The Pattern of the Chinese Past(I)

Mark Elvin in 1973 finished writing his book The Pattern of the Chinese Past. This book is about the social and economic changes in China up to the Qing period. In writing this book Elvin had spent great effort to understand the formation of the world's largest enduring state: China. This book has 16 chapters, divided into three parts. Part one is about the formation of Chinese Empire, part two is about the medieval economic revolutions of the Empire, part three is about its economic development without the help of technological changes. In the preface Elvin says that he always had three questions in mind. First, why did the Chinese Empire stay together when the Roman Empire collapsed. Second, what were the causes of the medieval revolutions which had made Chinese economy the most advance in the world in after AD 1100. Third, why did the Empire after AD 1350 continue to advance economically, but not technologically. The book tries to suggest answers to these three questions. In chapter one Elvin suggests that in historical times a political unit could expand was usually due to some form of superiority it had over its neighbours. For example, its people might be more effectively organized due to widespread literacy or a particular kind of ideology. Or its labour force was more effective and thus could maintain a larger nonproductive military and administrative establishment. Or the soldiers might have better weapon and discipline.1 (to be continued)

Notes:
1.Elvin, Mark. The Pattern of the Chinese Past. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1973, page 18