The Imperial Mode of China : An Analytical Reconstruction of Chinese Economic History

Utilising Marxian, Weberian, and institutionalist approaches, this book proposes a new theoretical framework for understanding the nature of Chinese economic history: the imperial mode of China. The book aims to innovatively apply a cohesive historical materialist framework to the economic evolution of China, while at the same time offering micro-analysis of Chinas institutions throughout its history. Taking a long-run perspective, from ancient China up until the present, the book aims to show how Chinese economic history can be viewed as a dynamic evolutionary process consisting of various stages. The first part of the book lays out the imperial mode as a mode of production based on Chinas agricultural economy, with a structure consisting of a central authority, the bureaucratic system, and the peasantry. The second part then chronologically examines the different dynasties through this analytical lens and suggests ways in which Chinas resistance to institutional changes in the early modern period has had long-lasting consequences for its economic development. The book goes on to show how the imperial mode is able to facilitate the agricultural economy, but did not foster the modern commercial and industrial economy. It integrates modern China into the long wave of economic history, showing how this imperial mode still exerts influence on Chinas current path of development, as well as introducing a new way of understanding communist China from a historical perspective. This book will have interdisciplinary appeal for researchers and students of economic history, economic development, the history of China, economic sociology, and social history more broadly. George Hong Jiang is an assistant researcher in the School of Economics at Peking University and also a visiting researcher in the Max Weber Institute of Sociology at Heidelberg Universitt. He was previously a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. He got a doctoral degree in macroeconomics at the Department of Economic Policy and Quantitative Methods, J. W. Goethe Universitt Frankfurt Foreword by Bertram Schefold 7 Foreword by Werner Plumpe 9 Acknowledgements 12 Contents 17 About the Author 18 Major Periods in China 19 Chronology of Key People in Chinese History 20 List of Figures 22 List of Tables 24 1 Introduction 25 1 A Marxian Approach: Historical Materialism 27 2 A Weberian Approach: Historical-Comparative Sociology 34 3 Institutionalist Approaches 36 4 A Framework: The Imperial Mode of China 42 References 48 2 The Empire-Building in the Pre-Qin Era 53 1 The Natural Conditions in the Central Plain 54 2 The Primordial Economy and Social Structure 58 3 The First Economic Revolution 65 4 The Empire-Building and Legalist Thinkers’ Reforms 74 5 Summary 80 References 83 3 Thought Matters 86 1 The Background of the Intellectual Boom 88 2 Confucianism 92 3 Daoism 100 4 Legalism 107 5 Summary 112 References 116 4 The First Phase: The Han Variant 119 1 The Short-Lived Dominance of Qin 122 2 The Political Structure in the Han Dynasty 126 3 From the Peasant Economy to the Manorial Economy 130 4 Imperial Confucianism: Official Ideology 136 5 The Rise and Decline of Aristocracy 139 6 The Revival of the Peasant Economy 144 7 Cultural Trends During Political Chaos 148 8 Summary 150 References 152 5 The Second Phase: The Song Variant 155 1 Strengthening Control Over Bureaucracy 158 2 The Second Economic Revolution 165 3 Neo-Confucianism: Ideological Maturity 171 4 The Role of Mongolians’ Reign 173 5 The Zenith of Authoritarian Monarchy 178 6 Static Economic Development 183 7 Ideological Ossification 190 8 Summary 192 References 194 6 A Historical Pattern: The Imperial Mode 199 1 The Peasant Economy 202 2 The Bureaucratic System 206 3 The Central Authority 209 4 The Equilibrium 213 5 Summary 217 References 220 7 The Great Divergence I: The West 224 1 “The First Modern Economy”: The Netherlands 226 2 The Constitutional Path of Great Britain 229 3 Inclusive Institutions 233 4 The Behavioural Revolution 237 5 The Enlightenment Movement and Scientific Revolution 241 6 Summary 244 References 245 8 The Great Divergence II: China 248 1 Traditional Interpretations 249 2 Revisionist Explanations 256 3 State Capacity 260 4 Inadaptability of the Imperial Mode 263 5 Summary 268 References 271 9 Pursuing Modernisation in China 276 1 The Collapse of the Imperial Mode in Late Qing 279 2 Nation-Building Efforts in the Republic of China 289 3 Disintegration of the Imperial Mode 293 4 Maoist Socialism: A Mixture of the Planned Economy and the Imperial Mode 297 5 A Consideration on the Socialist Planned Economy 305 Economic Reforms Out of a Planned Economy 305 6 “Oriental Capitalism” in Contemporary China 317 References 321 10 To Understand China: Past and Future 326 1 The Historical Trajectory of China 327 2 Path Dependence and Present China 332 3 Ordoliberalism and Future China 336 References 339 Index 342