If the interval is 4~5 years, the probability of giving birth to a girl is high.

As for whether it is credible, mothers can compare it, and the accuracy may not be very high.

Written in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the ancient storyteller "Wu Wang Jianping Hua (Middle)" has this content:

"One day, da ji said,' A child (catalpa) can tell whether it is a male or a female in a pregnant woman's belly.' The king said, "How do you know?" Da ji said,' I'm afraid the king won't believe me. Try to distinguish several pregnant women from male servants and female servants.' The king said,' According to the Qing Dynasty. Then I announced to a hundred pregnant women to your highness. Zhou Wang asked Da Tian:' Is that a person? "Is that a woman?" da ji called the woman to sit down and get up again. Da ji said:' The man who lifts his left foot first, and the woman who lifts his right foot first. "

There is a saying in ancient books that Zhou Wang dissected a pregnant woman, and it was very early. Mozi Ming Ghost: "In the past, Wang Yin committed a fever and only took pregnant women." China's ancient poem Shang Shu Tai Shi Shang said: "Burning loyalty, hooking up with pregnant women." Kong Anguo biography: "Pregnant woman, look." Depending on the sex of the fetus. Many books, such as White Tiger Li Tongle and Huai Nan Zi Dao Ying Xun, have described this, but they have not explained how to judge the sex of the fetus first. Zhou Wang's evil is a tortuous move. At that time, he already had some kind of judgment, perhaps the so-called "male left female right".

It has been circulated among the people, and was adopted by folk writers in the era of "Wu Wang Jian Ping Hua", in order to broaden readers' knowledge and enhance the novelty of the book. There is no reason why men are left and women are right in the book, and there is no textual research. Obviously, the author himself doesn't know its context and reliability. The literature of speaking and singing naturally contributed to the spread of this statement.

As early as the Book of Songs, it was recorded that pregnant women dreamed that bears gave birth to men and snakes gave birth to women: "What about Ji Meng? Wei Xiong is a majestic snake. Adults occupy it: Xiong Weiwei, an auspicious person; Wei Wei Wei snake, the auspiciousness of women. "

It is the basic practice of Chinese medicine to diagnose gender through the pulse condition, face and behavior of pregnant women. The Pulse Classic written by Wang Shuhe, a native of A Jin, puts forward that the physique of the fetus will affect the state of the mother, so we can infer the physique characteristics of the fetus by diagnosing and treating the pulse condition of pregnant women. It is considered that the left hand pulse belongs to yang and the right hand pulse belongs to yin, so the pulse condition of pregnant women is "the left hand is heavy and the right hand is floating, which is female;" Hands are heavy and solid, and two men are born; Two girls are born with floating hands. "Further judging by the pulse of the ruler, we can draw the conclusion that the left pulse of the ruler is male, the right pulse is female, and two sons are born on both sides".

The General Theory of Diseases in Sui Dynasty put forward two methods to distinguish the sex of the fetus by observing the behavior of the parents: one is to call the pregnant woman from behind, and if the woman turns back from the left, she will have a boy, and if she turns back from the right, she will have a girl; The second is to observe the physical changes of the fetal father. "When a woman is pregnant, her husband has one core on the left and one core on the right." Sun Simiao, a doctor in the Tang Dynasty, suggested that the pulse frequency of pregnant women can also be divided into sexes. The one with faster pulse frequency in the left hand is a male fetus, and the one with faster pulse frequency in the right hand is a female fetus.

On the basis of the previous generation's experience, doctors in Song Dynasty deepened and expanded the method of fetal sex prediction. For example, "Guidelines for Disease Examination" transferred the symptoms of * * * proposed by Sui people from the fetal father to the mother, and thought that in the process of breast development of pregnant women, "those with nuclei in the left breast are men and those with nuclei in the right breast are women".

Su Hanchen Changchun Bai Zi Atlas is partially collected in the National Palace Museum.

The Guide to Diagnosis also points out that the frequency, nature and pulse condition of pregnant women's three pulse conditions should be considered comprehensively to judge the sex of the fetus: "the left foot pulse is male and the right foot pulse is female", "the left foot pulse is male and the right foot pulse is female" and "the foot sun bladder pulse is male and the hand Taiyin lung pulse is female". The basic understanding is that the yin-yang nature of male and female bodies is different, so it will be reflected in the mother's pulse condition. Doctors can judge a male fetus when the pulse phase is positive, and a female fetus when the pulse phase is negative. If there is a situation of "seeing yang in yin and yin in yang", it should be judged according to the principle that men have internal yang and vulva and women have internal yin and external yang, and according to the most essential pulse.

There were even successful cases of judging the sex of the fetus in Song Dynasty. It is recorded in Medical Treatise that "the scholar's wife was ill, and many doctors thought it was strain", but the famous doctor Hao Yun thought it was pregnancy and diagnosed the fetus as a boy, which was verified as expected. But having boys and girls is a 50-50 chance, and this situation can only be said to be correct.

There is a saying in "On Huainanzi Xunzi": "Marry at thirty." Gaoyou has a detailed comment on this: "Those who get married at the age of 30 are all girls. Judging from the number of children, the man left for 30 years and stood in the third place. Women from the son, the son of heaven for 20 years, also ranked third, husband and wife. So saints marry men at the age of 30 and women at the age of 20, because this is a ceremony. He has counted himself, left ten and got Yin, so he was born in Yin in October. So the number of men starts from yin. The number of women has been calculated and the correct route has been applied. Born in October of Shen: therefore, the number of women starts from Shen. "

From this description, we can see that the ancients said that the number of yin and yang was related to having children.

The ancients believed that physiognomy meant that the essence was the essence of pregnancy, the yang was male and the yin was female, and the fertility was also reflected in the image and color of the mother. Mr. right ear is thick, and Mr. left ear is thick. Give birth to a girl with a thin waist. Those with tattooed lips have more children, while those with green lips and white teeth have more daughters. In addition, men and women who have children can look at the ribs of the tiger's mouth. The one with blue mouth on the left gives birth to a man, and the one with blue mouth on the right gives birth to a woman. On the right, those with three shades of red give birth to girls, those with rosy palms like water give birth to boys, and those with white and green give birth to girls.

By the Song Dynasty, people had tried to intervene in men's and women's affairs in a strange way. The process is to specify the time when men and women affect the formation of fetal sex, especially when the sun is shining. It is considered that the first, third and fifth days after menstruation is the best date for conception, and the right time should be chosen. Finding a male fetus should be after midnight, and finding a female fetus should be before midnight. Because "from midnight to midnight, it is qi, and from noon to midnight, it is death", such a view that pregnancy on a sunny day after menopause is conducive to giving birth to boys has been recorded in many medical books in the Tang and Song Dynasties. For example, in the second article on pregnancy in Woman, this method is described in detail and the reason is explained: "Women's monthly letter ends after the beginning, and reaches men and women on the first, third and fifth days. If both men and women are strong, they will have many children. When there is cowardice, there are fewer children. "

The Silk Paintings of Fuxi Nuwa Collected in Xinjiang Museum

Based on the understanding of "March is divided into men and women", post-pregnancy intervention is mainly from the first pregnancy to the early stage of the third month of pregnancy, and it mainly exerts its influence through contact with special substances. That is to say, according to the principle that the fetus changes like a pictogram in the early stage of pregnancy, there is no fixed instrument for pregnant women to wear or contact with objects similar to the ideal fetus gender. This kind of record has long existed in the viviparous book of Han dynasty, but it was a method of paying equal attention to men and women in Han dynasty, and in Tang and Song dynasties it became a method of "changing women into men" for the purpose of obtaining boys. According to the Tang Dynasty's "Preparation for Gold", wearing bowstring, realgar and placing an axe under the bed of the lying-in woman are all helpful for giving birth to a boy. There are more similar descriptions in Yi Xin Fang, such as "three months pregnant, urinating in the rooster's bath", "taking four heather plants under the mat" and "taking five eggplants under the bed", and so on, all of which can give birth to boys. On the basis of the Tang Dynasty, the Song people made new contributions. For example, in Zhang Gao's medical theory, the secret method in the palace is "feeling pregnant before the full moon". Take the crossbow string as the belt and solve it in March. "Another example is" Good Prescription for Women ",which says," Take your husband's hand, foot and nail, and lie under the mat without telling. "

Generally speaking, Song people think that there are four kinds of substances that can affect sex: one is willow, eggplant, heather and other plants related to men; Second, male animals such as cocks and ducks; Third, knives, axes, bowstrings and other special instruments for men; The fourth is realgar. In the view of Song people, realgar and orpiment correspond to male and female sex respectively. "If you want a man, bring it with realgar and half-clothes; If you want a woman, bring orpiment. "

In addition, there was a concept of "seeing a well and giving birth to a man" in the Song Dynasty, that is, a woman wearing her husband's clothes and watching a movie around the well in the morning can give birth to a man. For example, "Chen Chengzhe gave birth to ten women, and his wife walked around the well three times. I wish women are yin, men are yang, many women and many men are lucky. If he locks the well for three days and doesn't draw, he will have a boy. "

Different from the above-mentioned ways of seeking children, there are greetings in the ceremony of seeking men according to wells, which is closer to witchcraft belief. However, in the doctor's opinion, well water is really helpful for boys, so in many medical prescriptions that interfere with gender, it is indicated that "well water" should be taken.

Another intervention after pregnancy is to influence the sex of the fetus by adjusting the diet. For example, in the third month of pregnancy, doctors in the Song Dynasty advised pregnant women to take male chicken soup for food supplement. An earlier compound for giving birth to a boy is "Danshen Yuan", which is mainly used to nourish the liver and blood. In the early stage of pregnancy, pregnant women in the Tang Dynasty used it to "raise a fetus and turn a woman into a man", which was still used by Song people today.

After the Song Dynasty, the methods of gender intervention were basically aimed at children, which shows how strong the desire to have children was at that time.

However, these methods have little scientific basis. Through modern science, we know that the sex of the fetus has been decided at the moment when sperm and eggs combine, and the so-called acquired intervention is actually impossible. As for the methods of looking at men and women, there is a great probability that they are accurate. To say that they are 100% accurate, even the most advanced B-ultrasound may not be able to do it. Only after the fetus is born can we really know.

Fortunately, we are not bound by such an environment. For most families now, it is the same to have boys and girls, and they are all parents' hearts. Although it is undeniable that the vulgar custom of wanting men is still circulating in some areas, at least in the big environment, we have got rid of this concept. As for the method of judging men and women mentioned in the article, it is still left to prospective parents for entertainment!