Coverage of CBDB

The China Biographical Database is an online relational database with biographical information about approximately 529,560 individuals as of May 2023, primarily from the 7th through the beginning of the 20th century. The data is meant to be useful for statistical, social network, and spatial analysis as well as serving as a kind of biographical reference. The following image shows the all time spatial distribution of 67,000 people for whom we have their basic affiliation (籍貫): (click to enlarge)

 

The long term goal of CBDB is systematically to include all significant biographical material from China’s historical record and to make the contents available free of charge, without restriction, for academic use. That data is regularly being enriched and new biographical entries are being created for Tang, Five Dynasties, Liao, Song, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing figures.