Academic literature on the topic 'Qin and Han dynasties'

The Chinese experience in the development of accounting thought and economic statistics is of a particular interest to Russian scientific thought, since China has been confidently demonstrating economic success for many years. The research was carried out using the methods of sampling, grouping, systematization, comparison and generalization. The historical approach was applied to the analysis of theoretical and practical materials in the Chinese language. The two periods of the development of Chinese statistical thought are distinguished: 1) the period of the Qin dynasty (221-207 BC), starting from which the Chinese state is usually regarded as centralized, and statistical accounting is regarded as national; 2) the period of the Han dynasty (206 BC — 220 AD), during which the active development of statistical accounting continued and a fairly effective system was formed that satisfies all the needs of the state at the central and local level. The practical significance of the work lies in highlighting the methods of centralizing the collection of statistical data and the organization of statistics in China, the regulation of statistical accounting and related accounting. The article presents ideas and practical recommendations of the main thinkers, academicians and scientists (such as Sima Qian, Xu Gan) in the field of statistical accounting in China at that time.


 
 
 As the first dictionary analyzing the structures of Chinese characters, explaining the meanings and identifying the pronunciations, the book ShuoWenJieZi (literally means discussing writing and explaining characters) compiled by Xu Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty is of important significance in the Chinese language history as well as social language history. By means of researches on the section headers related to “fish” in the book, the development of both the fishery and fish food culture in the Qin and Han Dynasties can be discussed. Based on the section headers related to “fish” in the book ShuoWenJieZi, this paper analyzes the fishery development in the Qin and Han dynasties and examines the tradition of food culture reflected by the section headers related to “fish” as well as the prosperity and development of fish-eating culture.
 
 

Abstract To call the period from Qin Dynasty to Qing Dynasty a “feudal society” is a misrepresentation of China’s historical reality. The fengjian system only occupied a secondary position in Chinese society from the time of Qin. It was the system of prefectures and counties (junxianzhi) that served as the cornerstone of the centralized power structure. This system, together with the institution of selecting officials through the imperial examination, constituted the centralized bureaucracy that intentionally crippled the hereditary tradition and the localized aristocratic powers, and hence bolstered the unity of the empire. Feudalism in medieval Western Europe shares many similarities with that of China during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, but is quite different from the monarchical centralism since the time of Qin and Han. Categorizing the social form of the period from Qin to Qing as “feudal” makes the mistake of over-generalizing and distorting this concept. It runs counter to the original Chinese meaning of fengjian, and severely deviates from the western connotation of feudalism. Moreover, the decentralized feudalism in pre-Qin dynasties and the later centralized imperial system from Qin onwards influenced the generation and evolution of Chinese culture in vastly different ways.