宋代乳母高度职业化与生子不举问题史证

The Historical Study on the Problem of the Wet Nurses'Highly Professionalism and Abandoning and Drowning Babies in the Song Dynasty

从唐代中后期开始,乳母行业逐渐呈现日趋明显的职业化状态。进入宋代,随着中上层社会妇人普遍不愿亲自乳哺态势的加重,乳母行业进入带有明显商业化性质的高度职业化阶段。此时,不仅乳母队伍数量庞大,且在形貌特征、衣着体态、精神气质等方面呈现趋于高度一致的典型性与群体化特征。由于相对于其他职业,乳母行业的较大回报率使得底层妇女趋之若鹜。而职业乳母队伍的扩大,也使得上层社会制定了较为严苛的乳母选择标准。高度职业化的乳母实际关涉到宋代人口发展过程中两大关键性问题:一方面,在医疗条件并不发达、幼儿夭折率居高不下的情况下,职业乳母对于雇主而言是保育幼儿的重要参与者。她们多数终其一生都服务于主家,甚至养护了主家几代人。很大程度上,职业乳母甚至被视为上层社会幼儿保护神,得到极高礼敬。另一方面,由于乳母职业身份的特殊性,决定了她们必须有所生养才能分泌乳汁,进行乳哺工作。现有史料证明,职业乳母几无可能携带自己孩子进入主家共同抚养。因此,她们所生孩子多数情况便被弃留于原来家庭,或由家中老人以米糊等养大,或被买卖、赠送、丢弃,甚至溺亡。多数职业乳母背后,都隐藏一个或者多个生子不举悲剧。然而,目前学界却基本忽略了宋代乳母高度职业化与两宋民间严重生子不举之间的必然关系。

From the Mid-late Tang Dynasty,the Wet Nurses-Trade's professionalism had become increasingly obvious.As a result of the mid-upper-class women refused to nurse their own babies themselves as time went on to the Song Dynasty,the Wet Nurses-Trade stepped into the highly developed professionalism stage with apparent commercial nature.At this time,not only the number of the wet nurses was huge,but also it appeared highly consistent typicality and group feature of the wet nurses'appearance characteristics,clothing and posture as well as the temperament and so on.The higher return of the wet nurses-trade comparing to the other jobs made the women having the lowest social status flocking to it.But the upper-class society made out strict choosing standards upon the wet nurses as the professional group was enlarging.The highly professional wet nurses concerned with two key problems in the Song Dynasty in fact,that is:For one thing,the professional wet nurses are the important participants on the baby-caring for the employer under the poor medical condition and the babies'high death-rate.The wet nurses devoted their whole life time working for their employers and even had brought up several generations of the employer's family.The wet nurses had been regarded as the upper-class society babies'patron saint and received an extreme high respect to a considerable extent.For another,the particularity of the wet nurses'professional identity determined that they have to give birth to a child themselves before they started their nursing careers.According to the historical record at hand,there was little possibility that the professional wet nurse could bring their own babies into the employer's home to bring up them together with the employer's babies.As a result of this,their own babies almost always had been lost at home and brought up by the grand-parents with the rice juice or had been sold,donated,discarded or even drowned.There are always one or more tragedies of abandoning and drowning babies hiding behind the most professional wet nurses.However,at present,scholars basically ignored the inevitable relationship between the high professionalization of wet nurses and the serious folk baby-abandoning and drowning in the Song Dynasty.