Quan Hansheng

Quan Hansheng

Quan Hansheng (1912-2001), a historian and educator, is a famous expert in the study of Chinese economic history. He has served as director general of Academia Sinica and researcher of Institute of history and language of Academia Sinica, professor and head of Department of economics of Taiwan University, Professor of Chinese University of Hong Kong, President of New Asia College, director of New Asia Institute and academician of Academia Sinica. He has been a visiting scholar and researcher at the invitation of University of Chicago, Columbia University, Harvard University and Toyo Library of Japan. His main works are "Treatise on Chinese economic history" (including 33 papers), "Research on Chinese economic history" (including 21 papers), "a brief history of Hanyeping company". Other monographs include notes of the Yuan Dynasty, remarks against western culture in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, Korean War and far east economy, and history of Chinese guild system.

Life of the characters

He was born in Shunde, Guangdong Province on November 19, 1912.

In 1915, because of the flood, the family moved to Foshan town. He first studied in Foshan private school, moved to Guangzhou in 1926, entered the city No.1 middle school the next year, and graduated in the summer of 1931. Soon he was admitted to the Department of history, National Peking University.

During the semester, he was especially influenced by Tao Xisheng, Professor of politics, Chen Shouyi, director and professor of history, and Fu Sinian, director and professor of history department, Institute of history and language, Academia Sinica. Mr. Tao teaches the history of Chinese society and economy, and he is interested in it. He feels that there are many new fields to be developed in this field, so he decides to take it as his lifelong career.

Mr. Tao encouraged Mr. Tao to contribute to the food bimonthly and publish his work history of China's guild system. With the help of pen work, Mr. Tao's living expenses in the third and fourth grades of university can be settled. Every time I remember this great virtue, my husband is still very grateful.

Mr. Chen recommended that his two works "the theory that Western learning originated in China" in the late Qing Dynasty and "the speech against Westernization in the late Qing Dynasty" were published in Lingnan journal; someone commented that "the theory that Western learning originated in China" in the late Qing Dynasty "was one of the only two works with" single concept "as the central theme by the early scholars in the history of the thought of the rule of the people in the late Qing Dynasty.

Mr. Fu's pursuit of erudition and profundity in his studies and his teaching of collecting historical materials are not empty words. This pragmatic and realistic attitude will become his research and writing policy in the future. After graduating in 1935, Mr. Fu was recommended by Mr. Chen and became an assistant in the Institute of history and philology. Since then, he has devoted himself to research and forged a lifelong bond with the Institute of history and philology.

During the war of resistance against Japan, he followed the Institute of history and language to Changsha, Hunan, Kunming, Yunnan and Lizhuang, Sichuan. He was promoted to assistant researcher in 1941 and associate researcher in 1943. During this period, he had a good friendship with Mr. Liang Fangzhong of the Institute of Social Sciences of Academia Sinica. Every time Mr. Liang had a new book, he would review it carefully and put forward his criticism, which benefited him from his good friend's challenge.

From entering the Institute of history and philology to moving to Lizhuang, his research interests focused on the Tang and Song Dynasties, as well as the Wei, Jin, southern and Northern Dynasties and the Yuan Dynasty. In the study of the economic history of the Tang and Song Dynasties, according to the historical facts, the book "Tang and song Empire and the canal" analyzes the Grand Canal connecting the economic center of the South and the military and political center of the north, which either smooth or hinder the relationship with the prosperity and decline of the Tang and Song dynasties. It has made outstanding achievements and won a special award from the Ministry of education of the national government.

His other major contribution is to explore the relationship between commercial development and the urbanization of Hangzhou, Bianliang, Yangzhou and Guangzhou, especially focusing on the possible impact of transportation and international trade on urban development.

Or because of the experience of wartime inflation, money and price changes became the most interesting research topic in his life, and he also became a pioneer in the study of Chinese price history. In 1942, the article "inflation in the late Song Dynasty and its impact on prices" was published in the Journal of the Institute of history and Philology, which was highly praised by the academic circles.

Mr. Jin Yufu, a famous historian of Northeast China, Song Dynasty, Liao Dynasty and Jin Dynasty, commented in his diary that this article "has made great contributions to the study of several books" and that "the historical materials covering the last years of the Southern Song Dynasty are extremely scarce, so it is very difficult for the whole emperor to search the anthologies of the people of the Song Dynasty, and to record every word in it." Later, in the first month of the next year, he wrote to Mr. Fu, saying that "it is rare for him to study."

Another long article, natural economy of Middle Ages, published in the Journal of the collection, is still the most important work on the evolution of Chinese currency from Wei Jin to the middle of Tang Dynasty. Due to the lack of historical materials and the disunity of monetary system and weights and measures in the past, it is not easy to carry out the historical study of Chinese prices. We have a general understanding of the price changes in the past thousand years. Mr. Wang has made great achievements in this field, and his outstanding achievements in this field are beyond others' ability.

In October 1944, Mr. Meng Fu and Mr. Tao Menghe, director of the Institute of Social Sciences, were promoted. Mr. Meng Fu was sent to the United States to study in Harvard, Columbia and Chicago AbbottP.Usher , ShepherdB.Clough and JohnU.Nef He learned new ideas and methods from foreign economic historians and established contacts with western economic historians to lay the foundation for future academic exchanges.

At the end of the Second World War, he was far away from his poor home and experienced the advanced and rich material civilization of the United States. Inspired by Nef's the rise of the British coal industry, he began to pay attention to the important historical topic of why China's modern industrialization was slow and inadequate.

In 1947, when he returned to Nanjing, he took a part-time course in the Department of economics of Central University, teaching Chinese and western economic history.

In January 1949, he moved to Taiwan with the Institute of history and Philology and worked as a lifelong researcher. At the same time, he was instructed by Fu Sinian, then president of Taiwan University, to teach in the Department of economics of National Taiwan University and to do his best to cultivate talents in economic history. From 1952 to 1955, he was also the head of the Department. Mr. Hu Shizhi served as acting director general of Academia Sinica until September 1961. At that time, he was in financial difficulties. He took great pains to prepare for the new Institute and expand the equipment of the Institute.

Since 1949, the focus of his research has shifted to Ming, Qing and modern times, which mainly focused on two major topics: modern industrial construction and modern currency and price history.

Before he went to the United States in 1961, he either made an extensive investigation of China's modern industrialization or made an in-depth case study of key enterprises, regions and problems. Among the research achievements, Hanyang Iron Works and Hanyeping company, Jiangnan manufacturing Bureau, and China's industrialization before the Sino Japanese War of 1894-1895 are all masterpieces.

After revisiting Harvard University in 1955, he returned to China through Europe and began to explore the interaction between the eastern and Western economies after the Ming and Qing Dynasties, especially focusing on the impact of the inflow of silver from America on China's financial and economic life. With the help of disciple Wang Yejian, we can make full use of the data collected by Shiyu to explore the price of Qing Dynasty. We find that from the end of the 17th century to the end of the 18th century, grain and price showed a long-term upward trend, which was closely related to the large amount of silver imports from America. In addition, Mr. Wang also made a detailed study of regional grain price differences and economic exchanges.

Since then, Mr. Wang Yejian has made great contributions to the study of China's economic history by using economic development and monetary theory to expand the research scope.

This is an important opportunity to analyze the history of trade between China and the Philippines in the third year of his visit to Seattle and Harvard University in 1961.

In November 1965, he was employed to teach in the Department of history, New Asia College, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He taught Chinese social and economic history, modern Chinese economic history, and special research on Chinese economic history. In 1975, he was the president of New Asia College. Two years later, he retired from CUHK and became a senior researcher in the Institute of Chinese culture for one year. After that, he became a full-time professor and Dean of the New Asia Institute. He took over as director of the Institute for 11 years since 1983. In December 1984, he was elected academician of the 15th humanities group of Academia Sinica. Since 1989, he has been an academic consultant of the Institute of history and Philology, Academia Sinica, Institute of modern history and Zhongshan Institute of Humanities and social sciences. In September 1995, Mr. and his wife left Hong Kong for Taiwan and settled in Hsinchu.

During his 30 years in Hong Kong, he focused on the trade relations between China, the west, Japan, Portugal and the Netherlands and the price ratio of gold and silver. During the 400 years since the middle of Ming Dynasty, China's currency system can be regarded as a silver copper compound system. Mr. Wang's research focused on the money supply during this period, in order to understand the development of the currency system. He has published many important papers, such as "trade between China and the Philippines in the Ming Dynasty", "silver lessons and silver output in the Ming Dynasty", "copper industry in Yunnan in the Qing Dynasty" and "export trade of gold in China after the middle of Ming Dynasty".

Social evaluation

In the past 60 years of his academic career, his works have been very rich. From the Wei and Jin Dynasties to the eve of the Anti Japanese War, he has a long history. According to the preliminary statistics, there are 9 monographs, 115 papers, 10 book reviews, and 5 miscellaneous works. He has collected and quoted many historical materials, and has made detailed analysis. His academic views and achievements are highly valued and respected by scholars.

As soon as he entered the Institute of history and Philology, he followed Mr. Fu Sinian's instruction of "studying behind closed doors", formed a habit and worked hard to expand the scope of historical data collection, explore problems, write works as his lifelong ambition and hobby, and constantly absorbed the methods and achievements of western economic history research, which can be regarded as driving a new trend, opening up new horizons, and improving the research level of China's economic history He made great contributions to the pioneering work.

Looking back on the development of this academic field in the 20th century, we can see the footprints of Mr. Zhang's hard work for later scholars to follow up. His research attainments