The Pattern of the Chinese Past: A Social and Economic InterpretationA satisfactory comprehensive history of the social and economic development of pre-modern China, the largest country in the world in terms of population, and with a documentary record covering three millennia, is still far from possible. The present work is only an attempt to disengage the major themes that seem to be of relevance to our understanding of China today. In particular, this volume studies three questions. Why did the Chinese Empire stay together when the Roman Empire, and every other empire of antiquity of the middle ages, ultimately collapsed? What were the causes of the medieval revolution which made the Chinese economy after about 1100 the most advanced in the world? And why did China after about 1350 fail to maintain her earlier pace of technological advance while still, in many respects, advancing economically? The three sections of the book deal with these problems in turn but the division of a subject matter is to some extent only one of convenience. These topics are so interrelated that, in the last analysis, none of them can be considered in isolation from the others. |
Contents
PREFACE | 7 |
THE PRINCIPAL CHINESE DYNASTIES | 13 |
Empires and their size 17 | 23 |
The crisis of the third century AD | 35 |
Sinobarbarian synthesis in north China | 42 |
The middle empire | 54 |
Manorialism without feudalism | 69 |
Iron gunpowder and the Mongols | 84 |
The revolution in money and credit | 146 |
The revolution in market structure and urbanization | 164 |
13 | 170 |
Part Three Economic development without | 201 |
The disappearance of serfdom | 235 |
Rural markets and rural industries | 268 |
Quantitative growth qualitative standstill | 285 |
Conclusion | 317 |
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Common terms and phrases
agricultural areas barbarians became boats cent Ch'ing Chekiang Chinese Chou cities copper cash countryside county capital cultivation divisional militia Dream Pool Essays early economic eighteenth century emperor empire equitable field families farming frontier FU I-LING Fukien gazetteer gentry Han dynasty harvest households Hsiung-nu Hunan hundred Hupei Ibid imperial important industry iron kenkyū Khitan Kiangnan Kiangsi Kwangtung labour land landlord late traditional later Manchuria manor manorial market towns masters medieval merchants military Ming dynasty Mongol north China northern objects of existence official paper money peasants period persons piculs population prefecture production profits province region rice rich River salt serfs seventeenth Shang-hai Shansi Shen Kua SHIBA Shiba/Elvin Shigaku zasshi ships silk slaves soldiers Southern Sung Su-chou Sung-chiang supply Szechwan T'ang T'ang dynasty techniques tenant-serfs tenants thirteenth century thousand Toba trade twelfth century Wang Western Wei Yangtze Yellow River Yuan