清末民初，许多知识分子从中国的人口问题出发寻求救国之道。他们反思过去盲目追求人口增殖的传统生育观念，认为中国已经“人满为患”，并提出了不同的解决方法。然而，这一认识并不始终如一。随着新文化运动时期人们对于西方人口思想——马尔萨斯主义更加深入的了解，不少学者围绕其进行了科学地研讨辨析，又对“人满为患”认识产生了质疑。知识界对于“人满为患”认识的产生和嬗变，体现了近代中国对人口“数量”和“质量”认识的深化和发现，在我国人口思想史上有着重要意义。

In the late of the Qing Dynasty and the start of the republic of China, many intellectuals sought the way of salvation from the Chinese population problem. They reflected the traditional concept over the past that was to blindly pursue the population growth. They believed that China had been "overcrowded", and proposed different solutions. However, this understanding was not consistent. With the more in-depth understanding of the Western population theory – Malthusianism in the New Culture Movement, some scholars conducted a scientific discrimination around the theory. And then, the "overcrowded" understanding had been questioned. The generation and evolution of the Intelligentsia’s "overcrowded" understanding embodied that the modern Chinese consideration for the population’s "quantity" and "quality" had been deeper and discovered. And this meant a lot in the history of China's population theory.