Mar 2010, Volume 5 Issue 1
    

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  • Research articles
    The Rise of a New Tradition: Changes in Values and Life Styles in Late Ming China
    Xiang Gao ,
    2010, 5(1): 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-010-0001-3
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    Ethics based on Confucian moral virtues and guides as core values have long formed the “old tradition” in determining the direction of China’s social development. Changes of urban residents’ values and corresponding changes in life styles in late Ming Dynasty demonstrated the emergence of a new cultural tradition that advocated for human freedom and the development of individuality, material enjoyment and pleasures in life, and questioned and critiqued Confucian moral virtues and guides. Although such a cultural tradition had not yet matured, its humanist values made deep imprints in that period. This tradition survived despite of the successions of dynasties and vicissitudes of the ages, although from time to time it became so weak as on the verge of extinction. It was this continuous and unceasing cultural progress that later laid the primitive but essential cultural foundation for the start of China’s efforts to achieve modernization after the middle of the 19th century.
  • Research articles
    Soldiers and the City: Urban Experience of Guard Households in Late Ming Nanjing
    Xiaoxiang Luo ,
    2010, 5(1): 30-51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-010-0002-2
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    In late Ming China, a large concentration of Guards and Battalions were stationed in the city of Nanjing. The registered guard population constituted a significant percent of the urban population. This paper discusses the living status of Nanjing guards within the framework of urban studies, and reveals the special model of urbanization of this political center. The guard population was driven by “policy migration,” and showed a high tendency of localization. Soldiers worked in various lines of business, and their living places were no longer confined to military camps. The Nanjing Constabulary broke the administrative boundaries of military and civilian households, and further pushed the localization and urbanization of the guard population. Soldiers were frequently involved in acts of violence and put pressure on local security. However, guard storehouses also provided extra supplies for the local grain market, and stabilized local society at times of crises. This study of the Nanjing guard population not only illustrates the unique urban environment of this political center, but also reminds us about the complexity of urbanization in the Ming-Qing period.
  • Research articles
    Prosperity and Decline: A Comparison of the Fate of Jingdezhen, Zhuxianzhen, Foshan and Hankou in Modern Times
    Yimin He ,
    2010, 5(1): 52-85. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-010-0003-1
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    With the development of the commodity economy, towns became a new form in China’s urban landscape during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Of those towns, Jingdezhen, Zhuxianzhen, Foshan and Hankou, which were titled “The Four Famous Towns” in China, entered into a phase of thriving economic development. Their economies mostly could be considered as the resource- exploitation type, the comprehensive development type, and the commodity- distribution type. There were in fact several common factors found in these four towns. However, as Chinese history moved into its modern phase, foreign inputs, new social forces, and changing political systems all posed serious challenges to traditional towns. Modern development in the four towns took divergent paths. The town of Hankou developed rapidly, but the other three towns declined. From the different fates of these towns, important factors of urban modernization can be pried out.
  • Research articles
    The Roles of Tea and Opium in Early Economic Globalization: A Perspective on China’s Crisis in the 19th Century
    Weimin Zhong ,
    2010, 5(1): 86-105. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-010-0004-0
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    Alongside military conquest which characterized great part of globalization during the 19th century, the globalization of markets no doubt was its main manifestation. Addictive consumption goods played a leading role during this process, as observed in the case of China, tea and the opium trade had the largest impact. Owing to the importance of Britain’s growing demand for tea and its concomitant tax revenue, Anglo-Chinese trade became the dominant trade that Britain had in the East. To make up the trade deficit with China, Britain took advantage of its Indian colony and did its best in expanding its opium trade. Within this triangular trade scheme, Britain was the master, India was the instrument, and China was the ultimate victim. Confronted by the irresistible trend of globalization, China was ill prepared when facing this challenge leading to a complete failure in both military and commercial warfare and later on to an overall crisis in the 19th century.
  • Research articles
    Bridal Dowry Land and the Economic Status of Women from Wealthy Families in the Song Dynasty
    Bianting Lü ,
    2010, 5(1): 106-124. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-010-0005-z
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    Prosperous families in the Song Dynasty maintained the custom that a daughter went to her husband’s household with a piece of land to ensure her economic position. During the Song Dynasty, the economic status of women from wealthy families was maintained at a high level. Neo-Confucian doctrines attempted to change the situation largely but they failed, even though during the Southern Song Dynasty Neo-Confucianism gradually rose to stand as the national ideology. Some people clamored for the Southern Song Dynasty regime to eliminate or to limit the custom of bridal dowry land in private, but the majority still favored the judicial practice in the protection of the wife’s right to her property.
  • Research articles
    The Interactions of Customs at the Borderland in the Ming and Qing Dynasties: Taking Hainanese Women as an Example
    Zhenggang Liu , Yu Luo,
    2010, 5(1): 125-144. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-010-0006-y
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    From the Qin and Han periods to the Qing Dynasty, there was a constant flow of people from China’s mainland to Hainan Island. These immigrants and indigenous people developed Hainan together. Particularly in the Ming and Qing dynasties, they adopted customs from each other. By tracing the changes of women’s lives in Hainan during this period, this paper studies how different ethnic customs influenced each other.
  • Research articles
    The Haircutting Movement in Modern China (1903–1927): Analysis from the View of “Body”
    Fei Yao ,
    2010, 5(1): 145-167. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-010-0007-x
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    Modern China was an intense period of “body rebuilding.” Within the field of body history in China, the modern Chinese history has been rediscovered and reinterpreted from the view of “body.” In this paper, the author attempts to explore the movement of women’s haircutting in modern China and analyzes its social and political meaning from the view of body organ, gender, politics and culture. The conclusion is that the women’s haircutting movement in modern China was involved in the pursuit of state power, women’s rights, and political power in different levels.