The two main issues discussed in this article are as follows: (1)Jiangnan (the Yangzi Delta)saw a very slow population growth in the early and mid-Qing times (1644 - 1850). The growth rate was strikingly low -only about 0.3 percent a year in such a long period of two centuries. which was not only much lower than those of most parts of China or of china as a whole at the same period. but even considerably lower than those of Jiangnan itself in the preceding period of the Ming: (2)the slow growth of population was the result of a positive population control in Jiangnan.leading to a" harmony " or equivalence Detween economic growth and population growth and aiming at that the people could keep a higher standard of living that they had enjoyed. In this sense, we can say that this demographic behavior is quite rational or even "modern ". These findings challenge the conventional wisdom , denying that there was anything like" population explosions "or" no controlling population increase in early and mid -Qing Jiangnan
