Japanese Studies of Post-Opium War China: 1981

LIl Japanese Studies of Post-Opium War China: 1981 Shimizu Minoru , \\ .í--/f,¿, Shigaku zasshi "F ?t'unit v;ïi?L (Studies on the 1911 Revolution, edited by the Shingai kakumei kenkyukai jf H/ IS-^feft fe Ij ) ; Chügoku kindaishi kenkyü " (At present, a forum for debate on modern and contemporary China, edited by Nozawa Yutaka ™Jn \2 *g ). The publications amount to the sounding of a tocsin on individual, scattered research, on the tendency toward ever more minute research topics, and on the blurring of the central issues. These journals are in touch with the new trends of research in China, and are asking us such basic questions as: what is modern and contemporary historical research on China and why must it exist? In the 113 paragraphs that follow, I would like to look at the past year's research, generally proceeding by historical eras. THE TAIPING MOVEMENT AND THE STRUCTURE OF POWER IN ITS AFTERMATH The following four articles were concerned with some aspect of the Taiping Rebellion: Nakayama Yoshihiro F èfÜ¿? 43) ; K°jima Shinji (Chugoku kindaishi kenkyu 1) ; Lin Ch'uan-fang 'TVT ?*? ií > "A Study of the Sources for the 'Good Words to Admonish the Age'" ^f)& ¿V| j ® ÍM %^^\ 'f. (Ryukoku shidan 4|^f ^ff^ 79) ; and Kawabata Genji y¿\(jfo ffiy!¿ , "On the King of Celestial Virtue and the King of Great Peace" A '/^, "y_ /?^ ~f~ i_ I-"7 ' ' T (in Ronshu kindai Chugoku kenkyu ^A4J:N>r J^ ci?|íj A jiL^-f 47.2); Usui Sachiko, "An Investigation of Land Tax Figures in the Ch ' ing Dynasty: Fluctuations in the Market Exchange Rate of Silver and Copper, Tax Abatements, the Price of Rice, the Price of Raw Cotton, Abatement in the Prices for Grain Shipment, and Shifts in the Tax Burden on Tax-Paying Households in Kiangnan from the Late Ch'ien-lung Period through T'ung-chih 6 (1867)" >| -^U: f &%%ÌL'& tó ^'f'lf^-% (Chugoku kindaishi kenkyu 1) ; Nats Jf- ¦*& iL, "Conditions of Rent Collection in a , ___________________ . . :sui Landlord Bursary in Mid-19th Century Soochow: The Rent Reduc tion of the T'ung-chih Era and the Process Leading to It" \? tiìUfy "L l tl\'>f.A$%í (Shigaku zasshi 90.7) ; Kobayashi Yukio t\\ Jr^- ¦'¦% /3~% .^-^ ¿$J ^ikC-jT (\G)—) (Fukuoka joshi tandai kiy¿ *§NtVttKk'òf- 2D; Meguro Katsuhiko @ %,. &J , "On the Pao-chia System After the Taiping Rebellion: The Case of Hunan Province" Â^KiM^^ 4%- f ^1J IZ ^ " ^ : ???? Ì*)^ ^%? \f 3. I») fcjfcòfjft (Pita daigaku kyoiku gakubu kenkyu kiyò , j imbun shakai kagaku Through an analysis of fortified communities , Namiki offers a critique of the views of a new group of scholars (such as Öta Hideo ^ F ~?fi~ -^ ) who see the Nien as a rebellion of local bullies. He argues that "the Nien Rebellion concealed its immanent fruition by undermining (through dismemberment and antagonism"] the old familial order." Kobe shows that the Moslem regime in T'eng-yueh and Ta-Ii T^ -ï-jL strongly influenced England toward reopening trade in Burma and Yunnan. Yet, he argues the need for a comprehensive view of the revolts of this period -- Taiping, Nien, and various minority peoples -and not to see them separately. THE SILK INDUSTRY, FOREIGN COMMODITIES, AND THE CHINESE PEASANTRY Within the structure of the Chinese peasantry's capacity for self-support, the silk industry (like the cotton industry) 119 became incorporated into world markets and was forced to undergo even greater transfigurations that the cotton industry. The development of the mechanized silk industry through domestic and foreign capital, beginning in the late 19th century, brought about two responses among the peasants who worked in both sericulture and the silk industry in Kiangsu and Chekiang: (1) they now bought the raw cocoons from the factories where silk was reeled, as in Wu-hsi and Shao-hsing; and (2) they continued to produce native silk thread themselves, as in Hu-chou. Suzuki Tomoo 'y^ ~fc* fá ^ has written two essays on the former issue: "Foreign Capital and the Development of Cocoon Transactions in Wu-hsi in the Late Ch'ing" ) ír %. 'áji· 'ffy I' fr ft Z gj3 X^l CD ^^ ? *)\ IH ï| %¦ (Toyo gakuho 63.1-2) ; and "The Mechanized Silk Industry...