Later, I learned that in Shan Hai Jing, an ancient book in the pre-Qin period, there was already a record of the girl country, while in overseas western classics, it was said that "the girl country is in the north of Wuxian, and there are two women living there, surrounded by water. Live in a door. " With the same origin, stories about unofficial history, the daughter country, abound in China ancient books [1].
Coincidentally, in Greek mythology, in the story of Jason's capture of golden fleece, there is also a daughter country called "Lenos Island" [2]. There is only this girl country, because the women on the island killed all the men angrily, leaving only women.
There are stories about the girl country in early Chinese and western classics and myths, which anthropologists and historians should pay attention to. Why is there such a place as a girl country in early human memory?
It has been pointed out that the existence of the girl country is due to the existence of matriarchal society in a certain historical period or in some tribes, that is, a society dominated by women. For example, the Mosuo people in Yunnan are matriarchal society, and the marriage system is implemented.
In such a social system, women raise their children and men just provide a sperm in the "flower house" for the night. Therefore, a man and a woman (or other forms of fixed marriage) have not formed a fixed marriage system. To outsiders, they just broke into the women's group and didn't see the men's group, so they thought it was a girl country.
This explanation has some truth, but it doesn't touch the root. The origin of myth is either an imaginative expression of some primitive human lifestyle, or it reveals some deep-rooted inherent nature hidden in our genes. In the series "Fairy Tales Destroying Childhood", I analyzed the evolutionary biological essence of Cinderella, Saint George, Snow White and other fairy tales.
So, what kind of deep story does the setting of the girl country express?
From the embryological point of view, in the process of human fetal formation, gender changes will only occur after five weeks of fertilized eggs division. In other words, in the first five weeks, all sexual organs are developing towards women by default. In the fifth week, the development of the fetus will encounter a switch in the program to detect whether it contains Y chromosome. If there is, it will develop into a male, the original uterus will develop into a prostate, and the original vulva/pedicle will develop into a male/stem.
And if there is no Y chromosome, but X chromosome, then the fetus will continue to develop in the original direction of women. In many news reports, there are examples of fake women, that is, after the child is born, she thinks it is a girl, but when she is an adult, she becomes a boy, and the vulva/pedicle becomes a penis/stem, which is a mutation in the development process.
I once imagined that if our biology invented an embryo technology and delayed sex differentiation from the fifth week of pregnancy to, for example, after 12 years old, or after 18 years old, then when children have certain thoughts, they can choose their own sex, that is, move that switch and choose Y to become a male and X to become a female.
Of course, it's just a brain hole. However, this tells us that in embryology, it is entirely possible to have a daughter country. That's a woman from the girl country. They will drink water from Zimu River to fertilize their eggs. Of course, drinking water is just a metaphor. After all, the stomach and intestines will kill chromosomes containing pairing information in Zimu River, and the possible way is to take a bath.
Guo Pu of the Eastern Jin Dynasty explained the girl country in Shan Hai Jing, saying that "it takes a bath to get pregnant" (taking a bath, you know). Later, Wu Cheng'en had a brainwave and changed it to "drinking water" (actually more stupid, just for the needs of the plot). It is more likely to be pregnant in the bath. Considering that people used to bathe in pots, the chances of pregnancy have increased many times.
And don't discuss the specific conception "channel" in detail, because there is no male and Y chromosome in the daughter country, and the water of "Zimu River" naturally comes from the meiosis of female XX chromosome, so after the combination of two X chromosomes, only women can be born. Cycle after cycle, endless descendants.
Is there a country for men? It seems impossible. Men don't have a uterus at first, and then even if they do, then the chromosome of male XY meiosis may be X, Y, and the other is X or Y, so the possible result is XX, XY or YY (seemingly impossible). If it is XX, then there are women in this group, so it is not a man's country, so only XY can guarantee the purity of a man's country. But if a man really has a uterus to get pregnant, he is not a man.
Therefore, biologically speaking, there can only be a country like the girl country, but not a country like the boy country, and the possibility of the existence of the girl country is still relatively large. Alfred Jost, an endocrinologist, said: "Being a man is a long, arduous and dangerous process; This is a struggle with the genetic trend of women. " [3]
Back to biological research, it is common for males to look for other targets after providing sperm, and it is common for females to raise children alone. Therefore, when observing an animal group, it is likely that there will be more situations similar to the girl country.
This may be an understanding gained by the ancients in observing the biosphere, or it may be that in early human society, after men "ate and wiped clean", only women were left to take care of their children. It is also possible that when men go out hunting (war or pleasure), only women and children stay in a village.
Finally, since the daughter country can reproduce without men, that is to say, from the physiological mechanism, there is no need to set the stimulus of pleasure. Then, since there is no pleasure, why does the king of the daughter country keep Tang Priest?