Long-term Mortality Patterns in Chinese History: Evidence from a Recorded Clan Population

Abstract

Humans have lived on earth for millions of years, yet the study of population history only began to be established in the mid-twentieth century. Henry's method of family reconstitution, which relies onparish registers, has resulted in considerable progress in the study of historical demography in Europe and other areas. But because data arelacking, there were hardly any detailed studies of fertility and mortality before the sixteenth century, and very little is known about demographic changes in early human history. This paper consists of an analysis of a set of Chinese genealogies to examine long-term mortalitypatterns in a selected clan population over a period of more than 1,000 years. By using these data, as well as findings reported by other scholars, we shall present some tentative suggestions about long-termmortality change in Chinese history.