Transferred from the "Yunda Economic History" WeChat public account.
Since the end of the 20th century, there have been no less than 20 papers on the overall academic history review of the study of Song history, which have systematically summarized the study of Song history at home and abroad, especially Bao Weimin's study of the history of the Southern Song Dynasty since the 21st century, Li Huarui, Tian Xiaozhong, and others have made an overall or annual review of the study of the economic history of the Song Dynasty, including a systematic review of the study of the economic history of the Southern Song Dynasty, showing that the research on agriculture, handicrafts, commerce, overseas trade, transportation and other important economic fields of the Southern Song Dynasty has achieved fruitful results. These research results have comprehensively revealed the economic development of the Southern Song Dynasty and changed the relatively weak research on the economic history of the Southern Song Dynasty. On the basis of the existing research results and academic history review, this paper summarizes the three important issues embodied in the existing research on the economic history of the Southern Song Dynasty: In what kind of era background did the economy of the Southern Song Dynasty unfold? What kind of appearance and characteristics did the economy of the Southern Song Dynasty show? What are the possible paths for economic research in the Southern Song Dynasty? It is hoped to help promote the study of the economic history of the Southern Song Dynasty.
First, in what kind of era background did the economy of the Southern Song Dynasty unfold?
The Southern Song Dynasty was in a quiet corner, on the one hand, confronting Jin on a long border stretching from the Qinling Mountains in the west to the Huai River in the east, and in the last few decades it confronted the Mongolian Yuan, coupled with the repeated changes in internal policies between "restoration" and peace negotiations, leaving it in a long-term wartime state and facing huge military and financial pressures. On the other hand, the Southern Song Dynasty occupied the most economically and culturally developed area, facing the sea, having convenient transportation, and having good conditions for developing the economy in terms of labor, technology and natural environment. Faced with a different statehood and economic development environment than the Northern Song Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty had a cause and a revolution in the basic system and development path of the Northern Song Dynasty's economy, which constituted the background of the era of economic development of the Southern Song Dynasty. Existing studies provide an in-depth explanation of this issue.
Zhang Bangwei pointed out that the overall situation during the Southern Song Dynasty was to be in a wartime state or quasi-wartime state for a long time, and the wartime state and the survival of the people were the "bull's nose" for understanding the history of the Southern Song Dynasty, which affected and restricted many aspects of the Southern Song Dynasty society. The theme of the Northern Song Dynasty was peaceful development, and the ruling clique always debated around changing the law and trying to become stronger. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the theme was to save the survival of the people, and the ruling clique always debated around peace, war, and defense. The Southern Song Dynasty's economy was forced to the sea, one-sided development, large paper money, extremely heavy taxes, and increased personal dependence ("Wartime State: The Overall Situation of the History of the Southern Song Dynasty", Guangming Daily, September 9, 2013; "System Consciousness: A Case Study of the Tang and Song Dynasties Reform and Southern Song Dynasty Cognition", Journal of Historiography, No. 3, 2017). Another aspect related to the overall situation of the "wartime state" is that the Southern Song Dynasty has long faced military threats and military pressures, which profoundly affected the design of the fiscal system and other economic systems. Wang Shengduo believes that the most important reason for the changes in commercial policies in the Song Dynasty, the increase in commercial taxes, the strengthening of prohibitions, and the issuance of paper money was the national financial pressure caused by the conscription system, which led to changes in policies and concepts by the rulers, and paper money during the Southern Song Dynasty became a means to make up for fiscal deficits (Monetary History of the Two Song Dynasties, Social Science Literature Publishing House, 2003). The design of the financial system of the Southern Song Dynasty showed more prominent military financial characteristics than that of the Northern Song Dynasty. The Southern Song Dynasty stretched from Sichuan and Shaanxi to the Huai River, plus traveling in Lin'an, forming five major military defensive zones. Each tax was divided into five major defensive zones for the nearest supply of troops, and the household department and the four general leaders were responsible, each with a relatively independent division of revenue and expenditure. The southern Song Dynasty's fiscal supply and tax collection must be more clearly under this military supply system (Wang Shengduo, "Financial History of the Two Song Dynasties", Zhonghua Bookstore, 1995). Huang Chunyan, Fiscal History of the Song Dynasty, Yunnan University Press, 2013).
The southward shift of the economic center of gravity constituted another background for the economic development of the Southern Song Dynasty. Since Zhang Jiaju proposed the issue of the southward shift of the economic center of gravity, the relevant research is very rich, and there are different views on when the southward shift of the economic center of gravity will be completed, but the common denominator is that the economic center of gravity has completed the southward shift during the Southern Song Dynasty. Cheng Minsheng proposed that during the Northern Song Dynasty, the economies of the south and the north had their own characteristics, and the economic center of gravity was in the process of moving south, which had not yet been completed (Regional Economy of the Song Dynasty, Henan University Press, 1992). Zheng Xuemeng pointed out that the southward shift of the economic center of gravity was already reflected in the late Northern Song Dynasty, and was fully realized by the Southern Song Dynasty ("The Southward Shift of The Economic Center of Gravity in Ancient China and the Economic Research of the Tang and Song Dynasties in Jiangnan", Yuelu Book Society, 2003). The southward shift of economic center of gravity had a multifaceted impact on the economy of the Southern Song Dynasty: First, population growth, the population of the southern Song Dynasty further surpassed the north on the basis of the Northern Song Dynasty, providing sufficient labor for economic development; Second, it has promoted the development of technology, greatly improved agricultural productivity, and further developed rice intensive cultivation technology and rice-wheat continuous cropping; The third is the change of customs, the large number of northern immigrants into the south, bringing northern customs, and promoting the development of wheat planting and sheep husbandry in the south (Wu Songdi, "Northern Migration and Social Changes in the Southern Song Dynasty", Wenjin Publishing House, 1993; Population History of the Southern Song Dynasty, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2008. Han Maoli, "On the Agricultural Technology Carried by Northern Immigrants and the Southward Shift of The Center of Gravity of Ancient Chinese Economy", Journal of Chinese History, No. 4, 2013); Fourth, the unprecedented prosperity of maritime trade, the southward shift of economic center of gravity, the progress of shipbuilding and navigation technology, and the active and open trade policy promoted the unprecedented development of maritime trade in the Song Dynasty, especially in the Southern Song Dynasty (Chen Gaohua and Wu Tai, "Overseas Trade in the Song and Yuan Dynasties", Tianjin People's Publishing House, 1981). Huang Chunyan, "Overseas Trade in the Song Dynasty", Social Sciences Academic Press, 2003; Song Dynasty Society from the Perspective of Shipbuilding Industry, Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2017).
The further development of the leasehold contract system and land sales was also the basic background of the economy of the Southern Song Dynasty. Liang Gengyao regarded the lease-tenant contract, including the loan relationship, as the coordination mechanism of the rural society of the Southern Song Dynasty, the increase in rural population, the prevalence of land mergers and the gradual development of commerce in the Southern Song Dynasty, resulting in factors such as insufficient arable land, land concentration, and increased differences between the rich and the poor, which led to rural unrest and conflict, and the tenancy system, the lending relationship, and family mutual assistance constituted a force to balance rural conflicts and uneasiness, so that the conflicts and uneasiness of the Southern Song Dynasty did not sharpen in the past 150 years, and there was never a large-scale chaos (Liang Gengyao, "Rural Economy of the Southern Song Dynasty", Nova Publishing House, 2006). In the Song Dynasty, land rights and land sales appeared in a variety of forms and forms, for the first time appeared the right to permanent tenants and the right to the field at the bottom of the field, the relationship between the right to pawn is becoming more and more mature, for the land circulation, the rational allocation of land resources opened up a new way, especially in the Southern Song Dynasty, the emergence of independent land rights, the emergence of permanent tenant rights, the Song Dynasty land ownership and land use rights can be generally separated, the de facto "one field, two main system" and the state taxation needs of one field and one main system, reducing management costs, promoting the circulation of land and commodity economy, Stimulate the enthusiasm of all parties to the ownership of property rights and power (Dai Jianguo, "The Sale of Mintian Canons in the Song Dynasty and the "One Field, Two Main Systems"", Historical Research, No. 6, 2011; "From Tenant to Farmer: The Evolution of Land Property Rights in the Song Dynasty," Chinese Social Sciences, No. 3, 2017).
Second, what new characteristics of the southern Song Dynasty economy showed
The Northern Song and Southern Song dynasties showed major differences in political, economic, and cultural development. Compared with the Northern Song Dynasty, the economy of the Southern Song Dynasty also underwent several major changes, and revealing these changes is an important basis for understanding the characteristics and historical status of the economic development of the Southern Song Dynasty.
The understanding of the overall characteristics of the economic development of the Southern Song Dynasty includes three different views: economic revolution, comprehensive recession and one-sided development. Some scholars believe that the Song Dynasty underwent an "economic revolution" that included the agricultural revolution, the water transport revolution, the commercial revolution, the monetary revolution, the market structure and urbanization revolution, and the scientific and technological revolution, the core of which was the Jiangnan Agricultural Revolution (Mark Elvin, The Pattern of the Chinese Past, California: Stanford University Press, 1973; "The Social Economy of the Northern Song Dynasty", collected in Michio Matsumaru et al., ed., World History: Chinese History, Vol. 3, Yamakawa Publishing House, 1997). The so-called "coal-iron revolution" is in the case of the Northern Song Dynasty, while the "agricultural revolution" is mainly about the Southern Song Dynasty (Zhang Bangwei, "Wartime State and Southern Song Dynasty Social Narrative", Northwest Normal University Daily, No. 1, 2014). Li Bozhong believes that the "economic revolution of the Song Dynasty" is not a fact, but a "virtual image" caused by the research methods of "selecting essences" and "collecting essences" ("Selected Essences", "Collections" and "Agricultural Revolution in Jiangnan of the Song Dynasty": A Review of Traditional Economic History Research Methods", Chinese Social Sciences, No. 1, 2000). Although He Zhongli did not advocate economic revolution, he believed that the Southern Song Dynasty was socially prosperous, agricultural production achieved rapid growth, handicraft production had developed by leaps and bounds, and at the same time promoted the development of the commodity economy ("The Status and Influence of the Southern Song Dynasty in Chinese History", Hebei Academic Journal, No. 5, 2006).
Cheng Minsheng believes that the southern song dynasty economy should not be overestimated, can not be considered as sustainable development, compared with the developed economy of the Northern Song Dynasty, the southern song economy has a comprehensive recession, showing a downward trend of rivers, until there is a crisis on the verge of collapse, and believes that the economic recession of the Southern Song Dynasty indicates that the feudal society began to decline from the peak ("On the Economic Decline of the Southern Song Dynasty", China Economic History Research, No. 3, 1989). Zhang Bangwei summed it up with "one-sided development", believing that the economic development of the Northern Song Dynasty was relatively comprehensive, while the Southern Song Dynasty was more one-sided: the mining and metallurgical industry was sluggish, but agriculture developed rapidly; The minting industry barely survived, but the scale of weapons production was enormous; Shipbuilding is ahead of the world, but coal and iron production is not as good as that of the Northern Song Dynasty ("Wartime State and Southern Song Dynasty Social Narrative"). Ge Jinfang pointed out the uneven development of the handicraft industry in the Southern Song Dynasty, believing that on the one hand, the southern Song Dynasty economy achieved amazing development results, and factors such as the commodity economy and international trade development, institutional innovation, and productive forces development made the Southern Song Dynasty economy have development vitality that other dynasties did not have; On the other hand, factors such as the war environment and excessive taxation have limited the potential of economic development. He summarized the uneven development of the handicraft industry in the Southern Song Dynasty as the sluggish mining and metallurgy, the world's leading shipbuilding industry, the sustainable development of the silk and linen weaving industry, and the initial rise of the cotton textile industry, believing that most of the manufacturing centers of the handicraft industry in the Southern Song Dynasty were transferred to the southeast coastal area, forming an "ultra-light structure" in which light industry developed more than heavy industry. The development of agriculture is prominently manifested in the rapid development of commodity agriculture. There have also been new developments in the commodity economy, which are manifested in the rise of Jiangnan towns, the formation of urban networks, the acceleration of urbanization, and the expansion of regional trade and international trade ("Re-evaluation of the Southern Song Dynasty Economy from the Perspective of Agribusiness Society", Journal of International Social Science (Chinese Edition), No. 3, 2016; History of Handicraft Industry in the Southern Song Dynasty, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2008; "The Characteristics of the Southern Song Dynasty Economy from the Perspective of "Agribusiness Society"", Journal of Social Science (Chinese Edition), No. 3, 2009).
The unprecedented development of the marine economy is also a major feature of the economy of the Southern Song Dynasty. The Southern Song Dynasty established jiangnan and faced the sea, and the maritime trade policy was more active than that of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the development scale and financial impact of maritime trade also exceeded that of the Northern Song Dynasty. Ge Jinfang believes that the prosperity of overseas trade in the Southern Song Dynasty was unmatched by the Han and Tang Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty, and the southern Song Dynasty court's tendency to rely on foreign trade and face the sea was even stronger. Driven by overseas trade, the southeast coastal areas gradually rose open market economy, showing a tendency to develop toward the sea, which is a major change in the significance of the agricultural economy since the Han and Tang Dynasties, and the landlocked countries that "rested their heads on the three rivers and facing the northwest" before the Song Dynasty began to transform into the sea and land-type countries of the Southern Song Dynasty ("History of Handicraft Industry in the Southern Song Dynasty" and "The Characteristics of the Era of the Southern Song Dynasty Economy from the Perspective of "Agricultural and Commercial Society"). Zhang Bangwei believes that Ge Jinfang's summary is not unreasonable, but it is not complete, he believes that the southern Song Dynasty's economic development tendency is "forced to the sea", not entirely the conscious choice of the Southern Song court, to a large extent, to get rid of the financial difficulties caused by huge military expenditures, and because the land Silk Road is difficult to smooth and step up the construction of maritime ceramics road, can only be reluctantly called "semi-marine empire" ("Wartime State and Southern Song Dynasty Social Narrative").
Dafa banknotes were another major feature of the Economy of the Southern Song Dynasty. The Southern Song Dynasty was the first dynasty in Chinese history to use paper money as the main currency, the Southern Song Dynasty issued a variety of paper money such as Southeast Huizi, Huhui, Huaijiao, etc., initially more cautious, with the increase in war costs, began to issue paper money indiscriminately, and fell into a vicious circle of relying on the issuance of paper money to cope with the rising demand for military spending. The indiscriminate issuance of paper money had a profound impact on many aspects of the economic development of the Southern Song Dynasty, such as finance, taxation, market, and price, and was a prominent phenomenon affecting social and economic development (Liu Sen, "History of Song Gold Banknotes", China Finance Publishing House, 1993). Wang Shengduo's "Monetary History of the Two Song Dynasties").
Third, what are the possible paths for economic research in the Southern Song Dynasty
In the past four decades, the economic history of the Southern Song Dynasty, like the study of other issues, has gradually transformed academic discourse and academic issues, and the theoretical construction has become increasingly diversified, and outstanding achievements have been made in the exploration of research theories, research methods and research topics. The academic discussions held at the founding of the Chinese Society for the Study of Song History in 1980 have shown the characteristics of the transformation of research discourse and research topics from the past to the future. Of the 42 papers presented at the conference, 19 were on economic history, and economic history remains the most interesting area. These papers reflect a strong empirical orientation, and many papers are no longer confined to the barriers of class analysis and social nature, but focus on the empirical evidence of specific issues such as money, commercial taxation, and trade in incense and medicine. However, most of the papers, especially in the discussion and exchange, focus on the basic issues of historical research after 1949, such as production relations, class structure, and social nature, and the main research topics and dialogue logics that have aroused discussion are still personal dependence, class contradictions, exploitation methods, the second serfdom, peasant uprising, the budding of capitalism, the justice and injustice of national wars, the progressive and backward nature of character evaluation, etc. It embodies the inheritance and transformation of the theoretical methods and research topics of Chinese mainland song history research (Deng Guangming et al., eds., Collected Papers on Song History, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1982. Zeng Weihua, "Discussion on Several Issues in the History of the Song Dynasty: A Side Note of the Inaugural Meeting of the Song History Research Association", Issues in History Teaching, No. 1, 1981. Liang Ren, "Outline of Academic Discussion of the Society for the Study of Song History", Academic Monthly, No. 12, 1980).
Ge Jinfang put forward the theory of agricultural and commercial society, the main foothold of which is the economy of the Southern Song Dynasty, through "from the "agricultural and commercial society" to see the characteristics of the era of the Southern Song Dynasty economy", "the southern song of the southern song commodity agriculture from the perspective of "agricultural and commercial society" (co-authored with Liu Pingsheng, Yunnan Social Science, No. 6, 2017), "the re-evaluation of the southern song economy from the perspective of agricultural and commercial society" and many other papers discussing the economic development of the southern song dynasty systematically expounded its main views, believing that the southern southern society of the Southern Song Dynasty showed many differences from the society of north China. North China is more limited to the self-sufficient natural economic form, while the south has accelerated its development rate due to the rise of the commodity economy, and began to move from the ancient agricultural society to the "agricultural and commercial society", and the Southern Song Dynasty can be regarded as the formation period of the agricultural and commercial society. Lin Wenxun's theory of rich people's society also pays special attention to the economy of the Southern Song Dynasty, believing that the rich people class in the Southern Song Dynasty society takes "rich and good Confucianism" as the foundation and inevitable choice for establishing a family, while developing family culture and education, it is also committed to the study of the township party in rural society, advocating the practice of the new cultural trend of cultivating and reading heirlooms, and becoming the precondition and driving force for the great development of rural social and cultural education (Lin Wenxun and Li Zhigang, "The Development of Rich People and Rural Cultural Education in the Southern Song Dynasty", International Journal of Social Science (Chinese Edition), 2011 4 period). These theoretical explorations expanded the horizons of the study of the history of the Southern Song Dynasty and revealed a new aspect of economic development during the Southern Song Dynasty.
Wang Ruilai's theory of song and Yuan reform and Li Zhi'an's theory of the two historical development clues since the middle ages have affirmed the important significance of the Southern Song Dynasty in China's historical inheritance and evolution. Wang Ruilai pointed out that the changes in the Tang and Song Dynasties revealed the changes from the Tang to the Song, and the connection between the Song Dynasty and the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties and even modern times can be explained by the song and Yuan changes, and the Southern Song Dynasty opened a new round of changes in Chinese history. The Theory of Song and Yuan Revolution examines the trajectory of how China moved toward modern times through the investigation of the interaction of the three elements of time (Southern Song Dynasty), earth (Jiangnan), and people (scholars) ("From Modern Times to Modern Times: Discussion on the Transformation of Song and Yuan Dynasties", Journal of History, No. 4, 2015). Li Zhi'an believes that from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the early Tang Dynasty, there were two parallel development clues or two institutional systems of "Southern Dynasty" and "Northern Dynasty", emphasizing the historical role of the Southern Song Dynasty from the perspective of the system, especially the economic system, and believing that the northern ethnic regime in the 10th and 13th centuries strengthened the northern system factor, the jiangnan economy still developed and prospered along the model of tang and Song reform, and the southern Yuan and Ming dynasties followed the economic system of the Southern Song Dynasty ("Two Southern and Northern Dynasties and Historical Development Clues since the Middle Ages", Wenshizhe, No. 6, 2009).
The number and type of surviving data of the Southern Song Dynasty, which is the basis for the study of southern Song history, are also different from those of the Northern Song Dynasty, so the history of the Southern Song Dynasty also needs to have a corresponding path in terms of research methods. Zhang Bangwei's advocacy of the Study of the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty cannot be "boiled in one pot", which means that the changes of the Southern Song Dynasty relative to the Northern Song Dynasty cannot be ignored, and it also contains the characteristics of research methods and problem awareness. When talking about the research materials on the history of the Southern Song Dynasty, Bao Weimin pointed out that the Southern Song Dynasty, especially its later period, had too few surviving materials, which had a negative impact on academic research, but the so-called too few surviving materials are comparatively speaking, and the academic circles have accumulated considerable rich experience in dealing with the historical data of the period before the Sui and Tang Dynasties when printing technology was not popularized. On the other hand, the surviving historical materials of the Southern Song Dynasty also have their own characteristics compared with the Northern Song Dynasty, and some of the collections, geographical records, notes, archaeological materials, etc. of the late Southern Song Dynasty are obviously more than those of the Northern Song Dynasty and the early Southern Song Dynasty, and scholars have made clear demonstrations using anthology, Fang Zhi and other materials. Compared with those periods with more abundant information, discussing the history of the middle and late Southern Song Dynasty requires researchers to invest more intelligence and perseverance ("Review and Prospect of The Study of southern Song History in the New Century", Tang and Song Dynasty Historical Review, No. 2, Social Science Literature Press, 2016).
In the past 40 years, the topics of the study of the history of the Southern Song Dynasty have not only continued to deepen the basic issues such as the land system, fiscal issues, commodity economy, and personal dependency relationships that have been concerned before, but also put forward new research topics and research perspectives. The study of the land issue and the study of the economic history of the "Jiangnan" region is used as an example to illustrate this. The land system has long been discussed by scholars under the discourse of personal dependence, exploitation methods, and class relations, and starting from the logic of the greedy nature of the landlord class, the Song Dynasty's "non-establishment of the field system" and "no inhibition of annexation" were interpreted in the Southern Song Dynasty as the continuous growth of land annexation. In recent years, the focus of attention has shifted to analyzing the meaning of "the land system is not established", reviewing the discourse system of the study of the land system in the Song Dynasty, and whether "no suppression and annexation" can be regarded as the basic national policy of the Song Dynasty, exploring how the trend of land concentration and decentralization coexists and interacts, and paying attention to the form of property rights, the generation of economic relations and their role in maintaining the operation of rural social order and the implementation of state rule. The study of the economic history of the "Jiangnan" region is a representative topic in the study of the economic history of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the discussion of agricultural productivity (especially the yield per mu) and the rice-wheat replanting system in the Southern Song Dynasty mostly takes "Jiangnan" as a case. On the one hand, the study of "Jiangnan" is intended to reveal the characteristics of the economic development of the Southern Song Dynasty, and on the other hand, it is given the meaning of exploring how the Southern Song Dynasty influenced future generations. In the Southern Song Dynasty, there have been in-depth studies on agricultural productivity, land development, water conservancy organizations, social systems, and urban economy.
The studies of Wang Ruilai, Li Zhi'an, He Zhongli, and others all pointed out that the economy of the Southern Song Dynasty, represented by Jiangnan, had a profound impact on the economy of China in later generations, especially the economic development of the south. Bao Weimin proposed that the inheritance of the Culture of the Southern Song Dynasty by the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties was mainly in the southern region (mainly in Jiangnan), and the development and consolidation of the unified country in the Ming and Qing dynasties, especially in the Qing Dynasty, could not have been without the influence of the Southern Song Culture, but the "Southern Song Model" has long since disappeared, compared with the simple and isolated emphasis on the historical influence of the Southern Song Dynasty on future generations, it is better to implement this influence to specifically demonstrate the integration of the North and the South after the middle of the Ming Dynasty and eventually move towards the "Jiangnan system", which may cross the old understanding of the historical significance of the Southern Song Dynasty. It is also an important research path for observing the history of the Southern Song Dynasty from the context of before and after ("Song Dynasty Economy: The Background of Historical Observation", Guangming Daily, January 2, 2017).
Fourth, the aftermath
In the past four decades, remarkable achievements have been made in the study of the economic history of the Southern Song Dynasty, but academic research is often new and never ending. The existing research provides an important reference for the continued progress of the economic history research of the Southern Song Dynasty, which is conducive to the subsequent study of the economic history of the Southern Song Dynasty to discover problems and clarify the direction. In summary, the existing results can inspire the continuation of the study of the economic history of the Southern Song Dynasty in four aspects. The first is to establish the overall awareness of academic research, clarify what kind of era background the economy of the Southern Song Dynasty was developed, and what kind of overall characteristics it has, so that the research of specific problems can have a clearer positioning and better reveal the overall significance of specific research. The second is to establish a clearer sense of change, not only to recognize the inheritance and changes of the economic development of the Northern Song And Southern Song Dynasties, to avoid the "one-pot cooking" of the economic research of the two Song Dynasties, including the study of other historical issues, but also to pay attention to the changes in the economic system and economic form of the Southern Song Dynasty in different periods and the differences in different regions, and avoid saying a word about the economy of the Southern Song Dynasty. The third is to establish the awareness of long-term investigation, explore the influence of the Southern Song Dynasty economy on future generations in a more in-depth manner, further clarify the factors, methods, degrees and scope of the Southern Song Dynasty's economy affecting the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and more clearly understand the status of the Southern Song Dynasty economy in the long-term evolution of China's history. The fourth is to establish a theoretical awareness, on the basis of empirical research, explore new theoretical frameworks and research paths, explain the economy of the Southern Song Dynasty from a richer perspective, fully explore the historical information of the Southern Song Dynasty historical materials, and explore research methods that are in line with the historical conditions of the Southern Song Dynasty. Only in this way can we achieve the in-depth study of problems and the construction of systems advocated by scholars such as Zhang Bangwei, Bao Weimin, and Si Dizun in the study of the economic history of the Southern Song Dynasty, so as to avoid staying in the description of phenomena and getting lost in "local detailed research" and "moving from plane to three-dimensional".
(The paper was originally published in Trends in Chinese History Research, No. 4, 2021)