Contemporary Studies on Modern Chinese History I

Zeng Yeying

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781138236073
• eBook ISBN: 9781351269384
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

The study of modern Chinese history has developed rapidly in recent decades and has seen increased exploration of new topics and innovative approaches. Resulting from a special issue of Modern Chinese History Studies, this volume is devoted to showcasing the healthy development of Chinese modern history studies, and has already been revised twice in the original language.

This volume exhibits major achievements on the study of modern Chinese history and shows how the role of history was in debate, transformation and re-evaluation throughout this tortuous yet prosperous period. Articles on eight different topics are collected from 11 prominent historians in order to represent their insights on the developmental paths of Chinese historical studies. Drawing on a large number of case studies of critical historical events, such as the founding of the Communist Party of China and the May 4th Movement, this volume reflects on economic history and military history, while moving on to explore more pioneering topics such as intellectual history and cultural history.

This book will be a valuable reference for scholars and students of Chinese history.

1An overview

ZENG Yeying

It has been over 70 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, during the course of which studies of the modern Chinese history have developed from what used to be the least substantial in Chinese historical research and was even hardly regarded as a branch of “knowledge,” into an established branch of science in Chinese historiography today with its own scientific system in unprecedented prosperity. This is obvious to all. However, the same is also true that due to various factors both at home and abroad its development is far from smooth, having experienced the same problems of all kinds as emergent in the development of Chinese social sciences as a whole, and suffered serious setbacks as well as twists and turns in the whole process. It is therefore not only undoubtedly necessary but useful to conduct a brief review of such a tortuous process for the future development of modern Chinese historical research.

1.1 Initial development

Ever since the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC), modern Chinese history studies have been highly valued by the Central People’s Government, especially by its top leader, Mao Zedong, the outstanding leader of the Chinese revolution.

As early as May 1 1950, just six months after the birth of the PRC, the Central People’s Government established, on the basis of the Historical Research Department of the North China University, an institute of modern Chinese history with the Marxist historian Fan Wenlan as the director. It was the first of its kind in the humanities and social sciences after the founding of the PRC. In September 1953, as was proposed by the Publicity Department, the CPC Central Committee, and according to the “resolution” by the “Chinese Historical Research Committee” of the CPC Central Committee, it was officially placed as the third department of the Institute of Chinese Historical Research in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the national science research center. Soon its original title was restored, namely the Institute of Modern History of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and then evolved into today’s Institute of Modern History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. At the time of its creation, there were no more than ten people, most of whom were history researchers cultivated during the period of the democratic revolution of the Communist Party of China. Later, a group of distinguished senior scholars of history study were gradually recruited from universities or scientific research institutions before 1949, together with a growing number of young researchers trained in the PRC. As the result, the institute became the research center for modern Chinese history in China, with its membership having quickly reached over one hundred. In the meantime, history institutes focusing on modern Chinese history were established in many provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, such as Shanghai, Tianjin, Hunan, Guangdong. In addition, history departments concentrating on teaching and research in modern Chinese history were established in many universities, thus involving a large number of people in teaching and research. It is therefore no exaggeration to say that the total number of modern history researchers at central, provincial, municipal and regional research institutions as well as universities within the first ten years of the PRC had far exceeded its pre-1949 levels. This is a good example showing how much importance the PRC has placed on modern Chinese history study.

With the support of the central government and local governments, and the joint efforts of the majority of researchers, remarkable progress was made, in the study of modern Chinese history during this period, in the following three aspects.

The first is the establishment of an independent scientific system of modern Chinese history as a discipline. For a long time, Chinese history study, including modern Chinese history, had not been able to embark on a scientific path, since it invariably concentrated on the rise and fall of the state and social prosperity and collapse in terms of whether the ruler was “wise” or “virtuous,” thus covering up the facts of class struggle with various idealist fallacies. Although historians of the Chinese bourgeois democrats, with an orientation of incredulity and discrimination, had also criticized the traditional historical view and historical account based on the genealogy of the emperors, and thus had played a moderate role in the development of Chinese history, they still failed to reveal the truth of China’s modern history because they always denied the decisive role of productive forces in the course of history and thus disavowed the historical role of class struggle. Since the founding of the PRC, the majority of the modern Chinese history researchers, having studied Marxist historical materialism and class analysis methodology and research practice, and confirmed that “the history of all societies is but that of class struggle,” have basically reached a consensus on the disciplinary issues in modern history for its upper and lower time limits, basic development tendencies and research methodology, while it is true that they occasionally hold different views on some specific issues. It is the shared view among most of the historians that modern Chinese history starts from the Opium Wars in 1840 and ends in the May 4 Movement in 1919 (and extends to 1949 when the PRC was founded, as was recognized with the deepening study of history after the reform and opening up), and that it is by nature a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, whose fundamental task is to fight imperialism and feudalism. Therefore, the basic clue in the study of modern Chinese history should be the Chinese people’s anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle and its development, with the Marxist Materialist conception of history and class analysis method being its fundamental methodology. Three representative works fully reflect and demonstrate such a subject system: the first and second are the course books for the teaching of modern Chinese history in universities published in 1962, the History of China (Vol. 4) with Guo Moruo, the dean of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as the chief editor, and Liu Danian, the deputy director of the Institute of Modern History, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as the executive editor, who organized the researchers into writing teams, and An Outline of Chinese History (Vol. 4) whose chief editor was Jian Bozan and its author Shao Xunzheng and Chen Qinghua of Peking University. The third one is From the Opium Wars to the May Fourth Movement written by Hu Sheng, which was published as late as 1981 though its system is not very much different from the first two books.

Second, a number of basic documentaries and literature of modern Chinese history have been collected, collated and published, having thus laid a solid foundation for further study. Historical data is the core and foundation of historical research, and the latter simply cannot exist without the former. Therefore, the Association of Chinese Historians, which was set up by the “Chinese Historical Research Committee,” undertook as its top priority even in its preparatory stage the collection, collation and publication of the basic documentaries of modern Chinese history. As early as July 1949, the eve of the founding of the PRC, Fan Wenlan, who was in charge of the preparation of the Association of Chinese Historians, was already beginning to plan this work. He aimed to compile the Reference Documentaries on Modern Chinese History Series, and to organize historians to compile special references in respect of the major historical events in modern history for successive publication. At the time of the fiftieth anniversary of the Yihetuan (The Boxer) Movement in 1950, Yihetuan (The Boxer) was edited and published by Jian Bozan as a special collection. From July 1951, when the Association of Chinese Historians was officially established, to 1959, ten books were successively edited and published in accordance with the plan, among them were Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, The Uprising of the Hui People, The Reform Movement of 1898, The Opium Wars, The Sino-French War, The Sino-Japanese War, The Revolution of 1911, The Nian Army, and the Westernization Movement. Of the book series the most dense consists of eight volumes and over 2 million words, whereas the lightest consists of four volumes and over 1 million words; the Taiping series of ten books can be regarded as the most comprehensive literature collection and one of the biggest publication events by academic historians in the early years of the PRC. In 1954, the Institute of Modern History of the Chinese Academy of Sciences founded the journal Materials on Modern History specifically for the publication of materials on modern Chinese history. At the same time, under the unified planning of the Association of Chinese Historians, many economic historians, such as Yan Zhongping of the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, started the compilation of a work on Chinese modern economic history. As the result, a series of books on China’s modern economic history were in continuous publication, such as Reference Materials on Chinese Modern Economic History Series, including Selected Materials on the Chinese Modern Economy, Materials on the History of Chinese Modern Industry, Materials on the History of Chinese Modern Agriculture, Materials on the History of the Chinese Modern Handicraft Industry, Materials on the History of Chinese Modern Railways, Materials on the History of Chinese Modern Shipping, Statistical Historical Materials on Chinese Modern Foreign Debt, and Historical Materials of Old Chinese Bonds, Materials on the Imperialism and China Customs Series, including Chinese Customs and the Burmese Issues, Chinese Customs and Continued Loans from Britain and Germany, Chinese Customs and the Boxer Movement, Materials on the History of Chinese Capitalist Industry and Commerce Series, including Beijing Ruifuxiang, Shanghai National Rubber Industry, Shanghai Cotton Cloth Industry, Shanghai National Machine Industry, Shanghai National Match Industry, Shanghai National Wool Textile Industry, Yong’an Textile Printing and Dyeing Company, and Statistical Materials on Old China’s Flour-Producing Machine Industry, Historical Materials on Shanghai Typical Capitalist Enterprises, which contains specific materials on the Nanyang Brothers’ Tobacco Company, the Rong’s Enterprise, and Liu Hongsheng’s Enterprise. These journal and book series, being carefully selected by experts and scholars and of considerable reference value in respect of modern political and economic history, are still widely cited by modern Chinese history researchers. It should be noted that they were just a few remarkably large-scale material collections beside many other works. There were also Adapted Collection of Historical Materials on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Series edited by Luo Ergang, Memoirs of the Revolution of 1911 edited by the CPPCC (The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference) National Committee, Selected Materials of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in the Second Civil Revolutionary War Period and Selected Materials of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in the Third Civil Revolutionary War Period edited by the Academy of Military Sciences, to name just a few, whereas other works, which varied in size, due to the limited space of this book, will not be mentioned here. However, these alone are enough to show that the painstaking efforts shown by Chinese researchers of modern history to material collection as well as the remarkable achievements they have made are beyond any doubt.

Finally, a systematic and in-depth study of the major events and topics in modern Chinese history was undertaken regarding the history of the imperialist invasion of China, the peasant movement of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Revolution of 1911, and the capitalist economy. On the history of imperialist aggression against China among the first batch to be published were Liu Danian’s History of the American Invasion of China and Chin Benli’s History of the US Imperialist Economic Invasion of China. Later, the first volumes of History of Imperialist Aggression against China compiled by Ding Mingnan et al. were published, which, although dealing merely with the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, gives a full and systematic “synthetic account” of the history of the oppression of China, opposing China’s independence and the impeding of Chinese social progress by the major capitalist nations in the late Qing period. The most significant progress in this period was made in the study of the peasant movement of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Take the papers in the journal Historical Research as an example, before the “Cultural Revolution” in 1966. Altogether 113 papers were published on modern Chinese history, of which 65 were on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, accounting for 57.52 percent of all the papers on various topics, almost two-thirds of them. As for monographs, significant accomplishment was made in the textual research on historical events as demonstrated in the seven monographs written by Luo Ergang, such as the History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a biographical general history, Essays on the Corrections of the Historical Records of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, The Textual Research on the Historical Events of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Collected Essays on the Discrimination of the Historical Materials of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Textual Research on the Heavenly Calendar (of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom) and a Cross-reference Table of the Heavenly Calendar, Xia Calendar and Gregorian Calendar, Essays on Research and Interpretation of the Historical Materials of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Interpretations on the Images of the Cultural Relics of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Essays on the Survey on the Historical Sites of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Although less progress was made on the Revolution of 1911 compared with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, 22 papers were published on Historical Research before the “Cultural Revolution,” ranking second in terms of quantity. What is more important is the fact that significant changes took place in the direction and focus of the study, which no longer, just as the historiography in old times used to do, focused on isolated political events and studied the personal activities of a small number of celebrities; instead the economic backgrounds and class relations were explored, and emphasis was placed on the status and role of ordinary people. Moreover, the Revolution of 1911 was regarded as the product of the fundamental contradictions that were intensifying in the late Qing Dynasty. Such studies have greatly contributed to the study of the Revolution of 1911 and helped to reveal much of its historical truth. In the study of the capitalist economy, first of all, fruitful accomplishments were achieved: as many as 61 important monographs were published before 1966, such as Wu Jie’s China’s Modern National Economic History, Shang Yue’s A Preliminary Study of the Occurrence and Evolution of the Capitalist Relations in China, Wu Chengming’s Imperialists’ Investments in Old China, Wei Zichu’s Imperialism and Kailuan Coal Mine, Fu Zhufu’s China’s Primitive Capital Accumulation, Zhou Xiuluan’s The Development of China’s National Industry during the First World War, Zhang Yulan’s History of China’s Banking Industry, and Yang Peixin’s Inflation in Old Times China. Second, many new research fields were opened up. It was from then on that many new subject areas began to arouse research interest and in which substantial progress was made, such as primitive capital accumulation, the national market, the national bourgeoisie and the comprador bourgeoisie, the commercialization of agricultural products, the new democratic economy, and the impacts of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Reform of 1898, and the Revolution of 1911 upon the economic development.

The reason that such remarkable progress in the study of modern Chinese history was made in the period can be, in addition to the above mentioned support by the central and local governments, attributed to several other important factors.

First, there was a relatively stable period of time for research. Any scientific research, in order to be successful, must be dependent on the availability of both research object and the researchers themselves. And for the study of modern Chinese history, the most important thing for the former is the availability of theory and methodology as well as data. As mentioned above, since Marxist historical materialism and class analysis methods were established, and there was a certain amount of prepared data available, it was certainly not a problem. The one that is more crucial is the latter, that is, whether the researchers had the initiative and the time for concentration on the study of modern Chinese history without interference from other unrelated activities. The victory of the revolution in China and the founding of the PRC has washed off the disgrace and humiliations that imperialism had imposed on the Chinese people for over a century, and basically ended the state of division and war. Modern Chinese history scholars, being either prominent senior experts on old times or new scholars who grew up in the PRC, were fêted like the rest of the whole country, and were keen to give their best to the development of the PRC’s scientific and cultural cause; everyone had unprecedented enthusiasm beyond any doubt. Therefore, the only thing that mattered was whether there was availability of time. Before 1966, especially in the early 1950s, in spite of the fact that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) repeatedly carried out ideological criticism campaigns targeted at repelling the so-called ideological attack of the bourgeoisie, stressing that social science researchers must transform their world outlook, so that the research work always made way for ideological criticism moveme...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Information
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of contributors
• Translators’ note
• Preface
• 1 An overview
• 2 Theories and methods
• 3 The political history of the late Qing Dynasty
• 4 A history of the Republic of China
• 5 Economic history
• 6 Military history
• 7 Intellectual history
• 8 Studies on cultural history
• Index