Professor Jiang Xidong Published a Paper in Social Sciences in China

Recently, Professor Jiang Xidong from the Center for History of Song Dynasty, Hebei University (HBU) published his paper "The Development Level of Productivity in Song Dynasty" on Social Sciences in China (Issue 7, 2022), a leading journal in philosophy and social sciences. This paper is an achievement for the current stage, which is under the project "Research on the Development of Productivity and Tang-Song Transition", supported by the National Social Science Fund. It marks a great breakthrough in publication on leading journals, which is made by the key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences of Ministry of Education, HBU.

The paper pointed that the development of productivity, a foundational issue, should be given first priority to research when discussing the development and change of social history. In Song Dynasty, much headway was made in production technology, production object, production tool, at least 45 items, including no less than 15 items in agriculture, no less than 30 items in handicraft industry. As a whole, the development level of productivity of Song Dynasty surpassed that of previous dynasties. But there is still limitations. Seven items were major constraints on further development of productivity at that time. Compared with both previous dynasties and Ming, Qing Dynasties, Song Dynasty boasted the highest development level of productivity. The development of Song, the stagnation of Ming, Qing, and the rise of Europe, all above depend firstly on the development level of productivity.

Founded in 1980, Social Sciences in China is a comprehensive journal related to philosophy and social sciences. It publishes bleeding-edge research results in relevant fields and is hailed by the academic community as one with the highest level among China’s comprehensive journals regarding humanities and social sciences.