"Age Inflation and Deflation" in Medieval China.

Using the twelve-year animal cycle, this paper uncovers and examines the dual phenomena of "age inflation" and "age deflation" in medieval China. While the first part raises serious doubt on the accuracy of the conventional method for calculating birth year in premodern China, the second section exa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of the American Oriental Society Vol. 133; no. 3; pp. 527 - 534
Main Author:	SANPING CHEN
Format:	Article
Published:	American Society for Premodern Asia (ASPA) Jul-Sep2013
Subjects:	Birthdays Human life cycle Age Aging Economics China
Online Access:	View this record in EBSCOhost

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Summary:	Using the twelve-year animal cycle, this paper uncovers and examines the dual phenomena of "age inflation" and "age deflation" in medieval China. While the first part raises serious doubt on the accuracy of the conventional method for calculating birth year in premodern China, the second section examining the deflation phenomenon provides yet another proof of the omnipotent law of economic rationality.