Ming-Qing Studies in Japan: 1986

108 Vol. 10, No. 1 Late Imperial ChinaJune 1989 MING-QING STUDIES IN JAPAN: 1986 Sato Fumitoshi* Translated by Joshua A. Fogel In his notes from the Ming History Conference held in Tangkouzhen, Huangshan city, Anhui in October 1985, Mori Masao J(^ rf- ^_ (Mindai shi kenkyvi Hj] ?? ^. ^? ^- 14) describes how lively discussion was sparked by Li Wenzhi's _f. J^ >¦§ analysis of the "extended duration" of Chinese feudal society. The question was raised concerning the responsibility of Ming historical studies to eludicate this issue, especially because "feudalism" as a remnant of the past remains present in socialist China even as that nation presses ahead with the Four Modernizations. The conventional theory in the People's Republic holds that, through the abolition of feudal landholding during the land reform of the Chinese revolution and the establishment of peasant landownership, the traditional structure of rural control was completely transformed. However, this theory is a purely political principle. The task of actually understanding the nature of the rural power structure on the basis of regional and historical variations has yet to be carried out thoroughly. Two articles based on recent field work in the People's Republic may fill this gap. They deal with various historical aspects of Chinese society which survive today. Although both pieces are primarily concerned with the contemporary period, the phenomena examined date back to the Ming and Qing and are analyzed as they develop from the Communist revolution [of 1949] to the present. Ueda Makoto's Jt. v© -ft essay, "How Cohesive Forces Function in the Village" ^f l~ -if tfj 3> -3 && 3} (=¦ -) ~i X (2 parts, Chuguku kenkyu geppo~ 455, 456), is based on fieldwork in the village of Qinyong, Yin County, Zhejiang. He argues that the patterns by which Japanese have understood the nature of rural Chinese society (such as kyôdôtai -& '3 ?f- or communitarian bonds) differ enormously from the realities of Chinese villages. He examines the formation of networks of lineage ties, regional bonds, and administrative organization; and he looks at their development from the mid- * Shagaku zasshi 96.5 (May 1987), 219-225. Ming-Qing Studies in Japan: 1986109 Ming to the present. On the basis of this analysis, he claims that these networks were not completely internal to a single village but extended well beyond it. Miki Satoshi ?. Jf^ í£¿, has written "Land Revolution and the Xiangzu" jc +&» ^- ^ t. G$ß? -^Li {in Henkakki Ajia no hd~ to keizai ^_ ^- J&% y 5," jj o> è, ? £4. >3r [Law and Economy in Asia in Transformation], ed. Kikuchi Hideo gj -f^ 3fc J^ ; Tokyo, "Report on Research Findings Subsidized by Scientific Research Funds for the Years 1983-1985"; hereafter, Henkakki). It deals with the xiangzu [local lineage], which have been discussed by Professor Fu Yiling -Uf $^ X. *1 'fL^h ^C I)The fact that there were numerous articles on clan and lineage over the past year reflects this direction to research. Landownership Relations In two articles Mori Masao offers a new perspective on his own studies of "official lands" [guantian ^ f ): "On Jimo Land in the Early Ming" -^ %n «h 3| ?K ^ I- -» >' T (Töhögakuhö ^ ^T ^ if&58); "The Formation of Jimo Land in the Jiangnan Area in the Early Ming" ^ ** s* f L- if· y ^ jf£ i&. ^ «7, ^ ^ {Nagoya daigaku bungakubu kenkyu kiyo ronshu ^1 i Á ^. 4 X *f -*f *f 7X, *t -* -34» 495 kA/£flfcw] ^t 4 32). These essays deal with issues concerning state-owned lands in the late Yuan and early Ming which were not developed in the debate over the views of Nishijima Sadao >& >»j^ %^ >i concerning official lands. That debate provided the starting point for postwar Japanese studies of Ming-Qing social and economic history. This new perspective is also a reinvestigation of the old thesis of Professor Kitamura it ^ , who withdrew his theory concerning official lands in the late Yuan and early Ming when criticized by Kojima Kazuo ^ ,| f>^. Kitamura had held that, through Zhu Yuanzhang's '? -?_ ?% policy on official HOJoshua A. Fogel lands, the haozu ^ ^ landlord system of the Song and Yuan eras was transformed into a state landlord system which was a yet higher form of landlordism. Mori also takes a fresh look at the relationship between...