A Royal Crisis: The Shocking Mortality Rates of Song Dynasty Children

The Song Dynasty (960–1279) is often celebrated for its cultural brilliance, economic prosperity, and technological advancements. Yet behind this golden age lay a tragic reality: the shockingly high mortality rates among imperial children. Historical records reveal a grim pattern—despite their privileged status, nearly half of all royal offspring failed to reach adulthood.

Emperor Taizu, the dynasty’s founder, fathered four sons and six daughters, but only two sons and three daughters survived childhood—a 50% mortality rate. Emperor Renzong’s three sons all perished in infancy, forcing him to adopt an heir. Even more devastating was Emperor Ningzong’s case: none of his nine sons and one daughter survived, marking a 100% mortality rate. Historian Wang Zengyu’s analysis of 18 Song emperors found that of 181 royal children born, 82 (45%) died young.

These figures raise a haunting question: Why did the empire’s most pampered infants—those with access to elite physicians, nourishing wet nurses, and round-the-clock care—perish at such alarming rates?

The Deadly Intersection of Superstition and Medicine

### Dietary Taboos and Magical Thinking

Song medical texts like Health and Household Essentials for Obstetrics prescribed bizarre dietary restrictions for pregnant women:
– Rabbit meat caused cleft lips (resembling a rabbit’s mouth)
– Sparrow meat induced blindness (linking to birds’ poor night vision)
– Duck meat led to breech births (inspired by ducks hung upside-down for roasting)
– Turtle meat shortened necks (mimicking turtles retracting into shells)
– Crab meat caused transverse birth positions (like a crab’s sideways walk)
– Donkey meat prolonged pregnancies (donkeys gestate for 12 months)

While these beliefs reflected keen observation, their application revealed a dangerous lack of scientific rigor.

### “Labor-Easing” Rituals and Dangerous Remedies

Three symbolic foods were believed to ease childbirth:
1. “Pain-Sharing Buns”: Flowering steamed buns (with split tops) symbolized an open birth canal.
2. Dates and Chestnuts: Eaten raw (“early birth”) for their homophonic blessings.
3. 120 Eggs: Representing hopes for a 120-year lifespan.

When complications arose, physicians turned to increasingly desperate measures:
– Animal Symbolism: Snake skins (for “shedding” babies) or lubricants like axle grease (for a “slippery” birth canal).
– Weapon Magic: Bowstrings and crossbow triggers soaked in vinegar, meant to “shoot” the baby out.
– Paternal Relics: Burning the father’s fingernails, belt, or even pubic hair into medicinal ashes.

As historian Chen Ziming admitted in Complete Works on Women’s Medicine, most treatments veered into pure witchcraft—like writing officials’ names on a breech baby’s feet to “command” proper positioning.

The Human Cost: Maternal and Infant Suffering

### Noble Victims: The Case of Ouyang Xiu

The celebrated statesman Ouyang Xiu endured unimaginable personal tragedy:
– First Wife: Died at 20 from postpartum infection after delivering his son.
– Second Wife: Perished from obstructed labor within a year of marriage.
– Third Wife: Only she survived into old age—a statistical anomaly.

Their fates weren’t exceptional. With maternal mortality estimates exceeding 30% in difficult births, even elite families faced Russian roulette with each pregnancy.

### State Intervention: Song Social Welfare Programs

Confronted with widespread infanticide among the poor (“disposing of excess sons and daughters”), Song governments implemented groundbreaking policies:
1. Legal Penalties: Two years’ hard labor for killing infants (extended to neighbors and midwives).
2. Tax Relief: Exemptions of 4,000 coins per child for impoverished families (1138 edict).
3. Direct Aid: 1 dan of rice + 1 string of cash per newborn in Fujian (1169), later expanded nationally.
4. Foundling Hospitals: Over 89 state-run “Compassionate Child Bureaus” (Ciyouju) by late Southern Song, where:
– Abandoned infants received wet nurses and monthly stipends.
– Childless families could adopt.
– Records show decreased roadside infant corpses during famines.

Yet coverage remained spotty—rural areas often lacked resources, forcing heartbreaking choices.

Cultural Echoes: Surviving Song Traditions

### “Three-Day Washing” and Fate-Testing Rituals

Two Song-era customs persist today:
– “Wash on the Third Day” (Xisan): Bathing newborns with scallions (for cleverness) and coins (wealth).
– “Grasping at Zhou” (Zhuazhou): Predicting a child’s future by their first birthday choices:
– Books/Ink: Scholarly success (like official Cao Bin, who grabbed weapons and a seal before becoming a general).
– Scales/Tools: Merchant careers.
– Needles/Thread: Domestic skills.

Poet Wu Shen’s Song of Seven Ladies immortalized these hopes: “Right hand grasps a golden spear, left holds an official seal—his fame shall rival Minister Wang!”

Legacy: Shadows of Progress

The Song Dynasty’s contradictions—advanced social welfare yet primitive medicine, poetic celebrations of childhood alongside chilling infant mortality—reveal a society straining toward modernity while shackled by tradition. Their struggles mirror our own: even today, cultural superstitions sometimes override medical evidence in maternal care.

Perhaps the most enduring lesson lies in the Compassionate Child Bureaus—a testament that societal progress isn’t measured by palace intrigues or artistic triumphs alone, but by how a civilization protects its most vulnerable members. In this, the Song Dynasty, for all its flaws, took faltering steps toward enlightenment.