During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, great changes in the political order made some Confucian scholars, such as Wang Fuzhi, Gu and Huang Lizhou, start to reflect on Neo-Confucianism, criticize Neo-Confucianism and the last-rate psychology, and put forward the slogan of "applying what they have learned". This kind of academic thought spread to Japan, which influenced the learning in the Edo period in Japan, and the theory of statecraft became popular among some scholars.
However, from the late Edo period to the Meiji period, European and American thoughts flooded into Japan. Kobayashi Kanda translated the English word "political economy" with the word "economy" for the first time in the book "Economic Primary School". However, some people think that Fukuzawa Yukichi first used this translation method. During this period, Japanese scholars began to use the word economy to refer to various activities brought about by the development of monetary economy, and came to the conclusion that "economy refers to activities such as production, consumption and trade necessary to maintain social life". This definition related to real problems such as money and property gradually became popular in Japan, which was different from the original usage of "economy" in the context of China in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. At that time, there was another translation of "Zisheng" in Japan, but it was not generally accepted. Later, the English translation of the word "political economy" was introduced into Chinese by Liang Qichao, which also replaced the traditional translation of "Fu Yuan" or "livelihood science" and "leveling science" by Yan Fu, and then gradually replaced the original meaning of the word "economy" in the whole China cultural circle.
The word "economy" originated in ancient China, but it was simplified by the Japanese.