Ming-Qing Studies in Japan: 1984

Abstract

Until recently many studies in Ming and Qing history have been concerned with trying to elucidate social and economic processes of development in land relations. This has led to a thinning in the ranks of scholars in fields other than social and economic history and to an ossification of other research topics. The Qing dynasty has generally been seen both as an alien conquest dynasty and as the last native, "Chinese-style" autocratic dynasty in an agricultural society. Although the Qing did have this dual quality, few have examined the issue comprehensively. It would be no exaggeration to say that the two sides have been severed and researched independently. The tendency to treat the period before the Manchus entered China separately from the period after, and the fact that few scholars have examined the eight gū;sa (banners) system of banner lands and imperial villas as research subjects in social and economic history, provide but one reflection of this problem.