What had they just heard? If direct blood relatives or collateral blood relatives within three generations married, their children would have a much higher risk of illness.
They knew that marriages between direct blood relatives were forbidden, but this was the first they had heard of forbidding marriages between collateral blood relatives within three generations.
Had everyone been wrong all these years?
Guagua's voice continued:
[Direct blood relatives are relatives connected to you by a direct line of descent: those from whom you descend and those descended from you, across all generations. These include parents and children, paternal grandparents and grandchildren, maternal grandparents and grandchildren, and so on.
Collateral blood relatives within three generations are relatives who share a common ancestor with you within three generations. These include:
Brothers and sisters who share your parents, including half siblings who share only a father or a mother.
Paternal and maternal cousins who share your paternal or maternal grandparents.
Paternal uncles and aunts and their nephews and nieces, and maternal uncles and aunts and their nephews and nieces, who share the same paternal or maternal grandparents.
Regardless of how the man in this hall feels about his cousin, in terms of blood ties, marrying her is absolutely unacceptable.
Host, you must explain the issue of marriage between close relatives clearly to the emperor and everyone else.]
Song Yaoyao: [I know.]
Song Yaoyao stood, walked to the center of the hall, and bowed before saying:
"Your Majesty, I propose prohibiting marriages between collateral blood relatives within three generations.
When closely related men and women marry, their fertility declines, mortality among their offspring rises, and their children often suffer from congenital deformities and hereditary diseases.
When first cousins marry, the incidence of children with intellectual disabilities is 150 times higher than among unrelated couples.