The Sun.
London, England, 1857-03-12 00:00:00

THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 12, 1857

THE STATE OF CHINA.
BY SIR J. BOWRING.

The following letter, addressed to the Registrar-
General, London, by Sir John Bowring, has been
published in the "Journal of the Statistical So-
ciety ;"

"Government house, Hong Tong, July 13, 1355.

" Sir,—l wish it were possible to give a satisfactory
reply to your inquiries as to the real population of
China.

"There bee been no official census taken, since the
time of Kia King, 43 years ago. Much doubt has been
thrown upon the accuracy of these returns, which gave
362,447,183 as the total number of the inhabitants of
China. I think our greater knowledge of the country
increases the evidence in favour of the approximate cor-
rectness of the official document, and that we may with
tolerable safety estimate the present population of the
Chinese empire as between 350,000,000 and 400,000,000
of human beings. The penal laws of China make provi-
sion for a general system of registration ; and corporal
punishments, generally amounting to 100 blows of the
bamboo, are to be inflicted on those who neglect to make
the proper returns. The machinery is confided to the
elders of the district, and the census is required to be
annually taken ; but I have no reason to believe that the
law is obeyed or the neglect of it punished.
"In the English translation of Father Alvares Se-
medo's 'History of Ch:na,' published in London,
A.D. 1655, is the following passage t
'6 'This kingdom is so exceedingly populous that,
having lived there 22 years, I was in no less amazement
at my coming away than in the beginning at the multi-
tude of the people. Certainly thez,truth exceedeth all
hyperboles ; not only in the cities, towns, and public
places, but also in the highway there is as great a con-
course as is usual in Europe on some great festival.
And if we will refer ourselves to the general regieter-
hock wherein only the common men are enrolled, leaving
out women, children, eunuchs, professors of letters and
arms, there are reckoned of them to be fifty-eight mil-
lions fifty-five thousand one hundred and four score.'
The minuteness of the enumeration would seem to show
that the father quoted some official document.
" I forward herewith two tabular statements which I
have copied from Dr. Williams's Middle Kingdom,'
one of the best books on China. The first (No. 1) gives
a list of the various estimates from A D. 1393 to 1812,
with the authorities quoted. The second is a rearranged
statement of censuses taken at different periods (No. 2).
"As there are few men in China more diligent or
better instructed than Dr. Williams, I thought it desir-
able to communicate with him in order to ascertain his
present views as to the credit which may properly be a.-
tached to the official statistics of China. I send a copy
of his letter (No. 3).
"I do not know that there is any safer course than
to reason from details to generals, from the known to
the unknown ; and I have taken every opportunity
which try intercourse with the Chinese has afforded me,
to obtain, if not correct, at least approximative, infor-
mation as to the true statistics of the country. It may
be affirmed without wry hesitation that, as regards the
Five Ports and the adjacent districts to which we have
access, the population is so numerous as to furnish ar-
guments that the number of inhabitants of the entire
empire is very much greater than is represented by the
official returns. These localities cannot be taken as fair
averages; for, naturally enough, increased commercial
activity has brought with it a flow of new settlers, and
there can be no doubt that some of the ancient seats of
commerce have lost much of their population in losing
their trade; but whether all the causes of decline in par-
ticular spots have much counteracted the fecundity of
the Chinese races, considered as a whole, may well be
r questioned.
" Some years ago I bad an opportunity, of discussing
the subject of Chinese population with the mandarin at
Ningpo, who was charged with making the returns for
that district. Ningpo can scarcely be called a progres-
' sive place—it is decidedly the least so of the five treaty
ports ; but I found, generally speaking, that the real
returns were considerably in excess of the official esti-
mates.

"And I would remark that, in taking the area of the
18 provinces of China at 1,318,870 square miles, the
census of 1812 would give 268 persons to a square mile,
which is considerably less than the population of the
densely peopled countries of Europe,
"According to ancient usage the population in China
is grouped under four heads-1, Scholars ;2, Husband-
men • 3, Mechanics ; 4, Merchants. There is a nniner-
-0114 class who are considered almost as social outcasts,
such as stage players, professional gamblers, beggars:,
oonvicts, outlaws, and others ; and these probably form
no part of the population returns. In the more remote
rural districts, on the other band, the returning officer
most probably contents himself with giving the average
of more accessible and better-peopled localities.
"I have no means of obtaining any satisfactory tables
to show the proportions which different ages bear to one
another in China, or the average mortality at different
periods of human life ; yet to every deriade of life the
Chinese apply some special designation. The ate() of 10
is called ' the Opening Degree ;' 20, Youth expired ;'
30, ' Strength and Marriage ;' 40, Officially Apt 50,
' Error-knowing ;' 60, Cycle-closing ;' 70, Rare Bird
of Age ;' 80, Rusty-visaged ; 90, ' Delayed ;' 100,
' Age's Extremity.' Among the Chinese the amount of
reverence grows with the number of years. I made,
some years ago, the acquaintance of a Buddhist priest
living in the convent of Tien Tung, near sing-
po, who was more than a century old, and whom
people of rank were in the habit of visiting, in order to
show their respect and to obtain his autograph. He had
the civility to give me a fair specimen of his handwriting.
There are not only many establishments for the recep-
tion of the aged, but the penal code provides severe pu-
nishments for those who refuse to relieve the poor in
their declining years. Age may nlro be pleaded in ex-
tenuation of crime and in mitigation of punishment.
Imperial decrees sometimes order presents to be given to
all indigent 01l people in the empire. I am not aware of
any detailed statistics riving the Lumber of such recipi-
ents since a return published in the time of Kanghi
(1657). Kienlung (1785) directed that all those claim-
ants whose age exceeded GO should receive 5 bushels of
rico and a piece of linen ; those above 80, 10 bushels of
rice and two pieces of linen ; those above 90, 30 bushels
of rice and two pieces of common silk ; and those above
100, 50 bushels of rice and two pieces, one of fine and
one of common silk. He ordered all the elders to be
enumerated who were at the head of five generations, of
whom there were 192, and, in gratitude to heaven,'
summoned 3,000 of the oldest men of the empire to re-
ceive Imperial presents, which consisted principally of
embroidered purses, and badges hearing the character
shau, meaning longevity.
"The Kanghi tables show the numbers of those who
enjoyed the benefit of the edict ; but as the returns
bear no proportion to the general population of the
country or to the relative extent of the various provinces,
many fortuitous and local circumstances must have
' caused the obvious incongruities. Fcr example, in the
adjacent provinces of Kwantung and Kwangse, in which
the whole mass of population is in the proportion of two
to one, the recipients are as 46 to 1 ; and as regards age,
while the proportion of those above 80 is represented at
19 to 1, those above 90 are only a little more than 5 to
1. In all these matters the greater or less co-operation
of the local authorities is one of the most important ele-
ments in producing a result. Kwangse is extremely
mountainous, and bur leered on the north-west by the
country of the Al eaou-'sz, or aborigines, the districts
adjoining which are but in a tall-reclaimed' state, and
governed by officers of a character and denomination
distinct from those of the provinces. But it is inexpli-
cable that the province of Pechile, in which Pekin is
situated, should exhibit but a small proportional return,
especially as compared with the adjacent province of
Shantung. Hook wang, wi h a population of 26,250,000
has 37,354 indigent persons above 70, while Szeelauen,
the population of which is 21,500,000, presents only 176
persons in that category.
"I think there is abundant evidenceof redundant pope-
latien pressing more and more heavily upon, arid suffering
more and more severely from an inadequate supply of food.
Though there are periods when e xtraordinary harvests
enable the Chinese to transport rice, the principal food of
the people, from one province to another, and sometimes
even to foreign countries, yet of late the importations
from foreign countries have been enormous, and China
has drawn largely on the Straits, the Philippines, Siam,
and other places, to fill up avast deficiency in supply.
Famine has, notwithstanding, committed dreadful
ravages, and the provisions of the Imperial granaries
have been wholly inadequate to provide for the public
wants. It is True that cultivation has been greatly in.
terfered with by intestinal disorders, and that there has
been much destruction by inundations, inceadiarism,
and other accidental or transitory causes ; but without '
reference to these, I am disposed to believe that there
is a greater increase in the numbers of • the population
than in the home production of food for their use. It
must be remembered, too, that while the race is thus
augmenting, the causes which lead to the destruction of
food,---enich as the overflow of rivers, fires, ravages of
locusts, bad seasons, and other calarnities—are to a great
extent beyond the control of human prudence or human
exertion. It would be difficult to show what new ele-
ment could be introduced which would raise up the
native supply cif food beyond its present productiveness,
considering that band husbandry has given to cultiva-
tion more of a horticultural than an agricultural cha-
racter.
"The constant flow of emigration from China, con-
trasted with the complete absence of emigration into
China, is striking evidence of the redundancy of the
population ; for though that emigration is almost wholly
confined to two provinces, namely, Kwantung and Foo-
kien, representing together a population of probably
from 34,000,000 to 35,000,000, I am disposed to think
that a number nearer 3,000,000 than 2,000,000, froni
these provinces alone, are located in foreign countries.
In the kingdom of Siam it is estimated that there are at
least 1,500,000 Chinese, of which 200,000 are in the
capital (Bangkok). They crowd all the islands of tSe
Indian Archipelago. In Java, we know by a correct
census there are 136,000. Cochin China teems with
Chinese. In this colony we are seldom without one,
two, or three vessels taking Chinese emigrants to Cali-
fornia and other places. Multitudes go to Australia, to
the Philippines, to the Sandwich Islands, to the n e tern
coast of Central and Southern America ; some h Are
made their way to British Indic. The emigration to the
British West Indies has been considerable—to the Ha
vannah greater still. The annual arrivals in Singapore
are estimated at an average of 10,000, and 2,000 is the
number that are said annually to return to China.
"There is not only this enormous maritime emigra-
tion, but a considerable inlond efflux of Chinese towards
Mantchouria and Thibet ; and it may be added, Ana
the large and fertile islands of Formosa and Hainan hal e
been to a great extent won from the aborigines by suc-
cessive inroads of Chinese settlers. Now, these are all
males ; there is not a woman to 10,000 men ; hence,
perhaps, the small social value of the female infant.
Yet this perpetual cutfielving of people seems

" * See a valuable paper on Chinese Agriculture iu the
Chios' 11°Posit9U:' y9l, WI; pp, 121-27.