秦汉“生子不举”现象和弃婴故事

Not Reporting and Abandoning of New Born Baby in Qin and Han Dynasties

秦汉时期基于神秘主义信仰的民间礼俗,导致"生子不举"和弃婴现象的频繁发生。贫穷,也是致使初生婴儿的生存权利受到严重侵害的主要社会原因。多种历史文化信息告诉我们,当时溺杀女婴的情形更为普遍。弃婴故事的发生和流传,是有一定的社会意识背景的。当时法律有禁止"杀子"的条文,却并不能真正禁绝相关现象。有的行政官员通过有效的引导使得这种风习有所改变,其政策之所以能够取得成功,首先在于重视经济发展,促成民间富裕。

In the dynasties of Qin and Han, due to the mysticism of the folk customs, often new born babies were not re-ported to the relevant authorities and were abandoned by their parents. Poverty was one of the chief reasons for this practice. From various sources of information we know that abandoning of female babies was more widely practiced. The occurrence and spread of abandoning babies had certain social background. The current law forbade the abandoning of babies, but it could not eliminate this phenomenon. Some administrators carried out effective policies to change this and achieved good results by developing agricultural economy and enriching the people.