Old photos in the late Qing Dynasty: Do men really cut braids and children do farm work?

The farmers are harvesting wheat. These old photos recorded the social features of the north in the late Qing Dynasty, with the specific time ranging from 1906 to 19 12, and were selected from the album of French missionary Michel de Maynard. After reading these images, we may find out the reasons for the demise of the Qing Dynasty.

Farmers at work. In the last few years of the Qing Dynasty, the social economy was depressed, people's thoughts changed, and various revolutionary activities and peasant uprisings emerged one after another. At the same time, droughts, floods and other natural disasters have also begun to disrupt people's normal lives. The whole society is in the darkest moment on the eve of drastic changes.

The street view of a certain place looks bustling, giving people a sense of ruin.

The man squatting on the ground is cutting off the long big braid. This should be the scene taken after the Revolution of 1911. The braid that has been dragged on men's heads for more than 260 years has finally been cut off, which is a great progress in history. In fact, many people didn't want to cut their braids at that time. The new government issued several decrees to force braid cutting, and it took several years to solve this problem.

A group of armed men. Some of these people are armed with guns, others with broadswords and dressed in casual clothes. They should not be regular troops, but vigilantes donated by local gentry to maintain local law and order. At that time, at the end of the dynasty, social instability and bandits appeared, and large families often formed armed forces to defend themselves in partnership.

A prisoner standing in a cage. This kind of punishment is not stipulated by the laws of the Qing Dynasty, and belongs to the extra-legal punishment set by local officials in private. The upper end of the cage is a cangue, which holds the prisoner's neck; There are several bricks under his feet, and the degree of the prisoner's pain and the length of his life depend on how many bricks are removed.

A heavy unicycle can only be controlled by four people pushing and pulling. This kind of car was very common in all parts of the Qing Dynasty, and it was difficult to keep balance when pushing, especially when loading things.

A scene on a mountain road somewhere. The photographer is an amateur, and the composition of this photo is very poor.

Children in the field. They may have helped their parents do some farm work within their power. Except the doll riding a donkey is too small, the other two are definitely not idle. At that time, children had few opportunities to receive education, so they began to share housework when they could carry soy sauce bottles.