We begin our discussion of the Liaoning demographic system with an analysis of mortality. The positive check does not fall equally on all segments of a population. Death rates vary by age and sex as well as time. Analysis of sex differentials in mortality rates reveals the effects of gender differentials on the allocation of resources, social roles, and the division of labor. Similarly, examination of age differentials in mortality rates may suggest the influence of age differentials in the allocation of resources, social roles, and the division of labor. The age and sex patterns of death, therefore, not only reconstruct the local mortality regime, something not yet done for late imperial China, but also provide insight into rural social organization.

This was especially true in rural Liaoning, as families influenced the survivorship of children, adults, and the aged through the widespread practice of conscious infanticide and unconscious neglect. We divide this chapter into four sections. In section I, we establish the broad parameters of mortality by calculating life tables by sex for the registered population, and then compare age-specific death rates with those in model life table families.