Ray Huang (1918–2000)

歷史名著，從高中時期就想看，大學時期就買了放，然後....現在才真的看完。（感謝明朝那些事兒太精采了推了我一把。）他要推廣的論點就是最後一章的倒數第二段：萬曆十五年「表面上似乎是四海昇平，無事可記，實際上我們的大明帝國卻已經走到了它發展的盡頭。在這個時候，皇帝的勵精圖治或者晏安耽樂，首輔的獨裁或者調和，高級將領的富於創造或者習於苟安，文官的廉潔奉公或者貪污舞弊，思想家的極端進步或者絕對保守，最後的結果，都是無分善惡，統統不能在事實上取得有意義的發展。」他寫萬曆皇帝、首輔申時行、高級將領戚繼光、文官海瑞、思想家李贄，表面上是在寫他們的生平，其實是藉著他們的生平在佐證他這個論點。更具體的說，他認為這些人之所以不管做什麼都無法取得有意義的發展，是因為以道德為圭臬的的中央集權式文官集團，不可能對國家進行有效的管理。他在 1982寫成的後記裡，對現代中國的態度樂觀得多，因為中國已經可以「在數目字上管理」了（他的中文我覺得有點拗口.....）。他在後記裡還有一段提到一國兩制（喔耶我趕上了最近熱門議題），「一國兩制的精神需要彼此將眼光看遠，在長久的歷史中，找到合作的邏輯，而且今後也只有使兩方更為接近，不致越來越遠」。… (meer)

An admirably effective compression of 5000 years of Chinese history into two-hundred-odd pages.

However, I could not help but feel that Huang held back when it came to making wider-conclusions regarding Chinese history. This book is more a chronology of Chinese history, and less an analysis.

I read this book specifically because it was concise, but I can't help but feel that it would have benefited from an extra 30-50 pages of wider conclusions about the nature of 'dynastic cycle', for example, and other artifacts and dialects of Chinese history.

Recommended for those who want to dip their toes into the vast pool of Chinese history. However, if you've already read ANY other book on grand Chinese history, then don't bother with "China: A Macro History". There is nothing to squeeze out of it.… (meer)

This book examines the lives of several high ranking men to illustrate the ways in which the traditional government of Ming China was inflexible and unable to meet the needs of the nation. Far from a imperious ruler, the emperor himself was a prisoner of the bureaucrats, able only to fulfill or to ignore the prescribed routine of court appearances and ceremony. Corruption was encouraged by inadequate salaries for the thousands of civil officials, generals had no established armies and trade with the outside world was actively discouraged as a source of disorder. Yer the year chosen to illustrate this state of affairs does not offer examples of great disasters such as famine, flood or military defeat; just the slow decline in the system. Quite interesting although sometimes hard to keep track of names and titles and the jumping back and forth in time.… (meer)

This is a very detailed study of Chinese government finance in the Ming dynasty. It’s interesting to know that so much information is still available on this subject, but the financial statistics themselves are of course fairly tedious. The author intimates that the main problem in Ming public finance certainly was not over-taxation, but under-taxation. The level of technology and communication simply precluded a well-functioning administrative system covering the entire empire. This is an interesting conclusion, but it's only a conclusion. Instead of doing so much detailed statistical analysis, I wish the author had used the conclusion for proceeding towards more general arguments about the problems of government in sixteenth-century China. I cannot recommend this book to laymen, but experts in economic history may certainly like it.… (meer)