You flatter me :) Must say I didn't know the specific meaning of commune - maybe would be wortto emphasize the point a bit to clear it up for less educated :)
In short - I may look for sources for you afterwards - about the Chinese cities: they are born of course both ways; but I think we can safely say that predominantly they were adminitrative units, or at least the cities which count</> are/were administrative units. The establishing of a city was avery carefuly prescribed process and the cities are - especially in comparison to European "chaos" - remarkably uniform, square, with rectangular plan and the main objects (e.g. administrative centers or water tanks) always in the same places. The uniformity alone shows they were v. regulated and not "free". Another interesting feature is that the uniformity of plan had a really long history, say 1500 years at least, but actually for longer time the cities, whenever possible, were always built almost identical.
I will gladly write some more later - I also have a few more points about the text. For a moment see here - the centre of Suzhou, one of the ancient capitals: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=31.310382,120.621815&spn=0.064091,0.110893&t=k&hl=en
In this page you'll be able how regular the pattern of cities - towns- villages was in good conditions (Chinese Lowland flatlands). Increase the scale step by step to see the network of commercial-administrative centres. The city in the very centre of the map has also nice, square centre with a moat: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=35.246040,115.446310&spn=0.980198,1.774292&t=k&hl=en
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Must say I didn't know the specific meaning of commune - maybe would be wortto emphasize the point a bit to clear it up for less educated :)
In short - I may look for sources for you afterwards - about the Chinese cities: they are born of course both ways; but I think we can safely say that predominantly they were adminitrative units, or at least the cities which count</> are/were administrative units. The establishing of a city was avery carefuly prescribed process and the cities are - especially in comparison to European "chaos" - remarkably uniform, square, with rectangular plan and the main objects (e.g. administrative centers or water tanks) always in the same places. The uniformity alone shows they were v. regulated and not "free". Another interesting feature is that the uniformity of plan had a really long history, say 1500 years at least, but actually for longer time the cities, whenever possible, were always built almost identical.
I will gladly write some more later - I also have a few more points about the text. For a moment see here - the centre of Suzhou, one of the ancient capitals:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=31.310382,120.621815&spn=0.064091,0.110893&t=k&hl=en
In this page you'll be able how regular the pattern of cities - towns- villages was in good conditions (Chinese Lowland flatlands). Increase the scale step by step to see the network of commercial-administrative centres. The city in the very centre of the map has also nice, square centre with a moat:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=35.246040,115.446310&spn=0.980198,1.774292&t=k&hl=en