Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/241

 CENSUS. 217 family. Ten "families" occupied a li, — ^there might be more, there might be less; but the li for taxing purposes, as for militaiy, had only and had always ten families. These ten were also, as now, called Ding; each ten of whom should produce a soldier, each li being imderstood, in times of dire necessity, to be able tiO send out a soldier.* The average given above for every main- door is about six, which will certainly seem not too large to one acquainted with the present crowded state of China, and the conditions of its family life. It will be observed that there is a gradual increase of the number of taxed families up to the time when Looshan became an actor on the political stage, and that with his rebellion a state of frightful collapse occured, the number of families acknowledging the Tang dynasty — i.e., the number of doors open to Tang tax- gatherers — being just one-third, in 781, of what they were 26 years before. The number of individuals, of cities, &c., is not given in 781, but the families are a guide. The military expenditure of 742 was five times what it was 30 years before, but little more than half of that which crushed the reduced empire in 781. In 609, when the power of the Swi had reached its zenith, the number of families was 8,900,000, of hien cities 1,255, and of Klin (Chow and foo) 190. But we infer that this included some beyond China proper, as the extent of the land was 9,300 li E. to W., and 14,815 li N. to S. — ^the latter term spreading from Yunnan to Shamo. The history of the Liao dynasty states that the Eitan were the direct descendants of the Emperor Yen, who flouriflhed nearly three thousand years before Christ Of course no famous people, and no famous man, can proceed from the low muck of mediocrity — ^Darwinism to the contrary notwithstanding. But they must have long lost the art of Agriculture, on account of which their assumed great ancestor was deified ; for after many generations of their people had come and gone, appeared Owlisu, a man of wonderful talent and, — ^rare combination ! — ^without the
 * Cf Shnng Wooji on War.