Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T02:53:43.909Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Population Reports in the Ch'ing Dynasty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Irene B. Taeuber  and
Nai-Chi Wang
Get access

Extract

The growth of China's population and die veracity of the figures that purport to measure it are both puzzles. Critical in die solutions to both puzzles are die records of an alien dynasty that ruled China from 1644 to 1911. All reconstructions of the growth of the population in recent centuries trace to one or the other of die two Ch'ing series—die local reports ordered by the emperor Ch'ien-lung in 1741, or the survey that began in 1909 and ended with the revolution in 1911. The results of the registration of 1953–1954 are consistent with the first Ch'ing activity. The statistics of the Republic of China had lineal descent from both series, but at a level of total population consistent with the limited results of the 1909–1911 survey.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , August 1960 , pp. 403 - 417
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1960

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Abbreviations used: HPTL—Hu-pu tse-li [Directives of the Board of Revenue] HSTK—HSTK-Hsü Shensi t'ung-chih kao (Supplementary draft of local history of Shensi), Bureau of Local History, 1934Google Scholar; HTSL—(Ch'in-ting) ta-Ch'ing hui-tien shih-li [A compilation of the state regulations of the Ch'ing dynasty], Kuang-hsü ed.; SL—Ta-Ch'ing li-ch'ao shih-lu [Recorded great events of the Ch'ing dynasty], photographic copy by the Cabinet of Manchukuo; WTK—Ch'ing-ch'ao wên-hsien t'ung-k'ao [Compilation of important documents of the Ch'ing dynasty], Commercial Press ed.; WHTK—Ch'ing-ch'ao hsü wên-hsien t'ung-k'ao [Supplementary compilation of important documents of the Ch'ing dynasty], Commercial Press ed.; ACTT—The appendix by Yen Chung-ping, et al, editors, to Chung-kuo chin-tai ch'ing-chi-shih t'ung-chi tzǔ-liao hsüan-chi [A Collection of selected statistical materials on the economic history of modern China], the First Category, the Series of Reference Materials on the Economic Research, Institute of Economic Research, Acad'emia Sinica, 1955; CL—Ch'ien-lung; TC—T'ung-chih. The description of the organization is taken primarily from HPTL (CL ed.), chüan 3. See also: HTSL, chüan 158.

2 SL (CL reign), chüan 130 and 131. Translations of portions of some of the important directives are given by Ping-ti Ho, pp. 37–39, in Studies on the Population of China, 1368–1953, (Cambridge, Mass., 1959).

3 The native population of an area includes those who belong to the area in the sense that they have chi-kuan there. In a stable society, the family would have chi-kuan in die area in which the husband or father and his ancestors were born. With migration, the individual or the family retains chi-kuan in the area of origin until specific legal action is taken to transfer it to a new area. That action may be delayed for many years or even generations unless there are specific legal requirements for change. The liu-yü are individuals or families who do not reside in the place where they have chi-kuan. Thus liu-yü may be in-migrants or out-migrants, or they may be the descendants of migrants who have not changed their chi-kuan.

4 WTK, chūan 19.

5 The population figures of Yunnan were given for each year from 1741 to 1830. The figure for 1747 was 971,085. The next year, 1748, it gave 1,946,173; there was a note immediately attached to the figure reading as “Following the li (The word li here is not clear in its meaning. It may refer to the administrative decision, or to the specific regulation, or to the imperial decree) females were added in; it amounts to 965,281.” See Yünnan t'ung-chih (Local history of Yünnan), Kuang-hsu ed., chüan 55.

6 WTK, chüan 19.

7 According to the instructions each house was given a door placard by the local officials annually and that placard contained the name and occupation of the head of the household and the number of males. Females were specifically excluded1 from the notations. See HPTL (CL ed.), chüan 3.

8 Minority peoples were excluded, that is, specifically mentioned, in the 1740 order. HTSL, chüan 157.

9 HPTL (CL ed.), chüan 3.

10 HPTL (CL ed.), chüan 3.

11 HPTL (TC ed.), chüan 3, notes a decree of 1770, approved again in 1815, on the exclusion of the Miao of Kweichow in areas inhabitated completely by them.

12 HPTL (TC ed.), chüan 3.

13 HTSL, section on Liu-yü i-ti, chüan 158.

14 WTK, chüan 19.

15 I-shan, Hsiao, Ch'ing-tai t'ung-shih (General history of the Ch'ing dynasty), chüan-chung, (Shanghai, Commercial Press, 1928), p. 470.Google Scholar

16 HPTL (TC ed.), chüan 3.

17 Literacy was specifically mentioned as a qualification for p'ai-chang, chia-chang, and pao-chang. See HPTL (CL ed.), chüan 3.

18 Hsiao, pp. 470–471.

19 This was recognized by the emperor Chia-ch'ing and many officials. According to the emperor in 1799: “As the chi-shih-chung (a member of the Imperial Supervisorate over the Six Boards) Kan li-yu and the others reported to me, ‘owing to the vastness of the areas of chou and hsien and the scattered locarion of the population, there were no detailed inquiries in person as to names in the villages, though it was required legally. (Chou and hsien) officials merely relied on the made-up reports of subordinates …’ For this reason, I profess: every governor should order his subordinates (chou and hsien officials) to review the old regulations, to educate the people selecting honest man as li-chang (i.e. pao-chang), and to allocate the household in the (pao-chia) placards so that the population and households in the chou and hsien can be checked from the records.” WHTK, chüan 25.

20 The annual populations were compiled from SL (CL reign).

21 Provincial populations from: WTK, chüan 19.

22 WTK, chüan 19.

23 HPTL (CL ed.). chüan 3. Sole reliance was now placed on pao-chia records, for a decree of 1772 had abolished the quinquennial ting assessments and the compilations of the ting registers forever. HTSL, chüan 157.

24 Mei-ch'u, Pai, Chung-kuo jên-wên ti-li [A human geography of China], (Peiping, The Construction Library, 1930), p. 108.Google Scholar

25 According to the emperor Chia-ch'ing in 1810: “When the distribution of public grain for famine relief occasionally occurs, corrupt officials often report die population as larger than that in the annual report. This dishonest practice is not proper. Henceforth, provincial officials must order tfieir subordinates to do their best in die work of die pao-chia.” WHTK, chüan 25.

26 The populations of the provinces are given for each year from 1786 through 1791, in ACTT.

27 WHTK, chüan 25.

28 The populations of die provinces are given for each year from 1830 dirough 1851 in ACTT.

29 For a survey and evaluation of events and records, see Ping-ti Ho, ch. X.

30 Though no statistics are available for Kansu, in Shensi, another Province also involved in the Moslem rebellion, it was reported that more than half a million people were killed. See HSTK, chüan 31.