The first census taken by the Manchus in 1651, after the restoration of order, returned China’s population at 55 million persons, which is less than the number given in the first census of the Han dynasty, A.D. 1, and about the same as when Kublai Khan established the Mongal dynasty in 1295. (This is presumably a misprint, as Kublai died in 1294.) Thus we are faced by the amazing fact that, from the beginning of the Christian era, the toll of life taken by internecine and frontier wars in China was so great that in spite of all territorial expansion the population for upwards of sixteen centuries remained more or less stationary.  There is in all history no similar record.  Now, however, came a vast change.  Thus three years after the death of the celebrated Manchu Emperor Kang Hsi, in 1720, the population had risen to 125 millions.  At the beginning of the reign of the no less illustrious Ch’ien Lung (1743) it was returned at 145 millions; towards the end of his reign, in 1783, it had doubled, and was given as 283 millions.  In the reign of Chia Ch’ing (1812) it had risen to 360 millions; before the Taiping rebellion (1842) it had grown to 413 millions; after that terrible rising it sunk to 261 millions.

I do not think such definite statements are warranted.  The China Year Book for 1919 (the latest I have seen) says (p. 1):—­

The taking of a census by the methods adopted in Western nations has never yet been attempted in China, and consequently estimates of the total population have varied to an extraordinary degree.  The nearest approach to a reliable estimate is, probably, the census taken by the Minchengpu (Ministry of Interior) in 1910, the results of which are embodied in a report submitted to the Department of State at Washington by Mr. Raymond P. Tenney, a Student Interpreter at the U.S.  Legation, Peking....  It is pointed out that even this census can only be regarded as approximate, as, with few exceptions, households and not individuals were counted.

The estimated population of the Chinese Empire (exclusive of Tibet) is given, on the basis of this census, as 329,542,000, while the population of Tibet is estimated at 1,500,000.  Estimates which have been made at various other dates are given as follows (p. 2): 

A.D.                       A.D.
1381   59,850,000            / 143,125,225
1412   66,377,000        1760—­203,916,477
1580   60,692,000        1761  205,293,053
1662   21,068,000        1762  198,214,553
1668   25,386,209        1790  155,249,897
/ 23,312,200            / 307,467,200
1710 —­27,241,129        1792- 333,000,000
1711   28,241,129            / 362,467,183
1736  125,046,245        1812—­360,440,000
/ 157,343,975        1842  413,021,000
1743  149,332,730        1868  404,946,514
\ 150,265,475        1881  380,000,000
1753  103,050,600        1882  381,309,000
1885  377,636,000

These figures suffice to show how little is known