變革論의 동아시아적 환류

The Return Current of the Transition Theory in East Asia - The Recent Study of “Theory of Tang󰠏Song Transition” in China

The theory of “the period of transition in Tang and Song Dynasties” has been discussed about a century in Japan. Naito Konan presented the Theory of Tang-Song Transition in Chinese history in the early 20th century. Naito addressed that the Song dynasty was the beginning of modern China. In the past century, scholars in Japan and Europe, and the United States of America have been analyzing and expounding it from different angles. Yet the Chinese academic world of history has not faced up the theory so far. For a long time, the theory of “long-term standstill” in the studies of Chinese ancient history misled people to think that the 2000 years of ancient China was on the same stage of development without any substantial changes and that they had not seen great changes until the period of Tang and Song dynasties. Recently, the Theory of Tang-Song Transition is fiercely debated in field of historical study in the Chinese academic world. Since the policy of the reform and opening, the study of “the period of transition” has made great progress and tried to find a clue for the beginning of early modern period in Chinese history. Therefore many Chinese scholars are concerned that great changes took place at the turn of the Tang and Song dynasties.