Imperiia project
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China Biographical Database Project
The China Biographical Database is a freely accessible relational database with biographical information about approximately 491,000 individuals as of May 2021, primarily from the 7th through 19th centuries. With both online and offline versions, 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 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.
CBDB originates with the work of Robert M. Hartwell (1932–1996). Professor Hartwell bequeathed his estate, including the first version of this database, to the Harvard-Yenching Institute which ceded its ownership.
The development of CBDB is now a joint project of:
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Chinese History Project
of the Washington Township Museum of Local History
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Image of Alvarado Chinatown, on postcard dated July 15, 1922, from archives of the Washington Township Museum of Local History
A Subcommittee of the Washington Township Museum of Local History
To tell the stories of the early Chinese immigrants and citizens who helped build our community from the 1860s and on.
To find their stories among the historical records of our railroads, nurseries, wineries, farms, salt and sugar factories, domestic service, and trade and commerce.
To research, preserve, and present the history for exhibits and talks and for school curriculum and field trips for the old towns of the Washington Township, today's cities of Fremont, Union City, and Newark.
At Shinn Historical Park & Arboretum is the last building from the Shinn China Camp, a century-old bunkhouse where the ranch workers lived and slept and did ranch business. Our first effort to raise money to restore the bunkhouse was not very successful. People wondered why we would want t
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Welcome
Introduction
The China Biographical Database is a freely accessible relational database with biographical information about approximately 641,568 individuals as of August 2024, currently mainly from the 7th through 19th centuries. With both online and offline versions, 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 image below shows the spatial distribution of a cross dynastic subset of 190,000 people in CBDB by basic affiliations (籍貫).
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.
CBDB originates with the work of Robert M. Hartwell (1932–1996). Professor Hartwell bequeathed his estate, including the first version of this database, to the
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