Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty: His Life, Times, and Legacy

Appendix 2. Maoyue (Visual Inspection)

Appendix 2 Maoyue (Visual Inspection) From comparative studies of the two maoyue figures, Shida Fudōmaro and Tonami Mamoru determined that the record of the 583 campaign was an interpolation.They have discovered that although on the surface markedly different results were recorded for the two campaigns, when compared digit by digit they show inexplicable similarities (table 1). In column A, only the first digits are different (4 versus 2), the rest are identical (43,000). In column B, the 583 figure has an extra first digit (1), the rest are the same for both 583 and 609. It is thus possible that the 609 figure was slightly altered and interpolated into the 583 record. While admitting that the eerie similarity between the two sets of figures may be attributable to some clerical mistakes, Kanai Yukitada, who disagrees with this conclusion, calls attention to the following section of the 583 record, which is absent in the 609 record, “Those [adult male household members] whose relations [with the head of the household] are below the third-degree of mourning are all required to set up their own households and serve as their heads.”1 Furthermore, the 583 maoyue campaign was only part of an ongoing effort to increase administrative efficiency and population control. In view of this, the 583 campaign must have taken place even though the numbers it produced were somewhat suspect.2 Northern Zhou, Chen, and Sui Populations The Sui, with improved population censuses, and sophisticated population registration and classification, were in better control of population informa249 250 Yangdi and His Empire tion than previous dynasties. Even though the surviving population data are still far from being sufficient for a satisfactory statistical study, they nonetheless offer the basis for examining major population trends in this era. To put these data in historical perspective, we will begin our demographic survey with the Northern Zhou, at a time when this local power of the Northwest signi ficantly expanded its territory and population by annexing the Northern Qi to its east. Traditional sources have preserved some key population figures (table 2), which are indispensable for the demographic study of the period in question. However, before we can begin to make sense of these figures, we must first reconcile some of the contradictions between them. The main problem is the Northern Zhou population number—9,009,604—in 579–580 at C1. The Tong dian, the only source that records that number, regards it as the entire population of the Northern Zhou after its annexation of the Northern Qi. But this claim is unreliable for a number of reasons. First, with the total household number of 3,590,000, the average number of individuals per household would be 2.5 (E1), too low by any standard. Second, the newly acquired territory of the Northern Qi had added 20,006,880 people (C3). It is inconceivable that this population alone was more than twice the size of the combined population of the Northern Qi and Northern Zhou. Third, the last four digits of the population number 9,009,604 (C1) are identical with those of the household number—3,599,604—for the late Northern Zhou and early Sui at D2 and D8. Clearly the number 9,009,604 was entered in error.3 Ikeda On suggests that a 1 should be prefixed to the C1 number to make it 19,009,604. But even this revised number was less than the Northern Qi population.4 To tentatively estimate the population of the Northern Zhou at the time of its conquest of the Northern Qi in 577, the following formula for calculating population growth is used: A(1 + X)t = B TABLE 1 The two Maoyue campaigns under the Sui A B year increase of adult males increase of population sources 583 443,000 1,641,500 SuS 24.681; ZZTJ 176.5481 609 243,000 641,500 SuS 67.1575; ZZTJ 181.5646 Northern Zhou, Chen, and Sui Populations 251 TABLE 2 Populations: late sixth to early seventh centuries A B C D E F period dates population no. of average sources households household size 1 N. Zhou 579–80 9,009,604 3,590,000 2.5 TD 7.14748 2 N. Zhou 579–80 3,599,604 CFYG 486.5808b 3 N. Qi 577 20,006,880 3,032,528 6.06 TD 7.147...