Editing Chinese historiography (section)

===Hydraulic despotism===
{{Main|Hydraulic empire}}
With ideas derived from Marx and [[Max Weber]], [[Karl August Wittfogel]] argued that [[bureaucracy]] arose to manage [[Irrigation|irrigation systems]]. Despotism was needed to force the people into building [[canal]]s, [[Dyke (embankment)|dikes]], and [[waterway]]s to increase [[agriculture]]. [[Yu the Great]], one of China's legendary founders, is known for his control of the floods of the [[Yellow River]]. The [[hydraulic empire]] produces wealth from its stability; while dynasties may change, the structure remains intact until destroyed by modern powers. In Europe abundant rainfall meant less dependence on irrigation. In the Orient natural conditions were such that the bulk of the land could not be cultivated without large-scale irrigation works. As only a centralized administration could organize the building and maintenance of large-scale systems of irrigation, the need for such systems made [[bureaucratic despotism]] inevitable in Oriental lands.<ref name="Andreski1985">{{cite book|author=Stanislav Andreski|title=The Use of Comparative Sociology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7eW0hwZ3eZMC&pg=PA165|access-date=16 September 2013|year=1985|publisher=University of California Press|page=165|id=GGKEY:Y0TY2LKP809}}</ref>

When Wittfogel published his ''[[Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power]]'', critics pointed out that water management was given the high status China accorded to officials concerned with taxes, rituals, or fighting off bandits. The theory also has a strong [[oriental studies|orientalist]] bent, regarding all Asian states as generally the same while finding reasons for European polities not fitting the pattern.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mote |first1=F. W. |title=The Growth of Chinese despotism: A critique of Wittfogel's theory of Oriental Despotism as applied to China |journal=Oriens Extremus |date=1961 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=1–41 |jstor=43382295 }}</ref>

While Wittfogel's theories were not popular among Marxist historians in China, the economist [[Ji Chaoding|Chi Ch'ao-ting]] used them in his influential 1936 book, ''[[Ji Chaoding#Key Economic Areas in Chinese History|Key Economic Areas in Chinese History, as Revealed in the Development of Public Works for Water-Control]]''. The book identified key areas of grain production which, when controlled by a strong political power, permitted that power to dominate the rest of the country and enforce periods of stability.<ref>{{cite book|first=Michael|last= Dillon|title= Dictionary of Chinese History|isbn = 9781135166748|publisher = Routledge |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e-BkAgAAQBAJ&dq=Key+economic+areas+in+Chinese+history&pg=PA102 |page= 102|date = 2013}}</ref>