Saturday, May 01, 2010

The Autumn-Spring and Warring States and The Unification of China – The Formation of “Super Stable Structure” in Ancient China

Stanford ChinaRains

http://chinarains.blogspot.com

The Autumn-Spring and Warring States and The Unification of China

– The Formation of “Super Stable Structure” in Ancient China

春秋战国历史与中国的统一——古代中国“超稳定结构”的形成

Dingxin Zhao

Professor of Sociology

University of Chicago

赵鼎新

芝加哥大学 社会学系教授

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

7:30-9:00pm

Meyer Library, Room 143

560 Escondido Mall (Map: http://campus-map.stanford.edu/index.cfm?ID=03-400)

Working language: Chinese

言:中文

Outline of the talk:

讲座概要:

本次演讲将为大家介绍一个从韦伯和斯宾赛的理论演化而来的社会变迁模型。这个模型的应用能够揭开许多历史轨迹的关键。其对于理解中国的过去,尤其是春秋战国历史,尤为重要。演讲的内容将涉及以下问题:为什么春秋战国时期的中国在政治、意识形态、军事和经济等方面取得了非同寻常的快速发展?在春秋战国时期为什么国家权利能够持续增强,从而引起强大并且军事化的官僚国家的形成?为什么中国能够在公元前221年得到统一,在诸国列强中为什么是秦国在激烈的军事冲突中赢得了胜利?为什么皇权系统在中国得以从公元前221年延续到20世纪早期而不发生重大变化?为什么军事指挥官在内战当中发挥的作用不大?为什么宗教没有对中国的政治产生重大影响?历史上影响中国与游牧民族关系的因素有哪些?为什么中国没有发生工业革命等等。

This talk presents a general model of social change developed from the theories of Max Weber and Herbert Spencer. The model is applied to address numerous research questions and historical patterns crucial to understanding the Chinese past, especially the history of the Spring-Autumn and Warring States (SA&WS) era (770-221 BCE). Some of those research questions and historical patterns include: Why was China able to achieve an unusual pace of development in politics, ideology, military and economy in the SA&WS era? Why was the state power able to attain increasing domination during the SW&WS, leading to the rise of the strong and militarized bureaucratic state? Why could China end in unification in 221 BCE and why was it Qin rather than the other states that won out in the fierce military conflict? Why could a similar imperial system persist in China most of the time from 221 BCE to the early 20th century? Why did military commanders play little role in politics except during civil wars? Why did transcendental religions fail to have a great impact on Chinese politics?

What were the forces that shaped nomads-Chinese relationships in imperial China? Why didn’t an industrial revolution take place in China?

Bio of The Speaker:

演讲者简介:

赵鼎新教授任教于芝加哥大学社会学系。他的研究方向包括社会运动、民族主义、历史社会学、社会变迁以及经济发展。他目前的研究工作试图从历史社会学的角度,比较中国与欧洲的经验,从而建构一个基于经验研究的理论,并以此来解释中国春秋战国时期的国家、军队、经济与哲学系统、秦国对中国的统一、以及春秋战国对中国后来历史的影响。在斯坦福大学访问期间,赵鼎新教授致力于此项研究成果的书稿写作。

Dingxin Zhao is professor in Sociology at the University of Chicago. His research covers social movements, nationalism, historical sociology, social change and economic development. He is currently working on a project on historical sociology, which, based on a comparison with the European experience, is intended to develop an empirically-grounded theory to explain the changes in state, military, economy and philosophy during China's Axial Age (722-221 BCE), the unification of China under the Qin Empire (221-206 BCE), and how the developments of this period shaped China's later history. He intends to devote his time here at Stanford to write a book, and is very much looking forward to getting to know more about Stanford and the faculty and students of this school.

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