近二十年来,对于中华帝国晚期大众文化的研究明显增多起来,作为大众文化的一个重要组成部分的商业文化已经开始吸引众多西方汉学家们的注意。当越来越多的历史研究开始关注商业文化这一重要课题时,诸多有关方法论的问题也开始暴露在我们面前。究竟什么是商业文化?商业文化这一理念适用于中国历史吗?如何准确地定位中国的商业文化?这些问题都需要我们作进一步的探讨。 In the recent two decades, there has been a marked increase in the research on popular culture in late imperial China. Commercial culture, as an important part of popular culture, has begun to attract the attention of many Western sinologists. As more and more historical studies begin to focus on the important topic of business culture, many issues concerning methodology begin to be exposed to us. What exactly is business culture? Is business culture suitable for Chinese history? How to accurately locate China’s business culture? All these issues require further discussion.