Huang Renyu's Research On Social Structure

Ray Huang,a Chinese-American historian,was famous for his book 1587,A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline.Then his book like The Grand Canal during the Ming Dynasty,1368-1644;Taxation and Governmental Finance in 16 th Century Ming China;China: A Macro History;Macro-historical Observations: China and Western World;Capitalism and the 21 st Century;Yellow River And Blue Mountains: A Biography of Ray Huang,etc.were published in China one after another,resulted in the formation of “the phenomenon of Ray Huang”.As a historian who switched to history study half-prepared and achieved much more profound academic attainments in his later life,Ray Huang gained honors and controversies in one set.There were mainly about his macro-history and particular method of historical narrative.Based on his macro-history,Ray Huang putted forward a series view about the social structure of China,we named it “Ray Huang's Theory of Social Structure”.Ray Huang lived in China in his first 30 years,and America,England and other western countries the next 50 years in his life.Before he went abroad to pursue his study in America,he experienced the development of Chinese history: the deep feeling of “the White Terror” in Changsha in his childhood;the phenomenon of taking forms more important than contents in Kuomintang's army and the backwardness of China's inland areas;the thinking about life and reality on the battlefield.These experiences made him paid close attention to the problem of social structure of China.His study about Chinese history began with the grand canal and taxation and government finance during the Ming dynasty,then the publication of 1587,A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline made him a famous historian after many years research.At the end of this book he made a clear statement of his point about the social structure at the end of Chinese traditional society.From his point of view,the social structure throughout the Chinese traditional social period was like a “submarine sandwich”,and like the font of Chinese character “Li” in Chinese modern society,correspondingly.This is the contents of “Ray Huang's Theory of Social Structure”.Ray Huang's theory of social structure was concluded from his study about Chinese history and comparison between Chinese and western under the guidance of his macro history.His historian research method was like using telescope and to started with government finance and taxation,then he made conclusions through a comprehensive summary.The study of the social structure about Chinese traditional society was just for finding a way to modern society,combing with history and reality,and gonging out of the plight of modernization.In his mind,the most important in Chinese modern society is building a social structure like the font of Chinese character “Li”,and strengthening the construction of legal system.Ray Huang's study of social structure is a kind of total history study,it will have an impact on the fragmentation tendency of history research.His theory of social structure was under the background of word history,from this historical perspective Ray Huang found the uniqueness of Chinese social structure.Although as a Chinese-American historian,his study of social structure still has limitations for a certain extent because of his identity,position and historical research method,we can conclude that there are guidance and reference in Ray Huang's theory of social structure on the study of history and Chinese social structure.