市政问题是城市问题的核心。20世纪30年代为了推进中国城市早期现代化,中国许多城市展开了一场颇具成效的“市政改革”运动,其中汉口的改革很有特色。本文在对市政的定义及“市政改革”的作用与意义进行分析,以及对市政史研究进行回顾的基础上,时如何研究中国近代市政史提出了自己的看法。文章以市政与城市现代化的关系为主线,将市政改革运动放在城市现代化的总体进程中进行考察,并引入城市社会学、城市规划学、城市地理学等多学科的研究方法,对中国近代市政史进行多角度、全方位的透视,以期将中国近代城市史研究引向深入。 Municipal issues are at the core of urban issues. In the 1930s, in order to promote the early modernization of cities in China, many cities in China embarked on a very successful “municipal reform” campaign, in which the reform of Hankow was very distinctive. Based on the analysis of the definition of municipal government and the role and significance of “municipal reform” and the review of the study of municipal history, this article puts forward my own views on how to study the history of modern Chinese government. The article takes the relationship between municipal administration and urban modernization as the main line, reviews the municipal reform movement in the overall process of urban modernization, introduces the multi-disciplinary research methods of urban sociology, urban planning and urban geography, History of multi-angle, all-round perspective, with a view to in-depth study of the history of modern Chinese cities.