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Harvesting Big Biographical Data for Chinese History: The China Biographical Database (CBDB)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 August 2020

Lik Hang Tsui  and
Hongsu Wang
Lik Hang Tsui*
Affiliation:
City University of Hong Kong
Hongsu Wang
Affiliation:
Harvard University
*
*Corresponding author. Email: lhtsui@cityu.edu.hk
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Abstract

Biographies constitute the main historical record of China. The China Biographical Database (CBDB) is an important project that tackles this vast biographical material with digital technologies. With both online and offline versions, CBDB is meant to be useful for statistical, social network, and spatial analysis, as well as serving as biographical reference. Through the wide range of data it collects through mining historical texts and reference sources, CBDB offers multiple ways to examine the lives of past groups and individuals in Chinese history. The use of CBDB data for prosopographical and other types of analysis has generated important work that interprets Chinese history in new ways, and has also fostered new forms of digital humanities collaborations. This article introduces the history of the CBDB project and its methods for populating its biographical data. It also presents the ways that historians and other scholars could utilize its data for research and teaching.

Keywords

China Biographical Database (CBDB)biographical dataprosopographydigital historydigital humanities
Type
Utilities
Information
Journal of Chinese History 中國歷史學刊 , Volume 4 , Special Issue 2: Digital Humanities , July 2020 , pp. 505 - 511
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

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References

1 Wilkinson, Endymion, Chinese History: A New Manual (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2012), 149Google Scholar.

2 Nivison, David S., “Aspects of Traditional Chinese Biography.” Journal of Asian Studies 21.4 (1962), 457CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Hartwell, Robert M, “A Computer-based Comprehensive Analysis of Medieval Chinese Social and Economic History,” in Characters and Computers, edited by Mair, Victor H and Liu, Yongquan (Amsterdam: IOS, 1991), 89–121Google Scholar. Also see Peter K. Bol, “The Late Robert M. Hartwell ‘Chinese Historical Studies, Ltd.’ Software Project,” https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/cbdb/files/the_late_robert_m._hartwell_chinese_historical_studies_ltd._software_project.pdf.

4 These include Wu Tingxie 吳廷燮, Tang fangzhen nianbiao 唐方鎮年表 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1980); Fu Xuancong 傅璇琮, Tang Wudai renwu zhuanji ziliao zonghe suoyin 唐五代人物傳記資料綜合索引 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1982); Wu Ruyu 吴汝煜, Tang Wudai ren jiaowang shi suoyin 唐五代人交往詩索引 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1993); Yu Xianhao, Tang cishi kao quanbian 唐刺史考全編 (Hefei shi: Anhui daxue chubanshe, 2000); Yu Xianhao 郁賢皓, Tang jiuqing kao 唐九卿考 (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 2003); Xu Song 徐松, Dengkeji kao buzheng 登科記考補正, revised by Meng Erdong 孟二冬 (Beijing: Yanshan chubanshe, 2003). For the details of this sub-project on Tang China, see Xu Liheng 徐力恆 [Lik Hang Tsui], “Tangdai renwu da shuju: Zhongguo lidai renwu zhuanji ziliaoku he shuwei shixue” 唐代人物大數據：中國歷代人物傳記資料庫（CBDB）和數位史學, in Shuma shidai de Zhongguo renwen xueke yanjiu 數碼時代的中國人文學科研究, edited by Tan Guogen 譚國根 et al. (Taibei: Xiuwei zixun, 2018), 121–39.

5 Lik Hang Tsui and Hongsu Wang, “Semi-Automating the Transformation of Chinese Historical Records into Structured Biographical Data,” in Digital Humanities and Scholarly Research Trends in the Asia-Pacific, edited by Rebekah Wong, Haipeng Li, and Min Chou (Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2019), 228–46.

6 http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/mingqing/.

7 http://archive.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/ttsweb/html_name/.

8 https://history.berkeley.edu/nicolas-tackett.

9 https://www.shss.ust.hk/lee-campbell-group/.

10 https://sou-yun.cn/poetlifemap.aspx.

11 See the article on CHGIS by Peter Bol in this issue.

12 Lawrence Stone, “Prosopography,” in Historical Studies Today, edited by Felix Gilbert and Stephen R. Graubard (New York: Norton, 1972), 107–40.

13 Some relatively recent examples are Bol, Peter K., “GIS, Prosopography, and History,” Annals of GIS 18.1 (2012), 3–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar; De Weerdt, Hilde, Ming-Kin, Chu, and Hou-Ieong, Ho, “Chinese Empires in Comparative Perspective: A Digital Approach,” Verge: Studies in Global Asias 2.2 (2016), 58–69Google Scholar; Chen, Song, “Governing a Multicentered Empire: Prefects and Their Networks in the 1040s and 1210s,” in State Power in China, 900–1325, edited by Ebrey, Patricia Buckley and Smith, Paul J. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2016), 101–52Google Scholar; Zheng Wenhao 郑文豪, “Nan-Song Fujian ren zai liang-Guang de shehui wangluo” 南宋福建人在两广的社会网络, Fujian shifan daxue xuebao 福建师范大学学报, no. 2 (2016), 121–29; Huang Junjie 黄军杰, “‘Shuzi renwen’ jishu shijiao xia quyu shi yanjiu xin qujing: yi Songdai Chuzhou jiazu qunti de shuli wei li” ‘数字人文’技术视角下区域史研究新取径——以宋代处州家族群体的梳理为例, Difang wenhua yanjiu 地方文化研究, no. 2 (2017), 106–12; Li Zonghan 李宗翰 and Zheng Li 郑莉, “Jiazu, hunyin yu daoxue: ‘Xianxizhi renwu zhuan’ zhong de shehui guanxi” 家族、婚姻与道学：〈仙溪志⋅人物传〉中的社会关系, Tang-Song lishi pinglun 唐宋历史评论, vol. 3 (Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2017), 33–45; Bao Bide 包弼德 [Peter K. Bol], “Qunti, dili yu Zhonguo lishi: jiyu CBDB he CHGIS” 群体、地理与中国历史：基于CBDB 和CHGIS, Lianghua lishi yanjiu 量化历史研究, vol. 3–4 (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 2018), 213–46; Xu Yongming 徐永明, “Zhongguo gudian wenxue yanjiu de ji zhong keshihua tujing: yi Tang Xianzu yanjiu wei li” 中国古典文学研究的几种可视化途径——以汤显祖研究为例, Zhejiang daxue xuebao: 浙江大学学报 no. 12 (2018), 164–74.

14 Chao-Lin Liu, Chih-Kai Huang, Hongsu Wang, and Peter K. Bol, “Mining Local Gazetteers of Literary Chinese with CRF and Pattern Based Methods for Biographical Information in Chinese History,” Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Big Humanities Data, 2015 IEEE International Conference on Big Data, Santa Clara, CA, October 29–November 1, 2015, 1629‒38; Chao-Lin Liu and Hongsu Wang, “Matrix and Graph Operations for Relationship Inference: An Illustration with the Kinship Inference in the China Biographical Database,” Proceedings of the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association for Digital Humanities (JADH 2017), Kyoto, Japan, September 11–12, 2017, 94‒96; Xu Liheng 徐力恒 [Lik Hang Tsui], “Zhongguo lishi renwu da shuju” 中国历史人物大数据, Zhongguo jisuanji xuehui tongxun 中国计算机学会通讯, no. 4 (2018), 19–24; Yan Chengxi 严承希 and Wang Jun 王军, “Shuzi renwen shijiao: jiyu fuhao fenxi fa de Songdai zhengzhi wangluo keshihua yanjiu” 数字人文视角：基于符号分析法的宋代政治网络可视化研究, Zhongguo tushuguan xuebao 中国图书馆学报, no. 5 (2018), 87–103; Xiang Fan 向帆 and Zhu Shunshan 朱舜山, “Zhongguo jiapu shu de huizhi shiyan baogao: jiyu Zhongguo lidai renwu zhuanji ziliaoku de shijuehua shijian” 中国家谱树的绘制实验报告——基于中国历代人物传记资料库的视觉化实践, Zhuangshi 装饰, no. 10 (2018), 90–93; Chen Peihui 陈佩辉, “Renwen shujuku jianshe zhong renwen xuezhe hewei: yi ‘Quan Song wen’ muzhiming qinshu xinxi tiqu wei li” 人文数据库建设中人文学者何为——以〈全宋文〉墓志铭亲属信息提取为例, Tushuguan luntan 图书馆论坛, no. 5 (2019), 17–23. On recent explorations from a collaboration between humanists and computer scientists at Peking University, see KVisionLab, http://kvlab.org/dh.

15 For the online query system, see China Biographical Database Project (CBDB), https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/cbdb/accessing-cbdb-online. For the offline standalone versions, see https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/cbdb/download-cbdb-standalone-database.

16 See https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/cbdb/cbdb-api. For another example of how the CBDB API is utilized, see Chen, Chih-Ming and Chang, Chen C., “A Chinese Ancient Book Digital Humanities Research Platform to Support Digital Humanities Research,” The Electronic Library 37 (2019), 314–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 See “Download Latest CBDB Mac Dictionary” at https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/cbdb/download-cbdb-standalone-database.

18 Bol, Peter, “How the Digital is Changing Research and Teaching on Asia,” ASIANetwork Exchange: A Journal for Asian Studies in the Liberal Arts 25.2. (2018), 7–28Google Scholar, doi: http://doi.org/10.16995/ane.278.

19 https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/cbdb/supporting-documents.

20 http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/cbdb.

21 For video tutorials on youtube, see www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHWJuK308Jg&list=PLGgLzyv7BMgY8Dl1AbIBsCnVxnlRQf3Hw. For those on youku, see: https://list.youku.com/albumlist/show/id_26353417.html.