Urbanization is one of the most dynamic forms in the process of modernization, and the social reality that urbanization has swept the world since the industrial revolution has fully proved its universality. At the same time, in the field of humanities and social sciences, at least experts and scholars from sociology, demography, geography, economics, history and other different disciplines have given enthusiastic attention to this. The complicated urbanization theory and numerous urbanization research results make the concept of "urbanization" vague or even at a loss. Generally speaking, from the perspective of human behavior, sociologists believe that urbanization is a process in which people's behavior and lifestyle change from rural communities to urban communities; Demographers emphasize that urbanization is a process in which rural population is constantly concentrated in cities; Geologists regard urbanization as a kind of geographical landscape, and think that urbanization is the transformation process from rural areas to cities; Economists pay attention to the change of industrial structure and think that urbanization is the process of people's transformation from agriculture to non-agricultural sectors; Historians believe that urbanization is a historical process of transformation from a traditional agricultural society to a modern industrial society.

It should be said that it is a normal phenomenon in academic history to give "urbanization" different concepts and connotations from the basic characteristics of different disciplines. It is worth noting that no matter how many different concepts scholars have given to "urbanization", a "more important formulation" has been accepted by most disciplines, that is, the process of population concentration in cities is urbanization, because society is a population group based on common material production activities, and cities, as important social units, must concentrate a certain number of people; The source of population concentration must come from the countryside. H.T.Eidridge, who put forward this concept earlier, believes that the process of population concentration is the whole meaning of urbanization. The population is constantly concentrated in cities, and cities are also developing. When the population stops concentrating in cities, urbanization will also stop. (Note: See, Ning's Introduction to Urban Geography, Anhui Science and Technology Press, 1983, p. 17- 18. ) The definition of Encyclopedia Britannica is:

The term urbanization refers to the process of population concentration in towns or urban areas. This process of centralization is manifested in two forms, one is the increase in the number of towns, and the other is the continuous expansion of the population of cities. (Note: Selected Works of Foreign Urban Science, edited by Urban Research Office of Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, Guizhou People's Publishing House, 1984, p. 1. )

Therefore, the migration of rural population to cities is the core of urbanization.

Urbanization is also an important part of China's modernization. Since the twenties and thirties of this century, especially after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, with the extensive research on urban history at home and abroad, the research on population mobility and modern urbanization in China has achieved corresponding results. Reviewing this in the sense of academic history may play a certain role in promoting the study of modern urban history in China.

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Looking back on the research process of Chinese and foreign scholars on modern population mobility and urbanization in China, I divide it into two stages with the 1970s as the boundary.

As early as the 1920s, the phenomenon of population mobility and urbanization in China attracted academic attention. However, until the early 1970s, for half a century, the research in this field still mainly stayed in the arrangement of relevant materials, and "enough systematic research" has not yet appeared. Chen Da, a famous sociologist, wrote in his English version of The Population of Modern China during the Second World War:

The domestic migration movement is the most common one. In recent decades, the population flow between rural and urban areas has been continuous. As a result of this movement, many young people moved from rural areas to cities, including the Yangtze River valley and coastal cities, such as Shanghai, Wuxi, Hankou, Guangzhou and Tianjin. A steady stream of immigrants come from the countryside. Although there is not enough systematic research on the attraction and centrifugal force of the migration movement, it is a common fact that a large number of people flow into cities. (Note: Chen Da: Population of Modern China, Tianjin People's Publishing House, 198 1 Edition, pp. 87-88. )

Domestic attention to this research field first appeared among active sociologists in the 1920s and 1930s. Wu Jingchao's Urban Sociology published by World Bookstore 1929 is the first such book in China. This book briefly points out the research scope of urban sociology, introduces the research methods of western urban sociology, and makes a preliminary discussion on urban economy, population, region and control. Some books on China's population problems have also begun to cover this field. For example, Li's Chronicles published by Shanghai World Bookstore 1922 contains the population data of various commercial ports and the list of cities with a population of 654.38+10,000. 1930 Xu Shilian published in the Commercial Press "Population Problems in China" (this book is a part of "Social Problems in China" that the author talked about in yenching university) with a section on "Urban and Rural Population Distribution", and estimated the proportion of urban and rural population in China at that time.

Since the 20th century, the problem of peasants leaving their villages has become one of the serious social problems in China. According to preliminary statistics, there are at least 20 papers about it. The most important one is Wu Zhixin's monograph "Peasants Leaving the Village in China", which was serialized in the No.34 issue 15 (1August 937) and No.22-24 issue (1February 937) of Oriental Magazine. This paper is divided into seven parts: background, reason, numerical analysis, outlet, social impact, prospect and conclusion, and makes a comprehensive and systematic study on this issue. Another important research paper is "On the Population Density in Jiangsu and Zhejiang" by geographer Zhu Kezhen (Oriental Magazine, Volume XXIII,No. 1 issue,1926,65438+10). On the basis of studying the population density in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, this paper makes a statistical classification of cities with a population of over 10,000 to 100,000 in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and compares them with the major countries in China and the world.

Japanese scholars have their own academic style in this field. During the 1920s and 1970s, Kato Fan, Nakamura Chunping and others made a lot of detailed research on China fairs in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and even in the Republic of China, and some of them also made statistics or estimates on the population of regional and even national fairs. (Note: See Skinner's/KLOC-Regional Urbanization in China in the 9th Century, note 20, originally published by Skinner. Cities in the Late Chinese Empire, Stanford. Stafford University Press, 1977. According to the publishing house, the author has read at least three Chinese versions of Shi Jianya's articles, namely, the second translation series of Foreign China Studies published by Qinghai People's Publishing House (1988); Tianjin Education Press 1989 published "Urban History Research" series1; Jilin Education Press, 199 1 Edition, A Study on the Late Feudal Cities in China-Shi Jian Cliff Style. However, there are annotated translations in the translation series of Studying in China, and the last two have never been published (or untranslated? ), it is also a pity. The following quotations from Shi Jianya's articles are all from the former. Kato Fanfan, a town and township in the Qing Dynasty, is a typical representative. Based on a large number of local chronicles from Kangxi, Qianlong to Guangxu, Xuan Tong and the Republic of China, this paper investigates the fairs in Zhili (Hebei), Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and other provinces, and estimates the average population of the fairs in each county as much as possible. (Note: The original text was published in1February 936, Volume 23, Volume 2 of Journal of Oriental Studies. For the Chinese translation, see Textual Research on Chinese Economic History by Kato Fan, Commercial Press, 1973. ) Another Japanese scholar who should not be forgotten is Maosaburo Iida. 1934 10 According to the speech made by Iida Maosaburo at the Lecture on China Issues of the Junshiro Foundation of the Month-Month, "China Population Research" was published by Hong and translated by Renren Bookstore in Beiping (Beijing). This book describes the urbanization of China in the early 1930s with the section "Composition of Urban and Rural Population in China". In addition, in the 6th issue of Volume I of Social Monthly (1929), Tanaka Zhongzhi, a former reporter of Shanghai Daily and Shanghai Weekly, published the article "The Problem of Peasants Leaving Villages in China", which was divided into the evolution, quantity, quality, reasons, types and categories of peasants leaving villages.

American scholars on the other side of the ocean have also contributed to the data collation and preliminary research in this field. The earliest compilation of this kind of information I have ever seen is Xia Zhishi's Detailed Notes on China Kunyu, which is mainly limited to the first decade of the 20th century. (Note: Father Richard: Comprehensive Geography of the Chinese Empire. In the following 40 years, there have been many works about urban population data: for example, stuffer compiled the data of 1922 in China Owner; (Note: Filling material: Christian occupation of China. ) Boris. P.Torgasheff compiled the urban population data from 65438 to the end of 0920s in his paper "Urban Population in China". (Noe: Boris P. Torgasheff: Urban Popularity in China, China Review, April 3. 1930) On the other hand, Gleen T. Trevartha synthesized various materials before1940s and wrote "China Cities: Quantity and Distribution"; The master of this kind of information is ullman ullman's book The City of Chinese mainland 1953- 1958. Both Shi Jianya and Dwight H. Perkins think this book is the most complete one of its kind. (Note: See Shi Jianya's Regional Urbanization in China in the19th Century, the second series of translation studies on China studies abroad, pp. 54-55, and Perkins's Agricultural Development in China (1368- 1968), Shanghai Translation Publishing House,1968. )

Before the 1970s, Shi Jianya's market system theory was the most theoretical theory in American research on modern cities in China. 1964- 1965 Shi Jianya's long article "Fair Trade and Social Structure in Rural China" was serialized in Asian Studies (Note: Skinner. Marketing and Social Structure in Rural China, Journal of Asian Studies 24. 1-3. ), based on the central place theory of the German scholar Walter Cista, Shi Jianya put forward a basic argument: compared with the central place at the next level, the central place at the next level can provide more, according to his field investigation in Gaodianzi, a market 25 kilometers southeast of Chengdu, Sichuan, and interviews with many mainland immigrants who have settled overseas, and referring to local chronicles and other publications. On this basis, history is divided into five levels of centers: grass-roots market, medium-sized market, central market, local city and regional city.

It should be said that the lack of "sufficient systematic research" in this field summarized by Mr. Chen Da in the 1940s continued until the 1970s. 1966, knight binning, the newly elected president of the American association for Asian studies, still said with regret in his inaugural speech entitled "China in modernization and early modern times":

Since the mid-19th century, the development of modern transportation and commerce, as well as the development of modern industry since the end of 19th century, has provided extraordinary stimulus for the development of cities. Although this development, like most other aspects of modernization, first appeared in foreign-controlled trading ports, before 19 19, pure China City also grew up to some extent. Unfortunately, there were few reliable data on the population of China during this period, and few people collected scattered data to illustrate the trend of urbanization. (Note: Knight Binet.Alfred's Modernization and China in Early Modern Times. For the translation, see Cyril Hirsch's Comparative Modernization, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 1996, p. 2 18. )

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After 1970s, the research in this field began to break the long-term silence, and the new situation first came from American Sinology.

Generally speaking, before 1970s, the research on the modern history of China in the United States was mainly influenced by Fei Zhengqing's "influence-response model" and Levinson's "tradition-modernity model". It is believed that China society is basically in a state of long-term stagnation, with periodicity, and lacks the internal motivation to break through the traditional social framework. It was only in the middle of19th century that it experienced drastic changes in the evolution of modern society. Cohen criticized it as a typical "Western Centrism". At the turn of the sixties and seventies, in the ideological trend of historical reflection rising in the United States, the younger generation of historians sharply criticized the disadvantages of "Westernization", and at the same time advocated taking China as the starting point and challenging it with empirical research results. Ke Wen summarized it as "China-centrism" and summarized its characteristics into four points:

(1) We should study the history of China from China instead of the west, and try our best to use internal (that is, China's) rather than external (that is, the west's) standards to determine which phenomena in China's history are of historical importance: (2) We should divide China into regions, provinces, prefectures, counties and cities in a "horizontal" way to carry out regional and local history research; (3) vertically dividing China society into several different classes, and promoting the writing of lower social history (including folk and non-folk history); (4) Warmly welcome all kinds of theories, methods and skills that have been formed in disciplines other than history (mainly social sciences, but not limited to this), and try to combine them with historical analysis. (Note: The discovery of history in China-the rise of China-centered view in the United States, translated by Ke and Lin Tongqi, Zhonghua Book Company, 1989, p. 165. )

Shi Jian Ya, a "geek" in the Department of Anthropology of Stanford University, is a representative figure of "China-centered theory", The City in the Later Period of Imperial China (Note: G William Skinner, Imperial China. Stanford university press 1997. ) pushed the study of urban history in the late Qing Dynasty to a new height. According to different themes, the book is divided into three parts, each part contains five or six papers, and there is a special introduction written by Shi Jianya. Among them, Shi's important papers are included, such as Regional Urbanization of China in the19th Century, Hierarchical System of Cities and Local Systems, Urban Development of Chinese Empire, etc. Norton Ginsburg, a professor at the University of Chicago, commented: "This book marks that China studies have jumped out of the obscure traditional Sinology and started to enter the track of comparative urban studies in history and social sciences." (Note: Quoted from Chen Qiaoyi: Two Book Reviews of the Last Reading City in China, Journal of Hangzhou University No.4, 1980. )

Shi Jianya's greatest contribution to the study of urban history in the late Qing Dynasty is his regional system theory. In his view, "in the early stage of industrialization, the national urbanization rate and China as a whole are actually meaningless. If we want to elaborate this issue systematically again, we must start from all regions. " (Note: The Second Series of Translation Series on Studying in China, p. 1. According to the level of water system from tributaries to mainstream, Shi Jianya divided China into nine regions: the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Lingnan, Southeast, Northwest, Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River, North China, Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River, Yunnan-Guizhou and Northeast China (Shi thought that this region was still developing before 1990s, so it was not suitable for systematic analysis as a complete region). Shi Jianya's division not only broke the traditional method of dividing China by political boundaries (i.e. provinces), but also changed the Weber model that has been regarded as impossible by western scholars since the 1920s. It is of great significance and far-reaching influence. Shi Jianya's theory did not stop there. He also introduced the central edge theory into his macro-regional theory, that is, every macro-region includes two parts: the center and the edge. The central area is the location of a big city, with a large population, large cultivated land area and developed transportation; On the other hand, the peripheral areas are more depressed and looser than the central areas in all aspects. In other words, population and resources tend to be concentrated in the central area, and the movement from the central area to the marginal area is becoming more and more sparse. Ke Wen commented on this: "In my opinion, the greatest advantage of Shi Jianya's positioning is that he also highlights the differences in space and time between regions and the central and marginal areas within each region." (Note: Ke Wen's previous book, page 145. It should be said that Shi Jianya's theory is not impeccable. For example, many scholars sharply criticize the theory of history and ignore the macro-regional relationship and the importance of ethnic factors in regional research. (Note: Barbara Thornton. Raymond H. Myers, The Spatial Study of China's Stories: A Test. Journal of Asian Studies (August, 1986). Gilbert rozman, Population and Marketing in China. Cambridge University. Press, 1982. )

It cannot be ignored that Shi Jianya's theory was influenced by rozman, a sociology professor at Princeton University. (Note: For the introduction of rozman, please see JUNG WOO: American historian Professor Gee rozman, in Trends in World History Research, No.3, 1989. Rozman's "China and the Japanese Urban Network in the Tokugawa Shogunate Period" was published in 1973 (Note: Clbretrozman, "China's Urban Network in the Qing Dynasty and Japan's Tokugawa Period". Princeton University Press, 1973. This book is a gift from Mr rozman. Thank you. ) established the theory of urban spatial network. Rozman believes that in the process of Sino-Japanese industrialization, China's urbanization obviously lags behind Japan's. On the title page of this book, he deliberately drew two pyramid-shaped figures to illustrate the differences in urban structure between China and Japan. Rozman emphasized that the population of China is concentrated in towns and villages, and there are few big cities with a population of more than one million, so the pyramid is a cone-shaped structure of "the top is small and the bottom is big". This urban network makes it difficult for China to form a complete urban system, thus weakening the centralized rule. The situation in Japan is just the opposite. Since the19th century, with the emergence of big cities around the country, the rural market declined, and the Japanese urban network took on a pyramid shape. The difference of urban network between China and Japan is reflected in the huge difference of urbanization index. According to Roche, in the18th century, the Japanese urbanization index was more than twice that of China, and the gap became wider and wider in the following century.

We should also pay attention to the relevant achievements of Perkins, an economics professor at Harvard University. The Development of Agriculture in China, 1368- 1968, was published by Perkins in the late 1960s (Note: Perkins Dwight's Agricultural Development in China, 1368- 1968, Chicago: Aldin, Wu Dan Chinese translation. ), there is a special section "Urban Population Data, 1900- 1958" as an appendix, which lists about 1900- 19 10, in the early 1920s, 1938.

Mr. Zhao Gang is a professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin, and he has devoted himself to the study of Chinese economic history for a long time. In my humble opinion, after 1980s, Mr. Zhao Gang began to pay attention to the study of China's urban history. 1983, the author's long article "Urban Population in the History of China" was published in Taiwan Province Food Monthly, Volume 13, No.3-4, which can be regarded as the representative work of urban population. This paper estimates the urban population from Warring States to modern times, and concludes that there are two turning points in the development of urban population in China history, namely, the Southern Song Dynasty in12nd century and the Late Qing Dynasty in19th century. In his view, the urban population of the Southern Song Dynasty accounted for 22.4% of the total population, which was the highest peak in the history of China, and fell to the lowest point in the middle of19th century. In the early 1990s, Historical Research magazine published Zhao Wen's History of China City from a Macro Perspective (Note: Historical Research 1993No. 1 issue. )。 1995 Taiwan Province lianjing publishing co., ltd published Zhao Gang's history of urban development in China, which included his main achievements in the study of urban history in China.

Finally, regarding the American case study of modern cities in China, we should pay the most attention to two books about Hankou by wlillan and T. Rowe, professors of history department of Hopkins University, namely, Hankou: Commerce and Society of a China City 1796- 1889, 1889. (Note: William T. Rowe and Hankou: Business and Society of a China City, 1796- 1889, Stanford University Press,1984; Hankou: Conflict and Community in a China City, 1796- 1895, Stanford University Press, 1989. ) Among them, in the work of 1989, in the first part, Luo William first discusses the "urban population", which involves the total population, population mobility and population heterogeneity of Hankou, so as to explore its conflict and community theme. William Rowan's book also takes Hankou as a case to deeply discuss the category of "public sphere of civil society" which has been popular in American Sinology since 1980s and 1990s. As Mr. Wang summarized, "Luo William's study of Hankou outlines a beautiful picture of the transfer of rights and interests from the state to the public sphere with historical facts." (Noe: Yang Nianqun: "A Case of China in the Study of Civil Society-Comment on Two Works on Hankou Studies", No.5 China Book Review, 1995. )

Liu Shijie, a scholar from Taiwan Province, has made many contributions to the study of towns in the south of the Yangtze River. His Research on Towns in the South of the Yangtze River in Ming and Qing Dynasties was published by China Social Sciences Press 1987, which included three papers, namely, Specialized Towns in the South of the Yangtze River, Town Development and Town Quantity Analysis after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, including Town Population Estimation. In addition, the Taiwan Province Institute of Modern History's "Regional Studies of Modern China" project has so far published six books, including Hubei, Shandong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Taiwan Province, Hunan, Jiangsu and Anhui, all of which are devoted to population and urbanization.

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At the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, with the emergence of a new situation in domestic historical research, "the study of urban history in China entered an unprecedented period of prosperity" (Zhang Zhongli). During the Seventh Five-Year Plan period, the history of Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing and Wuhan was listed as a key research topic by the National Planning Group for Philosophy and Social Sciences. In 1990s, many monographs on four cities came out one after another. During the period of 10, there have been more than a thousand academic papers on urban history. Various academic seminars on urban history have been held in various places; A special magazine, Urban History Research, came into being. Some scholars predict that urban history may become a breakthrough in the study of China's modern history.

Although this research is only a part of the study of modern urban history in China, its achievements are gratifying enough. In addition to the History of Four Cities, which was listed as the key research during the Seventh Five-Year Plan period, there is a special chapter or section on urban population (Note: Research on Modern Shanghai Cities, edited by Zhang Zhongli, published by Shanghai People's Publishing House1990; Modern Chongqing History, edited by Wei Yingtao 199 1 China Social Sciences Publishing House. History of Tianjin City, edited by Luo, published by China Social Sciences Press,1993; Modern Wuhan City History, edited by Pi Mingdian, published by China Social Sciences Press, 1993. He has also published monographs on population studies in Shanghai, Tianjin, Beijing and other places: Zou Yiren's Study on Population Changes in Old Shanghai was published by Shanghai People's Publishing House,1980; The Population History of Tianjin (1990) edited by Li Jingneng was published by Nankai University Press. Han Guanghui's Historical Population Geography of Beijing 1996 was published by Peking University Publishing House. In addition, he also wrote Population Issues and Modern Society, Modern Population History of China, Chinese Immigration History edited by Ge, Modern Beijing-City Construction and Social Transformation edited by Cao, and Social Mentality of Modern Shanghainese 1860- 19 10. Tang Zhenchang's History of Shanghai, Southeast Coastal Cities and China's Modernization, Mao's Leaping the Mountains into Peaks-the Track of Urban Modernization in the Lower Yangtze River, Qiao Zhiqiang's Modern Social History of China, Late Refugees in China, He Yimin's Outline of China's Urban History, and China's Urban System-History and Present Situation. There are also two books on the study of towns in the south of the Yangtze River: Fan Shuzhi's Exploration of Towns in the South of the Yangtze River in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and A Study on the History of Towns in Hangjiahu, Chen Xuewen in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Compared with relevant monographs, there are relatively few academic papers in this field, with only 30 articles in preliminary statistics. 1989' s paper "On Population Urbanization in Modern China" may be the earliest academic paper in this field. This paper preliminarily discusses the historical fact that China's urbanization level was ahead in ancient times and backward in modern times, and puts forward my humble opinion on the development mode of urbanization in modern China and the relationship between urbanization and modernization. Although inevitable, it seems to have attracted a lot of attention. After the 1990s, academic papers in this field gradually increased, among which Mr. Le Zheng's "Modern China's Port Opening, Trade and Urbanization (1840-1911)" and "Modern Urban Development and China Model Theme" discussed the start and delay of modern China's port opening, trade and urbanization, and modern urbanization. Gong's Study on Modern Population Urbanization in China also lists and discusses the general situation, causes and characteristics of modern population urbanization in China. Wang Yuesheng's "Population Mobility in Modern China" focuses on urban and rural population mobility, and discusses two issues: the form of population mobility, the identity of migrants, the whereabouts and geographical composition of floating population; Zhang Jingyue's "Population Changes and Social Economy in the Period of Beiyang Government" also briefly expounds the acceleration of population urbanization and the modernization trend of social economy in this period; Zhang Qingjun's Analysis of Urban Population Structure in the Republic of China analyzes the gender structure, age structure, marriage structure, occupation structure and education structure of urban population in the Republic of China. There are two articles about the problem of peasants leaving the village: The Problem of Peasants Leaving the Village in the Early 1930s by Wang Wenchang and Rusic's analysis of the phenomenon of peasants leaving the village in modern China. (Note: The above is a comprehensive research achievement in this field. For details, see Modern History Research,No. 1989,No. 1; Journal of Sun Yat-sen University 199 1, Tianjin Social Sciences No.21992; China Population Science, No.6,1989; Population Economy, No.4,1991; Modern China, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press, Series 3; Republic of China Archives 1992. 1; Historical Research 1993 No.2; Research on Chinese Economic History, No.3, 1995. Papers on case studies of urban population have also been published from time to time. It mainly includes He and Wu Shenyuan's Historical Population Research in Shanghai, Preliminary Study on Floating Population in Beijing in Qing Dynasty, Dai Yifeng's Population Migration and Urbanization in Modern Fujian, Brief Discussion on Modern Dalian Urban Population, Zhu Juying's Population Mobility in Modern Ningbo and Its Social Significance, Sichuan Urban Development in the Late Qing Dynasty and Early Republic of China, and He Yimin's Urban Population Development in Modern Chengdu. Wendy's Chongqing Immigrants, Immigrant Society and Urban Development in Qing Dynasty, Ji's Analysis of Tianjin's Urban Population in Traditional Period, Zhang Limin's Theory of Modern Tianjin's Urban Population Development, and Xu Shan's 16- 19 th Century Shandong Population Non-agricultural Trend (Note: See Journal of Fudan University No.4,/kloc-) Population Economy, No.6,1989; Research on Chinese Economic History, No.2,1989; Journal of Social Sciences, No.2,1993; Jianghai Daily No.5,1993; Modern History Research No.65438 +0993 No.65438 +03; Urban history research series 1, 2, 4, 1 1- 12. In addition, I have seen unpublished papers, including Dr. Du Yu's graduation thesis "Research on Modern China Trading Ports", Dr. Xia's graduation thesis "Disasters, Environment and Rural Society in the Republic of China" and Ma's "Population Problems in Regional Social and Economic Development-1368-191year".

The research on towns since Ming and Qing Dynasties, especially the research on towns in the south of the Yangtze River, has made remarkable achievements. Two comprehensive urban research papers related to this field are The Rise and Fall of Modern Towns in China by Huang Wei and The Quantitative Development of Modern Towns in China by Ci. (Note: See the 3rd and 4th issues of 1979 respectively; China Social Sciences 1996 No.2, there are at least several hundred research papers on regions and case towns, so I won't repeat them here.

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After the above-mentioned scanning review of this research field, it is necessary to spend a little pen and ink to talk about the difference between urban development history and urbanization history. The author thinks that urban history and urbanization history are two related and different research categories. As far as contact is concerned, the research objects of both are inseparable from the historical urban objects; As far as differences are concerned, the question to be answered by urban history is the development history of the city itself, while the focus of urbanization history is the process of urbanization. When a town or city appears on the earth, it does not mean that the history of urbanization has begun. As a universal phenomenon in the world, urbanization is a historical process that originated from the industrial revolution in the late18th century and has not yet been completed. It is in this sense that Marx said that "modern history is the urbanization of rural areas" is also based on such an understanding. The above summary is mainly limited to the research in this field, rather than the whole research field of modern urban history in China. (Note: Readers who are interested in a comprehensive understanding of the research status of modern urban history in China at home and abroad can refer to Liu Haiyan's Review and Prospect of Modern Urban History Research in China (Historical Research 1992 No.3), Wendy's Modern American Research on Modern Cities in China (Historical Research 1996 No.0/Issue) and History. See the appendices of Urban History Research 1 series and 1 1- 12 series for details. )