﻿rockhill] the population of china 309 



them being based on the data supplied Popoff for 1879 and 1882. 

 E. H. Parker 3 gives from Russian sources the population of the 



various provinces for 1894; this is the wildest guess yet made, and 

 foots up a total of 421,800,000. In 1903 the Statesman's Year Book 

 (p. 506) published a table "issued by the Chinese Government as 

 the results of a census taken for the purpose of the apportionment 

 of the indemnity to the rowers," in which the population is esti- 

 mated at 407,253,000. There is not a scintilla of evidence to show 

 that any census was taken for the purpose stated, and furthermore 

 there was no necessity for taking one, as the sums levied from the 

 various provinces for the indemnity of 1900 were procured by 

 indirect taxation. Here again we have nothing more than a guess 

 of the Chinese Board of Revenue. 



II 



An attempt will now be made to determine the value of the various 

 enumerations of population since that of 1741, which I am inclined 

 to believe was probably a closer approximation to the truth than 

 were any subsequent ones, the Imperial Government being in strong, 

 intelligent hands, its mandates executed with more faithfulness and 

 precision than at any other subsequent period, and the Empire en- 

 joying perfect peace. I feel confident, however, that it was in ex- 

 cess of the truth, for it must be borne in mind that no census, such 

 as we make in this country, has ever been attempted in China. The 

 Statutes of the Empire 2 require, it is true, that all families should 

 make returns of their members, and impose punishments for failure 

 to comply or for falsification of returns ; it would therefore seem 

 easv to tabulate these returns at any time, but experience has proved 

 that such is not the case. In China all statements of population 

 are largely guess-work, and where numbers are guessed they are 

 always magnified, especially when there is no reason to keep them 

 down, as was the case prior to the Imperial Edict of 1712, referred to 

 previously. 



China enjoys a salubrious climate and a fertile soil, and the people 

 have alwavs been extraordinarily industrious and thrifty. As a gen- 

 eral rule the taxation has been fairly equable, and life and property 

 safe in times of peace. These conditions are all conducive to a 

 large increase in population. There is another reason which should 

 from the remotest times have been potent in producing a larger in- 



1 China, etc., 192. 



2 Ta Ch'ing Lii-li, 3d Div., Bk. 1, Sees. lxxv. lxxvi. 



