Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.6, 2014

Early State Theory and Research on Qin and Han Settlement Patterns—On Miyazaki Ichisada’s Theory of City-states in Ancient China

(Abstract)

Wang Yanhui

The concepts of ju (聚) or juluo (聚落), etc. in Qin and Han documents cannot be equated with the juluo (settlement) of modern archaeology. Han dynasty cities were rebuilt and developed on the basis of those built during the three dynasties, especially those of the Warring States. Half of them were concentrated in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. Settlement patterns in ancient China involved the coexistence of cities and juluo from the Shang and Zhou dynasties on. In the process of consolidating Qin and Han rural administration, the scattered juluo were brought under the state administrative system in their natural condition. In the Qin and Han dynasties, control of urban and rural society was not realized through tangible city walls. Under the autocratic system of “great unity” (大一统), the government used rural organizations and severe laws to constrain members of society and moral “city walls” to control their minds. Miyazaki Ichisada used the fact that ancient city-states coincided with pavilions where rural elites gathered (xiang ju ting乡聚亭) to prove that such pavilions were within city walls under the Han, and thence concluded that ancient China had gone through a “city-states” stage. This conclusion is untenable.