Chinese historiography
Encyclopedia
Chinese historiography
refers to the study of methods and assumptions made in studying Chinese history.
. The Classic of History
, one of the Five Classics of Chinese classic texts
is one of the earliest narratives of China. The Spring and Autumn Annals
, the official chronicle of the State of Lu covering the period from 722 BCE to 481 BCE, is among the earliest surviving Chinese historical texts to be arranged on annalistic
principles. It is believed to be compiled by Confucius
.
The Zuo Zhuan
, attributed to Zuo Qiuming
in the 5th century BC, is the earliest Chinese work of narrative history and covers the period from 722 BCE to 468 BCE.
Zhan Guo Ce
was a renowned ancient Chinese historical work and compilation of sporadic materials on the Warring States Period compiled between 3rd century to 1st century BCE. Its author is unknown.
The first systematic Chinese historical text, Shiji or Records of the Grand Historian, was written by Sima Qian
. The book covers the period from the time of the Yellow Emperor until the author's own time. Due to his highly praised work, Sima Qian is often regarded as the father of Chinese historiography.
Records of the Grand Historian is the first among Twenty-Four Histories
, a collection of Chinese historical books covering a period of history from 3000 BCE to the Ming Dynasty
in the 17th century.
Shitong
is the first Chinese work about historiography compiled by Liu Zhiji
between 708 and 710. The book describes the general pattern of the past official dynastic historiography on structure, method, order of arrangement, sequence, caption and commentary back to the pre-Qin era.
Zizhi Tongjian
, literally "Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government", was a pioneering reference work in Chinese historiography. Emperor Yingzong of Song
ordered Sima Guang
and other scholars to begin compiling this universal history of China in 1065 and they presented it to his successor Emperor Shenzong of Song
in 1084. It contains 294 volumes and about 3 million words (or Chinese characters). The book chronologically narrates the history of China from the Warring States period in 403 BCE to the beginning of the Song Dynasty in 959 CE.
Zizhi Tongjian changed a tradition dating back almost 1,000 years to the Shiji; standard Chinese dynastic histories (collectively the Twenty-Four Histories) primarily divided chapters between annals (紀) of rulers and biographies (傳) of officials. In Chinese terms, the book changed the format of histories from biographical style (紀傳體) to chronological style (編年體), which is better suited for analysis and criticism.
As a tradition, rulers initiating new dynasties would order the scholars of the previous dynasty to compile its final history.
as passing the "Mandate of Heaven
". In this view, a new dynasty is founded by a moral uprighteous founder. Over time, the dynasty becomes morally corrupt and dissolute. The immorality of the dynasty is reflected in natural disasters, rebellions, and foreign invasions. Eventually, the dynasty becomes so weak as to allow its replacement by a new dynasty. This theory became popular during the Zhou dynasty
. It is not entirely cyclical because it claims the golden age
has passed and history is gradually descending towards decadence.
This theory also claims there can be only one rightful sovereign ruling all under heaven
at a time but throughout Chinese history there have been many contentious and long periods of disunity where the question of legitimacy is moot; see also Imperial Seal of China
. In fact, less than a third of China's history was the country under the rule of a single state. Another problem arises if the dynasty falls even if it was virtuous. The last ruler of a dynasty is always castigated as evil even if that was not the case. The greatest weakness was the end of the cycle itself with the birth of the Republic of China
. Notions of the Mandate of Heaven and divine monarchy
were discarded, as shown in two unpopular and failed attempts to restore the imperial system by Yuan Shikai
and Zhang Xun
.
is based on a Marxist interpretation of history
. These theories were first applied in the 1920s by Chinese scholars such as Guo Moruo
, and became orthodoxy in academic study after 1949. The Marxist view of history is that history is governed by universal laws and that according to these laws, a society moves through a series of stages with the transition between stages being driven by class struggle. These stages are
The official historical view within the People's Republic of China associates each of
these stages with a particular era in Chinese history as well as making some subdivisions.
Because of the strength of the Communist Party of China
and the importance of the Marxist interpretation of history in legitimizing its rule, it was for many years difficult for historians within the PRC to actively argue in favor of non-Marxist and anti-Marxist interpretations of history. However, this political restriction is less confining than it may first appear in that the Marxist historical framework is surprisingly flexible, and a rather simple matter to modify an alternative historical theory to use language that at least does not challenge the Marxist interpretation of history.
Partly because of the interest of Mao Zedong
, historians in the 1950s took a special interest in the role of peasant rebellions in Chinese history, and compiled documentary histories to examine them.
There are several problems associated with Marxist interpretation. First, slavery existed throughout China's history and has never been the primary mode of production. While the Zhou
can be labelled as feudal
, others were centralized states. To account for the discrepancy, Chinese Marxists invented the term "bureaucratic feudalism", which is an oxymoron. The placement of the Tang as the beginning of the bureaucratic phase rests largely on the imperial examination
system which finally overcame the nine-rank system
; prior to this both systems were in use. Some World-systems analysts
contend capitalism first arose in Song dynasty
China by following Kondratiev waves to their source.
There has been a gradual relaxation of Marxist interpretation after the death of Mao in 1976,, which was accelerated after the Tiananmen Square protest of 1989 and Revolutions of 1989
, which have damaged Marxism's ideological legitimacy in the eyes of Chinese people.
issued their own theory of political stages based on Sun Yatsen's proposal though it is limited only to recent history.
The most obvious criticism is the near identical nature of "political tutelage" and "constitutional democracy" which consisted of one party rule until the 1990s. Chen Shui-bian
proposed his own Four-Stage Theory of the Republic of China
.
), not just the history of the Han Chinese
. China (including its internal vassals/tributaries) is viewed as a coherent state formed since time immemorial
and exists as one legal entity even in periods of political disunity.
The benefit of this theory is to show the contributions of non-Han to Chinese history. It allows once "foreign" dynasties like the Mongol Yuan
and the Manchu Qing
as well as the Khitan Liao
, Jurchen Jin to be appreciated as part of the Chinese tapestry, allegedly helping reduce the alienation of ethnic minorities living in China. This theory also avoids "Han centered" analyses. For example, it denies Yue Fei
, a "Han Chinese" who fought for China against the Jurchens, a place as a "hero of China".
Support for the inclusion of ethnic minorities' history in China's own history varies in accordance with separatist and nationalist politics. For example, the 14th Dalai Lama
, long insistent on Tibet's history being separate from that of China's, conceded in 2005 that Tibet "is a part" of China's "5000-year history" as part of a new proposal for Tibetan autonomy. Korean nationalists
have virulently reacted against China's application to UNESCO
of Goguryeo tombs in Chinese territory: the absolute independence of Goguryeo
is a central aspect of Korean identity, because according to Korean legend, it was comparatively independent from China and Japan, in contrast to subordinate states like the Joseon Dynasty
and the Korean Empire
. The legacy of Genghis Khan
has been contested between China, Mongolia, and Russia, all three states having significant numbers of ethnic Mongols within their borders, and holding territory that was conquered by Khan.
The Chinese tradition since the Jin Dynasty (3rd century AD) that emperors of one dynasty would sponsor the writing of the official history of the immediately preceding dynasty has been cited in favor of an ethnically inclusive interpretation of history. The compilation of official histories usually involved monumental intellectual labor. The Yuan and Qing Dynasties, which might be thought "foreign" as their imperial families were not of the Han people, faithfully carried out the tradition, writing the official histories of Han-ruled Song and Ming Dynasties respectively. Had the two "non-Han" imperial families not thought themselves as continuing the "Mandate of Heaven" of the Middle Kingdom—the cosmological center of their known world—it would be hard to explain why they retained the costly tradition. Thus, every non-Han dynasty saw itself as the legitimate holder of the "Mandate of Heaven", which legitimized the dynastic cycle regardless of social or ethnic background as it was moral integrity and benevolent leadership that had been validating the "Mandate of Heaven." By assuming the mantle of the legitimate dynasty, the ethnic groups that established such non-Han dynasties are thus regarded as having forfeited their right to remain politically distinct from China.
The ethnic inclusiveness theory is not limited to the PRC alone. The Tongmenghui
initially regarded the Manchus as non-Chinese occupiers. They quickly realized that ethnic inclusiveness was needed if the new republic was to maintain control over the territories bequeathed by the Qing dynasty. "Han independence" was therefore scrapped in favor of the Five Races Under One Union
principle, which later developed into the theory of Zhonghua minzu. The Republic of China
regime on Taiwan
continues to claim a much larger territory encompassing Mongolia and Tannu Uriankhai
.
Western scholars have reacted against the ethnic inclusiveness narrative in PRC-sponsored history by writing revisionist histories
of China, that feature, according to James A. Millward, "a degree of 'partisanship' for the indigenous underdogs of frontier history". Scholarly interest in writing about Chinese minorities from non-Chinese perspectives is growing, as Western scholars project sympathy for American minorities
onto Chinese minorities.
assumption that Western society is the definition of modern society.
This view of Chinese history has its roots with British views of the orient
of the early 19th century. In this viewpoint, the societies of India, China,
and the Middle East were societies with glorious pasts but that they have
become trapped in a static past (see Orientalism
). This view provided an implicit justification
of British colonialism with Britain assuming the "white man's burden" of
breaking these societies from their static past and bringing them into the
modern world.
By the mid 20th century, it was increasingly clear to historians that the
notion of "changeless China" was untenable. A new concept, popularized by
John Fairbank was the notion of "change within tradition" which argued
that although China did change in the pre-modern period but that this change
existed within certain cultural traditions.
There are a number of criticisms of the modernization critique. One centers
on the definition of "traditional society." The criticism is that the
idea of "traditional society" is simply a catch all term for early non-Western
society and implies that all such societies are similar. To use an analogy,
one could classify all animals into "fish" and "non-fish" but that classification would be hardly useful, and would imply that spiders are similar to mountain goats.
The notion of "change within tradition" also been subject to criticism. The criticism is that the statement that "China has not changed fundamentally" is tautological, that one looks for things that have not changed and then define those as fundamental. The trouble with doing this is that when one can do
this with anything that has lasted for an extended period of time resulting
in absurd statements such as "England has not changed fundamentally in the
past thousand years because the institution of the monarchy has existed
for this long."
In the opposite vein, the Japanese history Naito Torajiro
argued that China reached "modernity" during its mid-Imperial period
, centuries before Europe. He believed that the reform of the civil service into a meritocratic system and the disappearance of the ancient Chinese nobility
from the bureaucracy constituted a modern society. As noted above, some world-systems analysts such as Janet Abu-Lughod
thought China invented capitalism during this period with the rise of a monied economy and the invention of paper currency.
The problems associated with this approach is the subjective use of "modern" and "capitalist". The old nobility had been in decline since the Qin dynasty. While the exams were meritocratic, most examinees were of the gentry background. Expertise in the Confucian classics did not guarantee competent bureaucrats who could manage public works or prepare a budget. The early capitalists theory is also unsound in that merchants were at the bottom of the four occupations
due to Confucianism's hostility to commerce. The social goal was to invest in land and enter the gentry, ideas more similar to the physiocrats
than that of Adam Smith
.
, Karl August Wittfogel
argued that bureaucracy arose to manage irrigation systems. Despotism was needed to force the people into building canals, dikes, and waterways to increase agriculture. Yu the Great
, one of China's legendary founders, is mostly known for his control of the flood. The hydraulic empire
produces wealth from its stability and while dynasties may change, the structure remains intact until destroyed by modern powers.
Critics of Wittfogel's oriental despotism theory point out that water management was not a high priority when compared to taxes, rituals, and fighting off bandits. The theory also has a strong orientalist
bent which regards all Asian states as generally the same.
Hu Shih
and Ray Huang
's involution theory. This view was that the past 150
years was a period in which Chinese and Western civilization were in the
process of convergence into a world civilization.
This view is heavily influenced by modernization theory
, but is also strongly influenced by indigenous sources such as the notion of "shijie datong" or
the Great Unity. It has tended to be less popular among more recent historians. Among Western historians, it conflicts with the postmodern impulse which is skeptical of great narratives. Among Chinese historians, convergence theory is in conflict with Chinese nationalism which includes a strong element of China as being unique.
as the starting point for the modern period.
There are two variants, one focuses on Europe as the driving force behind China's quest for modernity, the other focuses on the effects of European colonialism. Examples of the first interpretation include the works of H.B. Morse
, who wrote chronicles of China's international relations such as Trade and Relations of the Chinese Empire (1910- ). Examples of the second start with the works of T.F. Tsiang and John King Fairbank, who used newly opened archives in the 1930s to write from the Chinese point of view. Fairbank and Teng Ssu-yu edited the influential China's Response to the West (1953), which was in turn criticized for ascribing change in China to outside forces. Paul Cohen
, a student of Fairbank's, articulated the agenda of the next generation in his call for "China-Centered history of China."
Closely related are anti-imperialist narratives. While some
anti-imperialist narratives notably those of historians
within the People's Republic of China as well as Western Marxist histories incorporate anti-imperialist narratives in their histories, many anti-imperialist narratives are non-Marxist or as in the case of the Kuomintang
in the 1960s, actively anti-Marxist.
One example of a blind spot which is provided by this viewpoint is the influence of central Asian
policies on interactions with Europe in the Qing dynasty
.
other interpretations of history. Instead of seeking a grand pattern of history, post-modern interpretations tend to focus on a small subset of Chinese history.
In attention rather than focusing on the political elites of China, post-modern historians look also at the daily lives of ordinary people.
Recent Western scholarship of China has been heavily influenced by postmodernism
. For example, current scholars of China tend to question the question, and look heavily at the assumptions within a question before attempting to answer it. For example, one begins to answer the question "Why did China not develop modern science and capitalism?" by asking the question "Why are we assuming that what China did develop was not modern science and capitalism?" This then brings up the question of what are the essential characteristics of modern science and capitalism, and whether it makes any sense at all to apply European concepts to Chinese history.
One example of the fruitfulness of questioning assumptions comes from questioning the assumption that "China was weak in the 19th century" and pointing out the fact that at the time in which China was supposedly weak, it managed to considerably extend its borders in Central Asia
. This in turn has caused scholars to be more interested in Chinese policies and actions in Central Asia and has led to the realization that Central Asia affected Chinese policies toward Europe in a deep way.
Another trend in Western scholarship of China has been to move away from "grand theories" of history, toward an understanding of a narrow part of China. A survey of papers on Chinese history in the early 21st century would reveal relatively little attempt to fit Chinese history into a master paradigm of history as was common in the 1950s. Instead, early 21st century papers on Chinese history tend to be empirical studies of a small part of China which aim to reach a deep understanding of the socio-economics, politicaldynamics, or cultural dynamics of a small region such as a province or a village with little effort made to create a master narrative which would be generalizable to all of China.
Also, such current scholars attempt to assess source material more critically. For example, for a long period it was assumed that Imperial China had no system of civil law because the law codes did not have explicit provisions for civil lawsuits. However, more recent studies which use the records of civil magistrates suggest that China did in fact have a very well developed system of civil law, in which provisions of the criminal code were interpreted to allow civil causes of action. Another example of the more critical view taken toward source material has been anti-merchant statements made by intellectuals in the mid-Qing dynasty. Traditionally these have been interpreted as examples of government hostility toward commerce, but more recent studies, which use source material such as magistrate diaries and genealogical records, suggest that merchants in fact had a powerful impact on government policies and that the division between the world of the merchant and the world of the official was far more porous than traditionally believed. In fact, there is a growing consensus that anti-merchant statements in the mid-Qing dynasty should be taken as evidence of a substantial erosion in the power and freedom of action of officials.
Finally, current scholars have taken an increasing interest in the lives of common people and tapped documentary and historical evidence that was previously not analyzed. Examples of these records include a large mass of governmental and family archives which have not yet been processed, economic records such as census records, price records, land surveys, and tax records. In addition there are large numbers of cultural artifacts such as vernacular novels, how-to books, and children's books, which are in the process of being analyzed for clues as to how the average Chinese (if there was such as thing) lived.
In contrast, just as postmodernism
has so far failed to take root in ethnic Chinese circles as opposed to a general sense of Chinese nationalist
moral certainty
, much of ethnic Chinese scholarship of Chinese history remains largely modernist or even outright traditionalist in outlook. The legacies of the modernist school, such as historian Lo Hsiang-lin (1906–1978) and the traditionalist school, as represented by historian Chien Mu (1895–1990) remain strong in Chinese circles. The more modernist works focus on imperial systems in China and employ scientific method to analyze epochs of Chinese dynasties from geographical, genealogical, and cultural artifacts, for example, from Carbon-14 dating and geographical records to correlate climates with cycles of calm and calamity in Chinese history. The traditionalist school of scholarship resorts to official imperial records and colloquial history works and analyzes the different dynasties' rises and falls using a Confucian philosophy, albeit modified by an institutional administration perspective.
From the beginning of Communist rule in 1949, until the 1980s, when China was in the early years of economic reform
, the focus was largely on peasant life, as interpreted via the officially sanctioned Marxist theory of class struggle. From the time of Deng Xiaoping
onwards, there has been a drift of focus towards a Marxist-inspired, moderated by Conficianism, nationalist perspective, and consideration of China's contemporary international status became of paramount importance in historical studies. The current focus tends to be on specifics of civilization in ancient China, and the general paradigm of how China has responded to the dual challenges of interactions with the outside world and modernization in the post-1700 era. Long abandoned as a research focus among most Western scholars due to postmodernism's influence, it remains the primary interest for most historians inside China.
Historiography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
refers to the study of methods and assumptions made in studying Chinese history.
History of Chinese Historians
Record of Chinese history dated back to the Shang DynastyShang Dynasty
The Shang Dynasty or Yin Dynasty was, according to traditional sources, the second Chinese dynasty, after the Xia. They ruled in the northeastern regions of the area known as "China proper" in the Yellow River valley...
. The Classic of History
Classic of History
The Classic of History is a compilation of documentary records related to events in ancient history of China. It is also commonly known as the Shàngshū , or simply Shū...
, one of the Five Classics of Chinese classic texts
Chinese classic texts
Chinese classic texts, or Chinese canonical texts, today often refer to the pre-Qin Chinese texts, especially the Neo-Confucian titles of Four Books and Five Classics , a selection of short books and chapters from the voluminous collection called the Thirteen Classics. All of these pre-Qin texts...
is one of the earliest narratives of China. The Spring and Autumn Annals
Spring and Autumn Annals
The Spring and Autumn Annals is the official chronicle of the State of Lu covering the period from 722 BCE to 481 BCE. It is the earliest surviving Chinese historical text to be arranged on annalistic principles. The text is extremely concise and, if all the commentaries are excluded, about 16,000...
, the official chronicle of the State of Lu covering the period from 722 BCE to 481 BCE, is among the earliest surviving Chinese historical texts to be arranged on annalistic
Annals
Annals are a concise form of historical representation which record events chronologically, year by year. The Oxford English Dictionary defines annals as "a narrative of events written year by year"...
principles. It is believed to be compiled by Confucius
Confucius
Confucius , literally "Master Kong", was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period....
.
The Zuo Zhuan
Zuo Zhuan
The Zuo Zhuan , sometimes translated as the Chronicle of Zuo or the Commentary of Zuo, is among the earliest Chinese works of narrative history and covers the period from 722 BCE to 468 BCE. It is one of the most important sources for understanding the history of the Spring and Autumn Period...
, attributed to Zuo Qiuming
Zuo Qiuming
Zǔo Qīumíng was a court writer of the State of Lu, and contemporary of Confucius during the Spring and Autumn period. The work Commentary of Zuo is traditionally attributed to him. He is also possibly a contributor to Guoyu. One tradition according to Shiji holds that he became blind ....
in the 5th century BC, is the earliest Chinese work of narrative history and covers the period from 722 BCE to 468 BCE.
Zhan Guo Ce
Zhan Guo Ce
The Zhan Guo Ce is a renowned ancient Chinese historical work and compilation of sporadic materials on the Warring States Period compiled between the 3rd to 1st centuries BCE...
was a renowned ancient Chinese historical work and compilation of sporadic materials on the Warring States Period compiled between 3rd century to 1st century BCE. Its author is unknown.
The first systematic Chinese historical text, Shiji or Records of the Grand Historian, was written by Sima Qian
Sima Qian
Sima Qian was a Prefect of the Grand Scribes of the Han Dynasty. He is regarded as the father of Chinese historiography for his highly praised work, Records of the Grand Historian , a "Jizhuanti"-style general history of China, covering more than two thousand years from the Yellow Emperor to...
. The book covers the period from the time of the Yellow Emperor until the author's own time. Due to his highly praised work, Sima Qian is often regarded as the father of Chinese historiography.
Records of the Grand Historian is the first among Twenty-Four Histories
Twenty-Four Histories
The Twenty-Four Histories is a collection of Chinese historical books covering a period from 3000 BC to the Ming Dynasty in the 17th century. The whole set contains 3213 volumes and about 40 million words...
, a collection of Chinese historical books covering a period of history from 3000 BCE to the Ming Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
in the 17th century.
Shitong
Shitong
The Shitong is the first Chinese work about historiography compiled by Liu Zhiji between 708 and 710. The book describes the general pattern of the past official dynastic historiography on structure, method, order of arrangement, sequence, caption and commentary back to the pre-Qin era.It contains...
is the first Chinese work about historiography compiled by Liu Zhiji
Liu Zhiji
Liu Zhiji , courtesy name Zixuan , was a Chinese historian and author of the Shitong born in present-day Xuzhou, Jiangsu during the Tang Dynasty. Liu's father Liu Zangqi and elder brother Liu Zhirou were officials, famous for their literary compositions...
between 708 and 710. The book describes the general pattern of the past official dynastic historiography on structure, method, order of arrangement, sequence, caption and commentary back to the pre-Qin era.
Zizhi Tongjian
Zizhi Tongjian
The Zizhi Tongjian was a pioneering reference work in Chinese historiography, published in 1084, under the form of a chronicles. In 1065 CE, Emperor Yingzong of Song ordered the great historian Sima Guang to lead with other scholars such as his chief assistants Liu Shu, Liu Ban and Fan Zuyu, the...
, literally "Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government", was a pioneering reference work in Chinese historiography. Emperor Yingzong of Song
Emperor Yingzong of Song
Emperor Yingzong was the fifth emperor of the Song Dynasty of China. His personal name was originally Zhao Zongshi but he later changed it to Zhao Shu. He reigned from 1063 to 1067...
ordered Sima Guang
Sima Guang
Sīmǎ Guāng was a Chinese historian, scholar, and high chancellor of the Song Dynasty, jinshi 1038.-Life, profession, and works:...
and other scholars to begin compiling this universal history of China in 1065 and they presented it to his successor Emperor Shenzong of Song
Emperor Shenzong of Song
Emperor Shenzong of Song was the sixth emperor of the Chinese Song Dynasty. His personal name was Zhao Xu...
in 1084. It contains 294 volumes and about 3 million words (or Chinese characters). The book chronologically narrates the history of China from the Warring States period in 403 BCE to the beginning of the Song Dynasty in 959 CE.
Zizhi Tongjian changed a tradition dating back almost 1,000 years to the Shiji; standard Chinese dynastic histories (collectively the Twenty-Four Histories) primarily divided chapters between annals (紀) of rulers and biographies (傳) of officials. In Chinese terms, the book changed the format of histories from biographical style (紀傳體) to chronological style (編年體), which is better suited for analysis and criticism.
As a tradition, rulers initiating new dynasties would order the scholars of the previous dynasty to compile its final history.
Dynastic Cycle
China's traditionalist view of history sees the rise and fall of dynastiesDynastic cycle
Dynastic cycle is an important political theory in Chinese history. According to this theory, every dynasty goes through a culture cycle.-The cycle:The dynastic cycle appears as it follows:...
as passing the "Mandate of Heaven
Mandate of Heaven
The Mandate of Heaven is a traditional Chinese philosophical concept concerning the legitimacy of rulers. It is similar to the European concept of the divine right of kings, in that both sought to legitimaze rule from divine approval; however, unlike the divine right of kings, the Mandate of...
". In this view, a new dynasty is founded by a moral uprighteous founder. Over time, the dynasty becomes morally corrupt and dissolute. The immorality of the dynasty is reflected in natural disasters, rebellions, and foreign invasions. Eventually, the dynasty becomes so weak as to allow its replacement by a new dynasty. This theory became popular during the Zhou dynasty
Zhou Dynasty
The Zhou Dynasty was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang Dynasty and preceded the Qin Dynasty. Although the Zhou Dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history, the actual political and military control of China by the Ji family lasted only until 771 BC, a period known as...
. It is not entirely cyclical because it claims the golden age
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline...
has passed and history is gradually descending towards decadence.
This theory also claims there can be only one rightful sovereign ruling all under heaven
All under heaven
Tianxia is a phrase in the Chinese language and an ancient Chinese cultural concept that denoted either the entire geographical world or the metaphysical realm of mortals, and later became associated with political sovereignty.In ancient China, tianxia denoted the lands, space, and area divinely...
at a time but throughout Chinese history there have been many contentious and long periods of disunity where the question of legitimacy is moot; see also Imperial Seal of China
Imperial Seal of China
The Imperial Seal of China, or the Heirloom Seal of the Realm is a Chinese jade seal carved out of the He Shi Bi, a historically famous piece of jade.-Creation:...
. In fact, less than a third of China's history was the country under the rule of a single state. Another problem arises if the dynasty falls even if it was virtuous. The last ruler of a dynasty is always castigated as evil even if that was not the case. The greatest weakness was the end of the cycle itself with the birth of the Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
. Notions of the Mandate of Heaven and divine monarchy
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
were discarded, as shown in two unpopular and failed attempts to restore the imperial system by Yuan Shikai
Yuan Shikai
Yuan Shikai was an important Chinese general and politician famous for his influence during the late Qing Dynasty, his role in the events leading up to the abdication of the last Qing Emperor of China, his autocratic rule as the second President of the Republic of China , and his short-lived...
and Zhang Xun
Zhang Xun (Republic of China)
Zhang Xun was a Qing-loyalist general who attempted to restore the abdicated emperor Puyi in 1917. He supported Yuan Shikai during his time as president....
.
Marxist Interpretations of Chinese history
Most Chinese history that is published in the People's Republic of ChinaPeople's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
is based on a Marxist interpretation of history
Marxist historiography
Marxist or historical materialist historiography is a school of historiography influenced by Marxism. The chief tenets of Marxist historiography are the centrality of social class and economic constraints in determining historical outcomes....
. These theories were first applied in the 1920s by Chinese scholars such as Guo Moruo
Guo Moruo
Guo Moruo , courtesy name Dingtang , was a Chinese author, poet, historian, archaeologist, and government official from Sichuan, China.-Family history:Guo, originally named Guo Kaizhen, was born on November 10 or 16, in the small town of Shawan...
, and became orthodoxy in academic study after 1949. The Marxist view of history is that history is governed by universal laws and that according to these laws, a society moves through a series of stages with the transition between stages being driven by class struggle. These stages are
- slave society
- feudal society
- capitalist society
- socialist society
- world communist society
The official historical view within the People's Republic of China associates each of
these stages with a particular era in Chinese history as well as making some subdivisions.
- slave society - XiaXia DynastyThe Xia Dynasty is the first dynasty in China to be described in ancient historical chronicles such as Bamboo Annals, Classic of History and Records of the Grand Historian. The Xia Dynasty was established by the legendary Yu the Great after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors gave his throne to him...
to ShangShang DynastyThe Shang Dynasty or Yin Dynasty was, according to traditional sources, the second Chinese dynasty, after the Xia. They ruled in the northeastern regions of the area known as "China proper" in the Yellow River valley... - feudal society - decentralized feudalism - ZhouZhou DynastyThe Zhou Dynasty was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang Dynasty and preceded the Qin Dynasty. Although the Zhou Dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history, the actual political and military control of China by the Ji family lasted only until 771 BC, a period known as...
to SuiSui DynastyThe Sui Dynasty was a powerful, but short-lived Imperial Chinese dynasty. Preceded by the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it ended nearly four centuries of division between rival regimes. It was followed by the Tang Dynasty.... - feudal society - bureaucratic feudalism - TangTang DynastyThe Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
to the First Opium WarFirst Opium WarThe First Anglo-Chinese War , known popularly as the First Opium War or simply the Opium War, was fought between the United Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty of China over their conflicting viewpoints on diplomatic relations, trade, and the administration of justice... - feudal society - semicolonial era - First Opium War to end of Qing dynastyQing DynastyThe Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
- capitalist society - Republican eraHistory of the Republic of ChinaThe History of the Republic of China begins after the Qing Dynasty in 1912, when the formation of the Republic of China put an end to over two thousand years of Imperial rule. The Qing Dynasty, also known as the Manchu Dynasty, ruled from 1644 to 1912...
- socialist society - PRCPeople's Republic of ChinaChina , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
1949 to ??? - socialist society - primary stage of socialism - 1978 to 2050 (?)
- world communist society - ?
Because of the strength of the Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
and the importance of the Marxist interpretation of history in legitimizing its rule, it was for many years difficult for historians within the PRC to actively argue in favor of non-Marxist and anti-Marxist interpretations of history. However, this political restriction is less confining than it may first appear in that the Marxist historical framework is surprisingly flexible, and a rather simple matter to modify an alternative historical theory to use language that at least does not challenge the Marxist interpretation of history.
Partly because of the interest of Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
, historians in the 1950s took a special interest in the role of peasant rebellions in Chinese history, and compiled documentary histories to examine them.
There are several problems associated with Marxist interpretation. First, slavery existed throughout China's history and has never been the primary mode of production. While the Zhou
Zhou Dynasty
The Zhou Dynasty was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang Dynasty and preceded the Qin Dynasty. Although the Zhou Dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history, the actual political and military control of China by the Ji family lasted only until 771 BC, a period known as...
can be labelled as feudal
Feudalism
Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...
, others were centralized states. To account for the discrepancy, Chinese Marxists invented the term "bureaucratic feudalism", which is an oxymoron. The placement of the Tang as the beginning of the bureaucratic phase rests largely on the imperial examination
Imperial examination
The Imperial examination was an examination system in Imperial China designed to select the best administrative officials for the state's bureaucracy. This system had a huge influence on both society and culture in Imperial China and was directly responsible for the creation of a class of...
system which finally overcame the nine-rank system
Nine-rank system
The nine rank system , or much less commonly nine grade controller system, was a civil service nomination system during the Three Kingdoms and the Southern and Northern Dynasties in China...
; prior to this both systems were in use. Some World-systems analysts
World Systems Theory
The world-systems theory is a multidisciplinary, macro-scale approach to world history and social change....
contend capitalism first arose in Song dynasty
Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
China by following Kondratiev waves to their source.
There has been a gradual relaxation of Marxist interpretation after the death of Mao in 1976,, which was accelerated after the Tiananmen Square protest of 1989 and Revolutions of 1989
Revolutions of 1989
The Revolutions of 1989 were the revolutions which overthrew the communist regimes in various Central and Eastern European countries.The events began in Poland in 1989, and continued in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and...
, which have damaged Marxism's ideological legitimacy in the eyes of Chinese people.
Three Stages of Revolution
The KuomintangKuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
issued their own theory of political stages based on Sun Yatsen's proposal though it is limited only to recent history.
- military unification - 1923 to 1928 (Northern Expedition)
- political tutelage - 1928 to 1947
- constitutional democracy - 1947 onward (Constitution of the Republic of ChinaConstitution of the Republic of ChinaThe Constitution of the Republic of China is the fundamental law of the Republic of China . Drafted by the Kuomintang as part of its third stage of national development , it established a centralized Republic with five branches of government...
)
The most obvious criticism is the near identical nature of "political tutelage" and "constitutional democracy" which consisted of one party rule until the 1990s. Chen Shui-bian
Chen Shui-bian
Chen Shui-bian is a former Taiwanese politician who was the 10th and 11th-term President of the Republic of China from 2000 to 2008. Chen, whose Democratic Progressive Party has traditionally been supportive of Taiwan independence, ended more than fifty years of Kuomintang rule in Taiwan...
proposed his own Four-Stage Theory of the Republic of China
Four-Stage Theory of the Republic of China
The Four-Stage Theory of the Republic of China or the Theory of the Four Stages of the Republic of China is a controversial viewpoint proposed by Chen Shui-bian, the previous President of the Republic of China...
.
Ethnic Inclusiveness
Also sponsored by the PRC is the view that Chinese history should include all of China's ethnic groups past and present (Zhonghua MinzuZhonghua minzu
Zhonghua minzu , usually translated as Chinese ethnic groups or Chinese nationality, refers to the modern notion of a Chinese nationality transcending ethnic divisions, with a central identity for China as a whole...
), not just the history of the Han Chinese
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
. China (including its internal vassals/tributaries) is viewed as a coherent state formed since time immemorial
Time immemorial
Time immemorial is a phrase meaning time extending beyond the reach of memory, record, or tradition, indefinitely ancient, "ancient beyond memory or record"...
and exists as one legal entity even in periods of political disunity.
The benefit of this theory is to show the contributions of non-Han to Chinese history. It allows once "foreign" dynasties like the Mongol Yuan
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan Dynasty , or Great Yuan Empire was a ruling dynasty founded by the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, who ruled most of present-day China, all of modern Mongolia and its surrounding areas, lasting officially from 1271 to 1368. It is considered both as a division of the Mongol Empire and as an...
and the Manchu Qing
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
as well as the Khitan Liao
Liao Dynasty
The Liao Dynasty , also known as the Khitan Empire was an empire in East Asia that ruled over the regions of Manchuria, Mongolia, and parts of northern China proper between 9071125...
, Jurchen Jin to be appreciated as part of the Chinese tapestry, allegedly helping reduce the alienation of ethnic minorities living in China. This theory also avoids "Han centered" analyses. For example, it denies Yue Fei
Yue Fei
Yue Fei , style name Pengju, was a military general of the Southern Song Dynasty. His ancestral home was in Xiaoti, Yonghe Village, Tangyin, Xiangzhou, Henan...
, a "Han Chinese" who fought for China against the Jurchens, a place as a "hero of China".
Support for the inclusion of ethnic minorities' history in China's own history varies in accordance with separatist and nationalist politics. For example, the 14th Dalai Lama
14th Dalai Lama
The 14th Dalai Lama is the 14th and current Dalai Lama. Dalai Lamas are the most influential figures in the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, although the 14th has consolidated control over the other lineages in recent years...
, long insistent on Tibet's history being separate from that of China's, conceded in 2005 that Tibet "is a part" of China's "5000-year history" as part of a new proposal for Tibetan autonomy. Korean nationalists
Korean nationalism
Korean nationalism refers to nationalism among the Korean people. In the Korean context, this encompasses various of movements throughout history to maintain the Korean cultural identity, history, and ethnicity.-History:...
have virulently reacted against China's application to UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
of Goguryeo tombs in Chinese territory: the absolute independence of Goguryeo
Goguryeo
Goguryeo or Koguryŏ was an ancient Korean kingdom located in present day northern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula, southern Manchuria, and southern Russian Maritime province....
is a central aspect of Korean identity, because according to Korean legend, it was comparatively independent from China and Japan, in contrast to subordinate states like the Joseon Dynasty
Joseon Dynasty
Joseon , was a Korean state founded by Taejo Yi Seong-gye that lasted for approximately five centuries. It was founded in the aftermath of the overthrow of the Goryeo at what is today the city of Kaesong. Early on, Korea was retitled and the capital was relocated to modern-day Seoul...
and the Korean Empire
Korean Empire
The Greater Korean Empire was an empire of Korea that succeeded the Joseon Dynasty.In October 1897, Emperor Gojong proclaimed the new entity at Gyeongungung Palace and oversaw the partially successful modernization of the military, economy, land system, education system, and various industries...
. The legacy of Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....
has been contested between China, Mongolia, and Russia, all three states having significant numbers of ethnic Mongols within their borders, and holding territory that was conquered by Khan.
The Chinese tradition since the Jin Dynasty (3rd century AD) that emperors of one dynasty would sponsor the writing of the official history of the immediately preceding dynasty has been cited in favor of an ethnically inclusive interpretation of history. The compilation of official histories usually involved monumental intellectual labor. The Yuan and Qing Dynasties, which might be thought "foreign" as their imperial families were not of the Han people, faithfully carried out the tradition, writing the official histories of Han-ruled Song and Ming Dynasties respectively. Had the two "non-Han" imperial families not thought themselves as continuing the "Mandate of Heaven" of the Middle Kingdom—the cosmological center of their known world—it would be hard to explain why they retained the costly tradition. Thus, every non-Han dynasty saw itself as the legitimate holder of the "Mandate of Heaven", which legitimized the dynastic cycle regardless of social or ethnic background as it was moral integrity and benevolent leadership that had been validating the "Mandate of Heaven." By assuming the mantle of the legitimate dynasty, the ethnic groups that established such non-Han dynasties are thus regarded as having forfeited their right to remain politically distinct from China.
The ethnic inclusiveness theory is not limited to the PRC alone. The Tongmenghui
Tongmenghui
The Tongmenghui, also known as the Chinese United League, United League, Chinese Revolutionary Alliance, Chinese Alliance and United Allegiance Society, was a secret society and underground resistance movement formed when merging many Chinese revolutionary groups together by Sun Yat-sen, Song...
initially regarded the Manchus as non-Chinese occupiers. They quickly realized that ethnic inclusiveness was needed if the new republic was to maintain control over the territories bequeathed by the Qing dynasty. "Han independence" was therefore scrapped in favor of the Five Races Under One Union
Five Races Under One Union
Five races under one union was one of the major principles upon which the Republic of China was originally founded in 1911 at the time of the Xinhai Revolution.-Description:...
principle, which later developed into the theory of Zhonghua minzu. The Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
regime on Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
continues to claim a much larger territory encompassing Mongolia and Tannu Uriankhai
Tannu Uriankhai
Tannu Uriankhai is a historic region of the Mongol Empire and, later, the Qing Dynasty. The realms of Tannu Uriankhai largely correspond to the Tuva Republic of the Russian Federation, neighboring areas in Russia, and a part of the modern state of Mongolia....
.
Western scholars have reacted against the ethnic inclusiveness narrative in PRC-sponsored history by writing revisionist histories
Historical revisionism
In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event...
of China, that feature, according to James A. Millward, "a degree of 'partisanship' for the indigenous underdogs of frontier history". Scholarly interest in writing about Chinese minorities from non-Chinese perspectives is growing, as Western scholars project sympathy for American minorities
Race in the United States
The United States is a racially diverse country. Modern issues of "race", as well as its impact in the political and economic development of the nation, have been examined by numerous historians and researchers across a variety of academic disciplines....
onto Chinese minorities.
Modernization Interpretations of Chinese history
This view of Chinese history sees Chinese society in the 20th century as a traditional society seeking to become modern, usually with the implicitassumption that Western society is the definition of modern society.
This view of Chinese history has its roots with British views of the orient
of the early 19th century. In this viewpoint, the societies of India, China,
and the Middle East were societies with glorious pasts but that they have
become trapped in a static past (see Orientalism
Orientalism
Orientalism is a term used for the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists, as well as having other meanings...
). This view provided an implicit justification
of British colonialism with Britain assuming the "white man's burden" of
breaking these societies from their static past and bringing them into the
modern world.
By the mid 20th century, it was increasingly clear to historians that the
notion of "changeless China" was untenable. A new concept, popularized by
John Fairbank was the notion of "change within tradition" which argued
that although China did change in the pre-modern period but that this change
existed within certain cultural traditions.
There are a number of criticisms of the modernization critique. One centers
on the definition of "traditional society." The criticism is that the
idea of "traditional society" is simply a catch all term for early non-Western
society and implies that all such societies are similar. To use an analogy,
one could classify all animals into "fish" and "non-fish" but that classification would be hardly useful, and would imply that spiders are similar to mountain goats.
The notion of "change within tradition" also been subject to criticism. The criticism is that the statement that "China has not changed fundamentally" is tautological, that one looks for things that have not changed and then define those as fundamental. The trouble with doing this is that when one can do
this with anything that has lasted for an extended period of time resulting
in absurd statements such as "England has not changed fundamentally in the
past thousand years because the institution of the monarchy has existed
for this long."
In the opposite vein, the Japanese history Naito Torajiro
Naito Torajiro
Naitō Torajirō , commonly known as Naitō Konan , was a Japanese historian and Sinologist. He was the founder of the Kyoto School of historiography, and along with Shiratori Kurakichi , was one of the leading Japanese historians of East Asia in the early twentieth century...
argued that China reached "modernity" during its mid-Imperial period
Mid-Imperial China
Mid-Imperial China begins with the reunification of China by the short-lived Sui dynasty in 589. The Sui replaced the nine-rank system with the imperial examination and embarked on major public works such as connecting the various canals to form the Grand Canal...
, centuries before Europe. He believed that the reform of the civil service into a meritocratic system and the disappearance of the ancient Chinese nobility
Chinese nobility
Chinese sovereignty and peerage, the nobility of China, were an important feature of traditional social and political organization of Imperial China. While the concepts of hereditary sovereign and peerage titles and noble families were featured as early as the semi-mythical, early historical...
from the bureaucracy constituted a modern society. As noted above, some world-systems analysts such as Janet Abu-Lughod
Janet Abu-Lughod
Janet L. Abu-Lughod, née Lippman is an American sociologist with major contributions to World-systems theory and Urban sociology.-Family:She was married in 1951–1991 to Ibrahim Abu-Lughod...
thought China invented capitalism during this period with the rise of a monied economy and the invention of paper currency.
The problems associated with this approach is the subjective use of "modern" and "capitalist". The old nobility had been in decline since the Qin dynasty. While the exams were meritocratic, most examinees were of the gentry background. Expertise in the Confucian classics did not guarantee competent bureaucrats who could manage public works or prepare a budget. The early capitalists theory is also unsound in that merchants were at the bottom of the four occupations
Four occupations
The four occupations or "four categories of the people" was a hierarchic social class structure developed in ancient China by either Confucian or Legalist scholars as far back as the late Zhou Dynasty and is considered a central part of the Fengjian social structure...
due to Confucianism's hostility to commerce. The social goal was to invest in land and enter the gentry, ideas more similar to the physiocrats
Physiocrats
Physiocracy is an economic theory developed by the Physiocrats, a group of economists who believed that the wealth of nations was derived solely from the value of "land agriculture" or "land development." Their theories originated in France and were most popular during the second half of the 18th...
than that of Adam Smith
Adam Smith
Adam Smith was a Scottish social philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations...
.
Hydraulic Theory
Derived from Marx and Max WeberMax Weber
Karl Emil Maximilian "Max" Weber was a German sociologist and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself...
, Karl August Wittfogel
Karl August Wittfogel
Karl August Wittfogel was a German-American playwright, historian, and sinologist. Originally a Marxist and an active member of the Communist Party of Germany, after the Second World War Wittfogel was an equally fierce anticommunist.-Biography:...
argued that bureaucracy arose to manage irrigation systems. Despotism was needed to force the people into building canals, dikes, and waterways to increase agriculture. Yu the Great
Yu the Great
Yu the Great , was a legendary ruler of Ancient China famed for his introduction of flood control, inaugurating dynastic rule in China by founding the Xia Dynasty, and for his upright moral character....
, one of China's legendary founders, is mostly known for his control of the flood. The hydraulic empire
Hydraulic empire
A hydraulic empire is a social or government structure which maintains power and control through exclusive control over access to water...
produces wealth from its stability and while dynasties may change, the structure remains intact until destroyed by modern powers.
Critics of Wittfogel's oriental despotism theory point out that water management was not a high priority when compared to taxes, rituals, and fighting off bandits. The theory also has a strong orientalist
Oriental studies
Oriental studies is the academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology; in recent years the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Asian studies and Middle Eastern studies...
bent which regards all Asian states as generally the same.
Convergence Theory
Convergence theory is a broad term which includes a viewpoint popular among non-Marxist Chinese intellectuals of the mid 20th century. This includesHu Shih
Hu Shih
Hu Shih , born Hu Hung-hsing , was a Chinese philosopher, essayist and diplomat. His courtesy name was Shih-chih . Hu is widely recognized today as a key contributor to Chinese liberalism and language reform in his advocacy for the use of written vernacular Chinese...
and Ray Huang
Ray Huang
Ray Huang was a Chinese historian and philosopher. He was an officer in the Nationalist army and fought in the Burma campaigns. He earned a Ph.D in history from the University of Michigan, worked with Joseph Needham and is a contributor of Needham's Science and Civilisation in China...
's involution theory. This view was that the past 150
years was a period in which Chinese and Western civilization were in the
process of convergence into a world civilization.
This view is heavily influenced by modernization theory
Modernization theory
Modernization theory is a theory used to explain the process of modernization within societies. The theory looks at the internal factors of a country while assuming that, with assistance, "traditional" countries can be brought to development in the same manner more developed countries have...
, but is also strongly influenced by indigenous sources such as the notion of "shijie datong" or
the Great Unity. It has tended to be less popular among more recent historians. Among Western historians, it conflicts with the postmodern impulse which is skeptical of great narratives. Among Chinese historians, convergence theory is in conflict with Chinese nationalism which includes a strong element of China as being unique.
Eurocentric interpretations and the impact of imperialism
Eurocentric interpretations focus on interaction with Europe as the driving force behind recent Chinese history. For instance, many periodization schemes use the First Opium WarFirst Opium War
The First Anglo-Chinese War , known popularly as the First Opium War or simply the Opium War, was fought between the United Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty of China over their conflicting viewpoints on diplomatic relations, trade, and the administration of justice...
as the starting point for the modern period.
There are two variants, one focuses on Europe as the driving force behind China's quest for modernity, the other focuses on the effects of European colonialism. Examples of the first interpretation include the works of H.B. Morse
Hosea Ballou Morse
Hosea Ballou Morse, who published under the name H.B. Morse, was an American who served in the Chinese Imperial Maritime Custom Service from 1874 to 1908, but is best known for his scholarly publications after his retirement, most prominently The International Relations of the Chinese Empire, a...
, who wrote chronicles of China's international relations such as Trade and Relations of the Chinese Empire (1910- ). Examples of the second start with the works of T.F. Tsiang and John King Fairbank, who used newly opened archives in the 1930s to write from the Chinese point of view. Fairbank and Teng Ssu-yu edited the influential China's Response to the West (1953), which was in turn criticized for ascribing change in China to outside forces. Paul Cohen
Paul Cohen (historian)
Paul A. Cohen is Edith Stix Wasserman Professor of Asian Studies and History Emeritus at Wellesley College and Associate of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University. His research interests include 19th-20th century China; historical thought; American historiography on...
, a student of Fairbank's, articulated the agenda of the next generation in his call for "China-Centered history of China."
Closely related are anti-imperialist narratives. While some
anti-imperialist narratives notably those of historians
within the People's Republic of China as well as Western Marxist histories incorporate anti-imperialist narratives in their histories, many anti-imperialist narratives are non-Marxist or as in the case of the Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
in the 1960s, actively anti-Marxist.
One example of a blind spot which is provided by this viewpoint is the influence of central Asian
policies on interactions with Europe in the Qing dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
.
Post-modern interpretations of Chinese history
Post-modern interpretations of Chinese history tend to reject the grand narratives ofother interpretations of history. Instead of seeking a grand pattern of history, post-modern interpretations tend to focus on a small subset of Chinese history.
In attention rather than focusing on the political elites of China, post-modern historians look also at the daily lives of ordinary people.
Recent trends in Chinese historical scholarship
The late 20th century and early 21st century has seen a large number of studies of Chinese history that seek to challenge traditional paradigms. The field is rapidly evolving, with much new scholarship. Much of this new scholarship comes from the realization that there is much about Chinese history that is unknown or controversial. To give one such controversy, it is an active topic of discussion whether the typical Chinese peasant in 1900 was seeing his life improve or decline. In addition to the realization that there are major gaps in our knowledge of Chinese history is the equal realization that there are tremendous quantities of primary source material that have not yet been analyzed.Recent Western scholarship of China has been heavily influenced by postmodernism
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
. For example, current scholars of China tend to question the question, and look heavily at the assumptions within a question before attempting to answer it. For example, one begins to answer the question "Why did China not develop modern science and capitalism?" by asking the question "Why are we assuming that what China did develop was not modern science and capitalism?" This then brings up the question of what are the essential characteristics of modern science and capitalism, and whether it makes any sense at all to apply European concepts to Chinese history.
One example of the fruitfulness of questioning assumptions comes from questioning the assumption that "China was weak in the 19th century" and pointing out the fact that at the time in which China was supposedly weak, it managed to considerably extend its borders in Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
. This in turn has caused scholars to be more interested in Chinese policies and actions in Central Asia and has led to the realization that Central Asia affected Chinese policies toward Europe in a deep way.
Another trend in Western scholarship of China has been to move away from "grand theories" of history, toward an understanding of a narrow part of China. A survey of papers on Chinese history in the early 21st century would reveal relatively little attempt to fit Chinese history into a master paradigm of history as was common in the 1950s. Instead, early 21st century papers on Chinese history tend to be empirical studies of a small part of China which aim to reach a deep understanding of the socio-economics, politicaldynamics, or cultural dynamics of a small region such as a province or a village with little effort made to create a master narrative which would be generalizable to all of China.
Also, such current scholars attempt to assess source material more critically. For example, for a long period it was assumed that Imperial China had no system of civil law because the law codes did not have explicit provisions for civil lawsuits. However, more recent studies which use the records of civil magistrates suggest that China did in fact have a very well developed system of civil law, in which provisions of the criminal code were interpreted to allow civil causes of action. Another example of the more critical view taken toward source material has been anti-merchant statements made by intellectuals in the mid-Qing dynasty. Traditionally these have been interpreted as examples of government hostility toward commerce, but more recent studies, which use source material such as magistrate diaries and genealogical records, suggest that merchants in fact had a powerful impact on government policies and that the division between the world of the merchant and the world of the official was far more porous than traditionally believed. In fact, there is a growing consensus that anti-merchant statements in the mid-Qing dynasty should be taken as evidence of a substantial erosion in the power and freedom of action of officials.
Finally, current scholars have taken an increasing interest in the lives of common people and tapped documentary and historical evidence that was previously not analyzed. Examples of these records include a large mass of governmental and family archives which have not yet been processed, economic records such as census records, price records, land surveys, and tax records. In addition there are large numbers of cultural artifacts such as vernacular novels, how-to books, and children's books, which are in the process of being analyzed for clues as to how the average Chinese (if there was such as thing) lived.
In contrast, just as postmodernism
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
has so far failed to take root in ethnic Chinese circles as opposed to a general sense of Chinese nationalist
Chinese nationalist
Chinese nationalist can refer to:* Chinese nationalism* Kuomintang - Chinese Nationalist Party in Taiwan....
moral certainty
Moral certainty
Moral certainty is a concept of intuitive probability. It means a very high degree of probability, sufficient for action, but short of absolute or mathematical certainty....
, much of ethnic Chinese scholarship of Chinese history remains largely modernist or even outright traditionalist in outlook. The legacies of the modernist school, such as historian Lo Hsiang-lin (1906–1978) and the traditionalist school, as represented by historian Chien Mu (1895–1990) remain strong in Chinese circles. The more modernist works focus on imperial systems in China and employ scientific method to analyze epochs of Chinese dynasties from geographical, genealogical, and cultural artifacts, for example, from Carbon-14 dating and geographical records to correlate climates with cycles of calm and calamity in Chinese history. The traditionalist school of scholarship resorts to official imperial records and colloquial history works and analyzes the different dynasties' rises and falls using a Confucian philosophy, albeit modified by an institutional administration perspective.
From the beginning of Communist rule in 1949, until the 1980s, when China was in the early years of economic reform
Chinese economic reform
The Chinese economic reform refers to the program of economic reforms called "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" in the People's Republic of China that were started in December 1978 by reformists within the Communist Party of China led by Deng Xiaoping.China had one of the world's largest...
, the focus was largely on peasant life, as interpreted via the officially sanctioned Marxist theory of class struggle. From the time of Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese politician, statesman, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy...
onwards, there has been a drift of focus towards a Marxist-inspired, moderated by Conficianism, nationalist perspective, and consideration of China's contemporary international status became of paramount importance in historical studies. The current focus tends to be on specifics of civilization in ancient China, and the general paradigm of how China has responded to the dual challenges of interactions with the outside world and modernization in the post-1700 era. Long abandoned as a research focus among most Western scholars due to postmodernism's influence, it remains the primary interest for most historians inside China.
See also
- Timeline of Chinese historyTimeline of Chinese historyThe following is a timeline of the history of China. Between the changing of the dynasties, most dates overlap as ruling periods do not transfer immediately...
- Dynasties in Chinese historyDynasties in Chinese historyThe following is a chronology of the dynasties in Chinese history.Chinese history is not as neat as is often described and it was rare for one dynasty to change peacefully into the next. Dynasties were often established before the overthrow of an existing regime, or continued for a time after they...
- Industrial Revolution in ChinaIndustrial Revolution in ChinaIn the 1960s, about 60% of the Chinese labor force were employed in agriculture. The figure remained more or less constant throughout the early phase of industrialization between the 1960s and 1990s, but in view of the rapid population growth this amounted to a rapid growth of the industrial sector...
- Chinese LiteratureChinese literatureChinese literature extends thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court archives to the mature fictional novels that arose during the Ming Dynasty to entertain the masses of literate Chinese...