Note: The original title of this article was "Wang Xianming: Taking Empirical Research as the Cornerstone and System Construction as the Purpose: A Brief Review of Xu Tan's Commercial Towns and Market Levels in North China in the Ming and Qing Dynasties"
Wang Xianming, a distinguished professor of Nankai University, a doctoral supervisor of the School of History, has served as an expert of the Discipline Evaluation Group of the State Council and a member of the History Discipline Expert Committee of the National Textbook Commission, mainly engaged in the research of modern Chinese rural history, and has published many academic works, including "A Hundred Years of Chinese Rural Construction Thought", "Chinese Countryside in the Twentieth Century", "The Long Road to the Countryside: Chinese Countryside in the 20th Century (1901-1949)", "History Towards Society: Research on Theoretical Issues in Social History", etc. He has published more than 180 papers in authoritative historical journals such as Chinese Social Sciences, Historical Research, Modern History Research, and Chinese Historical Research.
The book "Commercial Towns and Market Levels in North China in the Ming and Qing Dynasties" (Xu Tan, Beijing: Science Press, 2021.04; hereinafter referred to as "North China Market") was published by Science Press as a work of the "National Library of Philosophy and Social Science Achievements". This was expected because I had a sneak peek at it relatively early. Back then, in a quiet hotel in the capital, as a task to review the manuscript, this work gave me a great impact and shock. Although the manuscript is anonymous, it actually belongs to the first-line scholars and their works, and their research fields, academic attainments, work characteristics, and discursive expressions have developed their own style and are outstanding, and I concluded at that time that this excellent manuscript must be Professor Xu Tan's masterpiece.
Later, when I read the finished book with the scent of ink, I felt a special feeling and joy. Even after re-reading, it still has a captivating and thought-provoking charm. Its profound academic skills, meticulous historical data comparison, meticulous empirical analysis and rigorous system construction are truly impressive. In this regard, I would like to talk about my personal thoughts after reading it.
A rich and exquisite comparison of historical evidence
As the author points out, in the field of commercial town or regional history, previous research has formed a corresponding analytical model and hierarchical construction framework, and its related thinking and methods have a wide influence. In contrast, North China Market is based on empirical research, and the author tries to "better apply the relevant theoretical constructions to the empirical study of traditional Chinese cities and markets, so as to have a more specific and detailed understanding of the historical reality of the Ming and Qing dynasties." The presentation and description of historical reality must be based on rich and solid historical materials. The problem is that, while there is a great deal of information available on distribution hub cities and grassroots markets, there is a lack of information on regional business centers, especially in the northern region. How to break through this bottleneck that restricts research is the primary problem that the author must face and focus on solving. It is precisely because of the limitations of historical facts that there is a lack of specific and detailed research on the scale and extent of regional commercial centers, as well as the distribution and location pattern of commercial cities. To this end, the author of "North China Market" has worked hard for more than 10 years to search and sort out the inscription materials of merchants' guilds in dozens of counties in more than 10 provinces, and in the comparison and interpretation of these rich and scattered inscription materials, he has unearthed the hidden business information, and achieved unseen and unspoken academic insight.
In addition to the inscription historical materials, the tax information, including the relevant historical materials of tariffs and local commercial taxes, is also the basic historical data of the book "North China Market". However, there are few archival historical materials of local commercial taxation, and many of them are scattered in local chronicles or related local documents, and it is not easy to obtain and sort them out. The author screened and compared these rare historical materials with official histories, anthologies, notes, business books, account books and other documents, and completed many case studies in the detailed interpretation of historical facts, digging this topic to a considerable depth. Among the main references of the book, the author lists as many as 20 papers on related topics, which in a sense, they have laid the foundation of the book in terms of academic depth.
The abundance of historical materials and the diversity and complementarity of historical sources constitute the distinctive features of the book "North China Market". The content involved in this topic, whether it is the urban population, commercial markets, customs layout, shop industry, goods circulation, or money inflow, is a historical evidence that can be credited extracted from the comparison of various historical materials, and the content that can reflect the historical reality is sought from the seemingly trivial data. Generally speaking, the appearance of a large amount of data and the arrangement of the names of items and stores will affect the pleasure of reading and hinder the flow of thought, but "North China Market" does not have this problem. I think the key lies in the researcher's internalization of the rich historical materials—the seemingly trivial large number of data and empirical historical materials are digested rationally, which is not only concretized into historical situations, but also abstracted into historical arguments, perfectly presenting the historical reality of a specific period.
2. Plain and concise dialogue and analysis
True academic research is always a new climb on the cornerstone of previous research, and academic innovation is also moving forward in dialogue and analysis with existing academic ideas and theories. "North China Market" has made a fairly systematic and comprehensive combing of previous research, and has carried out its own research on the frontier topics of academic research. From the "Introduction", it can be seen that "North China Market" summarizes the results of more than 30 years of "research on commercial towns in the Ming and Qing dynasties", and on this basis, gradually focuses on "relevant research in North China". Many of the scholarly insights and mature theories of his predecessors constitute the premise of the development of this book, and at the same time, it also builds a very broad space for dialogue in Professor Xu's research. It can be said that the discussion of each academic topic under each chapter is carried out and extended in the dialogue with the existing research, and the academic dialogue of discussion, analysis, absorption, and improvement makes the book "North China Market" full of the vividness of dialogue with predecessors and the profundity of independent thinking (for example, the discussion and analysis of the academic research of Lu Min and Zhao Shuguo in the discussion on "Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province, and its commercial characteristics" on page 80).
Of course, a more direct academic dialogue is reflected in the analysis of Steiner's theory.
As the author said in the "Introduction", "'Shi Tianya Theory' is one of the theories that has had the greatest impact on the academic circles of urban history and economic history after the reform and opening up, and it is also the theory that has inspired the author the most." Theoretical enlightenment is only the contact point of academic research, and there is a huge space for academic inquiry between the construction of theoretical models and historical realities or historical life conditions. "North China Market" first constructs a space for dialogue with Steiner's theory in this field. The author proposes that Steiner's "greatest contribution is to introduce the concept of space and hierarchy in geography into the historical field that originally lacked a sense of space and three-dimensionality, thus opening up a new world for us". However, the significance of theory is to expand the horizon of understanding, to provide macro guidance, or more to provide tools for analysis, that is, to "provide us with a way of thinking and analyzing". Therefore, the author soberly points out that "the study of traditional Chinese cities and cannot only stop at model construction and hierarchical division". The focus of "North China Market" is to "better apply Steiner's theory to the empirical study of traditional Chinese cities and markets, so as to have a more specific and detailed understanding of the historical reality of the Ming and Qing dynasties".
In the presence of a true historian, the power of any theory must give way to historical facts; Respect for theory is not the same as blind obedience to theory. Seeking truth is the most essential disciplinary appeal of history. Therefore, when we read the book "North China Market", we can appreciate the academic dialogue formed by it with the help of detailed historical evidence and vivid historical facts, and the theoretical explanation of Shi Tianya—of course, the dialogue and analysis are completed in a calm narrative and meticulous empirical evidence.
On the one hand, North China Market starts with Shi's faunal theory and questions its classification of China's eight hierarchies, arguing that this theoretical model is not only difficult to operate in academic research, but also quite alienated from historical reality. On the other hand, through dialogue and analysis on an equal footing, North China Market proposes its own interpretation system. In addition, in the lockdown of the North China region, a different discussion and dialogue has also been formed than that of Steiner. It is in the dialogue and analysis with cutting-edge academic theories and research that the book "North China Market" has reached a new academic height.
3. Macro construction based on empirical evidence
In terms of academic research orientation, "North China Market" is an empirical study, and it is particularly good at case studies. Whether it is the comparative analysis of the administrative center cities, the classification and quantitative analysis of the types of commercial towns, or the research and judgment of the spatial distribution and market level of commercial towns in North China, they are all empirical studies based on case studies. Of course, the case study and sample selection are not arbitrary, but contain the researcher's academic pursuit and the overall idea of the construction of the market system in North China. The selection of samples for case studies is of course subject to the constraints of data, and it is impressive that the researchers are not passively subject to the data, but through active efforts to search and rescue the inscription data, they have broken through the limitations of the established historical materials and won the initiative in the selection of case samples. The following research on more than a dozen commercial towns is based on the inscriptions, and the innovative value formed by this is self-evident.
Based on the case study, the book "North China Market" has made a detailed investigation of the development context, commercial scale, commercial structure and hinterland scope of more than 10 cities and towns, but the individual cases are not isolated existence, they are each located in the important transshipment node of commodity circulation in North China, and have formed a mutually supportive and interrelated structural relationship in terms of market radiation and the scope of goods flow, that is, the seemingly isolated cases are actually the key nodes in the author's overall construction of the North China market system. The solid case studies are presented in an overall research framework, and the book is divided into three parts: liquidity hub cities, regional business centers, and grassroots markets. It is on the basis of in-depth exploration and empirical research of each sample that the book "North China Market" actually constructs an analytical framework for the North China market system that is different from Steiner's model, and proposes a macro theoretical interpretation system.
The book "North China Market" firmly argues: "The hierarchical-scale distribution of the central region of North China in 1843 is mainly based on theoretical derivation, so it is quite different from the historical reality of the middle of the Qing Dynasty." Therefore, the author not only transcends Steiner's theoretical understanding of China's regional history, but also constructs a macro model for understanding and interpreting the regional history of North China with the help of solid and detailed empirical research. As he concluded, "the formation of this urban system reflects the breakthrough of the developing market system to the traditional urban system based on administrative hierarchy, and the formation process of the new urban system based on economic functions is an important content and part of the process of China's economic modernization and marketization." In fact, it also proposes a theoretical cognitive model for understanding and recognizing the development context and characteristics of China's pre-modern history.
Fourth, the enlightenment for the study of the regional history of North China
We know that the study of regional history has risen with the revival of social history, cultural history, modernization history, and urban history. The regional history of North China is an important research field with rich and distinctive achievements, and the results are very rich. However, one rather perplexing question is that "with the emergence of the concept of 'North China', the concept is increasingly being used in academic research." Strictly speaking, the application of the concept of 'North China' in academic research is only an academic imagination, not only because the concept of 'North China' did not exist in ancient times, but also because there is no consensus in the academic community on the definition of the concept of 'North China' and the area under its jurisdiction. As an academic imagination rather than an inherent concept, the concept of 'North China' in the Republic of China period has been in flux, and its meaning is different for different scholars" (Zhong Weimin and Wang Zhenghua, "North China as a Region: Conceptual Origin and Rheology", Tianjin Social Sciences, No. 1, 2021, p. 141). In the process of combing through the research on the regional history of North China, it is not difficult for us to find that the "research on the regional history of North China" or the academic research that belongs to the regional history of North China in academic research practice is indeed ambiguous and has different references. Scholars are not consistent in terms of the elements that demarcate the regions of North China, and each has its own opinions: those who focus on the political system and market economy, those who cut into social and cultural habits, and those who divide it from the perspective of historical geography or physical geography, and so on. Obviously, it is the basic direction to promote and enhance the research of North China's regional history by summarizing the development context and characteristics of North China's regional history, constructing a research system and methods with North China regional characteristics, exploring the commonality and individuality of regional development in the process of national and even world modernization, and focusing on the exploration of China's socio-economic diversification development model. In this regard, the efforts of the book "North China Market" also have a lot of inspiration for us.
The North China Market does not stick to the concept of "North China" too much, but is flexible according to the needs of academic research, and it emphasizes that "the term 'North China' in this book refers to the three provinces of Hebei, Shandong, and Henan located in the North China Plain, and this definition is incomplete in terms of region." However, the reason for this is not only the limitation of the objective conditions of the research, but also because of the setting of "Steiner's North China Region", "making such a definition is also convenient for comparison with Steiner's 'North China'", thus forming an academic dialogue in the normative sense. This ensures the stability and continuity of the discursive space of academic discussions, and also makes the topic more focused through the aggregation of the scope of the discussion.
After all, the main purpose of Xu Shu's research is to dynamically reveal "the breakthrough of the developing market system in the Ming and Qing dynasties to the original urban system centered on administrative hierarchy", which in fact reflects the historical changes in China's traditional social economy, highlights the important changes in China's urban development during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and of course this change is also an important part of China's social transformation or modernization process. Obviously, this historical change and continuous change trend cannot and will not be evenly reflected in all regions of North China. However, it is the homogeneity of these selected regions, as well as the intrinsic tight market linkage, that determine the characteristics of North China, and distinguish them from other regional development characteristics because of their stability and continuity.
Of course, from the perspective of the long history, the boundaries of North China have changed over time and changed according to the situation, and have the characteristics of constant change, especially after entering the modern era. However, the research results of this book suggest that no matter how the boundaries of North China change, and no matter how complex the artificially set boundaries of North China are, the stability of its internal structure is determined by the homogeneity of the economic market, that is, the stability of the internal structure and the rheological state of its boundaries jointly construct the North China region in a specific period. Researchers should have a sober and scientific understanding of this.
This article was published in Nankai Historiography, Issue 2, 2022, pp. 253-259, and is reprinted with the author's permission.