210 Boundaries and Beyond
AD 1391 AD 1502
815,527 hu 508,649 hu
3,916,806 kou 2,062,683 kouWhen reading a traditional Chinese census, the nature of Chinese
population data and the factors affecting population registration should
be borne in mind. Ho Ping-ti indicates several aspects to be considered,
including the population-land ratio, interregional migrations, land
utilization, food production, catastrophic deterrents and other economic
and institutional factors.^8 In short, the βluctuations in the βigures in
the population registration can be read as reliable indicators of the
socioeconomic conditions prevailing in the different periods. Rapid
growth might well reβlect social stability and economic development.
On the other hand, natural or man-made disasters might account for a
decline. Since the Chinese census served as a basis for land distribution
and taxation, its βigures are more accurate when the society was stable.
Nevertheless, under-registration and depopulation were by no means
uncommon even when the actual population was not necessarily in
decline. Several factors explain these phenomena. With the passing of the
strong rulers of the early Ming, for example, the gentry families gradually
reverted to various practices by which, in connivance with the local
ofβicials, they often succeeded in shifting a part, or all, of their burden
of labor services and land tax onto the poor.^9 Their illegal methods of
effecting such evasions became increasingly shrewd and varied. Unable
to bear the extra burden, the victims eventually resorted to desertion.
Another factor, to be discussed later, in the failure of later Ming
registrations to cover the entire population was the under-reporting by
people with the protection of the powerful rural interests.^10 Even under
such conditions, it is amazing to note the exceptionally large increase in
the Zhangzhou population. The development of that prefecture, located
in the southernmost part of Fujian, was much later than that of Quanzhou.
Considering the dubious character of the population registrations,
the actual number of the Zhangzhou population must have been much
greater than what was recorded. In any case, the βigure does show a
continuous trend of interregional southward migration and the fully
exploited condition of the waste land in Zhangzhou.
- Ho Ping-ti, Studies on the Population of China, 1368–1953 (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1959). - Ibid., p. 10.
- Ibid., p. 13.
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