Multi-angle View of the Economic History of Jiangnan

Author: Li Bozhong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-01-01
Features: This is a regional economic history manuscript focused on the Jiangnan region, spanning over six centuries. It covers aspects such as population, ecological environment, agriculture, women, culture, etc. The author examines these topics from multiple perspectives, using rich empirical data and sharp insights to analyze and propose unique viewpoints on widely accepted issues such as the "Jiangnan Economic Revolution in the Song Dynasty," the "Population Pressure" theory," the "Lack of Qualitative Change in Jiangnan's Economy during the Ming and Qing Dynasties," and the "Special Nature of Urban Development in China."
Excerpt: Generally speaking, in any society, women constitute about half of the total population. As a result, the issue of women's labor has become a highly important topic in the study of social and economic history. However, in previous research on China's social and economic history, this issue has not received the attention it deserves. Especially regarding the labor of rural women in pre-modern China, although many works touch upon it to some extent, specialized research findings remain scarce. It can be said that to date, this field of study is still in its early stages and urgently requires more research. This paper represents a preliminary exploration in this area.
The labor of rural women in pre-modern China exhibits significant temporal and spatial variations. Given this, this paper restricts its temporal and spatial scope to Jiangnan during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Specifically, the time period covers roughly from the early Ming Dynasty to the mid-Qing Dynasty (before the Taiping Rebellion of 1850 affected Jiangnan), and the geographical area includes the eight prefectures of Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, Ning (Yingtian), Hangzhou, Jiaxing, and Huzhou, as well as the Taicang Prefecture, which was separated from Suzhou. The reasons for this temporal and spatial limitation have been explained in my other articles and will be omitted here.
This paper aims to discuss the labor arrangements of men and women in Jiangnan households during the Ming and Qing dynasties, focusing on identifying the main types of labor undertaken by rural women in Jiangnan and examining whether their labor patterns changed over the nearly five centuries before the mid-19th century. Furthermore, it seeks to explore the background and significance of these changes (particularly the shifts in the role of rural women in Jiangnan's labor force within the broader society).