China Biographical Database Project (CBDB) [New Release]

http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k16229

04 Jan 2011

CBDB, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Supplied-note:
"China Biographical Database New Release and User's Guide
The Jan 1 2011 release of the China Biographical Database provides biographical data on 94,000 men and women, mainly from the Tang through the Qing dynasty. CBDB generates biographical data in response to queries, from simple (who came from a certain place?) to complex (what were the social and kinship connections among all those who entered government through the civil service examination from a certain place within a certain span of years?). Users can query CBDB through the online database's Chinese language interface or download the entire database with both Chinese and English interfaces. The stand-alone downloadable database includes query forms for discovering networks, kinship, incumbents in government offices, modes of entry into office, and types of social association and exports data for social network and spatial analysis (GIS). The downloadable database can be used on any computer with Microsoft Access. The CBDB User's Guide explains the structure of the database and how to query the downloadable stand-alone version.
Users can link to collaborating database projects (see below) from the CBDB browser. Data is constantly being processed and new data is being added on a regular basis. For a complete account of the tables, fields, protocols, and query methods see the User's Guide. A guide to the online system will appear in Spring 2011. Chinese language versions will also appear in Spring 2011.

This release (20101223CBDBr) includes:
Tang and Five dynasties -- ca. 6,000 persons (additional 15,000 in process)
Song -- ca. 41,000 persons
Liao, Jin, Yuan -- ca. 2000 (additional 16,000 in process)
Ming -- ca. 4,000 persons (additions being planned)
Qing -- ca. 33,000 persons (additional 18,000 in process)

21,000 administrative places
90,000 alternate names
62,000 social relationships
82,000 addresses of people
19,000 records of entry into office
86,000 kinship relationships (additional 40,000 in process)
6,000 analyzed office titles (currently only for the Song period)
83,000 postings to offices (additional 150,000 records in process)
25,000 categorized text titles by 26,000 people
45,000 classifications of social distinctiveness

CBDB is a joint project of the Center for Research on Ancient Chinese History at Peking University, the Institute of History and Philology at Academia Sinica, and the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. Collaborating databases include the Name Authority Database of the Ming Qing Archives at Academia Sinica and the National Palace Museum, the Ming Qing Women's Writings database at McGill University, and the Tang Knowledge Database at Kyoto University. - pb."

Self-description:
"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."

Site contents:
* Accessing CBDB data;
* History of CBDB;
* Core Institutions and Editors;
* Collaborating Institutions and Projects;
* Working Groups for Historical Periods;
* Techical Development and Text Mining;
* Peer-Reviewed Biographical Datasets;
* Coverage of CBDB;
* Methodological Issues;
* Mapping and Analyzing CBDB Data;
* Structure of Data ["The central entity that defines biography in the database is, of course: 1. People. But since a relational database track the ways in which people form relations with other people, with their society (i.e., social and economic institutions), and with the physical world, we also need entities with which people interact. First, relationships with people:
2. Kinship and Lineage. 3. Non-kinship Associations. Within Non-Kinship Associations, there are two additional sub-entities: Mourning Events, and Gifts, each of which has attributes not found in the simplest Non-kinship associations. Next, with social and economic institutions: 4. Status (the types of socio-economic roles a person can play in society). 5. Modes of Entry into Government. 6. Offices and Postings to office (the bureaucratic organization of rule through time). 7. Events reflecting the social, cultural, or political role of a person.
Then, with geography: 8. Administrative Hierarchy (defined in political terms as administrative units). 9. Physical Places (fixed locations in space required for historical comparisons).
Finally, there are texts. 10. Texts (including primary texts, secondary texts, and paleographic data)."];
* Work Progress;
* Download CBDB Data;
* Conference Papers;
* First International Workshop on Biographical Databases for China's History;
* 2010 Computational Method & China's History-Peking University;
* Discussion Forum.

URL http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k16229

Internet Archive (web.archive.org) [access to CBDB site has been blocked by the site owner via robots.txt]

Link reported by: Peter Bol (pkbol--at--fas.harvard.edu)

* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]:
Study / Corporate Info.
* Publisher [academic - business - govt. - library/museum - NGO - other]:
Academic
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]:
Essential

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Please note that the above details were correct on the day of their publication. To suggest an update, please email the site's editor at tmciolek@ciolek.com

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