"Feudalism" Discussion

Author: Feng Tianyu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-02-01
Features: "Feudalism" originally means "to enfeoff land and establish states" or "to grant titles and establish fiefdoms." In the ancient Chinese cultural sphere, countries used the term "feudalism" in this sense and developed theories on it. The mainstream Chinese society from the Qin and Han dynasties to the Ming and Qing dynasties gradually moved away from feudalism, while modern European observers and scholars discovered that Japan's bakufu-han system was highly similar to the European medieval system of feudalism (land tenure and fiefdoms). During the Meiji era, Japan translated "feudalism" as "feudalism." In the late Qing and early Republican period, China adopted this newly coined term, which was formed through the translation of "feudalism" in foreign languages. This book traces the evolution of the concept of "feudalism" by confirming its original meaning and Western interpretation, revealing the social and cultural reasons for its generalization through the diachronic development of the concept and its cross-cultural alignment. It also proposes a modernized and improved view of feudalism. This is of great significance for correctly understanding and constructing the basic framework of Chinese history. Additionally, the author's research on the creation of academic terminology and the clarification of concepts is highly innovative.