(W)2 



INQUIRY INTO THE POPULATION OF CHINA. 



The following returns of the detailed censuses of 1393, 1401, and 

 1578 are taken from the Annals of the Ming." It must be noted 

 that that of 1393 has no returns for several provinces of the Empire.'' 



1393. 



House- 

 holds. 



Ssu-ch'uan s!1.5, 719 



Kiang-lisi ._.. \JnH,9-£i 



Hu-kuang 77,5, 851 



Che-kiang ! l,i;«,Sir>5 



Fu-kien _ | S1.5,5;e7 



Kuang-tung ._ ; (>75,5H9 



Kuang-hsi ' 211,203 



Shaii-tung i 753, f^94 



Shan-hsi 595,444 



Ho-uan... 315,617 



Shen-hsi 294,.526 



Yun-nan _ ' 59,576 



Kuei-chou I 



Chhig-shih ' 



Nan-ehing _ 1,912,914 



Total 9,318,078 



Individ- 

 uals. 



10,755,948 



58,619,228 



1491. 



House- 

 holds. 



253,803 



1,363,629 

 504, 870 



1,. 503, 124 

 506,039 

 467,390 

 459,640 

 770,555 

 575, 249 

 .575,249 

 306,644 



• 15,950 



43,367 



304, 055 



1,511,853 



Individ- 

 uals. 



2,598,460 

 6,549,8(K) 

 3,781,714 

 5,3a5,843 

 3,106,060 

 1,817,384 

 1,676,274 

 6,7.59,675 

 4,360,476 

 4, 360, 476 

 3,912,370 

 125,955 

 258,693 

 3,448,977 

 7,993,519 



9,161,417 56,055,676 



1578. 



House- 

 holds. 



262, 694 



1,;W1,005 

 541,310 



l,r)42,408 

 .515,307 

 5:«,712 

 218,712 



1,372,200 

 5tt6,097 

 6:e,067 

 394,423 

 ia5,560 

 43, 405 

 3:^4,691 



2,069,067 



10,530,664 



Individ- 

 uals. 



3,102,073 

 5,859,020 

 4,;»8,785 

 5,153,005 

 1,738,709 

 5,040,655 

 1,186,179 

 5,604,099 

 5,319,;i59 

 5,193,606 

 4, .502, 0(7 

 l,476,0i)2 

 290, 972 

 4,258,4.53 

 10,415,861 



63, .599,, 541 



Between the founding of the present Manchu dynasty (A. D. 

 1644) and 1734 we have enumerations of the population by house- 

 holds for nearly every year. E. H. Parker has extracted them from 

 the Tung hua hi for the years between 1651 and I860.'' From 1651 

 to 1730 they are as follows for every tenth year: 



" Ming Shib, Bks. 40 and r.l. 



f' It is interesting to note that nearly all Enropean writers of tlio latter part 

 of the sixteenth and of the .seventeenth centuries, such as Trigault, Matteo 

 Kicoi, rierrada, Martin Martini, Seniedo, Mandelslo, and OsbecU, give approxi- 

 mately the figure of the census of I.">7S as that of tlie population of <Tiina in 

 tlieir time, some of them stating that it included only adult males or " fighting 

 men." I can find no authority for this in :iny Chinese work. Ueinelii Careri 

 (Voy. Round the World. I't. IV, .">liti) made out the population of China at the 

 end of the seventeenth century to he .7.»,7SS,:U;4 men. "exclusive of women, 

 children, paupers, officials, literati, army, the imperial clan, etc." He gives the 

 number of fanulies as II, .502,871.'. The figures, both of individuals and of houst^- 

 holds, are sub.stantially those of the census of ir)7S. He cites no authority for 

 his statement concerning classes of the i)oi)ulation not included in the census. 

 I am inclined to believe he took his figures and this statement bodily from 

 Athanasius Kircher or Father M.artiu Martini, but they in turn furnish no 

 authority for their belief that the recorded jiopulation was exclusively composed 

 of male adults. 



'■ K. II. Parker, A Note on Some Statistics Kegardiiig China, .louriial Royal 

 Statistical Society, XII, pt. 1, i)]). l.lO-l.^C. I>u llalde, Description, etc., II, 

 p. 14, referring to the early enum(>rati()ns of the ])resent dynasty, states that 

 the taxpayers were the adult niales only between twenty and sixty ye;u's of age. 



