Between Command and Market: Economic Thought and Practice in Early China

Editors: 

Elisa Levi Sabattini & Christian Schwermann

Publisher:
Brill

Publication date:
2021

Abstract:
Ancient Chinese economic thought has never been related to the evidence of economic practice. We know how state economies were supposed to be run in theory, but not the degree to which economic thought reflected everyday economic activity. Moreover, it is still not clear to what extent economic thought constituted a separate field of inquiry and was independent of fundamental cultural notions or political considerations. Finally, why was there so much more sustained interest in political economy in China than anywhere else? This book sets out to consider such questions through contextualized analyses of both received and newly excavated sources on economic thought and practice.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Authors: Elisa Levi Sabattini and Christian Schwermann

Chapter 1 Economic Cycles and Price Theory in Early Chinese Texts
Paul R. Goldin

Chapter 2 Agriculturalism and Beyond: Economic Thought of The Book of Lord Shang
Yuri Pines

Chapter 3 Situating the “Qingzhong” 輕重 Chapters of the Guanzi管子
Hans van Ess

Chapter 4 Feng Xuan Buys Rightness, Gongyi Xiu Expels His Wife: Economic Exemplars in the Warring States and Early Han
Andrew Meyer

Chapter 5 Between Command and Market: Credit, Labour, and Accounting in the Qin Empire (221–207 BCE)
Maxim Korolkov

Chapter 6 The Economic Activities of a Qin Local Administration: Qianling County, Modern Liye, Hunan Province, 222–209 BCE
Robin D.S. Yates

Chapter 7 To Ban or Not to Ban: Jia Yi on Copper Distribution and Minting Coins
Elisa Levi Sabattini

Chapter 8 The First Chinese Economic Impact on Asia: Distribution and Usage of Monies in Early China in Synchronic and Diachronic Perspective
Yohei Kakinuma

Silk Roads: From Local Realities to Global Narratives

Editors:
Jeffrey D. Lerner & Yaohua Shi

Publication date:
August 2020

Publisher:
Oxbow Books

Abstract:
In recent decades, there has been a new surge of interest in the history and legacies of the Silk Roads both within academic and public discourses. A field of Silk Roads Studies has come into its own. Consciously mirroring the temperament of its subject, the field has moved out of the narrow niches of particular disciplines to become a truly interdisciplinary endeavor. New research findings about the historical operations of the Silk Roads and interpretations of their legacies for the modern and contemporary world have broken down geographical and temporal divides that once demarcated the Silk Roads as primarily pre-modern and Old World-centered conduits of globalization. In light of these developments, the time is ripe to begin formulating a new definition of the contour of Silk Roads Studies and laying a new foundation for further work in this field.

Silk Roads: From Local Realities to Global Narratives brings together leading scholars in multiple disciplines related to Silk Roads studies. It highlights the multiplicity of networks that constituted the Silk Roads, including land and maritime routes, and approaches the Silk Roads from Antiquity to China’s One Belt One Road Initiative from Afro-Eurasia to the Americas. This holistic approach to understanding ancient globalization, exchanges, transformations, and movements - and their continued relevance to the present - is in line with contemporary academic trends toward interdisciplinarity. Indeed, the Silk Roads is such an expansive topic that many approaches to its study must be included to represent accurately its many facets.

The volume emphasizes exchange and transformation along the Silk Roads - moments of acculturation or hybridization that contributed to novel syncretic forms. It highlights the multiplicity of networks that constituted the Silk Roads, including land and maritime routes, and approaches to the Silk Roads from Antiquity to China’s One Belt One Road Initiative from Afro-Eurasia to the Americas.

Table of Contents:
Introduction

Section One: Acculturation and Hybridization
1. The “Birth” of the Silk Road Between Ecological Frontiers and Military Innovation
Nicola Di Cosmo

2. Sogdians in Shanxi (386 CE-618 CE): Literary and Archeological Evidence
Xiaoyan Qi

3. From Exotic Toys to Objects of Scientific Inquiry: A Special Way of Transmitting European Optical Knowledge in the Qing Dynasty
Yunli Shi

4. The Karakorum Highway: Gateway of Empires, Religions, and Commerce
Saba Samee

Section Two: Understanding Spice Through Interdisciplinarity
 5. A TRP Along the Silk Roads: How and Why We Detect and Use Spices
Wayne Silver and Cecil J. Saunders

6. Silk Road Pharmacy: Debating Theriac and Defining the Natural World
Monique O’Connell

7. Spice and Taste in the Culinary World of the Early Modern Mediterranean
Eric Dursteler

Section Three: Tradition as Continuity and Change
8. Devotional Prints and Practice: Woodcuts from the Library Cave at Dunhuang
Bernadine Barnes

9. Dome of Heaven: From the Lantern Ceiling to the Chinese Wooden Dome
Di Luo

10. “Malacca” – From Fabled Port to Muddy Lagoon: A Cautionary Tale of Ecological Disaster
Margaret Sarkissian

11. Twenty-first Century Trading Routes in Mongolia: Changing Pastoral Soundscapes and Lifeways
Jennifer Post

12. Erasing the Local, Celebrating the Local: Tracing the Contradictions of the Silk Road in Pakistan
Chad Haines

Section Four: Cultural Transactions
13. Arsacid Economic Activity on the Silk Road
Touraj Daryaee

14. Pearls and Power: Chōla's Tribute Mission to the Northern Song Court within the Maritime Silk Road Trade Network
James A. Anderson

15. “Flying Cash”: Credit Instruments on the Silk Roads
Dan Du

Section Five: Long-Distance Commodity Trade
16. The Case for Shipwrecked Indians in Germany
Jeffrey D. Lerner

17. Samuel Shaw’s ‘Maritime Silk Road’ from American Independence towards Monopoly, 1784–1794
John A. Ruddiman

[Dissertation] Empire-Building and Market-Making at the Qin Frontier: Imperial Expansion and Economic Change, 221–207 BCE

Author:
Korolkov, Maxim

Submitted:
2020

School:
Columbia University

Abstract:
This dissertation explores the relationship between empire-building and economic change during the formative process of the Qin Empire. It employs transmitted and excavated textual materials as well as archaeological evidence to reconstruct institutions and practices of surplus extraction and economic management and their evolution during the period of Qin’s expansion culminating in the emergence of the first centralized bureaucratic empire in continental East Asia. I argue that the commercial expansion and the formation of markets for land, labor, and commodities during China’s early imperial period (221 BCE – 220 CE) can only be understood by considering their origins in the distributive command economy of the late Warring States and imperial Qin. The study focuses on the southern frontier zone of the empire, which is exceptionally well documented in the official and private documents excavated from the Qin and Han sites along the Middle Yangzi and its tributaries.

Chapter One “Introduction” outlines historiographical approaches to the study of the relationship between empire-building and economic change, particularly the impact of imperial conquest and extraction on commercial growth. It addresses the importance of frontiers as the sites of economic innovation and change in the ancient empires. I discuss the importance of the recent archaeological discovery of legal and administrative manuscripts from the Warring States (453–221 BCE), Qin (221–206 BCE), and Han (202 BCE – 220 CE) eras for the study of the administrative and economic organization in the early empires. The introduction also outlines the new perspectives on Qin empire-building and economic change made possible by the excavated documentary evidence.

Chapter Two “Strategies of conquest and resource extraction in the state and empire of Qin, mid-fourth to late third century BCE” explores the geographical and logistical rationales for the campaigns that brought the Qin armies to the Middle Yangzi and paved the way for further advance to the south of the river. I argue that the Qin developed its fiscal institutions as solutions to the problems of military supply and control over the conquered territories. This system of surplus extraction proved efficient in financing warfare and ensuring the central government’s control over its local agents. However, it faced severe challenges as its operational costs soared in the process of territorial expansion, while the redistributive effects of the fiscal system pitted the principal against the agents. The successes and failings of the Qin model of surplus extraction, and its revision during the subsequent Western Han period profoundly influenced the approaches to economic and territorial management throughout China’s imperial history.

Chapter Three “Formation of the imperial frontier: from interaction zone to centralized administration” focuses on the background and the immediate aftermath of the Qin conquest of lands to the south of Middle Yangzi, roughly coinciding with the modern province of Hunan and the southern part of Hubei Province. The chapter examines the longue durée of economic and political integration along the Middle Yangzi from the Late Neolithic period (third millennium BCE) to the dawn of the imperial era. This analysis sheds new light on the background of Qin imperial expansion in this region and the strategies of the “reconstruction of the South” adopted by the Qin emperors and the succeeding Han Empire. I conclude the chapter with detailed analysis of administrative organization and economic management in the Qin county of Qianling in present-day Western Hunan, whose archive was partly recovered during the archaeological excavation of the remains of the Qin town at Liye.

Chapter Four “Between command and market: the economy of convict labor” studies the enormous system of unfree labor that incorporated a considerable portion of the Qin Empire’s population and was the key instrument of the Qin command economy. The chapter offers a comparative perspective on the historical regimes of forced labor, which allows identification of economic rationales for such systems and the organizational challenges they faced. It proceeds with an analysis of the legal foundations of penal labor in Qin and the characteristics of the main groups of forced laborers before exploring the organization of the unfree labor economy in Qianling County where detailed data is available concerning the size of the convict population, their economic roles, and the management of their labor. The chapter then discusses changes in the Qin system of unfree labor, its decline after the fall of the Qin Empire, and its impact on the formation of markets for labor in early imperial China.

Chapter Five “Conquering distance: transferring goods and people in the Qin Empire” discusses the long-distance transfers of resources, goods, and people. As many other imperial states, the Qin sought to control the physical mobility of its subjects and resources by directing them into desirable channels and restricting unwanted moves. Excavated texts shed light on the previously unknown aspects of the integration of economic and humanitarian space within the empire. Although the imperial connectivity remained fragile and suffered setbacks when the physical and intellectual infrastructures of communication shrank or collapsed with the decline and fall of centralized power, the shared sphere of geographic mobility was essential for the formation of the imperial economy, society, and culture. It tended to regenerate itself after the periods of contraction or disruption and should therefore be considered an important factor in the resilience of centripetal trends in China’s political history.

Chapter Six “The state and the private economy” utilizes the materials from Qianling archive to study the relationship between the state and private economies. Although the ideologists of state-strengthening reforms in mid-fourth century BCE Qin cherished the idea that the latter should be completely subsumed under governmental dirigisme, by the times of the Qin Empire, officials recognized the autonomy of private markets and their own inability to substitute for the latter with distributive schemes. In its engagement with private economic actors, the government was guided by considerations of taxation and resource procurement; cost-reduction in the state economy; and maintenance of public order through the delineation of rights and obligations. Transformation of the state economy, its increasing exposure to private markets, and the expansion of the latter, often caused by the state demand for materials and manpower, were powerfully facilitated by the monetization of the frontier region attested in the textual and archaeological evidence.

Chapter Seven “Conclusion” summarizes the mutually constitutive relationships between empire-building and economic change in the Qin Empire; traces the development of economic and institutional changes, which become observable during the Qin imperial period, in the subsequent Han era; and formulates some general patterns of the state-economy relationship that may be of use in the comparative study of imperial economic systems.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1 : Introduction
Chapter 2 : Strategies of conquest and resource extraction in the state and empire of Qin, mid-fourth to late third century BCE
Chapter 3 : Formation of the imperial frontier: from interaction zone to centralized
   administration
Chapter 4 : Between command and market: the economy of convict labor
Chapter 5 : Conquering distance: transferring goods and people in the Qin Empire
Chapter 6 : The state and the private economy
Chapter 7 : Conclusion

The Political Economy of the Han Dynasty and Its Legacy

Editors: 
Cheng Lin, Terry Peach, Wang Fang

Publisher:

Routledge

Publication date:

June 2019

Abstract:

This book contains original essays on various aspect of the Han’s political economy and its legacy, written by leading Chinese and Western scholars whose collective expertise spans Economic History, History of Economic Thought and Sinology.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1: The Political Economy of the Han: Introduction, Terry Peach

Chapter 2: From Contention to Unification: Transformation of Economic Thought in the Han Dynasty and its Heritage, Cheng Lin and Zhang Shen; 

Chapter 3: Dong Zhongshu and Confucian Economic Thought as State Ideology in the Western Han Dynasty, Zhong Xiangcai; 

Chapter 4: The Monetary and Fiscal System of the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties, Ma Tao and Li Wei

Chapter 5: Monetary Thought in the Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms Period (220 BCE-280 CE), Gavin S.H. Chiu and S.C. Kwan

Chapter 6: The System of Tribute Equalisation in the Han, Li Chaomin

Chapter 7: War Economy in the Western Han Dynasty, Elisa Levi Sabattini

Chapter 8: The ‘Land Quota’ System in the Han Dynasty and its Historical Influence, Wang Fang

Chapter 9: A Western Perspective on the Yantie lun, Bertram Schefold

Chapter 10: Sima Qian and Laissez Faire: Satire on a ‘Discordant and Degenerate Age’, Terry Peach

The Cambridge History of China Volume 2: The Six Dynasties, 220–589

Editors:
Albert E. Dien & Keith N. Knapp

Publisher:

Cambridge University Press

Publication date:

2019

Abstract:

The Six Dynasties Period (220–589 CE) is one of the most complex in Chinese history. Written by leading scholars from across the globe, the essays in this volume cover nearly every aspect of the period, including politics, foreign relations, warfare, agriculture, gender, art, philosophy, material culture, local society, and music. While acknowledging the era's political chaos, these essays indicate that this was a transformative period when Chinese culture was significantly changed and enriched by foreign peoples and ideas. It was also a time when history and literature became recognized as independent subjects and religion was transformed by the domestication of Buddhism and the formation of organized Daoism. Many of the trends that shaped the rest of imperial China's history have their origins in this era, such as the commercial vibrancy of southern China, the separation of history and literature from classical studies, and the growing importance of women in politics and religion.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
Part I. History:
1. Wei   Rafe de Crespigny
2. Wu   Rafe de Crespigny
3. Shu-Han   J. Michael Farmer
4. Western Jin   Damien Chaussende
5. Eastern Jin   Charles Holcombe
6. The Sixteen Kingdoms   Charles Holcombe
7. Cheng-Han State   Terry F. Kleeman
8. Northern Wei   Scott Pearce
9. Eastern Wei-Northern Qi   Albert E. Dien
10. Western Wei-Northern Zhou   Albert E. Dien
11. The Southern dynasties   Andrew Chittick

Part II. Society and Realia:
12. The art of war  David A. Graff
13. Foreign relations  Charles Holcombe
14. The Northern economy  Victor Cunrui Xiong
15. The Southern economy  Liu Shufen 劉淑芬
16. Agriculture  Francesca Bray
17. The history of Sogdians in China  Rong Xinjiang 榮新江
18. Northern material culture  Shing Müller
19. Southern material culture   Annette Kieser
20. Women, families, and gendered society  Jen-der Lee 李貞德
21. Local society Hou Xudong 侯旭東

Part III. Culture, Religion and Art:
22. Confucian learning and influence   Keith N. Knapp
23. Qingtan and Xuanxue   Y. K. Lo
24. Buddhism   John Kieschnick
25. Daoism   Stephen R. Bokenkamp
26. Popular religion   Robert Ford Campany
27. The world of prose literature   Antje Richter
28. The world of poetry   Cynthia Chennault
29. Art and visual culture   Wu Hung 巫鴻
30. Music   Bo Lawergren

隋唐都城財政史論考

Author:
礪波 護 (Tonami Mamoru)

Publisher:
法藏館

Publication Date:
September 6, 2016

Abstract:
隋唐の都城と関所、隋唐の財政と倉庫の二部構成に、学界動向と書評・紹介を附篇として収める。中国の都城と財政の関連論文とコラムおよび書評類をあますところなく集録する。

Table of Contents:

第Ⅰ部　隋唐の都城と關所

第一章　中國の都城
第二章　中國都城の思想
コラム１　［中國の］市　［中國の］宮廷・都城
第三章　神都洛陽の四面關
第四章　唐代の畿內と京城四面關
コラム２　過所
コラム３　唐代の都城と關所
コラム４　京都と京・都
コラム５　「中國歷代王朝の都市管理に關する總合的硏究」はしがき
第五章　唐代洛陽の都市管理
附　章　唐宋時代における蘇州

第Ⅱ部　隋唐の財政と倉庫

第一章　唐代食實封制再考
第二章　太倉と含嘉倉
第三章　隋唐時代の太倉と含嘉倉
コラム１　［中國の］倉庫 ［中國の］穀倉
第四章　唐代の邊境における金銀
第五章　唐代社會における金銀
附　章　均田制と府兵制

附篇Ⅰ　學界動向

課と稅に關する諸硏究について
唐宋の變革に對する侯外廬氏の見解――中國思想通史第四卷第一章
隋・唐――一九七一年の歷史學界
出土文物による最近の魏晉南北朝史硏究

附篇Ⅱ　書評・紹介

塚本善隆著『魏書釋老志の硏究』
福島繁次郞著『中國南北朝史硏究』
Ｄ・Ｃ・トゥイッチェット著『唐朝の財政行政』
濱口重國著『秦漢隋唐史の硏究』
日野開三郞著『唐代邸店の硏究』
Ｊ・ジェルネ著『中華世界』
平岡武夫編『唐代硏究のしおり』復刊に寄せて
池田溫著『中國古代籍帳――槪觀・録文――』
長澤規矩也・尾崎康編『宮內廳書陵部藏　北宋版　通典』
岡野誠著「唐代食封制の一問題――いわゆる七丁封戸論争をめぐって――」
丸山裕美子著『日本古代の醫療制度』
溝口雄三・池田知久・小島毅著『中國思想史』

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