1st Edition

A Concise History of China’s Population

By Jianxiong Ge Copyright 2024

    This book provides a comprehensive overview and explanation of China’s population, analyzing its special characteristics and patterns of growth over the past 2,000 years. Topics include its composition, distribution, migration, and deep analysis into China’s historical population.

    The author aims to answer complicated questions such as how China’s population was formed, when China started its earliest population surveys, how China’s population migrated and was distributed historically, and how existing population data should be evaluated and used now? In addition, the author explores the influence of natural and human-caused disasters, censuses, tax policies, and economic development on China’s population changes. The work also offers a span of rich historical detail related to population control.

    The book will be a great read to students and scholars of population studies, Chinese studies, ethnology, and those who are interested in Chinese history, archaeology, geography, and sociology.

    Part I Population Surveys in History and the Extant Records 1 Origination of Population Surveys 2 Evolution and Development of the Population Survey System 3 The Assessment of Historical Demographic Data Part II Development of China’s Population Size in History and Characteristics of Its Changes 4 The Qin and Han Period 5 The Three Kingdoms to Sui Period 6 The Tang Period 7 The Song, Liao and Jin Periods 8 The Yuan Period 9 The Ming Period 10 The Qing and Modern Periods 11 Characteristics of Changes in Population Sizes 12 Causes of Changes in Population Size Part III Population Composition, Reproduction, Distribution and Migration 13 Composition and Reproduction of the Population 14 Population Distribution 15 Population Migration

    Biography

    Jianxiong Ge is a famous Chinese Historical Geographer and an expert in the studies of Chinese history and demographic history. He is Professor and Former Director of the Institute of Historical Geography of Fudan University in Shanghai, and Director of the Fudan University Library. He is one of the first two recipients of the doctoral degree in Humanities in the People’s Republic of China. He is a member of Chinese National Committee for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (CNC-IGBP). He is editorial board member of Historical Geography and various other boards. His research interests include historical geography and human geography.