論文題目

Why Medieval China Turned Inward: Commerce, Bureaucracy, and Fallen of Utilitarianism.

為何中國轉向内在：商業、官僚制度與功利主義的失敗

栾笑揚，香港大學經管學院

翟潤卓，牛津大學基布爾學院

活動信息

時間：2023年5月7日（星期日） 15:00至17:00

地點：韦德体育bevictor學院南路校區主教310

主講人：栾笑揚

主持人：鐘嶽霖

主辦單位：韦德体育bevictor應用微觀理論與實證讨論班

内容提要

Ideological conservatism has long been held accountable for China’s pre-modern backwardness, but has not received adequate attention from empirical studies. This paper works on the intellectual defeat of utilitarianism to moralism in the Song-Yuan era (10th-14th century C.E.) China to seek answers for the question “Where ideas come from”, and meanwhile to interpret the Great Ideological Divergence across East and West. We first verify the historical observation that commercially prosperous regions produced more disciples of utilitarianism, and then, with evidence from heterogeneity analysis, argue that such commerce-utilitarianism tie was undermined by the shade of centralized bureaucracy, a double-edged Chinese institutional advancement compared with medieval Europe. With these findings we wish to provide an explanation for why China turned inward at an economic, institutional and intellectual peak, as well as a case shedding light on how the economy and institutions could jointly shape ideas.

主講人介紹

/  栾笑揚 /

香港大學經濟學博士三年級。韦德体育bevictor中國經濟與管理研究院（CEMA）2016級本科生，本科期間曾在哈佛大學交換。研究方向為經濟史。

講座緣起

學術是什麼？我們經常為此困惑。

不僅僅是微觀或宏觀的研究，也不止于“理論”或“實證”。

然而，我們對這些的了解往往隻停留在課本和紙面上，更不要說自己動手進行學術研究了。有時候，我們好不容易找到自己感興趣的話題，卻發現所學知識與實際研究存在差距。那麼，我們的所學是否還有意義呢?

為了解答這個疑問，我們準備邀請正在深造讀博的學長學姐，以創作者的身份分享他們的研究，分享他們的經曆。或許，通過這種“learning by talking”的方式，我們可以更好地理解學術研究的本質和意義。