Hostname: page-component-669899f699-rg895 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-27T05:41:42.426Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Administering wealth: the concept of “economy” and the epistemic foundations of nationalism in late-imperial China (late-nineteenth–early-twentieth century)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2020

Pablo A. Blitstein
Pablo A. Blitstein*
Affiliation:
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 54 boulevard Raspail, 75006Paris, France
*
Author for correspondence: E-mail: pablo.blitstein@ehess.fr
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this paper, I will focus on the emergence and uses of political economy in late-nineteenth–early-twentieth century China. I will discuss how the concept of “economy” came to be conceived as an autonomous sphere of human life, with its own rules and its own order, and how the production of “wealth” was conceptually divorced from ethics, politics, and administration. For this purpose, I will focus on a group which played a key role in reshaping the social and political discourse of the empire: a group of nationalist reformers who wanted to transform the Qing empire into a constitutional monarchy. I will explore how these reformers brought together two different sets of traditions – the Chinese imperial traditions of literati statecraft on the one hand, and mostly British, French, and German traditions of political economy on the other – and how they used them to naturalize a particular idea of what the “Chinese nation” was and should be.

Keywords

Economyglobal historyintellectual historymodern Chinanationalismtranslation
Type
Featured Essays on the History of Political Economy in Asia and Europe
Information
International Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , July 2021 , pp. 185 - 206
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Blitstein, P. A. (2016). “A New China in Mexico. Kang Youwei and his Languages of Cohesion Making on the Two Sides of the Pacific (1895–1911).” Oriens Extremus 55, pp. 209–260.Google Scholar
Brunner, O. (1968). “Das ‘Ganze Haus’ und die alteuropäische ‘Ökonomik’.” In Neue Wege der Verfassungs- und Sozialgeschichte, pp. 103–127. Göttingen: Vandenhoek und Ruprecht.Google Scholar
Burkhardt, J. et al. (1992). “Wirtschaft.” In Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe. Historisches Lexikon zur politisch-sozialen Sprache in Deutschland, eds. Brunner, Otto, Conze, Werner and Koselleck, Reinhart, pp. 511–594. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta.Google Scholar
Chambers, W. and Chambers, R. (1852). Political Economy, for Use in Schools, and for Private Instruction. Edinburgh: William and Robert Chambers.Google Scholar
Chen, Huanzhang (1911). The Economic Principles of Confucius and his School. New York: Columbia University.Google Scholar
Craig, A. (1984). “John Hill Burton and Fukuzawa Yukichi.” Kindai Nihon kenkyû 1, pp. 218–238.Google Scholar
Dumont, L. (1977), Homo aequalis. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Elman, B. (2004). “Naval Warfare and the Refraction of China's Self-Strengthening Reforms in Scientific and Technological Failure, 1865–1895.” Modern Asian Studies 38:2, pp. 283–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fang, Weigui (2003). “‘Jingji’ yiming suyuan kao – shi ‘zhengzhi’ haishi ‘jingji’?” Zhongguo Shehui Kexue 3, pp. 178–188.Google Scholar
Fryer, J. and Zuxi, Ying (n.d.). Zuozhi Chuyan 佐治芻言. Shanghai: Jiangnan Zhizao Zongju.Google Scholar
Fu, Yang (2019). “How to Write about Economic Ideas in Early China.” Intellectual History (Sixiang shi) 9, pp. 507–547.Google Scholar
Goodman, B. (2013). “Fanyi de lianjin shu: Minguo zaoqi Shanghai de ‘jingji xue’.” In Jindai Zhongguo xin zhishi de jiangou, eds. Zarrow, Peter and Che-chia, Chang, pp. 179–204. Taibei: Academia Sinica.Google Scholar
Huang, Kewu (1986). “Jingshi Wenbian yu Zhongguo Jindai Jingshi Sixiang Yanjiu.” Jindai Zhongguo shi Yanjiu Tongxun 2, pp. 83–96.Google Scholar
Huangchao Jingshi Wenbian (2004) In Wei Yuan Quanji, ed. Wei Yuan Quanji Bianji Weiyuan Hui. Changsha: Yuelu Shushe.Google Scholar
Jin, Guantao and Qingfeng, Liu (2003). “Cong ‘Jingshi’ dao ‘Jingji’ – Shehui zuzhi Yuanze Bianhua de Sixiangshi Yanjiu.” Taida Lishi Xuebao 32, pp. 139–189.Google Scholar
Kang, Youwei (2006). “Wuzhi Jiuguo lun.” In Kang Youwei Quanji, eds. Yihua, Jiang and Ronghua, Zhang. Beijing: Renmin Daxue Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Karl, R. (2017). The Magic of Concepts. History and the Economic in Twentieth Century China. London, Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Kaske, E. (2008). “The Price of an Office: Venality, the Individual and the State in Nineteenth Century China.” In Metals, Monies and Markets in Early Modern Societies: East Asian and Global Perspectives, eds. Kim, Nanny and Hirzel, Thomas, pp. 279–304. Berlin: LIT Verlag.Google Scholar
Kaske, E. (2015). “Silver, Copper, Rice and Debt: Monetary Policy and Office-Selling in China during the Taiping Rebellion.” In Money in Asia (1200–1900): Small Currencies in Social and Political Contexts, pp. 345–397. Leiden-Boston: Brill.Google Scholar
Keynes, J. M. (1912). “The Economic Principles of Confucius and his School, by Chen Huan-chang.” The Economic Journal 22:88, pp. 584–588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koselleck, R. (1992). “Volk, Nation. Einleitung.” In Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe, eds. Brunner, Otto, Conze, Werner and Koselleck, Reinhart (eds.), vol. 7, pp. 141–151. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta.Google Scholar
Kuhn, P (1995). “Ideas behind China's Modern State.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 55:2, pp. 295–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
L'Haridon, B. (2015). “The Merchants in Shiji: An Interpretation in the Light of Later Debates.” In Views from Within, Views from Beyond: Approaches to the Shiji as an Early Work of Historiography, eds. van Ess, Hans, Lomova, Olga, and Schaab-Hanke, Dorothee. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
L'Haridon, B. (2019). “The Treatise on Economics and its Influences.” In Monographs in Tang Official Historiography. Perspectives from the Technical Treatises of the History of Sui (Suishu), eds. Chaussende, Damien and Morgan, Daniel Patrick. Springer: Cham.Google Scholar
Liang, Qichao (1988). “Shiji ‘Huozhi liezhuan’ jinyi.” In Yinbing shi heji. Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju.Google Scholar
Liang, Qichao (1990). “Shengjixue xueshuo yange xiaoshi 生計學學說沿革小史.” In Yinbing shi Quanji. Tainan: Fuhan Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Lippert, W. (2004). “The Formation and Development of the Term ‘Political Economy’ in Japanese and Chinese.” In Mapping Meanings. The Field of New Learning in Late Qing China, pp. 119–128. Leiden-Boston: Brill.Google Scholar
Lü, Miaofen 呂妙芬 (2011). Xiaozhi tianxia. “Xiaojing” yu jinshi zhongguo de zhengzhi yu wenhua 孝治天下. Taipei: Zhongyang Yanjiu Yuan.Google Scholar
Matten, M. (2012). “China is the China of the Chinese: The Concept of Nation and its Impact on Political Thinking in Modern China.” Oriens Extremus 51, pp. 63–106.Google Scholar
Mori, Tokihiko (2019). “Western Economics and Liang Qichao,” last accessed 18 October 2019, http://www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de/fileadmin/Documents/Events/091027_Mori_Tokihiko.pdf.Google Scholar
Okubo, Takeharu (2014). The Quest for Civilization. Encounters with Dutch Jurisprudence, Political Economy, and Statistics at the Dawn of Modern Japan. Leiden: Brill/Global Oriental.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pairault, T. (2008). “China's Response to Globalization: Manufacturing Confucian Values,” in Globalization and Transformations of Local Socioeconomic Practices, ed. U. Schuerkens, pp. 99–119. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rowe, W. (2018). Speaking of Profit. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rowe, W. (2001). Saving the World. Chen Hongmou and Elite Consciousness in Eighteenth Century China. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Schwartz, B. (1964). In Search of Wealth and Power. Yan Fu and the West. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Shisan jing zhushu (1997) In Yuan, Ruan (ed). Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Svarverud, R. (2001). “The Notions of ‘Power’ and ‘Rights’ in Chinese Political Discourse.” In New Terms for New Ideas, eds. Amelung, I., Lackner, M. and Kurtz, J., pp. 125–143. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Trescott, P (1989). “Scottish Political Economy comes to the Far East: The Burton-Chambers Political Economy and the introduction of Western Economic Ideas into Japan and China.” History of Political Economy 21:3, pp. 481–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Von Glahn, R. (2016). The Economic History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, Fansen (2003). “Wan Qing de zhengzhi gainian yu ‘Xin shixue',” in Zhongguo jindai sixiang yu xueshu de xipu, Taipei: Lianjing, pp. 195–220Google Scholar
Wei, Yuan (1994). Mogu. Shenyang: Liaoning Renmin Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Will, P.-E. (1980). Bureaucratie et Famine en Chine au 18 Siècle. Paris: Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, M. (1957). The Last Stand of Chinese Conservatism. The T'ung-Chih Restoration, 1862–1874. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Yan, Fu (1981). Yuan Fu, Vol. 1. Beijing: Shangwu Yinshu Guan.Google Scholar
Yan, Fu (2001). “Yi Si shi ‘Jixue’ liyan.” In Yan Fu shuping, ed. Jie, Wu, pp. 41–45. Shijiazhuang: Hebei Renmin Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Yu, Yingshi (2003). “Shi shang hudong yu ruxue zhuanxiang – Ming Qing shehui shi yu sixiang shi zhi yi mian xiang.” In Shi yu Zhongguo Wenhua. Shanghai: Shanghai Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Yu, Yingshi (2016). Chinese History and Culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 2 volumes.Google Scholar
Zanasi, M. (2020). Economic Thought in Modern China: Market and Consumption, c. 1500–1937. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zarrow, P. (2012). After Empire: The Conceptual Transformation of the Chinese State, 1885–1924. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Zurndorfer, H. (2004). Imperialism, globalization and public finance: the case of late Qing China. Working Papers of the Global Economic History Network (GEHN) (06/04). Department of Economic History, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK (http://www.lse.ac.uk/Economic-History/Assets/Documents/Research/GEHN/GEHNConferences/conf2/WorkingPaper06HZ.pdf; last accessed July 16 2020).Google Scholar