216 KITAN. poured down to avenge their past losses, and swept all before ttem, compelling the new Jidoo of Pingloo, with his 20,000 men, to flee before them. From the blow inflicted by Looshan, the Tang dynasty never rallied. Kitan, in the north-east, annexed mile after mile of territoiy. Toofan, in the west, was making incessant plundering raids into the interior. And the Tookiie, in the north-west, though not so powerful as they had been, were able to inflict heavy blows ; and in 831 entered the capital, which could not oppose them, and there put men to death in the streets ; the emperor daring not even ix) enquire into the matter. Yet as they had then no man able to occupy the throne, they found it more pro- fitable and easy to make the Tang dynasty their Tulchan calf. In the history of the Tang dynasty there are interesting, but not satisfactory, accounts of a rough census several times taken. Families. In A.D. 723, there were said to be— 7,861,236 739, „ „ „ 8,412,871 742, „ „ „ 8,625,763 755, „ „ „ 9,069,154 781, „ „ „ 3,085,076 i> » >i Head. 46,431,265. 48,143,690. 49,909,800. 62,880,488. (18,000,000.) In 731 742 755 781 Soldiers. 490,000 768,000 Military Expend, in Money. Tk 2,000,000 „ 10,200,000 Chow and Foos. 321 Hiens. 1528 1538 Villages. 16,829. 16,839. It is quite probable that eleven centuries ago the Chinese did not number more than fifty million head, while a veiy large pro- portion of even those were either engrafted nomads or their hybrid progeny. The family is, it may be safely assumed, just as now, a poll-tax unit It is properly a " main-door,*' and inside a Chinese main-door there may be, and often is, what we would call several families ; for the patriarchal great grand-father may see all his descendants, a hundred or more persons, all in his
