Stating·Theory·Academic Trends

China's Urban Planning subject has reached its fast developing period since 1978. Originally, the theory of this subject mainly focused on simple summary and introduction of international theory, whereas, it has been oriented to multi angles, multi subjects, comprehensive research, and native planning system nowadays. Therefore, it is of great practical importance to look at the development of urban planning theory of this period.Because the professional journals can reflect the development of urban planning theory and practice well, this thesis borrows the research means of philological metrology, catalogue, and other intelligence subjects. This thesis has its research subject on the journal Urban Planning, and explores the literature external and contents' features through classified statistics. Through this, the paper states the developing trend of China's planning subject.For the research of "literature external feature's" part, the thesis does the statistics of information change, working place and zones of the authors of Urban Planning. Through this statistical analysis, the following information are found out: 1) the contents of Urban Planning are becoming more versatile. 2) Urban Planning is a professional journal which is both academic and policy made. 3) The three main forces of China's urban planning are universities, design institutions, and governmental departments, among which universities play the leading role. The analysis of the statistics of range of the authors shows that the authors are highly centered in east areas and big cities of China, at the same time, good authors are especially centralized. Thefeatures of the catalogue of urban planning shows that 1) China is experiencing a " stagnant—active " period since the Cultural Revolution, and 1990s is a turning point. 2) The spread of researching forces are closely related to the local economic development.For the research for "literature contents' features" part, the thesis borrowed China's traditional thoughts in catalogue study and summarized the categorized standards of urban planning. The paper states that: 1 )the contents of Urban Planning is more and more theoretical. 2) the main researchers of urban planning, urban workout and urban planning practice are separately from universities, design institutions, and governmental departments. Urban planning has been more and more important in China's planning subjects. The paper also proved that China's urban planning is developing further since the Cultural Revolution and the 1990s is the turning point.