| Dynasty. | Emperor. | Year of reign. |
A.D. | Population. | Authority. | |
| Ming | Tae-tsoo | 27 | 1393 | 60,545,811 | Kang-këen-e-che. | |
| Tsing | Shun-che | 18 | 1662 | 21,068,600 | Ta-tsing-hwuy-tëen, | |
| " | Kang-he | 6 | 1668 | 25,386,209 | old edition, extracted | |
| " | " | 49 | 1710 | 23,312,200 | by the author. | |
| " | " | 50 | 1711 | 28,605,716 | Ta-tsing-hwuy-tëen, | |
| " | Këen-lung | 18 | 1753 | 102,328,258 | new edition, extracted | |
| " | " | 57 | 1792 | 307,467,200 | by Dr. Morrison and | |
| " | Këa-king | 16 | 1812 | 361,221,900 | his son | |
| " | ||||||
The above items are taken from regular Chinese works, and depend on the authority of official documents. By these, it will be seen, that before the Tartar conquest, when the Chinese dwelt under their native emperors, the population amounted to 60,000,000: and that after the invasion of the empire, by the rulers of the present dynasty, the population suddenly fell off to twenty or thirty millions; at which state it continued for fifty years, when it gradually rose, till it reached a hundred, and, subsequently, three hundred and odd millions. In order to account for this, it may be necessary to observe, that the wars which took place on the transfer of the empire into new hands, greatly diminished the number of the people: that, for scores of years, a great part of the empire remained unsubdued, on which account, the Tartars could not reckon on the inhabitants of the southern and western provinces as their subjects; and that, at the commencement of the present dynasty, the revenue was levied in the shape of a capitation tax, which, of course, led a great number to evade enrolment, lest they should be held responsible for the impost demanded by the government officers. Hence, it is not difficult to account for the great falling off in the population, during the first years of the pre-
