This book divides the history of China's rural-urban relations into three stages: antagonism, integration and re-antagonism, and demonstrates that the two coupled variables i.e., policy-culture and coast-trade are the most crucial to urbanization and rural-urban governance in China from ancient times till now. From the perspective of a combination of history and geography, this book puts forward a new theory which is mainly based on Adam Smith's theory and other theories about rural-urban relationship and reinterprets the process and driving forces of evolutionary history of rural-urban relationship over 5,000 years in China. It is useful for researchers and scholars specialized in such fields as rural and urban studies, economics, geography, management and planning for reference.

Autorentext
Dr. Chao Ye is currently a Professor at East China Normal UniversityandDistinguished Professor atNorthwest Normal University. Chao is the chief expert of Major Project of National Social Sciences Fund of China (No.19ZDA086), and a member of theNational Expert Committee on Grassroots Power Construction and Community Governance, Academic Committee of Geographical Society of China (GSC), Agricultural Geography and Rural Development Committee, Cultural Geography Committee, and the Social Geography Committee of Chinese Sociological Association in China.He is mainly engaged in urbanization and rural-urban governance, geographical thought and methodology,and cultural geography and sustainability science. Chaohas been honored the title of Young Chang Jiang Scholar by Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, the National Youth Geographic Science and Technology Award by GSC. So far, Chao has published over 100 papers in suchjournals asNature, Science Bulletin, Habitat International, Journal of Rural Studies, Land Use Policy, and Acta Geographica Sinica, and two other books in Chinese, titled The Theory and History on China's Rural-urban Relationship (2014) and Between Time and Space (2021).

Inhalt
Introduction.- Rural-Urban Relations: Concepts, Methods and Theory.- Smith framework.- The Origin of China's Rural-Urban Relations.- Rural-Urban Relationship in China's Historical Periods.- Rural-Urban Relations in modern China.- Conclusion.