What began as a curiosity about China’s One Child Policy evolved into a deep investigation into the relationship between science, nationalism, and human value. This paper traces the surprising history of eugenics in China to argue that, instead of just being an appropriation of Western thought, eugenic ideas have had a longer history in China and were used by different reformers to accomplish various purposes. Some of these uses were attempts to genuinely uplift society and solve pressing social issues, but with various functions and implications over different periods of time. Rooted in numerous aspects of the culture such as Confucianism and Chinese medicine, eugenics has had a culturally and politically mainstream presence in China. I delved deep into primary sources from ancient China dating back more than 3,000 years, discovering a wealth of unforeseen wisdom about medical, social, and political approaches to balancing individual births with societal needs. My research piqued an interest in bringing human perspectives into the study of population and public policy.