Søren Clausen
China from Song to Qing – ‘late empire’ or ‘early modernity’?

Critically examines the current fashionable trend to see the last millenium of Chinese history in a perspective of "early modernity". It briefly surveys the status of historical scholarship related to China and proceeds to investigate a number of cases relevant to the interactions between state and society in Chinese history: Civil society, the state granaries, the role of the state in relation to property and agricultural landholding, and the nature of money.