執人口史研究之牛耳

PING-TI HO. Studies on the Population of China, 1368-1953. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1959. pp. xviii, 341.
        
The author interprets the nature of different types of population data and suggests tentative historical explanations as to how and why China’s population has been able to grow in early modern and modern times. He believes the growth of Chinese population is influenced by nature but more by defects in social, economic, and political institutions.
By examining official land and population statistics, Ho is convinced that these official figures are not reliable. Instead, successive editions of Chinese local histories provide more accurate information on land statistics, new food plants geographic propagation, and population changes. As population data were first collected on the local level, Ho examines more than three thousand gazetteers to check the quality and the authenticity of local data which are vital to his appraisal of the national figures.
1/ Ho discusses the nature and incidence of the concept ding 丁. The ding tax was commonly believed to have been a poll tax on adult males. Accordingly scholars believed there was a direct link between ding and population. Ho points out, however, the focus of ding in early modern time was on labor services. The ding figure lost its close correspondence to the actual population. 2/ Ho believes a correct periodization of the Qing dynasty is a prerequisite to any correct understanding of the dynasty’s population. 3/ Ho tries to explain why the traditional Chinese economy failed to develop a genuine capitalistic system.
This book is a broad study on population changes over six centuries concerning various population data and the mechanisms behind these data as well as different but relevant aspects, such as migration, the introduction and spread of new food, etc. A book with such a wide range calls for further studies on all aspects it has touched.
Further reading:
Kato, Shigeshi加藤繁. Shina keizaishi kōshō 支那經濟史考證. Tōkyō : Tōyō Bunko, Shōwa 27-28 [1952-1953].
Liang, Fang-chung梁方仲. “Ming-tai kuo-chi mao-i yü yin ti shu-chu-ju,” 明代國際貿易與銀的輸出入 Chung-kuo she-hui-ching-chi-shih chi-k’an中國社會經濟史集刊, vol. VI, no. 2. Taipei: Cheng wen.