In recent years, the Jiangnan Market towns in the Ming-Qing period have become a major topic of Ming-Qing studies. Based upon the increasing number of market towns, researchers agree that the Jiangnan region became increasingly urbanized since the mid-Ming period. Examination of changes in the number of the market town, however, discloses more than the mere fact of urbanization itself.
Following standard methodology, this study first demonstrates the phenomenon of urbanization in the Sunan region by using the numbers of market towns. Because the market towns in different periods were marked in maps one by one to avoid duplication, and as more source materials are available today, we can depict the trend of urbanization in the Sunan region more accurately.
This study shows that, behind the ostensible urbanization there was a more complex process. While many new market towns rose up, many old ones gradually disappeared. The life-span for many of the market towns was relatively short. These features indicate the highly unstable nature of traditional market towns in the Ming-Qing period.
While making use of the number of market towns to illustrate urbanization in the Jiangnan region, scholars often ignore differences among the market towns. If big and small towns are counted as equal, the total number creates an illusion about the extent of urbanization in the Ming-Qing Jiangnan region. By resolving this problem, we can see that urbanization in pre-modern Jiangnan was extensive rather than intensive.
Jiangnan, Sunan, quantity of market towns, size of market towns
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