Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.2, 2015

 

Quantitative Databases and Historical Research

(Abstract)

 

Liang Chen, Dong Hao and Li Zhongqing

 

Historiography is still regarded today as one of the traditional disciplines. However, more and more non-historians engaged in natural and social science research are turning to large-scale quantitative historical databases, with important results. Unlike traditional quantitative historiography and the “interpretive research” stressed by the social sciences, particularly economics, what quantitative databases promote is “truth-seeking scholarship,” i.e., unearthing new facts and gaining new understanding from a mass of systemic data by means of statistical analysis. Chinese history has long had a huge amount of systemic material on household registration, land distribution and the imperial examination system, as well as an immense number of written records. Many of them have been collected and organized, facilitating the construction of large-scale databases and the development of quantitative research. This new research paradigm not only encourages the development of the discipline of history itself, but also promotes inter-disciplinary and cross-border academic communication and integration; it thus contributes to a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the distinctive features of Chinese social history as well as to balanced Eastern and Western scholarly development.