The Middle Kingdom, Volume 1 (of 2): A Survey of the Geography, Government, Literature, Social Life, Arts, and History of the Chinese Empire and its InhabitantsWilliams, S. Wells (Samuel Wells)
History
The Middle Kingdom, Volume 1 (of 2): A Survey of the Geography, Government, Literature, Social Life, Arts, and History of the Chinese Empire and its Inhabitants
Williams, S. Wells (Samuel Wells)
China
The three next numbers (9, 10, and 11), are taken from De Guignes,
who quotes Amiot, but gives no Chinese authorities. The last is
given in full by De Guignes, and both this and that of Allerstein,
dated twenty years after, are introduced into the table. There are
some discrepancies between these two and the census of 1753, taken
from the _General Statistics_, which cannot easily be reconciled.
The internal evidence is in favor of the latter, over the census of
1743; it is taken from a new edition of the _Ta Tsing Hwui Tien_,
or ‘General Statistics of the Empire,’ and the increase during the
forty-two years which had elapsed since the last census is regular
in all the provinces, with the exception of Shantung and Kiangnan.
The extraordinary fertility of these provinces would easily induce
immigration, while in the war of conquest, their populousness and
wealth attracted the armies of the Manchus, and the destruction of
life was disproportionably great. The smaller numbers given to the
western and southern provinces correspond moreover to the opposition
experienced in those regions. On the whole, the census taken in 1753
compares very well with that of 1711, and both of them bear an aspect
of verity, which does not belong to the table of 1743 quoted by De
Guignes.
From 1711 to 1753, the population doubled itself in about twenty-two
years, premising that the whole country was faithfully registered at
the first census. For instance, the province of Kweichau, in 1711,
presents on the average a mere fraction of a little more than a single
person to two square miles; while in 1753 it had increased in the
unexampled ratio of three to a square mile, which is doubling its
population every seven years; Kwangtung, Kwangsí, and Kansuh (all
of them containing to this day, partially subdued tribes), had also
multiplied their numbers in nearly the same proportion, owing in
great measure, probably, to the more extended census than to the mere
increase of population.
~COMPARISON OF LATER CENSUSES.~
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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