Transformations and Continuity in Chinese Economic and Social History

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Abstract
Mark Elvin's The Pattern of the Chinese Past (Stanford, 1973) identifies the crucial factors which produced major economic and social changes during the Sung and then attempts to explain why these changes failed to produce the kind of socioeconomic development Europe experienced after the fourteenth century. It is a brilliant work and makes use of many Japanese sinological studies, but there are serious problems about the key arguments presented. First, Elvin fails to understand the t'un-t'ien system, an institution which he cites as enabling the state to reduce its tax burden on the private sector. Second, he disregards the complex land holding system of the Sung to emphasize only a single land institution: the manor. Finally, he does not treat the interaction of the state and private sector during key periods which might explain some of the critical problems in his study. The broad questions posed by Elvin will only be satisfactorily answered when cultural, ideological, and political factors are related to the socioeconomic developments between the Sung and the Ch'ing periods.

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