A Study Of Women’s Fertility In Liao Dynasty

Fertility is the foundation of human reproduction.According to the mainstream thought of Chinese tradition,the premise of fertility is marriage.Women’s marriage age has a direct relationship with childbearing age.The later the marriage age,the later the childbearing age.Women’s fertility is carried out in families.Influenced by specific historical customs in Liao Dynasty,their families are mainly divided into monogamous families and polygamous families.Influenced by the open thought of Liao Dynasty,remarried families also emerged.Family types affect fertility,and women’s fertility varies from family type to family type.The fertility level of women in Liao Dynasty has distinct ethnicity and region.The fertility rate of Han women is relatively high,that of Qidan women is relatively low,and the fertility rate of women in different regions is also high and low.There are many classes in Liao Dynasty,such as aristocrats,civilians,slaves and so on.There are also differences in women’s fertility among different classes.The Liao Dynasty adopted a nomadic lifestyle and advocated force,but the medical level was low and the mortality rate of the population was very high.Therefore,the fertility concept of having more children and more happiness,preferring sons over daughters,and being expensive and cheap was born in the Liao Dynasty society.The Liao Dynasty attached great importance to fertility,but there was a tradition of consanguineous marriage in Liao Dynasty.The survival rate of newborns was low,and the mortality rate of pregnant women was very high due to the restriction of relevant conditions.At the same time,the family structure of monogamy and polygamy in Liao Dynasty led to a significant decrease in women’s fertility level.With the prosperity of Confucianism and Buddhism,women in Liao Dynasty either refused to marry for life under the influence of Confucian view of chastity,died in martyrdom,or converted to Buddhism because of excessive faith,which reduced the overall fertility rate of women in Liao Dynasty.