A Brief History of Henan's Economy

Author: Cheng Minsheng
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-06-01
Features: This book narrates the brief history of Henan's economic development, starting from the primitive era and ending in the Qing Dynasty, primarily focusing on the characteristics of material economic development. The narrative is clear and the language is simple and easy to understand. Before diving into the book, it is necessary to explain some of its conventions. First, the research in this book covers the economic history of Henan from the primitive society to the Qing Dynasty, bridging the previously divided boundaries between ancient and modern history. Second, the so-called economic history primarily focuses on the material economic level and does not involve the largely consistent economic systems across the country. Additionally, social backgrounds and production relations that can be understood from other works are not discussed. Third, adhering to the principle of using the past for the present, the book uses the current provincial boundaries as a reference. Ancient divisions that differ from the modern provincial boundaries are explained in the text. Fourth, since the study is conducted from a regional perspective, precise positioning is essential. Therefore, when ancient place names appear in the text, modern names are generally noted, except for those that remain the same as today. The reference is the "China Atlas" published by the Map Publishing House in 2000 for comparison. Place names within Henan Province do not include the province name, while those in other provinces do. The noted modern place names generally refer to the county-level administrative divisions, specifically the seat of government. For simplicity, if a place name appears again within the same paragraph, it is usually not repeated. Fifth, specific historical years are annotated with the corresponding Anno Domini (A.D.) dates. Within the same paragraph, if the same era appears again in a different year, it is not annotated again.