In the history of China, it was not only the Qing Dynasty that had a population of over 100 million. Before the Qing dynasty, there was another dynasty with a population of over 100 million. At its peak, the population reached 654.38+0.2 billion. It was the Song Dynasty. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the population once increased geometrically, reaching as much as 400 million, which was unique in the history of China. Then, why did the population increase so fast during the Qing Dynasty? There are several main reasons.

After the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, in view of the lessons of the demise of the Ming Dynasty, the policy of "supporting the people without increasing taxes" was announced from the fifty-first year of Kangxi. Encouraged and promoted by this policy, no matter how many children people have, taxes are levied as before, and there is no additional "poll tax". In this way, the people's enthusiasm for production and life has been greatly improved, and the improvement of production enthusiasm can feed more people.

Therefore, with the implementation of this policy, by the fifty-third year of Kangxi, the population of the Qing Dynasty had reached 65.438+0.23 billion.

Implementing the policy of equal land and mu is the further development of Emperor Kangxi's policy of "raising the people without increasing taxes". The implementation of this system further lightens the burden of landless and landless farmers, which not only promotes population growth, but also promotes social and economic development. This policy was most obvious in Qianlong period. After Qianlong ascended the throne, he not only reduced the taxes of the people many times, but also played a great role in the promotion of "corn sweet potato".

He vigorously promoted the cultivation of sweet potatoes in the north and encouraged people to study the cultivation methods of sweet potatoes. Chen Shiyuan, Fujian Jiansheng, who first went to Shandong, Henan and other places to promote sweet potato planting technology, was rewarded by Emperor Qianlong. In addition, Lu Yao, a local official, was promoted to the governor of Hunan for writing "Sweet Potato Record".

In the 60 years since Qianlong, the population of China has doubled, which is 65 percentage points higher than the world level. By the beginning of18th century, the population of China had accounted for 23.4% of the world population. The rapid population growth, in addition to the grain revolution, another credit should be attributed to water conservancy construction. This measure is also one of the reasons for the steady population growth in China.

Therefore, the first major decision after Qianlong's accession to the throne is to exempt the agricultural tax that has been in arrears for many years nationwide. Qianlong announced in the imperial edict that all families who have been in arrears with agricultural taxes for more than ten years will be exempted from paying them. After only 20 days, he announced that he would be exempted from all unpaid agricultural taxes before the twelfth year of Yongzheng.

Under this measure of Qianlong, the people of the Qing Empire, especially many poor people, got rid of heavy taxes for many years. In the traditional society where agricultural tax is the main financial revenue, this decision of Qianlong is extremely brave.

Of course, Qianlong did much more than that. During his long ruling career, he repeatedly partially or completely exempted farmers from agricultural taxes. He not only became the emperor who reduced the agricultural tax the most in the history of China, but also reduced the burden on farmers, laying the foundation for the population growth of China.

Therefore, based on the above reasons, the population of China finally reached 400 million during Daoguang period.