On the History of Early Urbanization in China——An Investigation Along the Southern Part of the Yangze River

Early urbanization in China refers to the urbanization before the modem ages. Compared with modem urbanization, it has three characteristics: loose distribution of economic activities, assemblage of social activities and dissymmetry of the relatiomhip between town and country. Along the southern part of the Yangze River, early urbanization undergoes two development processes, which are both closely related and also independent: general urbanization around the city and country urbanization around the town. There are three gradually developing patterns: assemblage urbanization during Hantang period, tonga and country interactive urbanization in Song Dynasty and town- leading urbanization in Ming and Qing Dynasties. From this we can have an idea about the unique development of early urbanization.