Abstract:

It is still not clear about rural-urban relations in past researches on the issue. Although those relations are of importance in studies on social developments of ancient China, misunderstandings of them still exist in many researches. Most important of all, the problem that those rising market towns in Ming-Qing times belonged to the rural or urban area has been not yet solved to our day. This paper points out whether market towns attach to a city or not should be determined in accordance with historical situations and public identity instead of any modern theory or criterion.

Key words: city, country, rural-urban relation, social elite