Research on Cities and Towns in Jiangnan Delta

Introduction For more than a thousand years, the Jiangnan Delta has always been the core area of China's economic development. Among them, the existence of developed towns and town networks in Jiangnan is not only a key factor in the sustainable development of Jiangnan, but also an important manifestation of Jiangnan's economic prosperity. This unique phenomenon has attracted long-term attention from generations of scholars in China and overseas. From 1988 to 1991, six Chinese history and geography scholars from the Faculty of Letters and the Ministry of Education of Nagoya University conducted four field surveys in cities and towns in Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang and other places. The scope of investigation ranges from ancient human remains and biological fossils to recent village governance and industrial production, and also includes issues such as topography, public facilities, families, sacrifices, beliefs, heritage protection, and historical compilation. This book is a compilation of the academic achievements of these six scholars based on this investigation, supplemented by documentary materials, covering the formation of the town, the role of the town director, the status of the neighborhood committee, the operation of the market, the general history of a town, and even the landform characteristics of the entire Jiangnan Delta. In terms of methods, these studies all reflect the interaction of time and space, the dialogue between field and literature, and also provide examples for interdisciplinary exchanges of research themes and problem awareness.