Description

This talk presents a general model of social change developed from the theories of Max Weber and Herbert Spencer. The model is applied to address numerous research questions and historical patterns crucial to understanding the Chinese past, especially the history of the Spring-Autumn and Warring States (SA&WS) era (770-221 BCE). Some of those research questions and historical patterns include: Why was China able to achieve an unusual pace of development in politics, ideology, military and economy in the SA&WS era? Why was the state power able to attain increasing domination during the SW&WS, leading to the rise of the strong and militarized bureaucratic state? Why could China end in unification in 221 BCE and why was it Qin rather than the other states that won out in the fierce military conflict? Why could a similar imperial system persist in China most of the time from 221 BCE to the early 20th century? Why did military commanders play little role in politics except during civil wars? Why did transcendental religions fail to have a great impact on Chinese politics? What were the forces that shaped nomads-Chinese relationships in imperial China? Why didn’t an industrial revolution take place in China despite of the existence of a highly developed market economy in late imperial China?

Dingxin Zhao is Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago. He is interested in political and historical sociology broadly defined. His research covers the areas of history and historical sociology, social movement and revolution, nationalism, social change and economic
development. His interests also extend to sociological theory and methodology. Zhao has publications in journals such as American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Sociology, Problems of Post-Communism and China Quarterly. He has published an awards-winning book entitled Power of Tiananmen (2001), which studies the 1989 Pro-democracy Movement in Beijing. He has also published two books in Chinese. They are Social and Political Movements (2006) by the Academy of Social Science Press, and Eastern Zhou Warfare and the Rise of the Confucian-Legalistic State (2006) jointly published by the Huadong Normal University Press and Sanlian Press. He is a current fellow of the Center for Advanced Study for the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.