Introduction to the Urban History of China

408 Pages·2019·4.025 MB·English

by  Chonglan Fu, Wenming Cao

CHINA CONNECTIONS
Introduction to
the Urban History
of China
Chonglan Fu · Wenming Cao
China Connections
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Chonglan Fu · Wenming Cao
Introduction
to the Urban History
of China
With Contributions by Zhihong Huang and Qian Li
Chonglan Fu Wenming Cao
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Criminology College
Beijing, China People’s Public Security University
of China
Beijing, China
Translated by Qinggang Zhang et al.
China Connections
ISBN 978-981-13-8206-2 ISBN 978-981-13-8207-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8207-9
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ISBN of the China Mainland edition: 978-5097-0502-5
Translation from the Chinese language edition: 中国城市发展史 by Fu, Chonglan; Cao,
Wenming et al., © Social Sciences Academic Press 2009. Published by Social Sciences
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G F
eneral oreword
China is a civilized nation with a long history. The political, economical
and social development in successive dynasties has produced many famous
cities which reflect the splendid culture and glorious traditions of the
Chinese nation. Since 1982, the State Council of the People’s Republic of
China has successively ratified more than a hundred of cities as the famous
historical and cultural cities which are the representatives of Chinese
urban history and culture. Actually, on the wide Chinese land, the back-
ground and development of each city and its geographic features, human
landscapes, architectures and dwellings, and public places all reflect its
own characteristics and Chinese culture. Joseph Needham pointed out
in Science and Civilisation in China that “no architecture, garden or
dwelling in the world can equal those in Chinese cities and villages in the
reflection of the integration of man and nature.”
The Chinese nation has long history and profound culture. For exam-
ple, “to observe the law of the heavenly movement so as to help people
recognize the changes of seasons, observe various social phenomena so
as to enlighten human beings and bring peace to the whole land under
heaven1” and “to explore the relationship between the Way of Heaven
and the Way of Man in an effort to gain a thorough understanding of
the course of historical development and the changes involved therein2”
are part of the Chinese people’s essence of culture.
1The Zhou Book of Change.
2Records of the Grand Historian.
v
vi GENERAL FoREWoRd
The traditional Chinese culture closely combines the astronomy,
geography and humanity. The city is an existing entity of the cultural
system. The history and culture of the city include the national system,
administration, official system, the urban and the rural, architecture,
poetry, books and paintings, and almost all Chinese cultural forms.
The history of human civilization is actually the history of the rela-
tionship between man and nature. Wang Chong of the Han dynasty
commented in his On Balance that man is a member of the creatures on
the earth, and there is a mutual dependence between man and nature.
However, human beings ignored the protection of nature, wasted the
resources and polluted the environment in the process of industrializa-
tion and urbanization and especially in the wars, which has caused many
serious problems.
Actually, many in the world noticed the problems related to cities
arising in the industrialization era. The essence of the city, including
“people oriented,” interpersonal interactions and life and “the rela-
tionship between man and nature” were all fundamentally ignored at
that time. The fourth CIAM (the International Congresses of Modern
Architecture) meeting in 1933 proposed that the functions of a city
should include “living, work, transport and recreation.” At the meeting,
specialists examined the modes of urbanization since the industrialization
and pointed out that there was a lack of rationality in urban develop-
ment.3 In 1977, the International Society of Modern Architecture dis-
cussed the problems including indifferent interpersonal relationship,
extreme disparity between the rich and the poor in modern cities and the
undesirable phenomenon that the city seemed to be specially designed
for auto-people. Based on their thinking on these problems, they worked
out and published the Charter of Machu Picchu, appealing that the
essence of the city should be “to respect people” and that it is the space
for interpersonal interactions and life.
Based on the investigation of history and reality, this book has, to
some extent, made some alteration in the genres, contents and theoret-
ical methods, compared with some traditional studies of urban history.
This book consists of four parts, namely the Introduction, the
Evolutionary History of Chinese Cities, the History of Urban Residence
and the History of the Squares in Chinese Cities.
3Athens Charter.
GENERAL FoREWoRd vii
The Introduction briefly discusses the position of Chinese urban his-
tory in the world history and the geographic, economic, social and cul-
tural background of its historical evolution. It stresses that Chinese urban
history is the entity of existence of Chinese cultural system. The theoret-
ical method and framework for the study in this book are established on
the basis of previous studies.
The Evolutionary History of Chinese Cities, the second part of this
book, based on archaeological discoveries and historical literature, intro-
duces the development of urban functions in the original period of
China’s urban development during the Xia, Shang and Zhou d ynasties,
such as military defense, political function and the function of handi-
craft industry and commerce. It is argued that Xianyang City of the Qin
dynasty is a milestone in Chinese urban development. 2500 years of
Chinese urban history is closely examined. Urban systems and features
in the long ancient times are investigated when the capital was looked on
as the political, military, economic and cultural center, and cities formed
under the system of multi-leveled administrative centers were relatively
developed. The westernization of Chinese modern cities is referred to in
this part as well.
The History of Urban Residence mainly talks about China’s urban
residential features and their positive influences. It relates the process of
evolution in terms of residence from the period of “cheng4 being in the
west and guo5 in the east” during the Western Zhou dynasty to the com-
pound urban layout of the Ming and Qing dynasties, from the siheyuan
in the northern China to the spatial structure of waterside cities in the
southern China. It also refers to the many new contents and styles in
residential patterns in China’s urban and rural areas in the past 200 years.
The History of Squares in Chinese Cities is the fourth part of the
book. It argues that the development of squares in China’s urban areas
can be divided into three periods, namely, the period of original squares,
the period of traditional squares and the period of new squares. The dif-
ferences and similarities between Chinese and Western square cultures
are compared. Many bad practices in the construction of contempo-
rary squares are pointed out, including the undue pursuit of the largest,
4cheng means the inner city or the palace city where monarchs and other nobility lived in
ancient times.
5guo means the outer city where ordinary people lived in ancient times.
viii GENERAL FoREWoRd
waste, the ignorance of national culture and local characteristics. It is
maintained that the construction of squares is the need of the people;
therefore, citizens should take part in the construction so squares can
have mass culture and mass features.
Creativity and emphasis on practice are two of the book’s striking fea-
tures in its genre, contents and theoretical methods. There are countless
connections between modern cities and the cities in history, and mod-
ern cities are definitely established on the basis of history and reality. We
need to build modern cities to promote the healthy development of the
whole Chinese civilization. This book absorbs the research achievements
at home and aboard and conducts comparative studies to find out the
merits and demerits of China’s urban development. This book, concise
and plain in language, strives to combine scientificalness, knowledge and
entertainment into one so that it can be suitable for both common peo-
ple and professionals.
Beijing, China Baoxing Qiu
March 2009
F
oreword
The emergence and development of the city are the progress of human
civilization, the product of the development of civilization and the wit-
ness of history. Urban history is also the history of human civilization.
The development and continuation of modern cities are faced with many
new challenges, and many problems that emerge in an endless stream
need to be solved. This requires us not only to know about the present
status of the city but also to review how the city was in the past. The
study of urban history is a scientific discipline with important theoretical
and practical meanings.
Chinese cities, with a history of thousands of years, are a splen-
did constituent part of the brilliant Chinese civilization. They are not
only the fortunes of China but also the treasures of the world culture.
However, the development of Chinese cities has experienced a wind-
ing and complicated road in which there were both flourishing peaks
and stagnant troughs, both noticeable successes and lessons one should
take warning from. It is advisable to value our own culture, take history
as a mirror and gain new insights through reviewing past experiences.
We should strive to recognize the essence, features and law of develop-
ment of the city and solve the existing economic and social contradic-
tions. How to create the driving force and vitality for urban development
and construct beautiful urban home to benefit future generations based
on the study of historical experience and lessons is a major issue that
requires to be solved in today’s urban development.
ix