The Beginning of the Modernization of a Traditional Country: a New Discussion of the Reformation of Zhang Juzheng                                         Wan Ming

The reformation of Zhang Juzheng is one of the most important reformations in Chinese history. The reformation took place in the context of the beginning of globalization which connected the world into a whole, and was closely linked with the initial formation of world market, as well as the silver currency becoming the world currency, i.e. the economic globalization. The reformation was a process but not an event. It stemmed from the germination of market, with the reformation on taxes and corvee over one century and a half as preparation; it did not pursue the national decree of single tax in silver (yitiaobian fa), and left two important legacies of Fiscal Notes in the Reign of Wanli and Regulations on Land Measurement. The core of the reformation was finance, aiming at constructing new financial system, which meant comprehensive transformation from dominated by material to by silver currency. That marked the fundamental transformation of Chinese financial system for over two thousand years, as well as the unprecedented transformation of China from a traditional country to a modern country. It is not the case as people used to deem that Zhang Juzheng’s measures ceased after his death; his reformation was successful relative to the one of Wang Anshi.