fi64 



INQUIRY INTO THE POPULATION OF CHINA. 



corresponds very closely with that given for 1741, Amiot ■would add 

 493,075 individuals for unenumerated officials, 2,470,000 for the 

 literati, and 4,115,325 for the arin3\ To this again he would add 

 some 50,000,000 for the civil employees of Government, the monks, 

 nuns, brigands, vagabonds, troglodytes, etc., with which, he says, 

 China is full. Here I think he is unquestionably wrong, for the 

 civil employees Avere included either in the alread}^ accounted for 

 class of officials, or in the general returns," while as for monks, nuns, 

 etc., the number was unquestionably so small that it may be omitted 

 in such a rough estimate as that Ave are attempting to reach. We 

 ma}' adopt the number 143,000,000 indiA^iduals as a maxmum for the 

 total population of China proper in 1743. 



The A'-arious estimates of the population made by the Government 

 of China since 1743 are contained in the folloAving table, in Avhich 

 have also been included the annual rates of increase or decrease 

 betAveen succeedinff dates deducted from them : 



[Minus mark ( — ) indicates decrease. 



"The figures for 1850 and 18G0 are given on the authority of the Tung hup. hi. The 

 data from which the figure for 1885 is deduced were supplied me in ISS.") liv the Chinese 

 board of revenue llu I'u, and sui)|il('iiieiit('d and comi)U'led hy figures supplied by the 

 same board to Mr. I'opoff for ten provinces for the year 1870. This enunieiMtion. .-is also 

 those for 1761, 1812, 1842, and 1882 are given in detail, infra, p. (ul!. See also S. Wells 

 AVilliams, The Middle Kingdom, i, 258. 



Since the last date in the preceding table a iiuml)er of estimates of 

 the population of China jiroper have been made by Aarious Avriters, 

 but none of the estimates has any i)articular value, all of them l)eing 

 based on the data supplied Po])()fl' for 187!) and 1S82. K. II. Par- 

 ker ^ gives from Russian sources the population of the various prov- 



oTa Ch'iiig Lii-li, M Div., Bk. I, Sec. LXXA'I. ])r()vi(1es for the registration 

 of persons in the civil and military services. 

 I' ("iiiiiM, etc., 1!»1'. 



