The legacies of Sir Robert Hart and the Chinese Maritime Customs Service have been characterised by a variety of theories in modern China, ranging from Cantonisation, imperium in imperio, synarchy, impactresponse, tradition-modernity, revolutionary Marxism, informal empire, institutional breakthrough, etc. The controversy demonstrates the wide gap between the ways in which the theories and histories of Hart and the CMCS have been told and remembered in China, on the one hand, and in the West, on the other hand, in the twentieth century. The reconstruction of the legacies of Sir Robert and the CMCS enriches the theoretical ingredients bridging Chinese and Western scholars' different theories about modern China. The theorization of modern China was an evolutionary process which combines different groups of scholars' memories, experiences and histories. This article aims to examine how theories were generated from the research on the CMCS, how these theories argue against each other and how these debates generate new theories.
許多有關於近代中國的理論源自於中國海關總稅務司赫德的歷史遺緒，這些理論包括：廣州化、國中之國、共同治理、衝擊回應、非正式帝國和機構突破等等。歷史上記載的赫德與中國海關，在中國和在西方，有不同的描述和記憶，導致了這些理論之間的辯論。重建中國海關和赫德的遺緒大大豐富了中國和西方學者詮釋現代中國的內涵，近代中國的理論化是一段漸進的過程，涉及不同學者的記憶、經驗和歷史。本文旨在分析過去中國海關的研究如何催生有關於近代中國的理論、這些理論之間的辯論、以及如何相互激盪出新理論。
