The Chinese Market Economy, 1000–1500 by William Guanglin Liu (review)

by Benedict Anderson,5 only to argue that, despite some similarities, what she is describing is the circulation of political information (i.e., printing) as a means of “solidifying the imperial mission in times of crisis” (p. 27). Some years ago, Rolf Trauzettel argued that early Southern Song irredentism should be understood from a proto-national frame of reference.6 While that appeared insightful at the time, I find De Weerdt’s formulation persuasive, that what we see here is a commitment to empire, not country or nation. Whether or not this commitment lasted through the late dynasties, as she suggests, is a question to be addressed by others. But she has produced an exhaustively researched and richly textured treatment of printing, literati, and the state, as well as discourses about and conceptualizations of empire in Southern Song China, a study that will long shape how we think about these matters.