ABSTRACT

In this chapter I will develop an analytical picture of the economic and social structure of the traditional Chinese economy that provides the ground for identifying family resemblances with current conditions. My picture is a theoretical construct and extracts certain general features from the historical literature that define the ‘ritual economy’ as a historical type; this allows for the establishment of family resemblances with the present. Thus, I will report what economists call ‘stylized facts’, which is often regarded as a basic methodological step in reconstructing social mechanisms, and I will add a strong dose of methodological and theoretical considerations. This chapter is not a piece of historical research or a summary thereof. I will touch upon many issues that are controversial; I will not discuss these in more detail but simply opt for one of the competing interpretations in the specialist literature. Thus, my picture is certainly biased, but it may be as justified as competing interpretations. In fact, I believe that these competing interpretations mainly portray the reflections and repercussions in the ‘mirror of culture’, thus actually also mirroring opinions about the implicit comparisons with European history, given the fact that the Chinese case is seen largely seen in the light of the European comparison by both Western and Chinese scholars. Recent Chinese economic and social history has often been written in the shadow of the question of why China failed to achieve indigenous modernization, and with an eye to the possible consequences for answering the question why and how China can catch up ‘with the West’.1