Statistics

Bréard A (2019)

Publication Type: Book chapter / Article in edited volumes

Publication year: 2019

Publisher: Brill

Edited Volumes: Human Sciences in China

Series: China Studies

Book Volume: 40

Pages Range: 303–336

ISBN: 9789004397620

DOI: 10.1163/9789004397620_017

Abstract

This chapter analyzes late imperial understandings of objects and methods of statistics not only in their relation to the later development of modern statistics, but also by taking into account the coexistence of traditional modalities and imported institutions and practices at the end of the Qing. It uses administrative, methodological and mathematical statistics as a taxonomy to account for the debates about institutional models, social and mathematical theories, and the actual statistical work up to the early years of the People’s Republic. This allows to understand state-society relations for governance by the numbers, the issues of what statistical techniques are most relevant, and the ways actors negotiated between ways different methods were theorized and put into practice. In addition, the reader encounters the convoluted intellectual and institutional trajectories of three representative statistical actors from the first half of 20th century China.

Authors with CRIS profile

Andrea Bréard

Additional Organisation(s)

Chair for Sinology with a focus on the Intellectual and Cultural History of China (Alexander von Humboldt-Professor)

Involved external institutions

University of Paris 11 - Paris-Sud / Université Paris XI Paris-Sud FR France (FR)

How to cite

APA:

Bréard, A. (2019). Statistics. In Howard Chiang (Eds.), Human Sciences in China. (pp. 303–336). Brill.

MLA:

Bréard, Andrea. "Statistics." Human Sciences in China. Ed. Howard Chiang, Brill, 2019. 303–336.

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