Edited by Professor Chang Jianhua, an Intensive Reading of Classical Works of the Social History of Chinese Cities has been published
This book was published by Shanghai Education Press in August 2020. The selected articles are not only the representative works of social historians, but also some of them are translated into Chinese for the first time. Professor Chang Jianhua points out in the preface of the book, “the modernization marked by urbanism makes urban life style a modern universal choice. However, modern urban life in China is not entirely the product of modernization, and to some extent it can also be regarded as the continuation and renewal of urban life in the traditional society. Chang`an, Luoyang of the Han and Tang dynasties, Suzhou and Hangzhou after the Song Dynasty, Beijing and Nanjing in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were all famous for their urban prosperity. The rise of modern coastal commercial ports Shanghai and Tianjin is the product of opening to the outside world and developing industry and commerce, and they had the obvious characteristics of modern cities. Understanding the past lives of Chinese cities is conducive to understand the present life of Chinese cities.
For this purpose, we have compiled six famous works on Chinese urban history to facilitate students' study and research on urban history as well as the reading of the public. It includes the research results of three Chinese scholars and three American and Japanese scholars, which not only pay attention to the whole discussion of the chronology, such as the selection of studies on the cities of the Song and Qing Dynasties, but also pays attention to the research of single city society, such as Chang`an, Suzhou and Tianjin. In particular, the paper on Suzhou written by Mou Fuli, a famous historian and American scholar who is a pioneer in the study of Chinese urban history, has been translated into Chinese for the first time. I believe it will be of great interest to readers.”