Retrospect and Prospect: The Rise of Economic History in China

The recently concluded twentieth century has witnessed the rise of economic history as a discipline in China. During this century, the discipline has gone through the stages of inception, formation, transformation, and renaissance. At present it is facing unprecedented challenges. In this paper I will review the evolution of the discipline and analyze the major characteristics of the discipline in accordance with these four stages. Finally I will discuss the probable future of the discipline in the twenty-first century. First I would like to explain briefly the meaning of “economic history” as it is understood in Chinese academic circles. In China, throughout most of the twentieth century “economic history” included both social history and economic history. For this reason, the terms “economic history,” “social history” and “socioeconomic history” were often used interchangeably, particularly in the earlier periods. Only since the late 1980s has some sort of differentiation appeared and more specialized social history and economic history have emerged. Even so, the majority of Chinese scholars still have been working in the paradigm of socioeconomic history, similar, in some respects, with the “economic and social history” which has risen in the West since the 1960s. In sum, in this paper “economic history” refers to “socio-economic history,” not “economic history” in a strict sense.