TNQTTTKY INTO THE rOPULATTON OF CTTTNA. 661 



then covered about the same area as at present. The census which 

 apj)ears to have been the most carefully made was that of the year 

 75(). It gave 8,814,708 families and 52,919,309 individuals for the 

 free population, exclusive of infants and very old people: it included 

 the kingdom of Korea. The total population in A. D. 750 ]iiay there- 

 fore have been about (')1,000,000. Biot, using the censuses referred 

 to in this paragraph, has calculated the average yearly increase of 

 the population of Chian ])roper between A. D. (J50 and 755, and found 

 it to have l)een about 0.0063 pei" cent. 



During the eleventh century, when the Empire was again united 

 under the rule of the Sung, we have ten enumerations of the popuhi.- 

 lion, that of the year 1080 showing evidence of having been the most 

 carefully taken. It gives the number of households of freeholders 

 (chu) and tenants (ko) as 14,852,G80, or 33,303,889 individuals. No 

 matter how numerous we allow the exempted and unenumerated classes 

 to have been, it is not conceivable that thej^ could have more than 

 doubled this number: so we may, I think, safely assume that at the 

 end of the eleventh century the population of China proper was not 

 nnich more than '■)0,000,000. the same as in the middle of tlie eighth 

 century. 



Biot has calculated the average yearly increase during the .Sung 

 dynasty (A. D. 97(; to 1102) and found that from 976 to 1021 it was 

 about 0.02 i)er cent, au-d from 1021 to 1102 only 0.0103 per cent, or 

 0.015 per cent during these one hundred and twenty-five years. 



In 1290, at the end of the Mongol conquest of China by Kublfti 

 Khan, a census of China proper gave 13,196,206 households of 58,- 

 834,711 individuals. xVdmitting that vast numbers of Chinese had 

 been reduced to slavery by the Mongols and countless thousands had 

 been killed, the population at the end of the thirteenth century can 

 hardly have been nnu-h in excess of 75,000,000. 



During the Ming d_\r.asty there were no fewer than 21 censuses 

 between 1381 and 1578. Tlic highest figure of the recorded popula- 

 tion during tiiis jK'riod was 66,598,337 individuals in 1403, and the 

 lowest 46,802,005 in 1506. The last census, that of 1578, taken at a 

 time when the country was extremely prosperous and enjoying gen- 

 eral })eace. gave the pojiulation as 63,599,541 souls. 



While agreeing with Sacharoff that the various censuses of this 

 period are not of a trustworthy character, I believe they nuiy l)e 

 considered sufficiently accurate to show that during the fifteenth and 

 sixteenth centuries the population of China increased \-ery slowly, 

 certainly not mon^ rapidly than during previous periods of its 

 historv. 



