The China Biographical Database (CBDB) is a

relational database A relational database is a (most commonly digital) database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A system used to maintain relational databases is a relational database management system (RDBMS). Many relatio ...

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

historical figures A historical figure is a significant person in history. The significance of such figures in human progress has been debated. Some think they play a crucial role, while others say they have little impact on the broad currents of thought and social ...

from the 7th to 19th centuries. The database provides biographical information (name, date of birth and death, ancestral place, degrees and offices held, kinship and social associations, etc.) of approximately 360,000 individuals up until April 2015.

History

CBDB was originally started by the late Chinese historian Robert M. Hartwell. Hartwell first conceived of using a relational database to study the social and family networks of Song dynasty officials. Aware of the lack of large dataset research in social and economic history of medieval China, he took the first step to collect large sets of data himself and generate meaningful answers to historical changes through data analysis. One important legacy of Professor is program of massive data which he structured around #people, #places, #a bureaucratic system, #kinship structures and #contemporary modes of social association. Before his death Professor Hartwell bequeathed the program, which by then consisted of more than 25,000 individuals, a bibliographic database of over 4500 titles, and multiple geo-reference tools to the Harvard Yenching Institute. Later, Michael A. Fuller, Professor of Chinese Literature at

UC Irvine UC may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''University Challenge'', a popular British quiz programme airing on BBC Two ** '' University Challenge (New Zealand)'', the New Zealand version of the British programme * Universal Century, one of the ti ...

, started to redesign the application. Professor Peter K. Bol at Harvard also has disseminated extensive digital information for quantitative analysis. As a joint project of

Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University is a post-graduate research center promoting the study of modern and contemporary China from a social science perspective. The center hosts and organizes academic activities, provides re ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, Institute of History and Philology of

Academia Sinica Academia Sinica (AS, la, 1=Academia Sinica, 3=Chinese Academy; ), headquartered in Nangang, Taipei, is the national academy of Taiwan. Founded in Nanking, the academy supports research activities in a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from ...

(中研院歷史語言研究所), and Center for Research on Ancient Chinese History at

Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charter ...

(北京大學中國古代史研究中心), the database has been greatly expanded in temporal and coverage scope.

Sources

CBDB uses wide range of biographical sources to collect information about individuals. The main types of writings covered include biographical index, biography sections of official histories, funerary essays, epitaphs, local gazetteers, preface, writings, letters, and colophons in personal writing collections, and other governmental compiled records. CBDB is a long-term open-ended project. It has incorporated sources from biographical indexes 傳記資料索引 for

Song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...

宋 (completed), Yuan 元 (completed), and

Ming The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

明, birth-death dates for

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...

清 figures and listing of Song local officials. CBDB is also cooperating with other databases such as Ming Qing Women's Writings (MQWW), Ming Qing Name Authority, and Pers-DB Knowledge Base of

Tang Tang or TANG most often refers to: * Tang dynasty * Tang (drink mix) Tang or TANG may also refer to: Chinese states and dynasties * Jin (Chinese state) (11th century – 376 BC), a state during the Spring and Autumn period, called Tang (唐) b ...

Persons (Kyoto) to enrich its entries.

Limitations

CBDB aims at extracting large amount of data from extant sources through data mining techniques. As a result, social and kinship associations, such as might be known from an individual's literary collection, and funerary biographies are not exhaustive. Because of the nature of the sources, career data (e.g. ranks and positions a person held), will be biased toward higher offices. Since the database does not require in-depth research into each individuals, factual errors and contradictory information would also be included in the entries, as long as they are from the primary source.

Geo-reference tools

One area in which CBDB could be used is prosopographical research. By combining geographic information system (GIS) software with CBDB, patterns could be mapped out through queries generated from large datasets, for instance, who came from a certain place and what were the social and kinship connections among all those who entered government through the civil service examination from a certain place within a certain span of years, etc. One useful geo-reference tool for the study of Chinese history is the China Historical GIS (CHGIS) project, which makes datasets of the administrative units between 221 BC and 1911 AD and major towns for the 1820–1911 period freely available. Other GIS software such as ArcGIS or MapInfo (or even GoogleEarth) are also compatible with CBDB output. Commercial tax quotas as of 1077 and the success of localities in the civil service examinations during Northern Song

Commercial tax quotas as of 1077 and the success of localities in the civil service examinations during Northern Song

History

Sources

Limitations

Geo-reference tools

See also

References

Further reading