An Economic Cycle in Imperial China? Revisiting Robert Hartwell on Iron and Coal

2007 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 398-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Wright

AbstractRobert Hartwell's article published in 1967 in this journal has had an extensive influence in both Chinese and global history. The present article reviews the reception and use made of Hartwell's arguments by secondary sources over the last forty years. It focuses on three aspects: the Song economic revolution; Hartwell's quantitative estimate for iron production; and Hartwell's proposition that coal and iron production and consumption peaked in the Song dynasty, at least on a per capita basis. It argues that a consistent set of estimates are needed for coal and iron development over the last thousand years of imperial Chinese history. En 1967 Robert Hartwell publia un article dans ce journal qui a fortement influencé l'historiographie chinoise et mondiale. Cette contribution passe en revue l'acceptation et l'utilisation des arguments de Hartwell qu'on trouve dans les sources secondaires parues depuis quarante ans. Elle traite surtout de trois aspects de sa thèse, la révolution économique sous les Song; l'estimation quantitative de la production de fer, et la proposition qui veut que la production et la consommation du charbon et du fer par tête furent maximales sous la dynastie Song. La contribution témoigne de la nécessité de disposer d'une série cohérente d'estimations traitant du développement du charbon et du fer durant le dernier millénium de l'histoire de la Chine impériale.

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bjørnar Sverdrup-Thygeson

Summary In the diplomatic canon, where the field has been demarcated by a central distinction drawn between suzerain and parity-based state relations, Imperial China has squarely been designated to the former category, and thereby as inherently alien to the diplomatic tradition. However, this image of a monolithic 2000-year-long rigid, hierarchical system betrays a too shallow assessment of Chinese history, and fails to acknowledge a noteworthy strain of parity-based relations running through Imperial Chinese foreign policy. This strain was at its most pronounced during the four centuries of the Song Dynasty, where China’s relations with a set of important neighbouring states were handled on egalitarian terms that were far more reminiscent of a full-fledged diplomatic multi-state system than what is popularly acknowledged. Based on a case study of the diplomatic relations of the Song Dynasty, this article argues that Imperial Chinese foreign policy on a set of occasions showed itself to adhere to principles immanent to classical diplomacy, and that these eras thus should naturally, and beneficially, belong to the historical canon of diplomacy.


PANALUNGTIK ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-96
Author(s):  
Gregorius Andika Ariwibowo

This paper is a study of the book Chu-fan-chi compiled by Chau Ju-Kua (Zhao Rugua) from 1208 to 1224 or when he was an official at the customs office (Shi-po-shi) of Quanzhou Port. Chu-fan-chi can be considered as documentation of the Trans-Asian maritime trade during the time of the Buddhist Cosmopolis. This period was an era that formed an Asia Civilization with the establishment of economic, political, cultural, and scientific cooperation that grew along with the development of Hindu-Buddhist Religion in the Sino-Indian region since the 7th century. This paper wants to provide an overview of how the conditions of trade routes and activities in Sriwijaya in the 10th to 13th centuries, which is the information from Chau Ju-Kua that describe the dynamic relationship between Sriwijaya and the Song Dynasty in the formation of maritime history and the spice trade in the archipelago. This study also aims to re-examine the bilateral relationship between China and Srivijaya during the heyday of the Buddhist Cosmopolitan period. This study is expected to redevelop historiographic studies of the Buddhist Cosmopolitan period. This study was compiled by collecting data from various historical and archaeological records and works that have been compiled in various secondary sources, especially from the records of Sinology scholars who have studied relics in the form of government reports, travel records, documentation, and journals originating from the Song Dynasty. According to a Chau Ju-Kua, Sriwijaya not just only sought to profit from the hectic trade traffic that crossed the Natuna Sea, Karimata Strait, Malacca Strait, and Sunda Straits, but Sriwijaya was also able to maintain the security and continuity of Trans-Asian trade traffic at that time.


Author(s):  
Helena Y.W. Wu

By taking the Song Emperor’s Terrace as the main object of analysis, Chapter 4 takes a step into history. The Terrace was once a popular cultural icon, for that it was valorized as a rock that stood witness to the royal visit paid to Hong Kong by the last two Song emperors at the end of the Song Dynasty in the thirteenth century—because of this event, the terrace became an oft-cited chanting object among the émigré-literati who fled China to Hong Kong during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. To vent frustration at the loss of their home(land), nostalgia for ancient (Imperial) China and adherence to virtues such as loyalty and filial piety, the Terrace became a place of gathering for these literati in everyday life and an object that frequently appeared in their creative works, ranging from verses, calligraphy to paintings. With an eye to the special bond between the émigré-literati and the rock and David Der-wei Wang’s notion of “post-loyalism”, this chapter challenges the presumed collectivity of this literati community by unfolding their varying political aspirations, worldviews and connections to “Hong Kong” through the relationships they constructed with the rock.


NAN Nü ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith McMahon

“Women Rulers in Imperial China”is about the history and characteristics of rule by women in China from the Han dynasty to the Qing, especially focusing on the Tang dynasty ruler Wu Zetian (625-705) and the Song dynasty Empress Liu. The usual reason that allowed a woman to rule was the illness, incapacity, or death of her emperor-husband and the extreme youth of his son the successor. In such situations, the precedent was for a woman to govern temporarily as regent and, when the heir apparent became old enough, hand power to him. But many women ruled without being recognized as regent, and many did not hand power to the son once he was old enough, or even if they did, still continued to exert power. In the most extreme case, Wu Zetian declared herself emperor of her own dynasty. She was the climax of the long history of women rulers. Women after her avoided being compared to her but retained many of her methods of legitimization, such as the patronage of art and religion, the use of cosmic titles and vocabulary, and occasional gestures of impersonating a male emperor. When women ruled, it was an in-between time when notions and language about something that was not supposed to be nevertheless took shape and tested the limits of what could be made acceptable.


MRS Bulletin ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Jiazhi ◽  
Deng Zequn ◽  
Xu Jiming

When North China was invaded in 1127, the emperor of the Song dynasty moved the capital to Lin'an (now called Hangzhou) in Zhejiang Province southeast of Shanghai. He established the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279 a.d.), known as a period of cultural flowering and stability in Chinese history. Several years later, official kilns were built by court officials to meet the need for the porcelains required for use at the Southern Song palace.


2000 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 314-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian McKnight

AbstractIn imperial China the normal pattern for the passing on of property across generations, giving assets to daughters as dowry at marriage and bequeathing the family estate in equal portions to sons upon the deaths of the parents, was distorted when both parents died without there being a living son, a situation called the extinguishing of the household (jeuhu). Under some dynasties the state attempted to deal with this phenomenon by mandating the posthumous adoption of sons, but during the Song (960-1279 C.E.) the government accepted the fact of the frequent ending of household (and family) lines, and established an elaborate set of laws and policies to assure the orderly transfer of assets. Song policy in this regard was prompted by the state's desire to avoid the concentration of land in the hands of the rich and the potential loss of tax revenues. Song policies both reflected and supported two social trends, the increasing independence of smaller stem family units from the influence of larger kin groupings and the increasing control of property by women, because most of those receiving juehu assets were women.


Author(s):  
Barend J. ter Haar

Guan Yu was a minor general in his own day, who supported one of numerous claimants to the throne in the early third century CE. He was captured and executed by enemy forces in 219. He eventually became one the most popular and influential deities of imperial China under the name Lord Guan or Emperor Guan, of the same importance as the Buddhist bodhisattva Guanyin. This is a study of his cult, but also of the tremendous power of oral culture in a world where writing became increasingly important. The book follows the rise of the deity through his earliest stage as a hungry ghost, his subsequent adoption by a prominent Buddhist monastery during the Tang (617–907) as its miraculous supporter, and his recruitment by Daoist ritual specialists during the Song dynasty (960–1276) as an exorcist general. It continues on with his subsequent roles as a rain god, protector against demons and barbarians, and, eventually, moral paragon and almost messianic saviour. Throughout his divine life, the physical prowess of the deity, more specifically Lord Guan’s ability to use violent action for doing good, remained an essential dimension of his image. Most research ascribes a decisive role in the rise of his cult to the literary traditions of the Three Kingdoms, best known from the famous novel by this name. This book argues that the cult arose from oral culture and spread first and foremost as an oral practice.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (10-4) ◽  
pp. 159-165
Author(s):  
Teng Yue

The song dynasty (960-1279) in Chinese history is divided into two stages: the Northern and southern song, and includes a total of eighteen emperors who reigned for a total of three hundred and nineteen years. The song dynasty attached great importance to literature and despised force. The song dynasty era is an era of prosperity for China’s commodity economy, culture, education, science. The song dynasty’s “Ci” genre is a kind of musical literature. The full name of the genre is “song dynasty Ci”, abbreviated as “Ci”. The song dynasty Ci are an integral treasure of Chinese culture and are cultural symbols of the era that cannot be ignored.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document