A Concise History Of Chinese Economic Thought

588 Pages·2009·11.821 MB·The Foreign Language Press

by  Hu Ji Chuang

A Concise History
of Chinese
Economic Thought
by Hu Jichuang
I
FOREIGN LANGUAGES PRESS
First Edition 2009
ISBN 978-7-119-05755-2
©Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, China, 2009
Published by
Foreign Languages Press
24 Baiwanzhuang Road, Beijing 100037, China
http:/ /www.flp.com.cn
Distributed by
China International Book Trading Corporation
35 ChegongzhuangXilu, Beijing 100044, China
P.O. Box 399, Beijing, China
Printed in the People's Republic of China
CONTENTS
PREFACE
PART ONE ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF THE PRE-QIN
PERIOD-BEFORE THE FOUNDING OF THE QIN DYNASTY
IN 221 B.C. 1
CHAPTER ONE ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF THE WESTERN
ZHOU DYNASTY (1066-771 B.C.) 1
Section I Wealth 2
Section II Agricultural Production 4
Section III Handicrafts and Trade 6
Section IV Markets 7
Section V Prices and Usury 9
Section VI Fiscal Policy 13
Supplementary Note-The Fiscal Viewpoint of "The Tribute System
~ Yu" 17
CHAPTER TWO ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF SOME STATESMEN
OF THE SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIOD 19
Section I Guan Zhong on the Social Division of Occupations 20
Section II San Qi's Balance Theory of Money 24
Section III Fan Li on Commerce and Trade Cycles 29
CHAPTER THREE ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF CONFUCIUS AND
HIS SCHOOL 42
Section I Confucius and His Immediate Followers 42
(1) Wealth 43
(2) Production and Commerce 45
(3) Distribution and Consumption 48
(4) State Finances 51
(5) General Survey of Confucius' Economic Thought 54
(6) Economic Thought in Great Learning and Doctrine of the Mean 55
(7) The Ideal of Great Harmony 58
Section II Economic Thought of Meng Ke (Mencius) 59
(1) Fundamental Attitude Towards Wealth 60
(2) Permanent Property 64
(3) Labour 65
(4) Price and Forestalling 68
(5) Finance 69
(6) Ideal of ling Land System 71
(7) Summary 74
CHAPTER FOUR ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF MO Dl AND HIS
SCHOOL 76
Section I Mutual Benefits 76
Section II Value and Price 79
Section I II Labour 83
Section IV State and Class 86
Section V Population 89
Section VI Finance 93
Section VII Consumption 95
Section VI II Short Summary 97
CHAPTER FIVE ECONOMIC THOUGHT IN GUAN ZI 100
Section I Economic Interpretation of Social Ethics 101
Section II Wealth and Labour 103
Section III SeJf-interesr 107
Section IV Distribution 111
Section V The Prodigality Theory of Consumption 115
Section VI The "Light-Heavy" Theory 119
(1) The Origin and Aim of the "Light-Heavy" Theory 120
(2) Rules of the "Light-Heavy" Doctrine 124
(3) General Application of the "Light-Heavy" Doctrine 127
Section VII Theory of Money 131
Section VIII Price and Commerce 139
Section IX Public Finance 146
Section X Other Economic Policies 153
Section XI General Summary 159
CHAPTER SIX XUN KUANG AND HIS CONCEPT OF WANTS 162
Section I Human Wants 162
Section II Production of Wealth 166
Section Ill Distribution of Wealth 173
Section IV Other Economic Thought 175
CHAPTER SEVEN ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF THE LEGALIST
SCHOOL 179
Section I Li Kui's Teaching "On the Best Use of the Productivity
of Land" 179
Section II Shang Yang's Policy of Farming and War 184
(1) Shang Yang's Economic Ideas in General 185
(2) Policy of Farming and War 191
Section III Economic Thought of Han Fei 196
Section IV Summary 205
CHAPTER EIGHT ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF TAOISTS, AGRI·
CULTURALISTS AND OTHERS IN THE WARRING STATES
PERIOD 207
Section I Economic Thought of the Taoist School 207
Section II Economic Ideas of the Agriculturalist School 216
Section III The Commercial Thought of Bai Gui 222
PART TWO ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF THE EARLIER PERIOD
OF THE FEUDAL LANDLORD ECONOMY-FROM THE
SECOND CENTURY B.C. TO THE NINTH CENTURY A.D. 226
CHAPTER NINE ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF SECOND CENTURY
B.C. THINKERS AND SIMA OIAN 227
Section I Economic Thought of the Second Century B.C. 227
Section II Economic Thought of Sima Qian 240
CHAPTER TEN ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF SANG HONGYANG
AND THE POLEMICS AT THE SALT AND IRON CONFERENCE
IN 81 B.C. 255
Section I Stress on Commerce 256
Section II General Economic Concepts 260
Section I I I Important Economic Measures 264
Section IV Economic Thought of the Adversaries of Sang Hongyang 274
CHAPTER ELEVEN AGRICULTURAL ACHIEVEMENTS AND
MONETARY IDEAS FROM THE MID-SECOND CENTURY TO
THE FIRST CENTURY B.C. 281
Section I Agricultural Achievements in the First Century B.C. 281
Section II Geng Shouchang's System of Granaries for Grain-Price
Stabilization 284
Section III Two Views Regarding Money 285
CHAPTER TWELVE ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF WANG MANG
AND OTHER THINKERS IN THE EASTERN HAN DYNASTY
(A.D. 25-220) 290
Section I Economic Policies of Wang Mang 290
Section II Economic Ideas of Wang Fu 303
Section I II Economic Thought of Revolutionary Peasants During
the Latter Half of the Second Century 305
Section IV Xu Gan's Essay on Population 310
CHAPTER THIRTEEN ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF THE JIN
DYNASTY (265-420) 312
Section I Fu Xuan (217-278) on Public Finance 312
Section II Idea of Land Occupancy in the Western Jin Dynasty 316
Section III Lu Bao's Essay "On the Money God" 322
CHAPTER FOURTEEN ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF THE SOUTH·
ERN AND NORTHERN DYNASTIES-FROM THE FIFTH TO
THE SIXTH CENTURY . 326
Section I Concept of Free Coinage and the Monetary Thought of
Kong Ji 326
Section II Li Anshi's Idea of Land Equalization and the Land
Equalization System of the Northern Wei Dynasty 330
Section III Jia Sixie and His Important Arts for the People's Welfare 341
CHAPTER FIFTEEN ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF THE TANG
DYNASTY-FROM THE SEVENTH TO THE NINTH CENTURY 346
Section I Some Special Economic Institutions in the Tang Dynasty 346
Section II Monetary Concepts 350
Section III Theories of Public Finance 354
PART THREE ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF THE LATER
PERIOD OF FEUDAL LANDLORD ECONOMY AND THE
PERIOD OF SEMIFEUDAL, SEMICOLONIAL ECONOMY
- From the Eleventh Century to the May Fourth Movement, 1919 362
CHAPTER SIXTEEN ECONOMIC REFORM OF WANG ANSHI IN
THE ELEVENTH CENTURY 363
Section I Wang Anshi's Economic Reforms 365
Section II General Review of the Economic Thought of Wang Anshi 377
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN MONETARY THOUGHT OF SHEN KUO
AND OTHER THINKERS IN THE NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY
(960-1127) 386
Section I Su Xun's Criticism of the Ideal of the ling Land System 386
Section II Monetary Theory of Shen Kuo-the Velocity of Cir-
culation 391
Section III Monetary Ideas of Zhou Xingji 396
Supplement to Section III On the Origin of the Paper Money
Jiao Zi 399
Section IV Commercial Ideas of Su Shi 402
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN UTILITARIANS' ECONOMIC VIEWS AND
THE MONETARY THEORY OF THE SOUTHERN SONG DY-
NASTY (ll27·1279) 408
Section I The Utilitarians' Economic Views 408
Section I I Paper Money and Monetary Theory of the Southern Song
Dynasty 419
Section III Lin Xun's Programme for the Restoration of the ling
Land System 424
Section IV Dong Wei's Policy of Famine Relief 428
CHAPTER NINETEEN THE PAPER-CURRENCY ORDINANCE OF
1287 AND THE ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF THE YUAN DY-
NASTY (1271·1368) 432
Section I Ye Li and the Paper-Currency Ordinance of 1287 433
Appendix to Section I Text of the Paper-Currency Ordinance of 1287 436
Section II Economic Policy of Lu Shirong 439
Section III Other Fourteenth-Century Economic Thought 444
CHAPTER TWENTY ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF THE MING
DYNASTY-FROM THE FIFTEENTH TO THE SIXTEENTH
CENTURY ~
Section I Economic Thought of Qiu Jun 448
Section II Antitraditional Economic Thought in the Sixteenth Cen-
tury 462
Section III Other Economic Ideas 469
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE ECONOMIC THOUGHT DURING THE
LATE MING AND EARLY QING DYNASTIES-FROM THE
SEVENTEENTH TO THE BEGINNING OF THE EIGHTEENTH
CENTURY 474
Section I Economic Slogans of the Revolutionary Peasants in the
Early Forties of the Seventeenth Century 475
Section II Xu Guangqi's Principles of Agricultural Administration 411
Section III Economic Thought of Wang Fuzhi 481
Section IV Economic Thought of the School of Yan Li and Wang
Yuan 492
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO HONG LIANGII'S THEORY OF POPU·
LAT ION, WEI YUAN'S CALL FOR "LEARNING FROM THE
WEST" AND OTHER ECONOMIC THOUGHT -FROM THE
EIGHTEENTH TO THE MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY 501
Section I Lao Dingyuan on Overseas Trade 501
Section II Hong Liangji, the So-called Chinese Malthus 504
Section III The Monetary Controversy in the 1930s and 1940s and
Wang Maoyin's Idea of Convertible Paper Money 511
Section IV Wei Yuan, Initiator of the Great Transition in the
History of Chinese Economic Thought 516
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF THE PE·
RIOD OF SEMIFEUDAL, SEMICOLONIAL ECONOMY
- From the Mid-Nineteenth Century to the May Fourth Movement
of 1919 527
Section I General Survey of the Trend of Economic Thought Since
1840 527
Section II Economic Thought of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom 532
Section III Disseminators of Western Economy After the Sixties 536
Section IV Disseminators of Bourgeois Political Economy, Ma Jian-
zhong and Ya n Fu 542
Section V Economic Thought in the First Two Decades of the
Twentieth Century 546
EPILOGUE 553
Chinese Dynasties 555
Bibliography 557
Chinese Names of Personages Mentioned 566
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