乾隆时期民数汇报及评估

Reports on the Qianlong Population Census:An Assessment

利用乾隆时期各地奏报的民数奏折及其副本、黄册、清册等原收藏于清宫的原始档案,可以较为全面系统地了解乾隆时期民数汇报制度的建立、流程、变化和执行情况,揭示民数汇报的空间范围和对象范围,分析民数漏报的内在原因。由于起始年乾隆六年并未进行过人口普查,以及随后历年人口动态登记的不准确,这些误差历年累积,导致乾隆四十年以前的民数严重漏报,说明民数汇报具有随意性和官方操作性。

The imperial archives of the Qing Dynasty contain first-hand reports from local governments on the population census of the Qianlong Reign and copies of these reports,as well as two types of resident registration(huang ce 黄册and qing ce 清册)and other documents.These give us a relatively complete and systematic view of the establishment,course,changes and implementation of the population census system.The data enable us to show the coverage of the census in terms of space and subjects and to analyze the inherent causes of under-reporting.In the year the system took effect,that is,the 6th year of the Qianlong reign(1741),no general census was carried out.This,together with the subsequent inaccurate recording of population trends over many years,led to accumulated errors that resulted in serious under-reporting of population figures before the 40th year of the Qianlong Reign(1775).These facts and our analysis of background factors lead us to conclude that the census of population was rather arbitrary and was subject to manipulation by officials.