¹ This article follows in outline and general concent a paper presented at the symposium on traditional Chinese society during the Far Eastern Association sessions at New York, April 1954.

² See census for mid-eighth century in Stefan [Etienne] Balazs, “Beiträge zur wirtschaftsgeschichte der T'ang-Zeit, I,” Mitteilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen 34 (1931), 19–20Google Scholar; and Bielenstein, Hans, “The census of China during the period 2–742 A.D.,” BMFEA 19 (1947), 125–163Google Scholar. For 1290 census see Franke, Herbert, Geld und wirtschaft in China unter der Mongolen-herrschaft (Leipzig, 1949), 127–131Google Scholar; for southeastern provinces at this time see Yüan-shih (Po-na pen ed.), ch. 62, passim. The growth of population in South China was from about four million households around 750 to a little under twelve million in 1290. The highest recorded South Chinese population (before the seventeenth century) was that of about 1220 which exceeded twelve and a half million households (Wen-hsien t'ung-k'ao, 11: 18b–20aGoogle Scholar; Sung-shih, 85: 4aGoogle Scholar). The small number of individuals per household reported in Sung census data has led to much discussion. A rough average of around five persons per household seems most probable, but differing local methods of tabulation caused variations inversely proportionate to the size of the local unit in question. See Katō” Shigeru (Shigeshi) , Shina keizaishi kōshō (Tokyo: Toyo Bunko Publications, Series A, No. 34, 1952–1953)Google Scholar. The reported fall of the North Chinese population from some ten and a half million households about 1110 to under a million in 1235 is staggering to the imagination though reasonably well supported by the records of the Mongol period (H. Franke).

³ For the place of local and imported products from the Canton area in the trade of Central and North China as early as the Latter Han see Schafer, E. H., “The Pearl Fisheries of Ho-p'u,” JAOS, 72, 4 (1952), 155–168Google Scholar. The area was even to some extent reliant on cereal imports from more settled parts of China.

⁴ On currency and credit facilities, see Yang, L. S., Money and Credit in China (Cambridge, Mass., 1952) esp. 38, 51–61, 71–80Google Scholar; and his “Buddhist Monasteries and Four Money-raising Institutions in Chinese History,” HJAS, 13 (06 1950), 174–179Google Scholar. For a general description of economic developments in the Sung and further references see Kracke, E. A. Jr., Civil Service in Early Sung China, (Cambridge, Mass., 1953), 11–18.Google Scholar

⁵ See Reischauer, E. O., HJAS 2 (03 1937), 29Google Scholar (résumé of article by Miyazaki Ichisada); Kracke, 13, 25; Sung-shih, 85: 4b–9a.Google Scholar

⁶ Shigeru, Katō, Shina keizaishi kōshō, 2: 417–418Google Scholar. This estimate is based on numbers of households and rice consumption data. Others have placed the total both higher and lower.

⁷ The rough area of a prefecture varied in different circuits from around 1,200 square miles to around 6,000. The largest prefectures were K'ai-feng and those in Fu-chien, Ching-hu-pei, and Ching-hu-nan. Those in the south of course included large wild and mountainous portions, and the populations were actually concentrated in much more restricted areas. Compare the 1,725 square miles of metropolitan London, with some 9,835,000 population, or 3,550 square miles of New York, with 13,175,000. London and Paris did not exceed some 500,000 persons until about 1700. See W. S., and Woytinsky, E. S., World Population and Production: Trends and Outlook, (New York, 1953), 113Google Scholar. In general the larger estimates for ancient Rome and medieval Constantinople do not exceed this figure, and conservative opinion seems to favor much smaller figures for these. The two subprefectures of Fu-chou with seats within the city walls counted some 60,000 families, probably around 300,000 individuals, accepting Katō Shigeru's interpretation of the Sung data (Tōhō gakuhō (Tokyo), 11: 1–15Google Scholar). Other large subprefectures were clustered close by. See also Schafer, E. H., The Empire of Min (Rutland, Vt. and Tokyo, 1954), 79Google Scholar. For other cities about 1075 see Kracke, 13. By 1290 the prefectures of Su-chou, Jao-chou and Hang-chou were reported to have respectively around 2,434,000, 4,037,000, and 1,835,000 persons (Yüdn-shih, ch. 62, passim).

⁸ Moule, A. C. and Pelliot, Paul, Marco Polo, the description of the world (London, 1938), 1: 343–347.Google Scholar

⁹ Moule and Pelliot.

¹⁰ Moule and Pelliot; Balazs, Etienne, “Les villes Chinoises,” in Recueils de la Société Jean Bodin, 6; La ville (Brussels, 1954), 236.Google Scholar

¹¹ Shigeru, Katō, “On the Hang or the Associations of Merchants in China,” Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko, (Tokyo) 8 (1936) 53–71Google Scholar; Ch'in Kuan (1049–1100), Huai-hai chi (Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'än ed.), 15: 6b.Google Scholar

¹² Chao Ching , “Sung-tai chih chuan-mai chih-tu” , Yen-ching she-hui k'o-hsüeh, 2 (10 1949) 59–94.Google Scholar

¹³ See Sung hui-yao chi-kao , “Yü-fu” , 4: 5a.

¹⁴ See Hsia Sung (984–1050), Wen-chuang chi (Ssu-k'u ch'üan-shu chen-pen ed.) 13: 15b–16b; Li Kou (1009–1059), Chih-chiang Li hsien-sheng wen-chi (Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'an ed.) 18: 7a–8bGoogle Scholar; Kuan, Ch'in, Huai-hai chi 15: 4a–6aGoogle Scholar; Ch'ūan Han-sheng , “Sung-tai kuan-li chih ssu-ying shang-yeh” , Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, 7.2 (1936), 205–206Google Scholar. An interesting example is Ma Chi-liang , of a family of tea-merchants, who married into the imperial circle and had reached higt office when his instinct for profit brought misfortune (Sung-shih, 463: 18b).Google Scholar

¹⁵ Li Kou and Hsia Sung.

¹⁶ Kōjirō, Yoshikawa, Gen zatsugeki kenkyū (Tokyo, 1954), 72–73Google Scholar; Irwin, R. G., The Evolution of a Chinese novel, Shui-hu-chuan (Cambridge, Mass., 1953), 23–24Google Scholar; Crump, J. I. Jr., “P'ing-hua and che eaxly history of the San-kuo chih,” JAOS, 71.4 (1951) 249–258Google Scholar; Balazs, , “Les villes Chinoises,” 231–233Google Scholar; Ling, Wang, “On the invention and use of gunpowder in China,” Isis 37, Pts. 3–4 (07 1947), 163.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Ch'üan Han-sheng, “Sung-tai nan-fang ti hsü-shih” , Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, 9 (1947), 265–274Google Scholar; Hsia Sung and Ch'in Kuan.

¹⁸ Kracke, 68–69; data on regional distribution of examination graduates are drawn from Hsü Nai-ch'ang ed., Sung Yüan k'o-chü san lu (1923), passim. These will be discussed further in a forthcoming article.