Supplemental Analysis Of Populous Geography In West Han Dynasty

As the first doctor’s degree thesis published of history, the author Ge Jianxiong had his Populous Geography in West Han a great name in China. It was impossible for Mr. Ge to finish all the things in the limited words of his book. Thus, I did some further research based on his achievements. First, study of population in a family in West Han Dynasty; Second, research on regional population distribution of household in West Han Dynasty; And third,the transitions of the territory of Liang State(梁国).In the point of household population in West Han Dynasty, this article focused on the phenomenon of "five person in one family", and I tried to find the reason of it in agriculture. Because of the weigh and measure of Mu(亩) and Dan(石) were quite different from nowadays at that time, it brought us a lot of troubles and puzzles. As a result, I first worked on this problem, and then got grain production per Mu in the area of old Qi State(齐国)and northwest China where soldiers or farmers reclaimed wasteland. From this, we could make a preliminary estimate about average grain harvest per Mu in the whole country at that time, and we could also get per capita grain cost according to the record of historical materials. Now we knew the average grain production per Mu, grain cost per capita and land ploughed by per family, it was easy for us to proof that whether the phenomenon of "five person in one family" was reasonable.According to the record of the Bamboo Slips of Qin Dynasty in Shuihu(睡虎地秦简)and the Bamboo Slips of Han Dynasty in Juyan((居延汉简),we could conclude that per capita grain cost was about1.5Big Dan per month. From the record of the Bamboo Slips of Han Dynasty in Mount Yinque(银雀山汉墓竹简)and the Bamboo Slips of Han Dynasty in Juyan, we knew that grain harvest per Mu in fertile farmland can reach3.89Big Dan,2.88in normal farmland,1.87in poor farmland,0,70in northwest China.By weighting the numbers above, we could roughly estimate that grain production per Mu of the whole country was about2.4Big Dan per Mu, by up or down10%which was2.1-2.7Big Dan per Mu. It was about135-175Jin per Mu(市斤每亩)in Chinese weights and measures nowadays. Of course, it was only a series of approximate numbers that grain harvest per Mu in different districts may be quite different.To image that there were five person in one family whom cultivated60Mu and harvested grain2.4Big Dan per Mu that they can get about140Big Dan every year. If they eat90Big Dan one year, they would had50Big Dan left which would spend on paying government farm rent about5Big Dan and saving some grain for seeds about5to10Big Dan. At last, they only got35to40Big Dan for themselves as surplus. Most of the time, this grain had to be sold out in order to buy necessity for life and pay for revenue. Thus, five person in one family kept a knife-edge balance which is inevitable in some occasion.On the base of the data in "The Record of Geography of Han Shu"(《汉书·地理志》),I made a table of the regional distribution of household population in West Han Dynasty. From the table we knew that population in one family in south and southeast China are very high, and in north and northwest China where were very close to Huns were very low, and in central region were neither too high nor too low but up on the economic level of counties themselves. It was caused on geographic location, agricultural development, traffic, manners and customs, policy and so on.We could calculate that the population density in Liang State were much lower than the ones next to it by the words in "The Record of Geography of Han Shu". It was so strange phenomenon that old Liang State was divided into five small ones by Han Jingdi(汉景帝),and one of the five small lands was still called Liang State which always be weaken by Han Wudi(汉武帝)and Han Chengdi(汉成帝)by cut down its territory. So after all of these, the small Liang State only had two or three cities including its capital Sui Yang(睢阳)in late West Han Dynasty. Generally speaking, population density of the capital would not much lower than the areas next to it even if it was not higher than them. And Mr. Ge also found this strange point. In order to settle it, he put Liang State, Pei County(沛郡),Shanyang County(山阳郡)into one unit and calculate its holistic population density.But even by this method, the data was still lower than the ones next to it. In fact, the deadline of territory information of103Counties and States(103郡国) was not the same with its population data in "The Record of Geography of Han Shu". The population record under Liang State in "The Record of Geography of Han Shu" was the time when Liang State only had two or three cities, but the territory information showed us that Liang State still had8cities. Look, this is the key point! After making certain course in development and changing territory of Liang State and its adjacent regions, we could try to find the answer to this question with the help of Tan Qixiang’s Chinese History Atlas(《中国历史地图集》).