Page "Chinese historiography" Paragraph 68

Also, such current scholars attempt to assess source material more critically.

For example, for a long period it was assumed that Imperial China had no system of civil law because the law codes did not have explicit provisions for civil lawsuits.

However, more recent studies which use the records of civil magistrates suggest that China did in fact have a very well developed system of civil law, in which provisions of the criminal code were interpreted to allow civil causes of action.

Another example of the more critical view taken toward source material has been anti-merchant statements made by intellectuals in the mid-Qing dynasty.

Traditionally these have been interpreted as examples of government hostility toward commerce, but more recent studies, which use source material such as magistrate diaries and genealogical records, suggest that merchants in fact had a powerful impact on government policies and that the division between the world of the merchant and the world of the official was far more porous than traditionally believed.

In fact, there is a growing consensus that anti-merchant statements in the mid-Qing dynasty should be taken as evidence of a substantial erosion in the power and freedom of action of officials.