Introduction

George Hong Jiang ()
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George Hong Jiang: Heidelberg University

Chapter Chapter 1 in The Imperial Mode of China, 2023, pp 1-28 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Chapter 1 presents the main themes and methodological approaches of the book. China’s unique trajectories of economic, political and social development in the last two millennia have produced numerous research in different spheres. This book proposes a new framework to interpret the origin, contours and impacts of China’s imperial system, namely the Imperial Mode of China. This chapter will introduce three theoretical approaches: Marxian historical materialismhistorical materialism, Weberian ideal typesideal types and neo-institutionalisminstitutionalism. Specific concepts will be presented and explained. Historical materialismhistorical materialism is used to analyse the Imperial Mode as a whole. The Imperial Mode emerged in the Pre-Qin era when the economic baseeconomic base demanded a new superstructuresuperstructure; during the Tang-Song transitionTang-Song transition, the economic base changed but the superstructure failed to accommodate new elements so that it retarded economic progress. The Weberian theory of ideal types is used to analyse the characteristics of the Imperial Mode and its subtypes, i.e., the Han variant and Song variant. Neo-institutionalism is used to analyse internal mechanisms and inherent drawbacks of the Imperial Mode. This chapter concentrates on the three approaches and how they are applied to reconstruct Chinese economic history.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-27015-4_1

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