Nanjing: tax, wall, map, talk

The introduction part of this book summarizes and critiques existing studies of Chinese cities. It in turn reviews several key issues regarding Chinese urbanization:
1. Urbanization and commercialization. The author rightly notes that “the triumph of market economy has become an obligatory preface to late Imperial Chinese studies.” Conforming the economic boom, Fei yet attacks a reductionist understanding of urbanization as an automatic byproduct of commercialization and monetization. What she emphasizes will be “social praxis.”
2. Occidental and Oriental cities. Built upon debates between Weber and Skinner about the dichotomy of Occidental and Oriental cities, Fei emphasizes particularities of individual dynasties, “Urbanization in late imperial china was a process shaped by institutional and cultural practices particular to each dynasty.(13)”
3. Urban-rural division. Although scholars have generally argued against such a division in Chinese culture, Fei observes that “qualitative changes arose in perceiving the city as a political, social, and conceptual entity distinct from the countryside.”
4. Urban autonomy---public sphere. William Rowe, Philip Huang, Frederich Wakeman, Susan Naquin’s studies have shown the diversified public spaces and activities in Chinese cities, and at the same time observed that “such liberty in appropriating public spaces does not imply a public sphere independent of the state.” Fei, instead, argues that local initiatives indeed prevailed at the institutional level.


The four cases studies in this book fall into two groups. The first two, respectively on taxation and city management, prove that urban social initiatives did not stop at informal arrangements but forced changes at the institutional level. The following two chapters on imagination and conversation about Nanjing, explore how Nanjing urbanites articulate their spatial experiences through existing cultural schemes.

By exploring a moment when Nanjing residents publicly pled to be taxed, the author traces the development of Ming society from a rural-centered centered lijia system to a commercialized state. In particular, the Single Whip reform encourage the development of the silver economy, and eventually led to the abolition of corvee abor, household registration and migration control, particularly deepening the division between rural and urban areas.

Chapter 2 explores the anti-wall discourses in two Nanjing area counties of Gaochun and Jiangpu. City wall was the most significant symbol of a political space, yet the two county residents’ argument resort to both practical interest and classical discourse. The disputes thus could be seen as negotiation between the official and the commercial city systems.

Chapter 3 draws from the abundant maps of Nanjing in gazateers and picture books. It highlights a transition from a state-centered view of Nanjing urban space, to the particularities of Nanjing out of a new culture of tourism. Kong Shangren’s prose, Wen Zhengming and Shen Zhou’s exchanges all serve to illustrate the picture of public life in Nanjing. “Under the sway of social tourism, the appreciation of landscape was transformed into a ritual of status performance as well as a venue for social networking.(
164)” Landscape appreciation and representation, thus, served the working of cultural identity and social solidarity.

The last chapter looks at Nanjing in local urbanites discourse, especially in Kezuo zhuiyu by Guo Qiyuan. Among many factors, the anecdotes show a clear distinction between hosts and guests (natives and sojourners), substantiating a urban-rural division. The four chapters, therefore, in turn focuses on Nanjing as urban community, metropolitan area, imagined space, and discursive subject.

The study is significantly rich in materials, concise in argument, engaging in theoretical conversation, and fascinating for reading. It’s simply one of the best historical studies of late imperial China, representing the new approaches and possibilities.