This family reigned 287 years, and Ma Twan-lin gives fifteen returns of the population up to 841. They show great variations, some of them difficult to explain even by omitting or supplying large classes of the inhabitants. The one most carefully taken was in A.D. 754, and gives an estimated total of about seventy millions for the whole Empire, which, though nearly the same as that in the Han dynasty in A.D. 2, extended over a far greater area, even to the whole southern seaboard. In addition to former enumerated classes, many thousands of priests were passed by in this census.
The years of anarchy following the Tang, till A.D. 976, when the Sung dynasty obtained possession, caused their usual effect. Its first census gives only about sixteen millions of taxable population that year, when its authority was not firmly assured; but in 1021 the returns rise to 43,388,380, and thence gradually increase to 100,095,250 in 1102, just before the provinces north of the Yellow River, by far the most fertile and loyal, were lost. The last enumeration, in 1223, while Ma Twan-lin was living, places the returns in the southern provinces at 63,304,000; this was fifty years before Kublai khan conquered the Empire. Our author gives some details concerning the classes included in the census during his own lifetime, which prove to a reasonable mind that the real number of mouths living on the land was, if anything, higher than the estimates. In 1290, the Mongol Emperor published his enumeration, placing the taxable population at 58,834,711, “not counting those who had fled to the mountains and lakes, or who had joined the rebels.” This was not long after his ruthless hand had almost depopulated vast regions in the northern provinces, before he could quiet them.
In the continuation of Ma Twan-lin’s Researches, there are sixteen censuses given for the Ming dynasty between 1381 and 1580; the lowest figure is 46,800,000, in 1506, and the highest, 66,590,000, in 1412, the average for the two centuries being 56,715,360 inhabitants. One of its compilers declares that he cannot reconcile their great discrepancies, and throws doubts on their totals from his inability to learn the mode of enumeration. Three are given for three consecutive years (1402-1404), the difference between the extremes of which amounts to sixteen millions, but they were all taken when Yungloh was fighting Kienwăn, his nephew, at Nanking, and settling himself at Peking as Emperor, during which years large districts could not possibly have been counted.
COMPARATIVE CENSUS TABLES.
Before entering upon a careful examination of this question, it will be well to bring together the various estimates taken of the population during the present dynasty. The details given in the table on page [264] have been taken from the best sources, and are as good as the people themselves possess.
Besides these detailed accounts, there have been several aggregates of the whole country given by other native writers than Ma Twan-lin, and some by foreigners, professedly drawn from original sources, but who have not stated their authorities. The most trustworthy, together with those given in the other table, are here placed in chronological order.
| Reign of Monarch. | A.D. | Population. | Authorities. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Hungwu, | 13th year, | 1381 | 59,850,000 | Continuation of Ma Twan-lin. Ed. Biot, Journal Asiatique, 1836. |
| 2. | Yungloh, | 9th year, | 1412 | 65,377,000 | |
| 3. | Wanleih, | 7th year, | 1580 | 60,692,000 | |
| 4. | Shunchí, | 18th year, | 1662 | 21,068,600 | General Statistics of the Empire; Medhurst’s China, p. 53. |
| 5. | Kanghí, | 6th year, | 1668 | 25,386,209 | |
| 6. | „ | 49th year, | 1710? | 23,312,200 | |
| 7. | „ | 49th year, | 1710? | 27,241,129 | Yih Tung Chí, a statistical work; Morrison’s View of China. |
| 8. | „ | 50th year, | 1711 | 28,605,716 | General Statistics; Chinese Repository, Vol. I, p. 359. |
| 9. | Kienlung, | 1st year, | 1736 | 125,046,245 | Mémoires sur les Chinois, Tome VI., p. 277 ff. |
| 10. | „ | 8th year, | 1743 | 157,343,975 | |
| 11. | „ | 8th year, | 1743 | 149,332,730 | |
| 12. | „ | 8th year, | 1743 | 150,265,475 | Les Missionaires, De Guignes, Tome III., p. 67. |
| 13. | „ | 18th year, | 1753 | 103,050,060 | General Statistics; Chinese Repository, Vol. I., p. 359. |
| 14. | „ | 25th year, | 1760? | 143,125,225 | Yih Tung Chi, a statistical work; Morrison’s View of China. |
| 15. | „ | 25th year, | 1760? | 203,916,477 | Mémoires sur les Chinois, Tome VI. De Guignes, Tome III., p. 72. |
| 16. | „ | 26th year, | 1761 | 205,293,053 | |
| 17. | „ | 27th year, | 1762 | 198,214,553 | Allerstein; Grosier; De Guignes, Tome III., p. 67. |
| 18. | „ | 55th year, | 1790 | 155,249,897 | “Z.” of Berlin, in Chinese Repository, Vol. I., p. 361. |
| 19. | „ | 57th year, | 1792 | 307,467,200 | General Statistics; Dr. Morrison, Anglo-Chinese Coll. Report, 1829. Statement made to Lord Macartney. |
| 20. | „ | 57th year, | 1792 | 333,000,000 | |
| 21. | Kiaking, | 17th year, | 1812 | 362,467,183 | General Statistics; Chinese Repository, Vol. I., p. 359. |
| 22. | Tungchí, | 8th year, | 1868 | 404,946,514 | Vassilivitch. Chinese Custom’s Reports. |
| 23. | Kwangsü, | 7th year, | 1881 | 380,000,000 | |
Seven of these censuses, viz., the 7th, 8th, 12th, 13th, 17th, 20th, 21st and 23d, are given in detail in the following table. The first three belong to the Ming dynasty, and are taken from a continuation of Ma Twan-lin’s Researches, whence they were quoted in the Mirror of History, without their details. During the Ming dynasty, a portion of the country now called the Eighteen Provinces, was not under the control of Hungwu and his descendants. The wars with the Japanese, and with tribes on the north and west, together with the civil wars and struggles between the Chinese themselves, and with the Nü-chí in Manchuria, must have somewhat decreased the population.