#  CBDB Sources 

 



 ##  

  expand\_more  

 
  

 

As of May 2026, CBDB has covered **657,909** biographies in the Chinese history. CBDB finds data from the following sources:

- Modern syntheses of biographical data
    - 宋人傳記資料索引
    - 元人傳記資料索引
    - 明人傳記資料索引
    - 清代人物生卒年表
- Traditional biographical records
    - 正史列傳
    - 墓誌銘、墓表等
    - 地方志列傳
- Evidence for social associations from literary collections
    - 文集之祭文、序、記、墓誌銘，題跋， 書簡等
- Evidence for office holding from modern and traditional sources
    - 郡守年表
    - 會要、實錄等
- Other biographical databases
    - Ming Qing Women's Writings (MQWW)
    - Ming Qing Name Authority files
    - Pers-DB Knowledge Base of Tang Persons (Kyoto)

###  **A detailed list of sources is as follows:**

Sort**Period****Source****Contributor****Data categories****Number of biographies**Tang 唐

[Tang Knowledgebase Project](http://tkb.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/pers-db/) at the Center for Informatics in East Asian Studies, Institute for Research in Humanities at Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

Christian Wittern and CBDB editors

Person names, dates, places, offices, social distinction, kinship (selective)

3,700

Tang 唐

Zhou Shaoliang 周紹良, and Zhao Chao 趙超. *Tang dai mu zhi hui bian xu ji* 唐代墓誌彙編續集. Shanghai 上海: Shanghai gu ji chu ban she 上海古籍出版社, 2001.

———. *Tang dai mu zhi hui bian* 唐代墓志彙編*.* Shanghai 上海: Shanghai gu ji chu ban she 上海古籍出版社, 1992.



Ping YAO 姚平 and CBDB editors

Person names, kinship, office, place

5,000

Tang wu dai 唐五代

唐末五代初墓誌銘

Nicholas Tackett

Person names, place, office, kinship

22,000

Song 宋

Original CBDB dataset

Robert M. Hartwell

All categories

25,000

Song 宋

Chang Bide 昌彼得, Wang Deyi 王德毅, and et al. Song ren zhuan ji zi liao suo yin 宋人傳記資料索引. Taibei 臺北: Ding wen shu ju 鼎文書局, 1974. *Digital editions with corrections by Wang Deyi.*

CBDB editors

Person names, places, entry into office, office positings, kinship, social distinction

25,000

Song 宋

Li Zhiliang 李之亮. *Song Chuan Shan da jun shou chen yi ti kao* 宋川陕大郡守臣易替考*.* Chengdu 成都: Ba Shu shu she 巴蜀書社, 2001.  
———. *Song Fujian lu jun shou nian biao* 宋福建路郡守年表*.* Chengdu 成都: Ba Shu shu she 巴蜀書社, 2001.  
———. *Song Hebei Hedong da jun shou chen yi ti kao* 宋河北河东大郡守臣易替考*.* Chengdu 成都: Ba Shu shu she 巴蜀書社, 2001.  
———. *Song liang Guang da jun shou chen yi ti kao* 宋兩廣大郡守臣易替考*.* Chengdu 成都: Ba Shu shu she 巴蜀書社, 2001.  
———. *Song liang Hu da jun shou chen yi ti kao* 宋兩湖大郡守臣易替考*.* Chengdu 成都: Ba Shu shu she 巴蜀書社, 2001.  
———. *Song liang Huai da jun shou chen yi ti kao* 宋兩淮大郡守臣易替考*.* Chengdu 成都: Ba Shu shu she 巴蜀書社, 2001.  
———. *Song liang jiang jun shou yi ti kao* 宋兩江郡守易替考*.* Chengdu 成都: Ba Shu shu she 巴蜀書社, 2001.  
———. *Song liang Zhe lu jun shou nian biao* 宋兩浙路郡守年表*.* Chengdu 成都: Ba Shu shu she 巴蜀書社, 2001.

CBDB editors

Official appointments (posting data)

4,100 (with 22,600 appointments)

Song 宋

Xu Song 徐松 輯. *Song hui yao ji gao* 宋會要輯稿*.* Beijing 北京: Zhonghua shu ju 中華書局, 1957.

CBDB editors and Center for Digital Humanities, National Taiwan University

Person names, official appointements

(processing)

Song 宋

Tuotuo 脫脫. *Song shi* 宋史*.* Beijing and Shanghai: Zhonghua shu ju 中華書局, 1977. 

CBDB editors 

Official appointements, kinship 

(processing)

Song 宋 

Zeng Zaozhuang 曾枣庄, and Liu Lin 劉琳, eds. *Quan Song wen* 全宋文. 上海: 上海辭書出版社, 2006. 

Chu Ping-tzu 祝平次 and CBDB editors

Letters

 (processing)

Yuan 元

Wang Deyi 王德毅, Li Rongcun 李榮村, and Pan Bocheng 潘柏澄. *Yuan ren zhuan ji zi liao suo yin = Index to Biographical materials of Yuan figures* 元人傳記資料索引*.* Taibei Shi 臺北: Xin wen feng chu ban gong si 新文豐出版公司, 1979. 

CBDB editors 

All

18,000

Ming 明

Guo li zhong yang tu shu guan 國立中央圖書館. *Ming ren zhuan ji zi liao suo yin* 明人傳記資料索引*.* Taibei 臺北: Guo li zhong yang tu shu guan 國立中央圖書館, 1965. 

Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, and CBDB editors 

All

 27,000

Ming 明 

Ming Shi 明史列傳.

 TBC

 TBC

 (processing)

Ming Qing  
明清

[明清檔案人名權威資料查詢](http://archive.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/ttsweb/html_name), Academia Sinica and the National Palace Museum

Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, and CBDB editors

All

46,000

Ming Qing  
明清

[Ming Qing Women's Writings 明清婦女著作資料庫](http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/mingqing/), McGill University

CBDB editors

Names, addresses, social relations

8,300

Qing  
清

Jiang Qingbo 江庆柏. *Qing dai ren wu sheng zu nian biao* 清代人物生卒年表*.* Beijing 北京: Ren min wen xue chu ban she 人民文学出版社, 2005.

CBDB editors

Person names and dates

21,500

Han to Qing  
汉至清

[DDBC Person Authority Database 法鼓山人名規範資料庫](http://authority.ddbc.edu.tw/), Dharma Drum Buddist College 法鼓佛教學院

Simon Wiles

Names, places, and writings

19,000 (processing)

Han to Qing  
汉至清

[DDBC Place Authority Database 法鼓山地名規範資料庫](http://authority.ddbc.edu.tw/place/), Dharma Drum Buddist College 法鼓佛教學院

Simon Wiles

Buddhist temples (social institutions)

(processing)

Song  
宋

Dataset of academies collected by S. Ford and L. Walton

S. Ford

Academies 書院 (social institutions)

1,004 academies

Han to Qing  
汉至清

矢島玄亮編. 中國の寺院. 仙台: 東北大學附屬図書館, 1966.

S. Ford

Buddhist temples (social institutions)

2,400





## **The sources of historical releases**

### **CBDB bi 20250520 Version**

**The new release of the stand-alone China Biographical Database, CBDB\_bi\_20250520 in MS Access format is now available for download** [here](https://dataverse.harvard.edu/file.xhtml?fileId=14008421) **effective 20250521. This release contains data on 649,533 men and women.**

**CBDB Restructure**

APPOINMENT\_TYPE\_CODES has been replaced by APPOINTMENT\_CODES, APPOINTMENT\_TYPES, and APPOINTMENT\_CODE\_TYPE\_REL.

In POSTED\_TO\_OFFICE\_DATA, the c\_appt\_type\_code field has been renamed to c\_appt\_code.

Previous appointment codes have been incremented by 1 to allow 0 to represent "unknown" in APPOINTMENT\_CODES table.

In the ASSOC\_DATA table, the c\_assoc\_year field has been changed to c\_assoc\_first\_year and c\_assoc\_last\_year.

**CBDB Data**

4,138 new individuals with 4,130 entry records, 673 alternative names, and 4,026 biographical addresses have been added from A Study of the Record of Successful Candidates in the Song Dynasty 宋登科記考. Another 107 alternative names and 45 entry records have been added to existing individuals from the same source.

718 social status records for playwrights, compilers, and others; 363 new playwrights with 1,556 alternative names, 581 posting records, 452 biographical addresses, and 288 entry records have been added from A Compiled and Annotated Collection of Prefaces and Postscripts to Ming and Qing Drama 明清戲曲序跋纂箋 (Contributor: Hongyan Chen).

681 top-ranking Juren (解元), imperial clan Juren (宗室舉人), and ministerial examination graduates from the imperial clan (宗室進士) in the Qing dynasty have been added from Qing Mi Shu Wen Xu 清秘述聞續 (Contributor: Yiyi Wang).

667 one-direction social association records have been corrected (Contributor: Yung-chang Tung).

545 new early and middle Qing painters with 1,137 alternative names, 397 biographical addresses, and 134 social associations have been added from Guo Chao Hua Zhi 國朝畫識 (Contributor: Shalan Sun).

513 new individuals with 593 alternative names and 803 biographical addresses have been added from Complete Prose of the Yuan 全元文 epitaphs (Contributor: Xiaoyan Guo).

295 new social status records have been added from the Stele of the Yuanyou Faction Members 元祐黨籍碑 in the Song dynasty.

281 new letter association records for Kang Youwei 康有為 have been added (Contributor: Likun Kang).

17,552 records of data have been either created or modified by the CBDB crowdsourcing group from August 20, 2024 to May 20, 2025.

5,004 records of data have been either created or modified by the PKU editorial group from August 20, 2024 to May 20, 2025.

3,865 records of data have been either created or modified by the Renmin editorial group from August 20, 2024 to May 20, 2025.

###   
**CBDB Access Query System (Michael Fuller):**

CBDB\_20241217\_DATA1\_Build20250408

In ASSOC\_DATA Rename:

c\_assoc\_nh\_code > c\_assoc\_fy\_nh\_code  
c\_assoc\_nh\_year > c\_assoc\_fy\_nh\_year  
c\_assoc\_range > c\_assoc\_fy\_range

c\_assoc\_intercalary > c\_assoc\_fy\_intercalary  
c\_assoc\_month > c\_assoc\_fy\_month  
c\_assoc\_day > c\_assoc\_fy\_day  
c\_assoc\_day\_gz > c\_assoc\_fy\_day\_gz

Add:

c\_assoc\_ly\_nh\_code  
c\_assoc\_ly\_nh\_year  
c\_assoc\_ly\_range

c\_assoc\_ly\_intercalary  
c\_assoc\_ly\_month  
c\_assoc\_ly\_day  
c\_assoc\_ly\_day\_gz

CBDB\_20241217\_DATA3\_Build20250408

In ZZZ\_NONKIN\_BIOG\_ADDR, Rename:

c\_assoc\_nh\_code > c\_assoc\_fy\_nh\_code  
c\_assoc\_nh\_year > c\_assoc\_fy\_nh\_year  
c\_assoc\_range > c\_assoc\_fy\_range

c\_assoc\_intercalary > c\_assoc\_fy\_intercalary  
c\_assoc\_month > c\_assoc\_fy\_month  
c\_assoc\_day > c\_assoc\_fy\_day  
c\_assoc\_day\_gz > c\_assoc\_fy\_day\_gz

Add:

c\_assoc\_ly\_nh\_code  
c\_assoc\_ly\_nh\_year  
c\_assoc\_ly\_range

c\_assoc\_ly\_intercalary  
c\_assoc\_ly\_month  
c\_assoc\_ly\_day  
c\_assoc\_ly\_day\_gz

  
CBDB\_bh\_User\_Build20250327

This build fixes a crucial bug in the form for selecting association for LookAtAssociation.

I'm not sure when this change happened, but in ASSOC\_CODE\_TYPE\_REL, the field is now c\_assoc\_type\_code rather than as it is in ASSOC\_TYPES (c\_assoc\_type\_id). In any case, the code has been changed to reflect the renaming.

CBDB\_bh\_User\_Build20250319  
This build updates the browser and LookAtOffice forms and their code to be consistent with the new table and field names for appointment codes.  
Note that although the file has links to APPOINTMENT\_TYPES and APPOINTMENT\_CODE\_TYPE\_REL, there are no plans yet to include them into the LookAtOffice form.

CBDB\_20241217\_DATA1\_Build20250319  
This build deals with appointment codes/types.  
1\. APPOINMENT\_TYPE\_CODES has been renamed APPOINTMENT\_CODES.  
 the fields have been renames  
 c\_appt\_type\_code > c\_appt\_code  
 c\_appt\_type\_desc > c\_appt\_desc  
 c\_appt\_type\_desc\_chn > c\_appt\_desc\_chn  
2\. Two new tables have been created: APPOINTMENT\_TYPES and APPOINTMENT\_CODE\_TYPE\_REL  
 APPOINTMENT\_TYPES:  
 c\_appt\_type\_code (short text)  
 c\_appt\_type\_desc   
 c\_appt\_type\_desc\_chn  
 c\_notes  
   
 APPOINTMENT\_CODE\_TYPE\_REL  
 c\_appt\_code  
 c\_appt\_type\_code (short text)  
3\. In POSTED\_TO\_OFFICE\_DATA, c\_appt\_type\_code > c\_appt\_code

CBDB\_20241217\_DATA4\_Build20250319  
This build updates the field names for appointment types in ZZZ\_POSTED\_TO\_OFFICE\_DATA and in the code needed to generate the table.

CBDB\_20241217\_DATA5\_Build20250319  
This build updates field names for appointment codes in ZZZ\_POSTED\_TO\_ADDR\_DATA and the code that generates the table.

CBDB\_bh\_User\_Build20250212b  
This build fixes the truncation problem in Office GIS as well as the field name mistake.  
It also changes the csv files to tab both for LooAtOffice and LookAtEntry.

CBDB\_bh\_User\_Build20250212  
This build fixes the truncation problem in Office GIS as well as the field name mistake.

CBDB\_bh\_User\_Build20250209  
This build replaces the approach to writing GIS files in LookAtOffice and LookAtEntry. The replaced version ignored the user's specification of the encoding for texts.

CBDB\_bh\_User\_Build20250123  
This build just add Chinese text for some labels.

CBDB\_20240820\_DATA4\_Build20241031  
This build adds the data from the field c\_appoint\_type\_code to the ZZZ\_POSTED\_TO\_OFFICE table.

CBDB\_bh\_User\_Build20241013  
This build changes the approach to selecting people in LookAtKinship, LookAtNetwork, and LookAtAssocPairs to a search function like that in the browser that will look for 名, 字, 號, etc.

CBDB\_bh\_User\_Build20241129  
This build changes the "used dynasties" filter for the various applications. In selecting dynasties, it removes 1 year overlaps in dates (<=, >=) for the dynasties.

CBDB\_bh\_User\_Build20241213  
This build adds a tab for all the people in LookAtKin.

### **CBDB bh 20240820 Build20240828 Version**

**The new release of the stand-alone China Biographical Database, CBDB\_bh\_20240820\_Build20240828 in MS Access format is now available for download here effective 20240909. This release contains data on 641,568 men and women.**

**CBDB Data:**

103,778 new persons from the Qing Dynasty Roster of Government Personnel (縉紳錄), with 14,347 alternate names, 112,934 biographical addresses, 89,516 entry records, and 1,581,409 postings. (Collaborator: CGED-Q project)

3,119 Korean romanized names have been assigned in the CBDB.

Jinshi data and alternate names for 940 Song persons and 824 Song military Jinshi, both from the 宋登科記考.

1,052 CBDB and Souyun 搜韻網 person IDs mapped. (Contributor: Yufeng Han)

37,202 linkages between CBDB and Ctext person IDs. (Contributor: Donald Sturgeon)

13,209 records of data have been either created or modified by the PKU editorial group from February 8, 2024 to August 20, 2024.

5,004 records of data have been either created or modified by the CBDB crowdsourcing group from February 8, 2024 to August 20, 2024.

The "tts\_sysno" and "c\_secondary\_source\_author" fields have been removed.

The new user guide has been updated. (Michael Fuller)

###   
**CBDB Access Query System (Michael Fuller):**

CBDB\_20240208\_DATA1\_Build\_20240905

This build changes the URL for Academia Sinica in TEXT\_CODES and update the values of the IDs for Academia Sinica by adding leading 0s as necessary.

CBDB\_20240208\_DATA2\_Build\_20240905

This build has rebuilt the ZZZ\_BIOG\_SOURCE\_DATA table.

CBDB\_bh\_User\_Build\_20240828

This build fixes a bug in the "Save to file" function of the browser.

CBDB\_bh\_User\_Build20240621

This build adds a command button to the browser that dumps the data on a person to an HTML file.

CBDB\_20240208\_DATA1\_Build20240416

This build fixes the "0" problem in the calculation of index years.

It allows 0 to be a valid index year if the dynasty code is 2, 25, 29, 46, or 83.

However, many of the people with those codes who have a birth year of 0 prbably should have NULL instead.

This build also does not fix the problem of people whose death age is the same as their death year -1.

CBDB\_bg\_User\_Build20240411

This build cleans up the interface for looking at sources in the browser.

CBDB\_20240208\_DATA2\_Build\_20240410

Changes  
1\. I added a c\_hyperlink field to ZZZ\_BIOG\_SOURCE\_DATA  
2\. I changed the routine to generate ZZZ\_BIOG\_SOURCE\_DATA to fill the c\_hyperlink field

CBDB\_20240208\_DATA1\_Build\_20240410

Changes:   
1\. I changed the Academia Sinica URL fields in TEXT\_CODES  
2\. I padded all Academia Sinica IDs to 6 numbers by adding leading 0s.  
3\. Because some Academia Sinica IDs had two values, I fixed these

CBDB\_bg\_User\_Build20240410

Changes:  
1\. I added a hyperlink text field to the sources tab in the browser  
2\. I changed the data source for that tab to a query to allow me to add #s before and after the URL text string.

CBDB\_20240208\_DATA2\_Build20240327

This file changes the format of ZZZ\_BELONGS\_TO as well as the code that generates the table.

It drops c\_name, c\_name\_chn, x\_coord, and y\_coord from the table as not necessary.

### **CBDB bh 20240820 Build20240828 Version**

**The new release of the stand-alone China Biographical Database, CBDB\_bh\_20240820\_Build20240828 in MS Access format is now available for download here effective 20240909. This release contains data on 641,568 men and women.**

**CBDB Data:**

103,778 new persons from the Qing Dynasty Roster of Government Personnel (縉紳錄), with 14,347 alternate names, 112,934 biographical addresses, 89,516 entry records, and 1,581,409 postings. (Collaborator: CGED-Q project)

3,119 Korean romanized names have been assigned in the CBDB.

Jinshi data and alternate names for 940 Song persons and 824 Song military Jinshi, both from the 宋登科記考.

1,052 CBDB and Souyun 搜韻網 person IDs mapped. (Contributor: Yufeng Han)

37,202 linkages between CBDB and Ctext person IDs. (Contributor: Donald Sturgeon)

13,209 records of data have been either created or modified by the PKU editorial group from February 8, 2024 to August 20, 2024.

5,004 records of data have been either created or modified by the CBDB crowdsourcing group from February 8, 2024 to August 20, 2024.

The "tts\_sysno" and "c\_secondary\_source\_author" fields have been removed.

The new user guide has been updated. (Michael Fuller)

###   
**CBDB Access Query System (Michael Fuller):**

CBDB\_20240208\_DATA1\_Build\_20240905

This build changes the URL for Academia Sinica in TEXT\_CODES and update the values of the IDs for Academia Sinica by adding leading 0s as necessary.

CBDB\_20240208\_DATA2\_Build\_20240905

This build has rebuilt the ZZZ\_BIOG\_SOURCE\_DATA table.

CBDB\_bh\_User\_Build\_20240828

This build fixes a bug in the "Save to file" function of the browser.

CBDB\_bh\_User\_Build20240621

This build adds a command button to the browser that dumps the data on a person to an HTML file.

CBDB\_20240208\_DATA1\_Build20240416

This build fixes the "0" problem in the calculation of index years.

It allows 0 to be a valid index year if the dynasty code is 2, 25, 29, 46, or 83.

However, many of the people with those codes who have a birth year of 0 prbably should have NULL instead.

This build also does not fix the problem of people whose death age is the same as their death year -1.

CBDB\_bg\_User\_Build20240411

This build cleans up the interface for looking at sources in the browser.

CBDB\_20240208\_DATA2\_Build\_20240410

Changes  
1\. I added a c\_hyperlink field to ZZZ\_BIOG\_SOURCE\_DATA  
2\. I changed the routine to generate ZZZ\_BIOG\_SOURCE\_DATA to fill the c\_hyperlink field

CBDB\_20240208\_DATA1\_Build\_20240410

Changes:   
1\. I changed the Academia Sinica URL fields in TEXT\_CODES  
2\. I padded all Academia Sinica IDs to 6 numbers by adding leading 0s.  
3\. Because some Academia Sinica IDs had two values, I fixed these

CBDB\_bg\_User\_Build20240410

Changes:  
1\. I added a hyperlink text field to the sources tab in the browser  
2\. I changed the data source for that tab to a query to allow me to add #s before and after the URL text string.

CBDB\_20240208\_DATA2\_Build20240327

This file changes the format of ZZZ\_BELONGS\_TO as well as the code that generates the table.

It drops c\_name, c\_name\_chn, x\_coord, and y\_coord from the table as not necessary.


### **20240208CBDB bf version**

**The new release of the stand-alone China Biographical Database, CBDB\_bg\_20240208 in MS Access format is now available for download** [here](https://dataverse.harvard.edu/file.xhtml?fileId=10506775&version=7.0) **effective 20240208. This release contains data on 535,181 men and women.**

**CBDB Data:**

3215 Tang official titles have been linked to the corresponding bureaucratic structure (contributed by Wai-ho Wong).

  
1718 new persons from the Ming and Qing dynasties, along with 2391 alternative names, 1960 biographical addresses, 1053 entry records, 1297 writings, and 919 posting records, have been added from the 湖北詩徴傳略 (contributed by Kaini Xiong).

  
1166 new individuals from the Qing dynasty, with 3490 alternative names, 1863 biographical addresses, 104 entry records, and 15183 posting records, have been incorporated from Provincial education commissioner 清秘述聞 (contributed by Yiyi Wang).

  
1675 official titles and 754 addresses, from the Western Zhou to the Warring States period, have been imported (contributed by Yuqi Chen).

  
1083 sources have been added to existing persons in the Song Dynasty from Complete Song Prose 全宋文 (contributed by Yufeng Han).

  
82 book category translations in the TEXT\_TYPE table have been meticulously reviewed (contributed by Lixiang Qian).

  
351 Lazarists and their 1217 biographical addresses have been added from Les Lazaristes en Chine 1697-1935 年在華遣使會士列傳 (contributed by Jianguo Liu).

  
462 Ming and Qing social associations have been added from 人名權威資料庫 Name Authority Database.

  
10,478 records of data have been either created or modified by the PKU editorial group from March 24, 2023, to February 8, 2024.

  
16,953 records of data have been either created or modified by the CBDB crowdsourcing group from March 24, 2023, to February 8, 2024.

### **CBDB Access Query System (Michael Fuller):**

CBDB\_bg\_User\_Build20231116  
This build fixes a bug in the frmPickEntry\_multi form in which the \[All\] option copied over no records to the temp search file ZZ\_ENTRY\_CODES.

CBDB\_bg\_User\_Build20230930  
This build fixes a major bug in all the multi-select forms.

CBDB\_bg\_User\_Build20230915  
This build guards against the last year of an office being set to 0 in LookAtOffices.

CBDB\_bg\_User\_Build20230910  
This build adds a search by office option to LookAtOffice.

CBDB\_bg\_User\_Build20230824  
This build fixes a bug in how the dynasties filter works in LookAt AssocPairs.

It also sets the default value for option "Restrict to Place" for the address filter in LookAtNetworks to TRUE.

CBDB\_bg\_User\_Build20230821  
In this build, I have added the sequence field to alternative names in the browser. To do that, I also added a record in the FormsLabels table to provide the translations for the label.

CBDB\_20230324\_DATA1\_Build20230821  
In this build, a new integer field, c\_sequence, has been added to ALTNAME\_DATA. The TablesFields table has been updated accordingly.

CBDB\_20230324\_DATA2\_Build20230821  
In this build, a new integer field, c\_sequence, has been added to ZZZ\_ALTNAME\_DATA. The routine for creating ZZZ\_ALTNAME\_DATA has been changed to include the new field.

CBDB\_bg\_User\_Build20230818  
This build makes the associations and address tabs in the browser scrollable. The postings tab cannot be scrollable because it has subforms within it.

### **20230516CBDB bf version**

**The new release of the stand-alone China Biographical Database, CBDB\_bf\_20230506 in MS Access format is now available for download** [here](https://dataverse.harvard.edu/file.xhtml?fileId=10506777&version=7.0) **effective 20230516. This release contains data on 529,560 men and women.**

**CBDB Data:**

53,509 entries of posting data extracted from Academia Sinica‘s Name Authority Database.

  
27,553 records of Juren (provincial graduates) and Shengyuan (licentiate students) entry data in the Ming Dynasty, collected from the Ming Local Chronologies in the Tianyi Library 天一閣藏明代科舉錄選刊.

  
3,871 Ming and Qing women from 閨海吟 (a literary collection of women) with 2,369 alternative names, 3,470 biographical addresses, and 1,501 writing records. (contributed by GU Lingling)

  
1,736 geographical data such as postal stops, bridges, and ferry crossings located from Jiangxi gazetteer 江西通志. (contributed by HUANG Shanhui)

  
1,414 new teacher-student social associations of Koryo and Choson persons (contributed by Chen Yafei)

  
1,203 Mongolian princes and their 2,264 kinship data, as recorded in the Biography of Mongol Princes 蒙古王公表傳 (contributed by YU Hao)

  
680 Ming literary collection authors and their 915 writings, collected from the Complete Catalog of Chinese Antique Books 中國古籍總目. (contributed by QIAN Lixiang)

  
481 Early Qing painters and their 327 biographical addresses, 471 social status information, 286 learn-from social associations, and 178 kinship data, as listed in the Collection of the Painters Biographies in the Qing Dynasty 清朝畫徵錄. (contributed by SUN Shalan)

  
14668 data points from biographies in Ming and Qing local gazetteers. (Contributor: CBDB Crowdsourcing group)

### **CBDB Access Query System (Michael Fuller):**

Adding Save to Neo4j functions on the forms below:

Query by Methods of Entry into Government 按入仕途徑查詢,

Query Office Holding 官職查詢,

Query Kinship 查詢親屬關係,

Query Associations 查詢社會關係,

Query Social Networks 查詢社會關係網絡,

Query Pair-wise Associations 查詢兩人之間社會關係,

Query Place Associations 查詢地區關係,

Query Status 查詢社會區分,

Query Texts and Roles 查詢文本與人物角色,

Look Up Data on a Group of People 按人群查詢

### **20220727CBDB be version**

**The new release of the stand-alone China Biographical Database, CBDB\_be\_20220727 in MS Access format is now available for download** [here](https://dataverse.harvard.edu/file.xhtml?fileId=7103804) **effective 20220801. There are significant additions of data for Song, Ming, and Qing studies, bibliography, missionary history, and Korean history, and various improvements to query system in the MS Access stand-alone database.**

**This release contains data on 521,442 men and women.**

### **Bibliography**

**1. Currently there are 52,272 titles in CBDB, including lost works. 11,018 new links between person and extant title have been added based on the** ***Union Catalogue of Chinese Collectanea*** **中國叢書綜錄 (Contributor: Edith Enright). All titles and editions in this catalog are being included in CBDB.**

Song Studies

1\. All identifiable Song dynasty recipients of the **jinshi** 進士 degree are now in the database, over 25,000 people. Biographical addresses have now been added for 18,605 who had been missing addresses. Based on Gong Yanming 龚延明, 宋代登科记考

2\. 400 Song associated **societies** and teacher-student relationships for children (Contributor: Zhou Yangbo周揚波)

Ming Studies

1\. To date 49,527 **letter titles** have been extracted from the tables of contents of Ming literary collections (Contributor: Katherine Enright), provided by the Center for Chinese Studies 漢學研究中心). This is ongoing. The listing of authors, titles, known recipients, collections are open to all but require registering [here](https://csa.cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/#/register). Work on identification has been supported by the Geiss-Hsu Foundation. 19,506 Ming letter social association have been identified and added to CBDB (Contributors: Katherine Enright, Chen Shiyin 陳士銀). 138 Ming persons have been added to CBDB based on this with 389 alternative names and 141 records of entry into official status. (Contributor: Chen Shiyin 陳士銀)

2\. 828 **Ming painters**, 698 alternative names, 490 scholarly associations, 556 biographical addresses added. Based on Xu Qin 徐沁, *Record of Ming Dynasty Painters* 明畫錄 (Contributor: Sun Shalan孫莎嵐)

3\. 4,078 **Ming office titles** have been associated with Ming bureaucratic categories. 162 new Ming office titles and 99 new addresses have been added (Contributor: Ning Hao 寧浩).

4\. 339 bureaucratic categories have been added to make up the **tree of Ming offices** (Contributors: Chinese-English Dictionary of Ming Government Official Titles明代職官中英辭典項目, Gao Ce高策, Ma Ji馬季)

5\. Data on 3,298 **posting to Ming offices** added based on data contributed by the Biographical Database of the Academia Sinica Name Authority中研院人名權威人物傳記資料庫.

6\. 30,315 data points from **biographies** in Ming and Qing local gazetteers. (Contributor: CBDB Crowdsourcing group)

Qing Studies

1\. 364 bureaucratic categories making up the **Qing dynasty office tree** (Contributors: Blaine GAUSTAD, Wang Yushun王宇舜, Ma Ji馬季)

Missionary Studies

1\. Data on 352 **Protestant missionaries** and 1034 of their writings from *Bibliography and Bibliography of Protestant Missionaries Arriving in China Before 1867* 1867 年以前來華基督教傳教士列傳及著作目錄 (Contributor: Li Yang李楊)

Korean Studies

1\. 1,114 Koryo and Choson persons and 1,158 of their alternative names from *Chronicles and Biographies of Choson* 紀年便攷. Added to the CBDB database preparatory to a study of contact between Korea and China (Contributor: Chen Yafei 陳雅飛)

**Improvements to the CBDB Access Query System**（Architect: Michael Fuller）

1\. Query Texts and Roles: allows searching texts by bibliographic category and persons’ roles in the production of texts, with filters by place and time

2\. Look Up Data on a Group of People: a form to quickly collect data on groups of people

3\. Code changes for exporting social network data to UCInet and Gephi

4\. A “Simplify Kinship Terms” option has been added to Query Kinship

5\. A “Store Person ID” button has been added to the Browser, so that once the user has selected a person, that person can be recalled for use in Query Kinship, Query Social Networks, and Query Pair-wise Association by simply clicking on the “Recall Person IDs” command button

6\. Information on sources for records has been added to all the forms.

### **20211222CBDB bd version**

**This release,** [CBDB\_bd\_20211222](https://www.dropbox.com/s/wl7vxokvijpsk1i/CBDB_bd_20211222.7z?dl=0)**, is effective as of 2021-12-22. The major updates include:**

**CBDB Data:**

1\. 19,286 new persons and their 3,689 alternative names, 19,576 records of entry data from the most complete list of civil service examination passers for the Song period.(Contributor: Yang Xu)

2\. 34,574 pairs of Ming and Qing dynasties kinship relationships and 15,312 records of postings data in Ming Dynasty from the Academia Sinica Name Authority Database.

3\. 3,267 new Koryo and Choson persons in Korea history with their 6,939 alternative names, 3,031 records of social status from Chronicles and Biographies of Choson. (Contributor: Yafei Chen)

4\. 22,363 records of data from the biography chapter from Ming and Qing local gazetteers. (Contributor: [CBDB Crowdsourcing group](/cbdb-crowdsourcing-projects))

**CBDB Access Query System（Michael Fuller）:**

1\. The forms for selecting codes for association, entry into government service, office titles, and status now support the multi-select option. The user can click on items in a list to select those that are of interest.

2\. The user can now filter office titles by name when selecting office. This feature replaces the earlier search function. Because the filtering produces a list of offices from different dynasties, the form now includes information about the dynasty associate with each office name.

\- Build 20220127

Update the index year calculation algrithum

\- Build 20211102

Design Change

1\. In LookAtOffice, selecting an office now provides more information about the dynasty of the selected office.

2\. In the Browser for individuals, one can now search by Surname + Office Title in either Chinese or in pinyin.

\- Build 20210826

Design Change

In the Browser for individuals, using pinyin now has three options:

(1) lower case: it looks for the string anywhere in the name;

(2) upper case: it looks for the string only at the beginnings of words (“Hao” will select both Zhang Hao and Hao Jing;

(3) string beginning with “!:” it looks only at the beginning of the surname (just “Hao Jing”)

\- Build 20210609

Bug Fixes

1\. Removed all references to ZZZ\_ALL\_BIOG\_ADDR, which has been replaced in functionality by ZZZ\_BIOG\_MAIN

2\. Added the field c\_kin\_rel\_count to ZZ\_SCRATCH\_KINNET\_EDGE.

\- Build 20210606

Bug Fixes

1\. Changed all references to TEXT\_DATA to BIOG\_TEXT\_DATA in the Admin Version of BD (the Used BC version had already been corrected).

\- 20210603 (Initial build for BD)

Design Change

1\. Created a filter-by-office-title function for selecting offices

2\. In order to filter by office title, I added c\_dy, c\_dynasty, and c\_dynasty\_chn both to ZZ\_OFFICE\_CODE and to Z\_SCRATCH\_DUMMY\_OC.

Bug Fixes

1\. Cleared the scratch table for status codes when clicking on the highest tree level to fix a duplicate-value bug

**2021100525CBDB bc Version:**

**This release,** [CBDB\_bc\_20210525\_build20210531](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/EXQbtoYt-pVBlK3G6EwOuyEBslTSPwry2kJIQJv45n253g)**, is effective as of 2021-06-14. The major updates include:**

**CBDB Access Query System（Michael Fuller）:**

1\. Index Place is now handled the way Index Year is: both are added to BIOG\_MAIN. Index Year derives from birth year or death year (values in BIOG\_MAIN), if they are known, and, if not, from data elsewhere in the system. A source code for the index year value is included in BIOG\_MAIN. Similarly, Index Place is derived from data in BIOG\_ADDR\_DATA, and the type code for Index Place is included in BIOG\_MAIN. As a result, users should use ZZZ\_BIOG\_MAIN instead of ZZZ\_ALL\_BIOG\_ADDR as the table for building queries about people.

2\. Because scholars may prefer to use different categories of place association to define the Index Place, the BC version of CBDB includes a form accessible from the Navigation Pane through which the user can change the hierarchy of places associations used to define Index Place. (See the explanation under the heading “Navigation Pane.”

3\. Searching by dynasty behaves a bit differently. When one specifies that the “from” and “to” dynasties are the same, for example from Yuan 元 to Yuan, the search routines now look for data with that particular code (Yuan = 18) rather than for all dynasties that have a temporal overlap with the selected dynasty (for instance, the Yuan \[1234-1367\], overlaps with the Song dynasty \[960-1279\]).

4\. To select codes for Association, Entry, Office, Place, and Status, CBDB now allow the user to select more than one category at a time. As a result, the form behaves a bit differently than before: the form always moves to the bottom of the list for any type in the right-hand list box, so that the user will need to scroll up to see the entire list. Also, while the search function still works, it does not highlight the target record.

5\. Various bugs were fixed in the behavior of the forms. In particular, the address tree now does a better job checking and sorting out subordinate relations between administrative units.

Build 20210531:  
Bug Fixes  
1\. Changed the size of the field c\_entry\_desc in Z\_SCRATCH\_DUMMY\_EC from 50 to 255 in the USER version to be consistent with the other versions.

**CBDB Data:**

1\. 17,000 new persons names and 10,486 social association for Ming and Qing dynasties from Academia Sinica Name Authority Database.

2\. 17,560 book titles from the Union Catalogue of Chinese Collectanea. (Contributor: Edith Enright)

3\. 20,678 entries, 2,180 alternative names and 16,020 postings information for the Ming and Qing dynasties from local gazetteers.

4\. 79 schools with 379 scholars belonging information. (Contributor: Mengxi Bi)

5\. 600 new Ming and Qing persons with their data from the biography chapters in local gazetteers were created by [CBDB crowdsourcing contributors](/cbdb-crowdsourcing-projects).

**Others:**

1\. CBDB User manual English version was updated by Peter Bol and Michael Fuller.

2\. The dynasties of persons have been re-calculated by birth years+30 instead of death years.

3\. c\_status\_type\_parent\_code filed has been added to STATUS\_TYPES table for creating social status tree.

### **CBDB bb 20210525 build20210531 version**

**This release,** [CBDB\_bc\_20210525\_build20210531](https://www.dropbox.com/s/9f3hk0ljxeeuov2/CBDB_bc_20210525_build20210531.7z?dl=0)**, is effective as of 2021-06-14. The major updates include:**

**CBDB Access Query System（Michael Fuller）:**

1\. Index Place is now handled the way Index Year is: both are added to BIOG\_MAIN. Index Year derives from birth year or death year (values in BIOG\_MAIN), if they are known, and, if not, from data elsewhere in the system. A source code for the index year value is included in BIOG\_MAIN. Similarly, Index Place is derived from data in BIOG\_ADDR\_DATA, and the type code for Index Place is included in BIOG\_MAIN. As a result, users should use ZZZ\_BIOG\_MAIN instead of ZZZ\_ALL\_BIOG\_ADDR as the table for building queries about people.

2\. Because scholars may prefer to use different categories of place association to define the Index Place, the BC version of CBDB includes a form accessible from the Navigation Pane through which the user can change the hierarchy of places associations used to define Index Place. (See the explanation under the heading “Navigation Pane.”

3\. Searching by dynasty behaves a bit differently. When one specifies that the “from” and “to” dynasties are the same, for example from Yuan 元 to Yuan, the search routines now look for data with that particular code (Yuan = 18) rather than for all dynasties that have a temporal overlap with the selected dynasty (for instance, the Yuan \[1234-1367\], overlaps with the Song dynasty \[960-1279\]).

4\. To select codes for Association, Entry, Office, Place, and Status, CBDB now allow the user to select more than one category at a time. As a result, the form behaves a bit differently than before: the form always moves to the bottom of the list for any type in the right-hand list box, so that the user will need to scroll up to see the entire list. Also, while the search function still works, it does not highlight the target record.

5\. Various bugs were fixed in the behavior of the forms. In particular, the address tree now does a better job checking and sorting out subordinate relations between administrative units.

Build 20210531:  
Bug Fixes  
1\. Changed the size of the field c\_entry\_desc in Z\_SCRATCH\_DUMMY\_EC from 50 to 255 in the USER version to be consistent with the other versions.

**CBDB Data:**

1\. 17,000 new persons names and 10,486 social association for Ming and Qing dynasties from Academia Sinica Name Authority Database.

2\. 17,560 book titles from the Union Catalogue of Chinese Collectanea. (Contributor: Edith Enright)

3\. 20,678 entries, 2,180 alternative names and 16,020 postings information for the Ming and Qing dynasties from local gazetteers.

4\. 79 schools with 379 scholars belonging information. (Contributor: Mengxi Bi)

5\. 600 new Ming and Qing persons with their data from the biography chapters in local gazetteers were created by [CBDB crowdsourcing contributors](/cbdb-crowdsourcing-projects).

**Others:**

1\. CBDB User manual English version was updated by Peter Bol and Michael Fuller.

2\. The dynasties of persons have been re-calculated by birth years+30 instead of death years.

3\. c\_status\_type\_parent\_code filed has been added to STATUS\_TYPES table for creating social status tree.

If you encounter an error on Windows 10: “Missing or broken reference” to a file MSCOMCTL.OCX, follow the [instructions in the this PDF](/file_url/571).

### **20201110CBDB bb Version:**

**This release,** [**CBDB\_BB\_20201110**](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/ER-nE6MUtNpGtwSEMz85-g8BGaIlECehONaFGGmyj4rfRg?e=sSwScm)**, is effective as of 2020-11-18. The major updates include:**

### **CBDB Access Query System（Michael Fuller）:**

1\. CBDB now has a MS Access “Look at Status” form to allow users to explore categories of social distinction.

2\. All the MS Access query forms now permit using dynasty as a search parameter. There remain many individuals for which CBDB lacks the data to assign an index year, and while searches by dynasty define a rather broad time period, still it provides some temporal specification that we believe may prove useful.

3\. The approach to kinship searches has been revised. In concatenating kinship relations in iterative searches, CBDB now automatically simplifies eight relationships:  
 BB (brother’s brother) >> Brother  
 ZB (sister’s brother) >> Brother  
 BZ (brother’s sister) >> Sister  
 ZZ (sister’s sister) >> Sister  
 SB (son’s brother) >> Son  
 SZ (son’s sister) >> Daughter  
 DB (daughter’s brother) >> Son  
 DZ (daughter’s sister) >> Daughter  
The effect of this change is that the “collateral” parameter in the relationship decreases by 1, so that the relationship (and the person identified through the relationship) may now remain within the search limits specified by the user. Moreover, CBDB may identify additional new relations of the newly permitted individual who would not have appeared in the earlier version of the search.

4\. CBDB is now explicit that the address codes used for searches is an Index Place, a construct analogous to Index Year. While the address codes used for searches always have been assigned according to a hierarchy of place information, we believe that it is better to be explicit about the status of index place. Even the “basic place affiliation” (jiguan 籍貫) has problems in its historical interpretation, so that it always remains useful to be circumspect about the assignment of index places. They are largely—but not entirely—reliable.

### **CBDB Data:**

1\. The Index Year has been significantly revised. It now represents the birth year of the individual. For individuals for whom the year of birth is not known, CBDB uses a series of calculations based on other data. While CBDB has derived the index year for individuals in the past, it now uses derived index years to derive yet more index years when it is possible. The Index Year Type Code preserves the steps in the derivation. Please note that each iteration is yet more inaccurate, but we believe that for running queries an index year that is off by a decade is still better than having no index year at all.

2\. 417 garrison addresses for Ming dynasty. (Contributor: Ruoran Cheng)

3\. 376 social status records for thinkers. (Contributor: Mengxi Bi)

4\. Kinship and entry data mistakes were fixed. (Contributors: Moqin Zhou, Song Chen)

5\. Added TEXT\_INSTANCE\_DATA table to collect version information of books. (Contributors: Edith Enright, Song Chen)

6\. Change TEXT\_DATA table name to BIOG\_TEXT\_DATA.

### **Others:**

CBDB User manual English version was updated by Peter Bol and Michael Fuller.

### **20200528CBDB ba Version:**

**This release,** [**CBDB\_ba\_20200528**](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/ESKyHzX2j-ZAhMyXU7SNFMcBUp_rGlDjmGit7Vx1LZ8hdQ?e=dLZJ1W)**, is effective as of 2020-05-28. It contains data on over 470,000 men and women. Additions include:**

1\. 46,000 new persons from local gazetteers with their 57,000 posting records.

2.100 social associations from corpuses on Ming dynasty. (contributor: Youou Liu 劉韻鷗)

### **20190424CBDB az Version:**

Important Notice 2020-3-12:

Users of all versions of the MS Access CBDB database should update the user interface to the BA version. The underlying data has not changed. The BA version of the database, CBDB\_ba\_20190424, can be downloaded [HERE](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/ETMaVZhlNNpAkHQ8KR9VPncBOeirhbCxXLlq2_dYH6j7WA?e=jculkb).(For experienced users, you can just download CBDB\_ba\_User\_20200308 to replace the user interface program (version BA) \[rather than interface + data files\] from [HERE](/experienced-users)) The BA interface corrects an error in the form for looking at KINSHIP: Previous versions gave wrong values for the count of addresses (XY\_count).

The CBDB team requests that you inform us any errors you discover in any query or output form. Please use the [Error Report Form](https://docs.google.com/forms/u/2/d/e/1FAIpQLSdoXtQ1sJBWO98cOJoybugY5nt9m1qJy71jBWhTOSJOEdh--Q/viewform?embedded=true&urp=gmail_link) on the [CBDB website](https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/cbdb). Forms are complex, and errors all too easily slip by, which is why it is vital that you report what you think might be a problem

**This release,** [CBDB\_ba\_20190424](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/ETMaVZhlNNpAkHQ8KR9VPncBOeirhbCxXLlq2_dYH6j7WA?e=jculkb)**, is effective as of 2020-03-12, includes the following changes:**

1\. This release fixes a major bug in the way that the XY count is counted when outputting data to Gephi.

2\. This release adds the ability to export to Gephi in the Query Associations and Query Pair-Wise Associations forms.

3\. The output to Gephi now includes the XY coordinates to allow users to take advantage of the Geographic Distribution visualization add-on in Gephi.

### **20190424CBDB az Version:**

**This release,** [CBDB\_az\_20190424](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/EYlr-4lVd5lEsF_Do9mNSdcBbWkBVrQj5K9J4mKc5rpdbQ?e=SP1Agz)**, includes the following changes:**

1\. Removal of the ability to filter by superior administrative unit when selecting places.

2\. Addition of the ability to include or disallow the inclusion of subordinate administrative units when running queries that involve restrictions to specific places.

### **20190424CBDB ay Version:**

**This release,** [CBDB\_ay\_20190424](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/EUSqpmpvin9EiVtFuKQYDVUBKrv7S8vjaKX8jk2t4GditA?e=Dix50h)**, is effective as of 2019-04-29. Additions include:**

1\. 18,124 new social assignations for Tang and Five Dynasties from The communication poems for Tang and Five Dynasties figures 唐五代人交往詩索引 with 4,380 new figures, 702 new alternative names and 671 new kinship relationships etc. (contributor: Shuhua Zhang 張淑華, Qiong Yang 楊瓊, Yongqin Li 李永琴, Chengguo Pei 裴成國)

2\. 5,895 new Tang addresses with 11,844 belongs data from General History of Chinese Administrative Divisions 中國行政區劃通史. (contributor: Chao Wei 魏超, Yifan Wang 王一帆, Yun Xing 邢雲, Wen Luo 駱文, Yuying Yuan 袁鈺瑩)

3\. 1,200 new address names with 670 new address belongs data for Jin Dynasty. (contributor: Jingjia Qiu 邱靖嘉)

4\. 1,765 new office titles for Jin dynasty. (contributor: Jingjia Qiu 邱靖嘉)

5\. Michael Fuller developmented a new function to help users to save their query result for secondary queries.

6\. Michael Fuller updated address selector to allow users to filter place names by superior administrative units.

7\. Edith Enright systematically refined our label translations in Access query interface.

### **20180831CBDB ax Version:**

**This release,** [CBDB\_ax\_20180831](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/EXe4gcr6HalEuoyIdRmOBXsBKKFUnEYYXnchcvl0JMEvjg?e=Oop9fa)(Access), [CBDB\_aw\_20180831\_sqlite.zip](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/EUcxjIHr2iJDlGf1JkMtMLUBf8GERBVH6sxzGS2DGXuIRQ?e=vB7Ilc)(SQLite) **is effective as of 2018-12-14. Additions include:**

An important feature of kinship network algrithum was added into Access standalone database(CBDB\_ax\_User.mdb). The duplicate records for kinship relationships can be calculated correctly in this new algrithum.

### **20170829CBDB av Version:**

**This release,** [CBDB\_aw\_20180831](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/EbyOmnv6k45Ip5P1wCVPefkB3M4PxuUH5eNFilkXq0ZmUw?e=MNfiQ0), **is effective as of 2018-09-01. Additions include:**

1\. Michael Fuller created a new and more efficient mechanism to connect the user interface and the backend data;

2\. 5,300 new persons added with 5,300 entries *jiguan* data, 4,000 other entries, and 2,300 alternative names from the [Name Authority Database](http://archive.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/ttsweb/html_name/search.php) at Academia Sinica;

3\. 8,000 personid entries are mapped between CBDB and the [Name Authority Database](http://archive.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/ttsweb/html_name/search.php);

4\. The database was thoroughly cleaned with the foreign key mechanism (contributor: Fu Qunchao 傅群超);

5\. Bugs were fixed in pinyin entries and *jiguan* data etc.

### **20170829CBDB av Version:**  


The standalone version of the China Biographical Database (CBDB) contains data on over 417,000 men and women. Users must download two compressed files: a BASE file and a USER file. To use this database do the following:

1. Please download [20170829CBDBavBase.rar](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/_layouts/15/guestaccess.aspx?docid=071bf0245ea5c4c3c97951bb738ea822e&authkey=AWfhgK-UsDgwE2goQs6BIKk) (the BASE file) and [20170829CBDBavUser.rar](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/EgHbkqoaIalNtqMZbCdOlWABk5PYi_r5-tGQbkbj_MxKKA) (the USER file)
2. Decompress them to the same folder.
3. Decompressed, there will be be 4 files:  
     CBDB\_InstallationGuide.pdf,  
     HelpFiles folder,  
     20170829CBDBavUser.mdb,  
     20170829CBDBavBase.mdb.

The CBDB\_InstallationGuide.pdf gives you instructions on how to install: see Part 2. "Installing the Database".

This release, **20170829CBDBavUser.mdb** and **20170829CBDBavBase.mdb**, is effective as of 2017-09-07. Additions include:

A. 51,551 new persons with 34,447 posting from local gazetteers;

B. 467 Wuzhou jinshi degree holders from Song to Yuan dynasties;

C. 841 figures with 1,725 kinship associations and 381 social associations from 全元文，宋濂全集，遜志齋集 etc. (contributor: Yu Wen 于文);

D. Michael Fuller and Chen Song has designed: 1) a rerun function in Query Social Networks to run queries through a previous result; 2) a new query function named Query Place Associations.

SQLite Format: [20170424CBDBauUserSqlite.7z](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/_layouts/15/guestaccess.aspx?docid=07ade27f1bf524247b8b2295d04111975&authkey=AaFG1lZv0b8DCjUbfUG8uIU)

### **20170424CBDB au Version：**  


The standalone version of the China Biographical Database (CBDB) contains data on over 360,000 men and women. Users must download two compressed files: a BASE file and a USER file. To use this database do the following:

1. Please download [20170424CBDBauBase.7z](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/_layouts/15/guestaccess.aspx?docid=076310ecd88db425ba8337d63a13e5c60&authkey=Af9Gh_lTHXOYr2vOdmyik7g) (the BASE file) and [20170424CBDBauUser.7z](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/_layouts/15/guestaccess.aspx?docid=0df287d52a72b4d19b7af9fae26612ee0&authkey=AVb5iEdnDXDti8cxXtaGKlQ) (the USER file)
2. Decompress them to the same folder.
3. Decompressed, there will be 4 files:  
     CBDB\_InstallationGuide.pdf,  
     HelpFiles folder,  
     20170310CBDBauUser.mdb,  
     20170310CBDBauBase.mdb.

The CBDB\_InstallationGuide.pdf gives instructions on how to install: see Part 2. "Installing the Database".

This release, **20170424CBDBauUser.mdb** and **20170424CBDBauBase.mdb**, is effective as of 2017-04-25. Additions include:

A. 789 Wuzhou figures with 500 biographical address data, 1,800 kinship relations and other data from 全宋文 and 金華府志 (contributor : Du Feiran 杜斐然);  
B. 700 biographical addresses, 3,000 kinship relations, 500 postings and other data from 全元文, 宋濂全集 and 藥房樵唱 (contributor : Yu Wen 于文);  
C. 6,700 figures were connected to the [明清人名權威檔案 database](http://archive.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/ttsweb/html_name/search.php) (contributor: Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica);  
D. Tang bureaucratic tree added (contributor: Lik Hang Tsui 徐力恆)  
E. Fixed several mistakes in the bureaucratic and biographical data. Thanks to Chu Pingtzu 祝平次 and Yang Guang 楊光's for reporting them.

SQLite Link: [20170424CBDBauUserSqlite.7z](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/_layouts/15/guestaccess.aspx?docid=07ade27f1bf524247b8b2295d04111975&authkey=AaFG1lZv0b8DCjUbfUG8uIU)

### **20170310CBDB au Version：**

This [**20170310CBDBauUser.mdb**](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/_layouts/15/guestaccess.aspx?docid=0b361f54259ab4e9c833e0b44b6e73600&authkey=AbTK-C6UZpLqekkOktBzTDY) and [**20170310CBDBauBase.mdb**](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/_layouts/15/guestaccess.aspx?docid=0a22ed8fc3bb7427cb6ca86cb6af02d22&authkey=AVMZIld76krSC7nv6znFRx0) release is effective as of 2017-03-13. Additions include:

A. Data on 8,836 Tang figures and their 15,138 postings (source: 唐九卿考, 唐刺史考全編);  
B. 5,921 Tang personid were disambiguated (contributor: Wen Xin 文欣);  
C. 770 figures from 全元文 (contributor: Yu Wen 于文);  
D. 1498 social status data from the Tang Dynasty (source: 唐五代人物傳記資料綜合索引);  
E. Updated User Guide with English and Chinese versions (collated by Lik Hang Tsui 徐力恆);  
F. Michael Fuller and Chu Ping-tzu rewrote several critical codes in CBDB Access Database so that it can run on both 32-bit and 64-bit MS Windows;  
G. Michael Fuller added import person id list function to the Query Mediated Associations interface.

### **CBDB as Version：**  


**SQLite Version Direct Link:**

[**cbdb\_sqlite.zip**](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/ETEV2p8h4xBEoY6yrs4LAD8BpOEt77rE_EjuxD6mqCUpYg?e=Gug6R2) **(for other users)**

This release, [**20150202CBDBasUser.mdb**](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/EU0m-2wolvNOu0YidXAQJbwBsOb_HKOlF2y-PNkimYHZkA) and [**20150202CBDBasBase.mdb**](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/EXY0wtes0Y9BvUuRvrCXd8EBCPpCLDmJpOqWhRxKNhGQFQ?e=hMbTfa), is effective as of 2015-03-18. Additions to previous versions include:

**A.** 36,826 new persons and 38,565 new entry records of Ming and Qing Civil Service Jinshi Degree holder (source: 明清人物題名碑);  
**B.** 3,142 Liao Dynasty office titles with Liao office tree (contributor: Cao Liu 曹流);  
**C.** Yuan office tree (contributor: Yi Ding 丁一, Yu Yue 于月);  
**D.** 1,004 Song Yuan Academies (contributor: Stephen P. Ford);  
**E.** 272 China emperors with their Posthumous Name (謚號), Honorific name (廟號);  
**F.** Revised Help Files.

Additional functionalities have been created by Michael A. Fuller. These are:

1. Placename filter to select a set of places for search
2. Searching places based on geographic coordinates and proximity

### **CBDB ar Version：**

[**CBDB Mac Dictionary(20140310CBDBar)**](http://chinese-empires.eu/analysis/tools/cbdb-mac-dictionary/)

The CBDB Mac Dictionary is an alternative way to search CBDB (China Biographical Database). It can be used on Apple computers without internet access. It allows users to search CBDB by either using Mac OS X integrated Spotlight or by selecting any name or partial name in any programme (Look up in dictionary function).

[**20140310CBDBarUser.rar**](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/EeN1iPcaUNhNscKBjehT6osBxRVC4vvjqo2owz2J1KXSyA?e=I3ENSU)

[**20140310CBDBarBase.rar**](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/EQHRJGMT0fBJm3l6V6HvkZ0BL0Ptyff6VdcJthJxEYs_Vw?e=35mNKM)

The Microsoft Access version of the China Biographical Database (CBDB) now comes in two compressed files: a BASE file and a USER file. Please download **20140310CBDBarBase.rar** (the BASE file) and **20140310CBDBarUser.rar** (the USER file), and uncompress them to the same folder. You will get four files in that folder: CBDB\_InstallationGuide.pdf, CBDB Users Guide.pdf, 20140310CBDBarUser.mdb, and 20140310CBDBarBase.mdb. We highly recommend you to read the CBDB\_InstallationGuide.pdf, and you can find the information needed for installation under Part 2. "Installing the Database".

This release, **20140310CBDBarUser.mdb** and **20140310CBDBarBase.mdb**, on date 2014-03-10, is built upon the **Oct. 8 2013 dataset**. Major changes in this version include:

- 27,000 association data from Ming Biographical Materials (明人傳記資料索引)(contributor: Qiaomei Tang 唐巧美 and Hui Cheng 程卉)
- 5,000 entry data from Ming civil service high degree holders (jinshi)
- 3,700 posting data from Ming civil service high degree holders (jinshi)
- 3,300 books from the Ming Qing Women Writers database (MQWW) and Ming Biographical Materials (明人傳記資料索引)
- 2,800 address codes were updated (contributor: Yi Ding 丁一)

This release also fixed minor mistakes in the posted\_to\_office data and altname data in the previous standalone database.

In addition, new search and selection features have been added to the “LookAt” forms as well as greater flexibility in choosing whether to use index years. All the search routines have been rewritten in SQL to greatly speed up the searches.

### **CBDB aq Version:**

[**20131008CBDBaq.part01.rar**](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/EciLoNSN7OVMo4bcu3Qm43ABGmfdGZQ19196ufLFQC2oUA?e=uUSr6Y)

[**20131008CBDBaq.part02.rar**](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/EcPWMbpvwTpIqZh-G99bHikBaST1jI0MKkI5GL7ie2FpBQ?e=beaR49)

Please download this file along with **part02** below, place them under the same folder, and run an extraction tool (e.g., WinRAR, 7zip) on this **part01** file. The uncompressed file "20131008CBDBaq.mdb" should appear in the same folder after the extraction.

This release **20131008CBDBaq.mdb**, on date 2013-10-08, is built upon the **Sep. 21 2013 dataset**. This version adds biographical data on *200,000 new men and women* to the dataset from the 7th to the 20th century, resulting in a total number of **325,000** individuals. Major new additions include:

- 50,000 principals and kin from Tang and Five Dynasties tomb biographies
- data on 14,000 civil service high degree holders (jinshi) and 130,000 of their kin from 52 Ming dynasty examination years
- principals and kin from the 1148 and 1256 examinations
- selected biographical data from the *Index of Ming Biographical Materials* (明人傳記資料索引)
- new data on the kin and social relations of women writers
- a variety of new and expanded code tables

New data was developed through the contributions by and in collaboration with Profs. Ping Yao, Nicolas Tackett, Liu Cheng-yun, and Grace Fong.

### **CBDB Patch:**

[**CBDBPatch.rar**](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/EYeRkoKV0hdJh1gYGbKAWicB1wHpxqPCrtiSgQ740fvzjQ?e=Ka9Cmy)

**\[Important!\]** This is the patch for fixing the TreeView selection problem. If your copy of Access gives you an error when you try to **select an office** via the TreeView in LookAtOffices (Query Office Holding) or **select an association** in LookAtAssociations (Query Associations), this is because you do not have the correct version of the "Microsoft Windows Common Controls 6.0 (SP6)" added to your Visual Basic environment.

We have prepared a document to walk you through the steps for fixing this problem. **Please download this RAR file, unzip it, and follow the instructions in the PDF file.**

### **CBDB an Version:**

[**20130610CBDBan.rar**](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/EYvnlpxdodtFp4KXeikY7EoBq2E1lMv-FeaH_fM0FpdjYg?e=bg9uLa)

This release **20130610CBDBan.mdb**, on date 2013-07-08, is built upon the **June 10th 2013 dataset** which adds biographical information for **12,773 new individuals** to the January 2012 dataset and results in **128,923** as the total number of individuals. The following lists the details of the addition:

- Incorporated individuals, their kin and their associates from: the Ming Qing Women Writers database (MQWW) (contributor: Professor Grace Fong and the CBDB Beida editors), *Quan Song Wen letters* 全宋文書信 (contributor: Pingtzu Chu 祝平次, Beida, Chen Liu 劉晨), *Song Lian Quan Ji* 宋濂全集 (contributor: Qiaomei Tang 唐巧美), Ji Yun 紀昀’s associates (contributor: Clea Walford), Lu You 陸游’s associates (contributor: Ziyu Zhou 周子鈺), and the 1148 紹興十八年 exam passers (contributor: Ziyu Zhou 周子鈺).
- Collaborated with IHP, Academia Sinica 中研院史語所 to incorporated the basic information, alternative names, and entry data for 2,912 individuals from the 明清檔案人名權威資料 database (system number 13197 to 16110). It results in 2,134 new individuals (because some of the them already exist in CBDB), 6,540 alternative names, and 2,515 entry data.
- Collaborated with IHP to incorporate the basic biographical data, alternative names, and address data for the 9,900 individuals in the Ming Ren Chuan Ji Zi Liao Suo Yin 明人傳記資料索引, which has given us 7,400 new individuals, 15,000 alternative names, and 8,600 biog address data.
- Added 987 new individuals who were the kin of the subjects in the biographies section of Song Shi 宋史.
- Added 8,800 social association data from the Quan Song Wen letters 全宋文書信 and 114,000 associations from *Index to Song Biographical Materials* 宋人傳記資料索引.
- Added 14,447 posting data from the Kyoto Tang database 唐代人物知識ベース and 22,067 from *Index to Yuan Biographical Materials* 元人傳記資料索引.

From the system side, in this release we also refactored a bunch of database tables (for example, social institutions) in order to accommodate more detailed information about one’s life and to enable such queries.

### **CBDB am Version:**

[**20120105CBDBam.rar**](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/EQjV6MHz9-xPhcmaF92fQpgBXRNdSil6Ri0ydx6tTg02jA?e=2Z4kgS)

This release **20120105CBDBam.mdb**, on date **2013-03-14**, is built upon the **January 2012 dataset** and the **20120105CBDBal.mdb**.  
  
Major changes in this version: 1) Addition of 18,000 Tang-Wudai, Yuan, Ming, and Qing office codes. 2) Restructure of Social Institution tables: 8 code tables and 1 data table where we can record the relation between a person and a social institution.

**\*\*For instructions in using the standalone CBDB database, please go to** [**Download -> Supporting Documents**](/supporting-documents) **for the latest User Guide.**

### **CBDB al Version:**

[**20120105CBDBal.rar**](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/EdGajGLdA1FEg9Akwh4pX44BmktcLVDCNvGR5U1PCFo_rQ?e=xAc5kC)

This release **20120105CBDBal.mdb**, on date **2012-08-27**, is built upon the **January 2012 dataset**. It contains the biographical information for 116,149 historical figures in the Chinese history. It also comes with the most up-to-date built-in queries, including the latest revision of the Query Kinship and Query Social Network functionalities.  
  
Major changes in this version: 1) "Look up Data on an Individual 按人查詢" now accepts search via alternative names. E.g. You are able to find 蘇軾 via 蘇東坡 now. 2) It includes Han addresses (漢代地名) and a new Ethnicity/Tribe code table. 3) Bug fixed in "Query Association 查詢社會關係" and improve the search performance. 4) It uses the new ethnicity coding for people.  
  
**NOTE:** It is known that **some of the CBDB built-in queries do not function on 64-bit version of Microsoft Office 2010**. It is because the 64-bit Office is not compatible with former VBA programs (see the official annoucement here), which the CBDB queries were built with. Therefore, if you are running a 64-bit Office, please consider to **re-install a 32-bit version Office 2010** on your 64-bit Windows machine. (Yes, you can still run the 64-bit Windows Operating System). [Not sure which version are you running? Follow this link.](http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/24259/beginner-discover-if-youre-running-the-32-or-64-bit-version-of-office-2010/)

### **CBDB af Version:**

[**20110705CBDBaf.zip**](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/EYorzF9saXBJnIhBhIdAmAQB4zQczUVhw5BtrSUKbCwE0w?e=RJpoW9)

This release **20110705CBDBaf.mdb**, on date 2012-02-07, is the last release for the **July 2011 dataset**. It does not add significant new data to the **July 2011 release** but some code tables have been improved and duplicates have been removed. NOTE: Some of the built in queries do not function on 64 bit machinese. This will be corrected in the near future.

**Major changes in this version:** bug fixed for the "Enter Biographical Data 輸入傳記資料" and "Look up Data on an Individual 按人查詢" buttons.

### **CBD Win Version:**

[**CBDWin.rar**](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/ERY2g7ajPq5BuUh0Mr46nfIBnfKTxndw6RVVbe5mvZ8Acw?e=DcjwNT)

### **CBDB ao Version:**

[**20130610CBDBao.rar**](https://hu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/hongsuwang_fas_harvard_edu/EfdszkeKbKdPjSJl-B0H1uoBfrA90CMyKjPm2EzfEPEbOA?e=dxGxIA)

**For users who wish to work with a significant portion of CBDB data offline, explore the relationships in the database, or develop new relationships or applications we offer two databases for download. However, we do not provide support for either database.**

***<year-month-day>*****CBDB** ***<letter>*****.mdb** is a Microsoft Access database that has been compiled from 1) original work by Robert Hartwell, corrected and 2) supplemented by graduate students at the Center for Ancient Chinese History at Peking University under the supervision of Profs. Deng Xiaonan and Zhang Xiqing and text-mining projects at Harvard University under the supervision of Profs. Peter Bol and Stuart Shieber. Extensive use has been made ofWang Deyi’s revised digital version of the 宋人傳記資料索引 and 元人傳記資料索引.Extensive biographical data has been incorporated from collaborating projects for the Tang, Ming, and Qing periods.

**20110621CBDBv.mdb** (June 2011) contains data on over 112,000 individuals, mainly from Tang through Qing. As new data is regularly added, there may be a discrepancy between the online and standalone databases. To signify that the database has changed -- fixes have been made or new utilities added -- but no new content has been added a lower-case letter is appended to the filename. NOTE: in using the CBDB database in MS Access **Office 2007** be sure to enable the macros when opening the database.

Please see the left side menu for more topics under "Coverage of CBDB & Structure of CBDB".