Exploration of the Mystery of the population in Ming Dynasty

The population statistics in Ming Dynasty is still a perplexity for today's scholars, because the historical records then didn't give clear indication whether the total population included both the male and the female. Since the total population in Ming Dynasty has not a final conclusion, the scholars today often quote the statistics recorded in the biographical style history books as the total population number of Ming Dynasty. Through the analysis of the recorded historical materials concerned, the author thinks that the population'statistics of Ming Dynasty was only based on the male, not including the female. According to the natural reproduction principle, the total population of Ming Dynasty should be twice of the recorded statistics.