duction to the Economic
History of China_, London 1954, by E. Stuart Kirby is certainly still
the best brief introduction into all problems of Chinese Economic
history and contains a bibliography in Western and Chinese-Japanese
languages. Articles by Chinese authors on economic problems have been
translated in E-tu Zen Sun and J. de Francis, _Chinese Social History_;
Washington 1956.--Data on the size of early cities have been collected
by T. Sekino and Kato Shigeru.
p. 56: T. Sekino studied the forms of cities. G. Hentze believes that
the city even in the Shang period normally had a square plan.--T. Sekino
has also made the first research on city coins. Such a privilege and
such independence of cities disappear later, but occasionally the
privilege of minting was given to persons of high rank.--K. A. Wittfogel,
_Oriental Despotism_, New Haven 1957 regards irrigation as a key
economic and social factor and has built up his theory around this
concept. I do not accept his theory here or later. Evidence seems to
point towards the importance of transportation systems rather than of
government-sponsored or operated irrigation systems.--Concerning steel,
we follow Yang K'uan; a special study by J. Needham is under
preparation. Centre of steel production at this time was Wan (later
Nan-yang in Honan).--For early Chinese law, the study by A. F. P. Hulsewe,
_Remnants of Han Law_, Leiden 1955 is the best work in English. He does
not, however, regard Li K'ui as the main creator of Chinese law, though
Kuo Mo-jo and others do. It is obvious, however, that Han law was not a
creation of the Han Chinese alone and that some type of code must have
existed before Han, even if such a code was not written by the man Li
K'ui. A special study on Li was made by O. Franke.
p. 57: In the description of border conditions, research by O. Lattimore
has been taken into consideration.
p. 59: For Shang Yang and this whole period, the classical work in
English is still J. J. L. Duyvendak, _The Book of Lord Shang_, London
1928; the translation by Ma Perleberg of _The Works of Kung-sun
Lung-tzu_, Hongkong 1952 as well as the translation of the _Economic
Dialogues in Ancient China: The Kuan-tzu_, edited by L. Maverick, New
Haven 1954 have not found general approval, but may serve as
introductions to the way philosophers of our period worked. Han Fei Tzu
has been translated by W. K. Liao, _The Complete Works of Han Fei Tzu_,
London 1939 (only part 1)
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