Contemporary Studies on Modern Chinese History II 9781138483743, 9781351054003

Table of contents :
Cover
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of contents
Contributors
Translators’ note
Preface
1 History of historiography
1.1 The rise of historiography and its initial development
1.2 A review of theories and methods
1.2.1 The basic content of the history of modern Chinese historiography
1.2.2 The main line and periodization of the development of modern Chinese historiography
1.2.3 The modernization process of Chinese historiography and the relationship between traditional and Western historiography
1.2.4 The dividing line between ideological trends and schools of modern Chinese historiography
1.2.5 Issues concerning the evaluation of the changes in the function of historiography in modern society
1.2.6 Reflections on the history of Chinese Marxist historiography
1.3 Sustainable development in the early years of the new century
1.3.1 The in-depth development in existing research topics
(1) On Liang Qichao’s “Neo-Historiography”
(2) On the Historiography during the May 4th Movement
(3) On Schools of Marxist historiography and historical materialism
(4) Research on other historians
1.3.2 The expansion of the research field
1.3.3 The emergence of a new trend in research
1.4 New thinking and prospect
Notes
2 History of Sino-foreign relations
2.1 An overview of the development
2.2 Monographic studies
2.2.1 Diplomatic theory and systems
2.2.2 Unequal treaties
(1) Theories and conceptions in the study of unequal treaties
(2) Studies on the abrogation of unequal treaties
2.2.3 Research on the late Qing government’s diplomacy
(1) The first Opium War and the beginning of unequal Sino-foreign relations
(2) The second Opium War and the formation and development of unequal treaty system
(3) The origin and development of Japan’s policy on invading China
(4) Anti-Christianity movements and the Boxer Uprising
(5) The open-door policy
(6) Sino-foreign relations before and after the Republican Revolution
2.2.4 Diplomacy in early Republican China
(1) Diplomatic dilemma in early Republican China
(2) China’s participation in the First World War
(3) China’s diplomacy before and after the Washington Conference
(4) The introduction of the concept of popular diplomacy (Guo Min Wai Jiao)
(5) Treaty revision diplomacy
(6) Sino-foreign relations during the Great Revolution period
2.2.5 Diplomacy during the early period of the Nanjing Nationalist Government
(1) Diplomacy in the early days of the Nanjing Nationalist Government
(2) The Mukden Incident and the Nanjing Nationalist Government’s diplomacy
2.2.6 The anti-Japanese diplomacy
(1) The Sino-foreign relations in the early period of the Anti-Japanese War
(2) Sino-foreign relations in the later period of the War of Resistance against Japan
2.2.7 Sino-foreign relations during the period of the War of Liberation
(1) The Nanjing Nationalist Government’s policy toward the United States
(2) America’s policy toward China
(3) The Soviet Union’s policy toward China
2.2.8 Related monographic historical studies
(1) Research on the history of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Macau Special Administrative Region.
(2) Research on the history of concessions
(3) The missioners’ activities and functions
2.3 Some reflections
Notes
3 Social history
3.1 Predicament of the historiography and the germination of social historiography
3.2 Three stages of development
3.2.1 The stage of disciplinary revival (1986–1990)
3.2.2 Stage of system construction (1991–2000)
3.2.3 The stage of steady development (after 2001)
3.3 New trends in the modern social history research
3.3.1 Regional social history research has made notable achievements and theoretical research has been deepened as well
3.3.2 Modern rural history research is still in the ascendant and keeps developing
3.3.3 The beginning of the social gender history research
3.4 The disciplinary impact of the social history research
3.5 The future development
Notes
4 Urban history
4.1 Plentiful achievements
4.1.1 Studies of a single city
4.1.2 Research on modern regional urban history
4.1.3 Holistic research on modern cities
4.1.4 Study on the motive forces of urban economy and urban development
4.1.5 Research on municipal construction and urban management
4.1.6 Studies on urban society, public space and popular culture
4.2 Theoretical explorations
4.2.1 The basic content of urban history studies
4.2.2 Modernization and urbanization of cities
4.2.3 Semi-colonization and urban development
4.2.4 The driving forces for the urban modernization and urbanization
4.2.5 Urban and rural relations
4.2.6 Research on regional urban history
4.2.7 Discussions on the law of urban development
4.3 Problems and prospects
Notes
5 History of workers’ movements in China
5.1 The rise and serious setbacks
5.2 Restoration, development and prosperity
5.2.1 Research on the theories and strategies of workers’ movements had been strengthened
5.2.2 The academic contention had been widely carried out
5.3 In-depth development in the 1990s
5.3.1 The relationship between the secret societies and the workers’ movements before liberation
5.3.2 The KMT’s trade unions
5.3.3 Several issues concerning the workers’ movements during the War of Resistance Against Japan
5.4 Progress and deepening in the early twenty-first century
5.4.1 The CPC’s theories of and strategies for workers’ movements
5.4.2 The KMT and the Nationalist Government’s theories and policies on the labor
5.4.3 The labor legislation during the Republic of China period
5.4.4 Research on the relations among workers, capitalists and the KMT in labor disputes
5.4.5 The relationship between the guilds and trade unions
Notes
6 Women’s history
6.1 Women’s movements and thoughts on women’s liberation
6.1.1 The periodization and characteristics of women’s movements in modern China
6.1.2 About the thought on women’s liberation
6.1.3 Opposing to foot-binding, promoting women’s education, publishing newspapers and magazines, and organizing groups of women
6.1.4 Movements for women’s political participation
6.1.5 The KMT, the CPC and women’s movements
6.2 Women’s lives
6.2.1 Lives of women at different levels
6.2.2 Marriage and family
6.2.3 Women and religion
6.2.4 Other issues related to women’s lives
6.3 Female figures
6.4 Several problems existing in the studies
6.4.1 On the theories of research on women’s history
6.4.2 On the research methods of women’s history
6.4.3 Several issues worthy of attention in the study of women’s history
Notes
7 History of youth movements
7.1 Three stages of development
7.1.1 The stage of research to meet the needs of CCYL
7.1.2 The stage of organized research during the period of “restoring things to order” and the reform and opening up
7.1.3 The natural development stage under the situation of economic transformation and social development
7.2 A summary of research results
7.2.1 The establishment of China Socialist Youth League
7.2.2 The movement to study in France on a work-study basis and the founding of the Communist Youth League in Europe
7.2.3 The CCYL issue during the First Revolutionary Civil War
7.2.4 The CCYL issue during the Second Revolutionary Civil War
7.2.5 The youth movements to resist Japan and save China
(1) The youth movements to resist Japan and save China at the time of the Mukden Incident
(2) On the “December 9th Movement”
(3) On the CCCPC’s decision on transforming the CCYL
7.2.6 The issue of youth movements during the Anti-Japanese War
7.2.7 The issue of youth movements during the War of Liberation
7.3 Future directions
7.3.1 On the academization of the historical study of the youth movements
(1) The research object of the study of youth movement history
(2) The upper limit of the youth movement history
(3) Was the main body of China’s youth movements the young workers and peasants or the young intellectuals?
7.3.2 On improving the research methods of youth movement history and renewing the concept of historical work
7.3.3 On the team building of youth movement history studies
Notes
Index

Citation preview

Contemporary Studies on Modern Chinese History II

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 seven different topics are collected from over ten 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 imperial China and the Chinese Workers’ Movement, this volume sets out to explore topics such as the history of Sino-​foreign relations as well as the history of workers’ movements and youth movements. This book will be a valuable reference for scholars and students of Chinese history. Zeng Yeying is a researcher, Professor and Doctoral supervisor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. His professional research direction is the history of the Republic of China. His representative works include The History of the Republic of China, Vol. 1 (2nd edition).

China Perspectives

The China Perspectives series focuses on translating and publishing works by leading Chinese scholars, writing about both global topics and China-​related themes. It covers Humanities and Social Sciences, Education, Media and Psychology, as well as many interdisciplinary themes. This is the first time any of these books have been published in English for international readers. The series aims to put forward a Chinese perspective, give insights into cutting-​edge academic thinking in China, and inspire researchers globally. Titles in history currently include: Merchants and Society in Modern China From Guild to Chamber of Commerce Tang Lixing The History of Sino-​Japanese Cultural Exchange TENG Jun Chinese Buddhism and Traditional Culture FANG Litian The Hidden Land The Garrison System and the Ming Dynasty Gu Cheng The History of Chinese Feudal Society Tung-​tsu  Chu Contemporary Studies on Modern Chinese History I Edited by Zeng Yeying Contemporary Studies on Modern Chinese History II Edited by Zeng Yeying For more information, please visit www.routledge.com/​series/​CPH

Contemporary Studies on Modern Chinese History II Edited by Zeng Yeying Translated by Wu Jinshan and Li Wenzhong

This book is published with financial support from the Chinese Fund for the Humanities and Social Sciences. First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Zeng Yeying; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Zeng Yeying to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. English Version by permission of China Social Sciences Press. British Library Cataloguing-​in-​Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-​in-​Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978-​1-​138-​48374-​3  (hbk) ISBN: 978-​1-​351-​05400-​3  (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Newgen Publishing UK

Contents

List of contributors  Translators’ note  Preface  1 History of historiography 

vi vii ix 1

H U F E N G XI ANG A N D LI U  LI NA

2 History of Sino-​foreign relations 

40

H OU Z H ON G J U N A N D YA N G WA N RO N G

3 Social history 

81

WAN G XI AN M I N G

4 Urban history 

109

H E   YI MI N

5 History of workers’ movements in China 

143

L I U J I N G FAN G

6 Women’s history 

178

Z H E N G YON GFU A N D LV MEI Y I

7 History of youth movements 

214

L I   YU QI

Index 

241

Contributors

HE Yimin, Professor, the Institute of Urban Studies, Sichuan University, Chapter 4. HOU Zhongjun, Assistant Researcher, the Institute of Modern History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Chapter 2. HU Fengxiang, Professor, the Institute of Chinese History Studies, East China Normal University; Chapter 1. LI Yuqi, Researcher, China Youth Research Center; Chapter 7. LIU Jingfang, Professor, the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China; Chapter 5. LIU Lina, Researcher, the Institute of Modern History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Chapter 1. LV Meiyi, Professor, the School of History, Zhengzhou University; Chapter 6. WANG Xianming, Professor, the School of History, Nankai University; Chapter 3. YANG Wanrong, PhD in History, the Institute of Modern History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Chapter 2. ZHENG Yongfu, Professor, the School of History, Zhengzhou University; Chapter 6.

Translators’ note

The English version of this book was sponsored as a national translation project by the Chinese Fund for the Humanities and Social Sciences (15WZS015) and was undertaken by Li Wenzhong in collaboration with China Social Sciences Press. The translation was done by Li Wenzhong, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Wu Jinshan, Henan Normal University, and Liu Bing, Henan Polytechnic University. The translators would like to give their thanks to Professor Zeng Yeying for his discussion and suggestions, Dr. Xia Xia and Liu Jiaqi of China Social Sciences Press for their co-​ordination and support. LI Wenzhong Zhejiang Gongshang University WU Jinshan Henan Normal University LIU Bing Henan Polytechnic University February 16, 2020

Preface

More than ten years ago, in 1999, I worked as the editor-​in-​chief of the journal Modern Chinese History Studies sponsored by the Institute of Modern History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. In order to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the PRC, and also to help researchers in modern Chinese history learn from the past practice with discrimination and precaution in the coming twenty-​first century, I once discussed with Huang Chunsheng and Xu Xiuli, the deputy editors, and decided on a special issue (the fifth issue of the year) with the theme of Research on the History of Modern China in the Past 50 Years. We then planned 24 special topics, such as the theories and methods for modern Chinese history studies, the political history of the late Qing Dynasty, modern economic history, cultural history, ideological history, social history, urban history, women’s history, the history of youth movements, the history of workers’ movements, the history of Sino-​foreign relations, the history of the Republic of China, and the history of the Communist Party of China, for which we invited a group of prominent historians on the mainland to write introductory articles looking forwards and backwards, with a view to promoting the healthy development of Chinese modern history studies. Subsequently, we received positive responses and support from many notable scholars. But it turned out that the limited space made it impossible to accommodate all the contributions at one time. The original fifth issue only published 16 of them. Then the published articles together with eight other pieces were made into a volume with the title Research on Chinese Modern History in the Past 50 Years and submitted for publication by Shanghai Bookstore Publishing House. The publications mentioned above aroused widespread concern among historians, especially young students. Many readers wrote to the journal editorial board asking for mail orders, and almost all college history students had a copy, thus making the fifth issue the most widely distributed for many years. The book Research on the History of Modern China in the Past 50 Years was first published in April 2000 and the second edition in July 2002. In August 2003, perhaps because it was the first of its kind to systematically introduce the PRC’s studies on modern history, it was also approved by the State Council as one of the “Tenth Five-​Year Plan” key projects for the “211

x Preface Project” of higher education, namely the “Digital Library Project for Classic Coursebooks of Higher Education.” Accordingly the book was published by Shanghai Bookstore Publishing House as an e-​book for online reading by lecturers and students of the 100 “211 Project” universities, 400 universities offering graduate programs, and another 1,000 universities. In October and November of 2008, during my visit to Taipei for historical materials, I was also informed by many Taiwanese friends that “the book also sold well there” and was asked whether I was “interested in continuing to do it.” It seems that this book is helpful for people studying and researching the history of modern China. This is the main reason why I am still willing to take up the old job and edit this edition of Contemporary Studies of Modern Chinese History (1949–​ 2009) today, more than ten years later. This book is a revision with new additions of Research on the History of Modern China in the Past 50 Years. Other than combining individual topics into chapters, the main changes are the addition of an “Overview” as an independent chapter, the inclusion of research after 1999 and 2012 in each chapter together with modifications and feedback from pre-​1999 reviews in some chapters. The introduction of the research mainly adheres to the following principles: first, due to the limited space in this book, while it is not possible to cover everything in detail, we concentrate on major events, important people, with the research well focused, adequately dealt with, well justified and properly delivered. Second, an introduction has to be impartial at its best with regard to the representative viewpoints. For controversial issues, different views are given an equal exposure to prevent bias. Third, for some representative views that have a wider impact on academia and society, the main arguments and key factual evidence held by researchers are introduced appropriately. Fourth, practical review and prospects should be given as a summary of past research. Of course, everything is easier said than done. Despite all this, readers may still find the book unsatisfactory, and we feel obliged to ask for forgiveness. Other aspects remain unchanged. Twenty-​three topics have been retained, though the chapter on the “history of education” was reluctantly removed, because its original author Mr. Wang Bingzhao died, and other scholars felt it was inappropriate to revise it. Moreover, a few chapters such as “Social history,” “History of Northern Warlords” and “History of historiography” have been changed or have acquired new authors for various reasons. The writing style remains diverse depending on the authors’ own choice, with no unified and consistent style guideline being imposed upon them. Authors vary to a great extent in their presentation in terms of organization, ordering, focus, representation and citation. It needs to be noted that in order to maintain the extent of each chapter, necessary deletions, occasionally significant ones were made. Other chapters were written while most were revised and modified in the light of historical facts. Such modifications are my responsibility, not the original authors’. However, I  have also retained some slightly repeated content in individual

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Preface  xi chapters, which would not have been appropriate in a unified book, without having deleted them altogether. This is because 1) the fact that the original design ignored the possibility of overlapping events in different chapters simply makes it impossible to avoid them at this stage; 2) although the book is composed of 24 chapters as a whole, each chapter is actually a separate unit, with its own independence, integrity and internal logicality; 3) despite some slight repetitions, they complement each other on account of their varied emphases and different ways of delivery. In addition, most of the works introduced in this book are carefully cited with their sources for further reference by readers. However, now that the important figures introduced in this book are limited in number and discussions of them are concentrated in several chapters, there is no index of personal names in order to save space. For the successful publication of this book, heartfelt thanks go to all the contributors for their warm support, to China Social Sciences Press for permission to quote from Report of Development of China Philosophy and Social Sciences, and to Zhang Xiaoyi and Liu Zhibing for their guidance, especially Liu Zhibing for his painstaking work in proofreading, citation format, and compilation of references. Finally, I  honestly welcome discussion and criticism from both professionals and general readers. ZENG Yeying The Institute of Modern History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences May 2019

1  History of historiography HU Fengxiang and LIU Lina

1.1  The rise of historiography and its initial development In the first ten years after the founding of the People’s Public of China, the focus of the historians’ circle turned to studying and applying historical materialism, re-​understanding history and criticizing non-​Marxist historiography. The focus of academic discussion was mostly on the macro theoretical issues of history closely related to social revolution. The more specialized research of the discipline of history, such as the history of historiography, was rarely considered because it seemed to be a little far from reality. Under such circumstances, it was difficult for the study of the history of modern historiography to accomplish much. There were only a few papers on the history of historiography published in the journals, and their scope of research was quite narrow, which made it impossible to achieve a considerable amount of research. This situation did not change until the early 1960s. After the National Conference on Liberal Arts Textbooks in April 1961, the Editorial Office of Liberal Arts Textbooks for Higher Education of the Ministry of Education commissioned Wu Ze to organize forces in the Department of History of East China Normal College (now East China Normal University) to compile textbooks on the history of modern Chinese historiography. The implementation of this plan has promoted the development of the study of the history of modern historiography in the mainland, and marked the substantive start of the construction of this discipline as well. The following four to five years before 1966 can be said to be the initial period for the construction of the discipline of history of modern Chinese historiography. The Textbook Compilation Group of the History Department of East China Normal University had drawn up the compilation outline and work plan, and took the lead in carrying out a great deal of preliminary work like data collection and investigation. It had successively published some monographic papers like Wu Ze’s “Wei Yuan’s Thought of Changes and View of Historical Evolution” (Historical Research, No. 5, 1962)  and “On Kang Youwei’s View of Historical Evolution in His Theory of the Three Ages (Gong Yang San Shi Shuo)” (Journal of Chinese Literature and History Vol.1, August, 1962), Wu Ze and Huang Liyong’s “Research on Wei Yuan’s

2  HU Fengxiang and LIU Lina Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Countries (Hai Guo Tu Zhi)” (Historical Research, No. 4, 1963), and Yuan Yinguang’s “Xu Yan’s Historical Thought” (Journal of East China Normal University, No. 2, 1964). After 1976, academic research resumed its normal path of development. From the perspective of discipline construction, the period from the late 1970s to the late 1980s can be called the basic formation period of the discipline framework. The research in this period, in the first place, further clarified the guiding ideology, methods and perspectives, thematic clues, research scope and understanding of the characteristics of each period of the history of historiography. In the early 1980s, Bai Shouyi published “On the Historiography of Modern China” (Journal of Historiography, No. 3, 1983), which gave a general overview of the basic context and characteristics of the development of modern Chinese history. Yu Danchu’s “A Brief Discussion on the Historiography in the Late 19th Century” (Modern Chinese History Studies, No. 2, 1981) traced the evolution of the trend of historiography in the early modern period with abundant historical materials. Jiang Dachun’s “Review and Prospect of Chinese Historiography” (Historical Materialism and Historiography, Jilin Education Press, 1991) also made a relatively complete comment on the development of historiography from 1840 to 1949. All these studies have made it easier for people to understand the basic clues of the history of modern historiography. What is more, the research in this period has filled many academic gaps and outlined the basic features of the history of modern Chinese historiography through a large amount of basic work, including case studies on various ideological trends, schools, historians, historical works and social historical phenomena. History of Modern Chinese Historiography (Jiangsu Ancient Books Publishing House Co. Ltd, 1989), written by Yuan Yingguang and Gui Zunyi and edited by Wu Ze, is a representative achievement made during this period, which has provided a solid foundation for future generations to study further. Of course, as the first pioneering work in mainland China to systematically study the history of modern Chinese historiography, it inevitably has some shortcomings. The main reason is that its framework was basically drawn up before 1966 and some parts could not fully demonstrate the academic research style of modern historiography in the 1980s. Another noteworthy work published during this period is The Development History of Chinese Historiography (Zhongzhou Ancient Books Publishing House, 1985)  edited by Yin Da, the second volume of which focused on the evolution of Chinese historiography from 1840 to 1949. Although its content is slightly sketchy, it is the only general work on the history of Chinese historiography published in the 1980s that can fully reflect the whole development process of modern history, thus having certain pioneering significance. The research on the history of modern historiography in this period has also reached a considerable scale in the accumulation and compilation of basic data and the summary of research results. For example, the Institute of Chinese History of East China Normal University had successively

History of historiography  3 edited and published Collection of Studies on the History of Modern Chinese Historiography (Vol. I) (East China Normal University Press, 1984), the 3-​ volume Collection of Studies on Wang Guowei (East China Normal University Press, 1983–​1990), Collection of Papers by He Bingsong (The Commercial Press, 1990) and Contemporary Chinese Historians’ Works Series. Works like Critical Biographies of Chinese Historians (Vol. Ⅱ) edited by Chen Qingquan and Su Shuangbi et al. (Zhongzhou Ancient Books Publishing House, 1985), Review of Masterpieces on Chinese Historiography (Vol. 3) edited by Cang Xiuliang (Shandong Education Press, 1990), and Summary of Important Works on Historical Theories in the Past 90 Years edited by Liu Zehua (Bibliographic Literature Publishing House, 1992)  all have done very good basic work in reorganizing and summarizing the relevant research results of predecessors. Another particularly noteworthy work is Yu Danchu’s long article “A Preliminary Examination of Neo-​Historiography in China in the Early 20th Century” published in Journal of Historiography in 1982 and 1983. This article not only sorted out many historical materials from various old periodicals, translated works on history and history textbooks of the Qing Dynasty in the early twentieth century, but also outlined the general picture of the trends in “Neo-​Historiography” in a very concrete way. It also set a new example for further expanding the scope of historical materials in the study of history of modern historiography and was very enlightening to the following researchers. The first volume of Selected Papers on Modern Chinese History edited by Ge Maochun (Guangxi Normal University Press, 1990) and Tracing to the Source of Historiography—​Selection of Theoretical Papers on Modern Chinese History (Vol. 1) edited by Jiang Dachun (officially published by Jilin Education Press in April 1991) have further promoted the studies in this field. If the research on the history of modern Chinese historiography in the 1980s was still in its pioneering stage, then the 1990s would have been its first harvest season, which was clearly reflected in the sharp increase in the number of works on the history of modern Chinese historiography. Throughout the 1980s, only one monograph was published. Since 1991, more than ten monographs have been published, including Hu Fengxiang and Zhang Wenjian’s Ideological Trends and Schools of Modern Chinese Historiography (East China Normal University Press, 1991), Gao Guokang and Yang Yanqi’s Essentials of History of Modern Chinese Historiography (Guangdong Higher Education Press, 1994), Chen Qitai’s History of Modern Chinese Historiography (Henan People’s Publishing House, 1994), A Review of the Development of Modern Chinese Historiography edited by Ma Jinke and Hong Jingling (China Renmin University Press, 1994), Jiang Jun’s Modernization Process of Chinese Historiography (Qilu Press, 1995), Yu Danchu’s Patriotism and Modern Chinese Historiography (China Social Sciences Press, 1996), Zhang Qizhi’s Academic History of Modern Chinese Historiography (China Social Sciences Press, 1996), and Zhang Shuxue’s Study of the Ideological Trends in Modern Chinese Historiography (Hunan Education Publishing House, 1998). This situation has

4  HU Fengxiang and LIU Lina shown that the works on the history of modern Chinese historiography in this period had shown a trend of diversification in style and structure. In addition, the research on the history of modern Chinese historiography during this period also revealed a brand-​new scene in the following three aspects: The first is that the research field of vision has been greatly broadened. In the early 1960s, the perspectives and frameworks of the study of the history of modern Chinese historiography were obviously influenced by Hou Wailu’s General History of Chinese Thought, emphasizing case studies on some authoritative historians or important historical works in modern times. Discussions on the historical thoughts of them often only focused on the political thoughts and philosophical thoughts with conceptions of nature and history as their main content, rather than the theories and methods of the historiography itself, which was quite close to the general research mode of history of philosophy or history of thought. Since the 1980s, especially the 1990s, research on the history of modern historiography has gradually formed its own disciplinary style, and paid particularly more attention to the evolution of theories and methods that had directly promoted the development of the discipline itself. Its research content has been no longer limited to the case study of a certain historian or historical work, but gradually extended to various important cultural factors or social historical phenomena affecting the changes in historiography. For example, the exchanges between Chinese and Western historiography have had a great influence on the development of modern Chinese historiography, but since the founding of the PRC, the research in this area has been very weak. After entering the 1990s, the number of relevant papers has increased gradually. Hu Fengxiang’s “The Introduction of Western Historiography and the Modernization of Chinese Historiography” (Academic Quarterly, No. 1, 1990) and “Chinese Historiography and Western Modern Historiography during the May 4th Movement” (Academic Monthly, No. 12, 1996), Zhang Guangzhi’s “The Tradition of Western Classical Historiography and Its Echoes in China” (Historiography Quarterly, No. 2, 1994)  and “The Journey of Western Historiography to China in the Early 20th Century” (Historiography Quarterly, No. 1, 1996), Wang Yeyang’s “The Importation of Foreign Works on Historiography and Changes in Chinese Historiography in the Late Qing Dynasty” (Social Sciences in Guangxi, No. 5, 1994), and Yu Pei’s “The Introduction of Foreign Historiographic Theories and Its Echoes” (Historical Research, No. 3, 1996) respectively discussed the ways, content, influences and characteristics of the introduction of Western historiography into modern China. However, Sang Bing’s “Paul Pelliot and Modern Chinese Academia” (Historical Research, No. 5, 1997) has made a detailed and interesting examination of the interaction and mutual influence between the Western sinologist Paul Pelliot and Chinese academic circles from the perspective of two-​way communication, making people’s understanding of this issue become more and more concrete.

History of historiography  5 The research on the trends of thought and schools of modern historiography has also been further deepened during this period. Liu Lina’s “New Explorations of the Ideological Trends in Historiography in the May 4th Period” (Modern Chinese History Studies, No. 1, 1991), Zhang Hesheng’s “Historical View of Cultural Morphology and Historiography of the Warring States School” (Historical Review, No. 2, 1992), Zhang Wenjian’s “Historiographical Research of the Xueheng School” (Journal of Historiography, No. 2, 1994), Hu Fengxiang’s “Scientism During the May 4th Period and the Modernization of Chinese Historiography” (Journal of East China Normal University, No. 6, 1995), Zheng Shiqu’s “A Preliminary Study of the Xueheng School’s Historiographical Thoughts” (Journal of Beijing Normal University, No. 4, 1998), Hou Yunhao’s “A Brief Introduction to the Schools of Chinese Historiography in the Early 20th Century” (Historiography Quarterly, No. 2, 1999)  and many other papers have provoked various discussions on this issue, thus providing useful enlightenment for clarifying the complicated evolution of modern history. There have been many new developments in the extension of the research field. For example, since the beginning of the twentieth century, the discovery of the Dunhuang documents in Northwest China and the formation of Dunhuang Studies have been closely related to the development of modern historiography, especially the sub-​disciplines like the history of communication between China and the West, the history of the Western Regions, the geography of Northwest China, and the history of religion. However, there have been few studies conducted from the perspective of historiography in the past. History of Dunhuang Studies in China (Beijing Language and Culture University Press, 1992) written by Lin Jiaping et al. has made up for this defect to a certain extent. Although some people have long advocated and discussed the comparative study of Chinese and foreign historiography, systematic and in-​depth works have been rare. Sheng Banghe’s East Asia: The Spiritual Course Towards Modern Times—​Chinese and Japanese Historiography and the Confucianism Tradition in the Past 300 Years (Zhejiang People’s Publishing House, 1995) has made a meaningful attempt in this respect by systematically comparing the modernization of Chinese and Japanese (and also Korean) historiography. The introduction of Western archaeology and its rise in China has also been closely related to the development of modern Chinese history. Chen Xingcan’s Study on the History of Prehistoric Archaeology in China (1895–​1949) (SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1997)  summarized this process from the perspective of archaeological history. Other works like Huang Minlan’s Save the Nation with Learning—​Intellectuals’ Conceptions of History and Chinese Politics (Henan People’s Publishing House, 1995), which examined various conceptions of history in intellectual history, and Chen Qitai’s Gongyang Studies in the Qing Dynasty (Oriental Publishing House, 1997), which systematically studied the relationship between the Gong Yang Theory of New Text Confucianism (Jin Wen Jing Xue) and the ideological development of modern historiography, have shown this new trend. Some

6  HU Fengxiang and LIU Lina papers also discussed the modernization process of historiography from new perspectives such as the teaching system of modern history, the role of professional societies and journals, the interaction among social-​cultural thought, philosophical trends and historiography. All these studies have expanded the study of the history of modern Chinese historiography to different degrees. The second is that the research focus has obviously shifted from the history of modern Chinese historiography from 1840 to 1919 to the history from 1919 to 1949. Before 1966, hardly anything had been accomplished in the study of the history of historiography from 1919 to 1949. Since the 1980s, research in this area has begun. However, the early studies still mostly focused on Marxist historiography and historians, while the research on non-​Marxist historians generally focused only on Liang Qichao, Wang Guowei, Chen Yinque, Hu Shi, Gu Jiegang, Chen Yuan and Lv Simian, and so on. Since 1990, especially at the end of the century, it has begun to spread out in an all-​round way. Not only has the research on the history of Marxist historiography been fruitful, but the discussions of other schools have also reached a somewhat broad and in-​depth  level. Concerning the study of the history of Marxist historiography, the most representative work is Gui Zunyi’s Marxist Historiography in China (Shandong People’s Publishing House, 1992). This book discussed the spread of Marxist historical materialism in China from the May 4th Movement to 1956 and the history of the formation and development of Chinese Marxist historiography, which is by far the most comprehensive monograph reflecting the history of Chinese Marxist historiography in mainland China. At the same time, the previous case studies on Marxist historians have developed from single papers to monographs. The following have been published: Liu Maolin et  al.’s Critical Biography of Lv Zhenyu (Social Sciences Academic Press, 1990), Zhu Zhenghui’s Lv Zhenyu and His Historical Studies (Hunan Education Publishing House, 1992), Ye Guisheng’s Guo Moruo’s Career as a Historian (Social Sciences Academic Press, 1992), Five Great Historians of Neo-​Historiography edited by the Research Office of Historiography, a department of the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Social Sciences Academic Press, 1996)  and Zhang Chuanxi’s Biography of Jian Bozan (Peking University Press, 1998). In addition, a number of collections of papers on relevant figures have also been compiled and published, such as Research on Guo Moruo’s Historiography (Chengdu Publishing House, 1990)  compiled by the Guo Moruo Research Society of China, Collected Papers in Memory of Hou Wailu (Shaanxi People’s Education press, 1991) compiled by the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Guo Moruo and Chinese Historiography (China Social Sciences Press, 1992) edited by Lin Ganquan et al. In the 1990s, a new environment of breaking through the forbidden zone and emancipating the mind emerged in the study of modern Chinese non-​Marxist historiography. A  group of historians who had been ignored and criticized since the 1950s and 1960s and many areas which had been

History of historiography  7 considered as forbidden zones have been reexamined and evaluated realistically. Critical biographies of 12 historians including Hu Shi, Chen Yinque, Liu Yizhi, Tang Yongtong, Guo Moruo, Qian Mu, Gu Jiegang, Zhang Taiyan, Luo Zhenyu, Liang Qichao, Liu Shipei and Wang Guowei, and so on were included in the “Great Masters of Chinese Studies Series” published by Baihuazhou Literature and Art Press in the 1990s. East China Normal University Press published three biographies of modern historians, namely, Ge Jianxiong’s Long Long River—​A Biography of Tan Qixiang, Gu Chao’s Ambitions Never Die in Face of Disasters—​My Father Gu Jiegang and Zhang Genghua’s Human Being’s Auspicious Sign—​A Biography of Lv Simian. In addition, Yue Yuxi and Li Quan’s Fu Sinian—​ A Magnanimous Scholar (Tianjin People’s Press, 1994), Wang Yongxing’s A Brief History of Mr. Chen Yinque’s Historiography (Peking University Press, 1998), and modern scholars’ research series published by various publishing houses have also touched upon this issue. The research scope of related papers was even much broader, with varied discussions of many historians including Chen Yuan, Zhu Xizu, Zhicheng Deng, He Bingsong, Zhang Yinlin, Zhu Qianzhi, Chang Naizhi, Xiao Yishan, Feng Chengjun, Zhang Xingzhuo and Lei Haizong, and so on. The third is the gradual formation of an atmosphere of free academic contention. In terms of the evaluation of historiographical thought and schools, the main controversial ones include the National Essence Thought (Guo Cui Zhu Yi), the Xueheng School and the Warring States School. The National Essence of Thought, as a kind of cultural and academic thought, has long been ignored by most people for its strong conservative tendency. For example, Yang Tianshi’s “The National Essence Thought Before the 1911 Revolution” (New Construction, No. 2, 1965)  held that “the National Essence Thought is a kind of reactionism of the feudal landlord class,” which “preserves feudal culture under the guise of preserving the national heritage and uses the heritage as a means to resist the new revolutionary culture.” Introduction to Historiography edited by Wu Ze (Anhui People’s Publishing House, 1985) also classified the post-​May 4th Movement historians like Qian Mu, Liu Yizhi, Miao Fenglin as the National Essence School, holding that their ideological essence was to beautify ancient Chinese society, the feudal autocratic system and feudal culture. Only a few people, such as Zhang Qi and Wang Renzhi, thought that the National Essence School appearing from 1905 to 1907 was part of the Revolutionary School at that time. It was revolutionary to some extent in that it attempted to promote the idea of opposing the Manchu and reviving Han nationality, and oppose autocratic monarchy through preserving the National Essence School. Since the 1980s, this view has been accepted by more and more scholars. For example, History of the 1911 Revolution (Vol. 2) edited by Wei Yingtao et al. (People’s Publishing House, 1980)  has explored the positive factors contained in the National Essence Thought of the late Qing Dynasty. Hu Fengxiang, Zheng Shiqu and other scholars investigated the historical activities of the National Essence School

8  HU Fengxiang and LIU Lina in the early twentieth century, claiming that they cannot be regarded as a cultural reactionism school rejecting Western learning and adhering blindly to traditions, because they paid much attention to absorbing modern Western theories and methods in historical studies, and “not only held high the banner of ‘revolution in the historiography circle’ and criticize the old historiography fiercely, but also took part in the study of Neo-​Historiography and achieved fruitful results,” acting as “an important front army that cannot be ignored in bourgeois historiography” of the early twentieth century.1 It can be said that the historiographical view of the National Essence School actually represented the academic thoughts of the bourgeois who had just separated from the landlord class and felt the need to oppose imperialism and feudalism, but maintained a deep relationship with feudal culture.2 The discussion on the historiography of the Xueheng School is similar to that of the National Essence School. The Xueheng School had been abandoned as a remnant of feudal culture for a long time. At this time, it was also re-​evaluated. Zheng Shiqu held that the historiography of the Xueheng School realized the transformation from positivist historiography to the Neo-​Historiography, which was similar to the development trend of Western historiography at that time. In theory, they affirmed the regularity of historical evolution and the value of historiography as a science, advocated that the development of historiography should attach equal importance to popularization and improvement, and put forward a series of constructive suggestions in the compilation of general history and specialized history, the extension of research fields and the activities of academic organizations, which had led the way at that time.3 However, the historiography of the Warring States School, which had been active in the early 1940s, was defined as fascist historiography and was sentenced to death politically before 1966. It was not until the 1980s that discussions were held on it from an academic perspective. Although most scholars were still critical of their political tendencies, they have at least put forward two new comments:  one was that they did not think it had propagandized the aggression of German and Japanese fascists on the grounds that the Warring States School once said clearly that “if Hitler and Tojo Hideki had won, it would have been a decadence and exhaustion of culture,” and “it is no good having Hitler.”4 The second was to affirm that the introduction of the Western historiographical view of culture morphology had a certain positive significance for broadening the domestic theoretical horizons of historiography.5 As for the discussions on modern historians, there were even more disputes. In this chapter, we only take Liang Qichao and Guo Moruo as examples to make a brief introduction. Liang Qichao is the founder of Neo-​ Historiography in modern China. Owing to his changing thoughts all his life, academic circles have had many different opinions on his historiography, the major ones are as follows: (1) The formation period of Liang’s theoretical system of historiography. One view was that it was formed in the 1920s when his “Research

History of historiography  9 Methods of Chinese History” was published;6 another view held that it was initially formed around 1902, marked by the publication of his “On Chinese History” and “Neo-​Historiography,” and since then it had been further improved.7 There was also a view holding that its formation period should be pushed forward to the eve of the Reform Movement of 1898. (2) The evaluation of Liang’s historical thought. One view held that the evolution of Liang’s historiographical thought was basically in step with his political activities, that is, his early thought was progressive and lively, whereas in the late period, due to his backwardness in politics, Liang’s historiographical thought became more and more retrogressive as well.8 The other view was that Liang’s historiography should be basically affirmed on the whole. Even in his later years when his thought was changeable and he began to doubt the evolutionism, his historiographical thought was not a simple retrogression, but was part of his deepening and complicating his understanding of history.9 (3) The characteristics of Liang’s historiography. One opinion held that criticism and innovation were the characteristics of Liang Qichao’s historiography, even in his later years.10 Another view was that it was wrong to say that Liang’s historiography was characterized by criticism and innovation without paying attention to the changes of the times.11 Some others pointed out that Liang’s theoretical system of historiography was pluralism, structurally open and unstable.12 Guo Moruo is the most influential and controversial person among the older generation of Marxist historians. Since his death, academic circles have censured the materials, viewpoints, conclusions of his historical works and even his academic attitude. In the beginning, he was censured for Li Bai and Du Fu, then he was criticized for the articles he wrote to plead for Cao Cao and Wu Zetian, and his views on the periodization of ancient history. In 1981, Yao Xueyin published “Comments on The Memorial Ceremony for the 300th Anniversary of the Failure of Li Zicheng Uprising in Wen Hui Monthly.” In addition to pointing out the careless omission of historical materials used in this book, the author also expressed great dissatisfaction with Guo’s academic attitude. Jin Jingfang also held that some of Guo’s studies “had no Marxist theoretical basis and lacked support from historical facts, which were purely subjective assumptions.”13 However, these views were quickly refuted by Gu Cheng, Wang Shoujia, Miao Zhenpeng, Xie Ji and others. They argued that Guo Moruo’s historical research had some shortcomings, but we must not totally deny his achievements in the name of academic attitude. We should fully understand Guo Moruo’s historical status from the conditions of the times and his actual role in history.14 In particular, Yin Da’s article “Guo Moruo” spoke highly of Guo Moruo’s historiographical activities all his life and believed that he was a pioneer of Chinese proletarian historiography, and that “the role of being both a revolutionary activist and a scholar determines

10  HU Fengxiang and LIU Lina the characteristics of Guo Moruo’s scholarship.” Although some of Guo’s works on history tended to be simple and unilateral in theory, sometimes they even used “imaginary” reasoning instead of historical facts, which made them not rigorous enough. But what was valuable was that he could always carry out self-​dissection and bravely correct his mistakes.15 Zhai Qingfu and Geng Qingheng listed historical facts and analyzed one by one the conclusions of “A Cross-​Proofreading of Ten Critiques of Ancient Chinese Thoughts (Shi Pi Pan Shu) and Annals of the Pre-​Qin Philosophers (Xian Qin Zhu Zi Xi Nian),” which was written by an overseas scholar Yu Yingshi and first published in the semi-​monthly Life in Hong Kong in 1954 and then was included in the Qian Mu and Chinese Culture published by Shanghai Far East Publishers of China in 1994. Zhai and Geng pointed out that Yu Yingshi spoke highly of Qian Mu but suppressed Guo Moruo willfully out of his personal preference, which was by no means the proper attitude of a serious scholar. “Academic critique should be practical and realistic, and we should never slander others maliciously just because of political prejudice.”16 It is this increasingly open and healthy academic debate that has brought new prospects and vitality to the study of the history of modern Chinese historiography.

1.2  A review of theories and methods In the second half of the twentieth century, research on the history of modern Chinese historiography had focused on the construction of a theoretical system, carried out various explorations and debates, and achieved many positive results. In this section we will make a brief comment on the major ones. 1.2.1  The basic content of the history of modern Chinese historiography The basic content of the history of modern history is the same as that of general historiography. However, due to the particularity of the times, it also had some new connotations and characteristics. Wu Ze made a systematic and clear exposition on this, pointing out that in addition to the general thoughts of historiography, historiography and the science of historical data, and so on, with the development of the division of disciplines since modern times, the research objects and scope of history of historiography have expanded as well. The research objects of history of modern Chinese historiography should include all related disciplines such as archaeology, ethnology, religion and historical geography. However, they can only be used as auxiliary disciplines for the development of historiography and cannot replace the research on the history of historiography itself. Special attention should also be paid to the fact that because modern China used to be a semi-​ colonial and semi-​feudal society, the thoughts and methods of foreign historiography have had great influence on our historiography. Without tracing their origins, it is not easy to make in-​ depth analysis. Some

History of historiography  11 scholars unilaterally advocated learning from the West and stood for “total Westernization,” which have brought serious consequences to Chinese historiography. On the other hand, we should note that the development of Chinese and foreign historiography should not only have common basic laws but also have different national characteristics. Without studying foreign historiography, we cannot carry out comprehensive and comparative research, and will not be able to understand the common laws of the development of historiography in various countries and the national characteristics of Chinese historiography. Therefore, while studying the history of modern Chinese historiography, we must study Western bourgeois historiography and its influence on China as well.17 Ye Guisheng stressed that the study of the history of modern historiography should focus on analyzing the schools and characteristics of historiography and historians at that time, and write down the achievements and characters of representative historians, so as to reveal the historiographical trends in that period.18 These discussions are undoubtedly of positive enlightening significance for broadening the horizons of the study of the history of historiography, and in particular showing the characteristics of the times more fully. 1.2.2  The main line and periodization of the development of modern Chinese historiography This is a systematic problem involving the overall understanding of the history of modern historiography and the compilation of a broad framework. Bai Shouyi made an early analysis of this issue, holding that “the patriotic historiographical trend to save the nation from extinction” aroused by the national crisis was the mainstream of progressive historiography during the old democratic revolution, while the thorough anti-​imperialism and anti-​ feudalism was the biggest feature and mainstream of modernization of Chinese historiography in the 30 years after the May 4th Movement. He also pointed out that the modernization process of historiography was mainly manifested in the shift of research focuses, the widening of horizons, the renewed view of history, the expansion of the scope of historical materials and the improvement of research methods.19 Li Runcang held that “we can periodize the history of modern Chinese historiography based on the changes in people’s view of history.” The first 80  years of modern history can be divided into two phases:  the first phase refers to the period before Liang Qichao proposed the establishment of “Neo-​Historiography” and the “revolution in the historians’ circle” in the early twentieth century, and the second phase refers to the period after it. The first phase began with Wei Yuan’s Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Countries, Xu Jishe’s Illustrated Gazetteer of the Countries Overseas (Ying Huan Zhi Lue) and Liang Tingnan’s “Four Remarks on the Maritime Countries” (Hai Guo Si Shuo); in the 1870s and 1880s, Wang Tao’s Illustrated Gazetteer of France and Record of the War

12  HU Fengxiang and LIU Lina Between Prussia and France, Huang Zunxian’s Gazetteer of Japan and so on were published; in the late 1990s, Liang Qichao’s Record of the Coup of 1898 came out. Although these books tended to reflect the anti-​imperialist and anti-​feudal struggle, their views of history cannot be considered as bourgeois. Only in the early twentieth century, with the development of national capitalism, the formation of Reformists and Revolutionaries of the national bourgeoisie, and the importation of various bourgeois views of history, did the historical works at that time have a distinctive bourgeois nature.20 In the late 1980s, scholars undertook more detailed discussions of this issue. For example, Yin Da thought that during the period from the Opium War to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, researchers began to break through the barriers of feudal historiography, but the nature of historiography at that time still belonged to the category of feudal historiography. From the Westernization Movement to the Reform Movement of 1898, with the importation of the Western view of evolutionary history and the further study of foreign history, Chinese bourgeois historiography began to germinate. The early twentieth century was the real beginning of the “Neo-​Historiography” of the Chinese bourgeoisie. In the 30  years after the May 4th Movement, the formation and development of Marxist historiography became the main theme of modern historiography, and Chinese historiography has embarked on a truly scientific track since then.21 Wu Ze advocated that the history of modern Chinese historiography should be divided into four stages. The first stage dates from around the Opium War to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, the historiographical evolution trend of which is the gradual decline of the old feudal historiography and the rise of the historiography of the reformist landlord class. The second stage is from the defeat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement to the Boxer Movement. With the development of the Westernization Movement, the gradual importation of modern Western historiography and the emergence of the national bourgeoisie on the political stage, new bourgeois historiography began to rise. The third stage is from the defeat of the Boxer Movement to the May 4th Movement. During this stage, bourgeois reformist historiography still maintained considerable influence while the revolutionary historiography also emerged as a new force. The fourth stage is from the May 4th Movement to the founding of the PRC in 1949. During this stage, Marxist historiography came into being, spread, developed and became the mainstream in China.22 However, Hu Fengxiang argued that the development process of modern Chinese historiography should be divided into three stages. The first stage is from around the Opium Wars to the 1890s, which is the fermentation period of the modernization of Chinese historiography, namely the transition period from feudal historiography to bourgeois historiography. The second stage dates from the 1890s to the New Culture Movement, which is the establishment period of modern Chinese historiography. The third stage begins with the May 4th Movement and ends with the founding of the PRC in 1949, in which modern Chinese historiography was scientized.23 Jiang Jun advocated taking the “historiographical

History of historiography  13 revolution” as the main line to investigate modern historiography, and held that the end of the nineteenth century was the preparation period for historical revolution. The period from the beginning of the twentieth century to the end of the 1920s was the period of historiographical revolution mainly led by bourgeois historians, and the period from the 1930s to the end of the 1940s was the period of historical revolution mainly led by Marxist historians. These differences among scholars reflect the different standards adopted by different means of periodization. Some took the evolution of social forms as the benchmark; some used the “three revolutionary climaxes” in modern Chinese history; some focused on the characteristics of historical development; some tended to make comprehensive analysis of social economy, politics, academic culture and many other factors. However, as far as the specific stages are concerned, a basic consensus can still be achieved, that is, most scholars tend to regard the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the May 4th Movement as the basic historical landmarks for periodization and divide the evolution of modern Chinese historiography into three stages. 1.2.3  The modernization process of Chinese historiography and the relationship between traditional and Western historiography Since the 1950s, for a long period of time, there had been a wrong tendency in academic circles to ignore the fine legacy of traditional historiography and blindly reject the theoretical methods of Western historiography. From 1966 to 1976, both traditional and Western historiography were marked with the symbols of “feudalism, capitalism and revisionism.” Under such circumstances, it was indisputably difficult to conduct scientific research on them. In the 1980s and 1990s, many scholars discussed the relationship between traditional and modern historiography. For example, Chen Qitai pointed out that the seemingly fashionable argument that traditional historiography was feudal historiography and that modern historiography was imported from foreign countries in theory and method ran counter to the objective process of the evolution of Chinese historiography over the past century. He argued that modern historiography evolved from traditional historiography, and the external influences were only one of the conditions for the emergence of modern historiography. There existed both a lot of dross and modern factors in traditional historiography. When foreign cultures were imported in large quantities, these precious modern factors were carried forward by eminent scholars at that time and became the internal basis for them to absorb foreign progressive cultures. These modern factors were sublimated in the process of blending with foreign elements and became the intermediary for the transition to modern historiography. It can be seen that the mainstream development of historiography in the twentieth century did not by any means dispense with tradition and mechanically copy or simply transplant foreign things. Chen Qitai stressed that modern historiography sublated, rather than abandoned

14  HU Fengxiang and LIU Lina ancient traditional historiography, which was a process of absorption, transformation, development and improvement of traditional historiography. Qu Lindong, Su Shuangbi and other scholars also expressed similar views.24 As for the relationship between Western historiography and Chinese modern historiography, Pei Yu pointed out that every critical moment in the development of Chinese historiography in the twentieth century was closely linked to the introduction of foreign historiographical theories. “Without the view of evolutionary history, there would be no Liang Qichao’s Neo-​Historiography; without historical materialism, there would be no Chinese Marxist historiography.”25 There are three main issues discussed by scholars: first, the process of the introduction of Western historiography into modern China. One view is to take the end of the nineteenth century as the dividing point and divide this process roughly into two periods. The early period is spontaneous and the late period is conscious. Another view is that the introduction of Western historiography into China and its real influence on Chinese historiography started from Liang Qichao in the early twentieth century. The second is the content of the introduction. For example, Zhang Guangzhi’s “The Journey of Western Historiography to China in the Early 20th Century” (Historiography Quarterly, No. 1, 1996) discussed the activities of Liang Qichao, He Bingsong, Li Dazhao, Fu Sinian and the Warring States School in introducing Western historiography in the first 50  years of the twentieth century, as well as the influence of modern American “Neo-​Historiography,” Ranke’s “Objectivist Historiography” and the historical view of Western cultural morphology on China. Third, are the characteristics of China’s importation and absorption of Western historiography. In his article “The Introduction of Western Historiography and the Modernization of Chinese Historiography” (Academic Quarterly, No. 1, 1990), Hu Fengxiang pointed out that after the end of the nineteenth century, Chinese historians absorbed Western historiographical theories, not directly through historiography itself, but through the theories and methods of Western modern sociology, especially evolutionary theories and evolution of social forms. The combination of historiography and sociology is one of the main trends of Chinese historiography modernization. Zhang Shuxue held that in the early twentieth century, the three great political ideas, Positivism, Marxism and Relativism, which appeared successively in the West over the past 200  years, were introduced to China almost simultaneously and had a synchronic impact on Chinese historiography. When Chinese historians constructed their own theoretical systems, most of them would absorb Western historiographical thoughts based on traditional historiography and pay attention to maintaining their own national characteristics.26 1.2.4  The dividing line between ideological trends and schools of modern Chinese historiography The ups and downs of historiographical trends and schools reflect the pulse of changes in historiography in a certain period, and thus have always received

History of historiography  15 the attention from researchers on the history of modern historiography. However, there are different opinions on how to define the differences between the different ideological trends and schools of modern historiography. Regarding the trends of thoughts in modern Chinese historiography, both Bai Shouyi and Yu Danchu held that from the Opium War to the 1911 Revolution, there had always existed a patriotic belief to save the nation from extinction in modern Chinese historiography.27 Wu Huaiqi further pointed out that in the development history of modern Chinese historiography, there had mainly appeared three historical ideas:  after the Opium War, patriotic thought ran through the whole process of modern Chinese historiography; from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century, with the import of Western historiography and its combination with some theories and methods of Chinese traditional historiography, the theory of Neo-​Historiography sprang up; after the May 4th Movement, the widespread diffusion of Marxism in China had made historical materialism the main trend of development in historiography.28 Hu Fengxiang and Zhang Wenjian put forward the criteria for classifying the ideas in modern historiography from another perspective, holding that “judging from the characteristics of the development of historiography itself,” the real ideological trends in modern Chinese historiography mainly include the Statecraft School of Thought (Jing Shi Zhi Yong), the Neo-​Historiography School of Thought, the National Essence School of Thought, the Thought of the School of Clarifying Ancient Chinese History (Yi Gu Pai), and Reactionism Thought which had repeatedly appeared in history. These ideological trends had been rising one after another and had gone through a process from attaching themselves to general academic ideological trends to gradually forming independent historiographical ideological trends.29 Hu Fengxiang even advocated that the main thought of historiography during the May 4th Movement should be summarized as “the thought of scientific historiography.”30 Zhang Shuxue, on the other hand, held that Positivism, Relativism and Marxism were the three major historiographical theories that had dominated the development of modern Chinese historiography. These three major historiographical theories have promoted the development of modern Chinese historiography in the process of mutual confrontation, collision and integration. The relationship between them is an ecological one. The development history of modern Chinese historiography, which is constructed by denying or failing to see this ecological relationship, will undoubtedly be overstretched due to insufficient dimensions. Or if we only see the struggle and antagonism between them, but cannot see their mutual infiltration, it will also be difficult for us to see the overall situation.31 This understanding is indeed quite innovative, but it seems to have traces of strong convergence with the major theories in modern Western historiography. The reason why Positivism and Marxist historiography have great influence in modern China is not only due to various historical and genuine reasons, but also because there are some factors in these two theories that

16  HU Fengxiang and LIU Lina are easy to be combined with traditional Chinese culture. History has always been regarded as having an objective existence in China since the formation of the system of history recorded by official historians in ancient times. Seeking the truth of history has also been considered as one of the basic goals of historical studies. This cultural atmosphere has never given Relativism enough room for growth in the field of Chinese historiography. Obviously, these issues can be further discussed. Compared with the division of historiographical thought, discussions on schools of modern historiography seems to be more active. Judged by the relevant standards of schools in modern historiography, the schools of historiography in ancient China were not well developed. In early modern times, this situation had not been fundamentally changed. At that time, only the Northwest Historical and Geographical School appearing before and after the Opium Wars and the Yuan History School during the reign of Emperor Guangxu had a similar nature to other schools. It was not until the twentieth century that historiographical schools with real modern significance began to emerge gradually. As early as the 1930s and 1940s, many scholars, such as Feng Youlan, Qian Mu, Zhou Yutong, Zeng Fankang, Qi Sihe and Jin Yufu, had already discussed the division of modern historiographical schools. Since then, discussions on this issue had become less. But since the 1980s, discussions on this issue have become more and more active. For example, Hou Yunhao advocated that the schools of modern Chinese historiography could be divided into 12 schools, including the Neo-​Historiography School, the School of Clarifying Ancient Chinese History, the Nangao School, the Archaeology School, the National Essence School, the Economic History School (Shi Huo Pai), the Conservative School, the Historical Data School, the Vitalism School, the Biologism School, the Warring States School and the Marxism School.32 This divergence of views on the division of schools of modern Chinese historiography is mainly due to the different standards for the division of schools. Some prefer to use class or political standpoint as the standard for division, and schools such as the Landlord Class Reformers, the Bourgeois Reformers, the Die-​Hards and the Revolutionaries are categorized according to this standard. Although this division is based on reason, it is difficult to fully reflect the characteristics of historiography itself and there is the risk of falling into simplification. Some advocate that historians’ focus should be the standard for division. For example, the division between the Historical Data School and the Historical View School is based on this standard. However, this division also has its problems, because historical data are the foundation of historical work and historical view is the soul of historical research. Both of them are indispensable to historical studies. It is impossible to say that the Historical Data School does not have historical views or the Historical View School does not use historical data. The division is made according to historians’ academic qualifications, especially their academic background of accepting some foreign historical theories. For example, Fu Sinian and Chen Yinque were both influenced by the Historical Linguistic School in Germany and thus were all included in the Ranke’s Historical Data

History of historiography  17 School. As a matter of fact, most historians in modern China, when absorbing foreign historical theories and methods, often did not confine themselves to one school or another, but would incorporate matters of diverse nature and sometimes even mix conflicting theories together for their own use. It is also one-​sided to rigidly adhere to academic background for division. In a word, it is not necessary to insist on eradicating the division of various schools of modern historiography, but we still expect that researchers could integrate various factors to make the division of schools more reasonable, so as to reflect the development trend and characteristics of modern Chinese historiography more accurately. 1.2.5  Issues concerning the evaluation of the changes in the function of historiography in modern society Traditional Chinese historiography had always emphasized its “practical” function. Before and after the Opium War, Gong Zizhen and Wei Yuan tried to resolve the increasingly serious social crisis by emphasizing this function of historiography. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Liang Qichao proposed “revolution in the historians’ circle.” Both Reformists and Revolutionaries attached great importance to discussing politics through history. Before and after the New Culture Movement, under the influence of “scientism,” a “non-​utilitarianism” idea emerged. After the end of the 1920s, stimulated by the political reality and driven by patriotic national salvation, the practical function of historiography was again highly valued. How should we evaluate modern historians’ explorations and practice? Qu Lindong held that in the history of modern Chinese historiography, although there existed various theories advocating “studying historiography for the sake of historiography itself,” all historians have clear understanding of the issues of caring for society and valuing the practical application of historiography. Even though they had gone on detours and left serious lessons for us, their general direction of paying close attention to society should be affirmed and maintained.33 Some scholars also proposed that we should make concrete analysis of the non-​ utilitarianism view on the function of historiography appearing in the historians’ circle after 1919. The proposal of this view before and after the May 4th Movement was a necessary criticism and correction to overcome the disadvantages of traditional historiography, such as excessive dependence on feudal politics and the lack of independent consciousness. It was of positive significance to the establishment of modern Chinese academic patterns and the improvement in the mechanism for the independent development of historiography.34 Wang Xuedian held that in the field of modern Chinese historiography, there have existed two conflicting objectives:  one is to study history for the sake of historiography itself; the other is to study history in order to change reality and rebuild the future. The former is highly praised by the Textual Research School, while the latter is abided by the Materialist School. Since the 1940s, the concepts of these two schools had shown signs of moving in their opposite directions. The Materialist School had begun to

18  HU Fengxiang and LIU Lina hold up the banner of truth-​seeking, while the Textual Research School had also shown interest in practical application. We can even say that the 100-​year history of Chinese historiography is a history of confrontation between these two schools. The former’s pursuit of positivism finally turned into the revival of the Han learning of the Qian Jia period (the reign of Emperor Qianlong and Emperor Jiaqing) under the banner of scientific methods, while the latter’s interpretation orientation also partly evolved into the reappearance of the characteristics of the late Qing New Text Confucianism under the banner of scientific theories. In fact, what they were pursuing was likely to be impossible and was incompatible with the nature of history at the very beginning.35 Jiang Yihua examined this issue from the unique perspective of “Historiography of official historians” and “Historiography of historians,” saying that Historiography of historians since modern times have taken a critical attitude toward the current regime and current society and have strong independency. However, because modern China’s new view of history and Neo-​Historiography were formed in the face of the unprecedented serious national crisis and social crisis, its strong political nature, partisanship and class nature made historians’ historiography easily change from a social dissident consciousness to a ruling consciousness and evolve into the Neo-​Historiography of official historians in the reconstruction of the ideological control system after the political power they support has gained power and established a political dominant position. Because of this, for most of the twentieth century, the historiography of official historians had maintained its prestige.36 1.2.6  Reflections on the history of Chinese Marxist historiography In the history of modern Chinese historiography, Marxist historiography has occupied a very important position, so there are many studies in this field. Owing to space constraints, we will only review briefly of some issues of general concern and some controversial ones. The first issue is about the development process of Chinese Marxist historiography from 1919 to 1949. According to most scholars, this process can be divided into three stages: the period from 1919 to 1927 is the birth or foundation stage; the period from 1927 to 1937 is the stage of growth; the period from 1937 to 1949 is the stage when the scientific system was basically established. Although Ye Guisheng and Liu Maolin also agreed to divide this process into three periods, they had different opinions on the specific periodization, advocating taking the years from 1919 to 1927 as the theoretical preparation period, the years from 1928 to 1940 the formation period and the years from 1941 to 1949 the construction period.37 The second issue is about the historical position of Chinese Marxist historiography. For a period, since there had existed wrong tendencies in academia to belittle, misunderstand and even deny Marxist historiography, this

History of historiography  19 issue had attracted attention from many scholars. Jiang Dachun pointed out that before 1949, Marxist historiography developed in the process of mutually complementing, struggling against and competing with other schools. Although it had not yet become the mainstream of Chinese historiography, it was the most advanced historiography representing the progressive trend of the times. The materialist view of history could explain history better than any other schools and has made great achievements in the study of historical materials, which should be fully affirmed. Even its discussion on the class struggle was correct at that time and reflected the relativity of truth. Chen Qitai et al. also highly evaluated Marxist historiography in terms of research achievements, personnel training, theoretical achievements, exerting the progressive social function of historiography and promoting the scientific construction of historiography.38 The last issue is the summary of the experience and lessons in the development of Marxist historiography. Dai Yi pointed out that concerning the guidance of Marxism, due to the influence of the “Left” ideological trend, dogmatism and formalism had long existed. Taking class struggle as the key link had once occupied the dominant position for a long time. The history of peasant war had replaced the whole of Chinese history, and the evaluation of historical figures had also been marked with the “Left” deviation, all of which need further reflection. Marxism is a scientific theory and method, but it can only win over the masses with its own theoretical power rather than relying on administrative orders, criticism and suppression, which should be a lesson to us.39 Some scholars have also discussed this issue from the perspective of the history of Marxist historiography, holding that since the birth of New China, Marxist historiography has placed great emphasis on the “practical application” of historiography, that is, the function of serving the revolution. In quite a long period of time, Marxist historians had already had enough consciousness of “practical application” in historical research, but they lacked necessary consciousness of “truth-​seeking.”40 This tendency, while strengthening and pursuing the combativeness and revolutionary nature of historiography, unavoidably led to the phenomenon of accommodating the past to the present and verifying the present with the past. In particular, in order to arouse people’s patriotic and revolutionary indignation, they did not hesitate to use the ancient people and events to discuss what is happening today, and arbitrarily made historical analogies to actualize history, which not only had a destructive impact on historical research, but also made people unable to distinguish the boundaries between historical materialism and idealism and doubt the scientific nature of Marxist history, leaving bitter and painful lessons to us in the history of Marxist history. Besides, because most early Marxist historians regarded Marxism as a “philosophy of science” with universal authority, thinking that studying history is only to discover the discovered laws, while ignoring the discussion of the special laws of Chinese history; they believe scientific conclusions can

20  HU Fengxiang and LIU Lina be drawn as long as they use Marxism to study Chinese history, while lacking research on historians’ subjectivity, which has led to some dogmatic tendencies of following the theory blindly.41 Although this kind of reflective discussion may cause some disagreements, on the whole, it has played a positive role in promoting the development of contemporary Chinese historiography.

1.3  Sustainable development in the early years of the new century After entering the twenty-​first century, research on the history of modern Chinese historiography has shown a trend of sustained development. Not only have the studies of traditional hot topics have continued to deepen and expand and make many new achievements, but also many new research fields have been opened, and some new ideas, new orientations and new narrative forms have emerged. 1.3.1  The in-​depth development in existing research topics First of all, with the turn of the new century, researchers started a trend for “retrospective” research, which resulted in the emergence of a number of works summarizing the development of Chinese historiography in the twentieth century, the main ones being China’s Academic Research in the 20th Century:  Historiography (Vols 1  & 2) edited by Luo Zhitian (Shandong People’s Publishing House 2001), China’s Humanities in the Process of Modernization: Historiography edited by Sheng Banghe (Shanghai People’s Publishing House 2005), and China’s Social Sciences in the 20th Century: Historiography edited by Chen Gaohua et al. (Guangdong Education Publishing House, 2006), and so on. In addition, some monographic retrospective works have also been published, such as Wang Xuedian’s Review of Chinese Historiography in the 20th Century (Shandong People’s Publishing House, 2001), Chen Qitai’s Theoretical Achievements of Chinese Marxist Historiography (National Library of China Publishing House, 2008), Textual Research on Chinese Historiography in the 20th Century (Beijing Normal University Publishing House, 2005), Xiao Li’s Debate on Major Issues in Chinese Historiography in the 20th Century (2007), and Zhang Guangzhi’s Exchange Between Chinese and Foreign Historiography in the 20th Century (2007). The compilation ideas and writing styles of these works are different. Some focus on the whole, while others focus on specialized history, major issues, important events or achievements in historiography, each with its own characteristics. Second, a number of important monographs have been published. The major ones include Sheng Banghe’s Disintegration and Reconstruction: Modern Chinese Historiography and Changes in Confucianism (East China Normal University Press, 2002), Zhu Fajian’s Research on the “Scientification” Process

History of historiography  21 of Modern Chinese Historiography:  1902–​1949 (Hunan Normal University Press, 2005), Liu Lina’s From Tradition to Modernity: On the Transformation of Chinese Historiography (Social Sciences Academic Press, 2006), Chen Qitai’s Modern Chinese Historiography (1840–​ 1919) (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 2006), Hou Yunhao’s Ideological Trends and Changes in Chinese Historiography in the 20th Century (Beijing Normal University Publishing House, 2007), Zhang Yue’s Between the New and the Old and Between China and the West: Chinese Historiography in the May 4th Period (Beijing Library Publishing House, 2007), Shen Weiwei’s The Pedigree of the Xueheng School: History and Narration (Jiangxi Education Publishing House, 2007), and Xie Baocheng’s Essays on the Historiography in the Republic of China (1912–​1949) (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 2011), and so on. The collections of essays include Luo Zhitian’s Ten Essays on Modern Chinese Historiography (Fudan University Press, 2003), and Qu Lindong’s Records of Changes in Historical Times:  Studies on Modern Chinese Historiography (Beijing Normal University Press, 2007), and so on. These monographs have made different levels of investigations on the whole and individual stages of Chinese modern history, as well as the issues of historiography, historians, schools of historiography and works on historiography. They attached great importance to the connection between historiography and the whole society’s politics, ideology, culture, and academia. They went far beyond the scope of “studying historiography for the sake of historiography itself,” not only conducting in-​depth studies on previous topics, but also reflecting the application of new theories and new concepts, which have promoted the study of modern historiography in terms of both depth and breadth. Finally, remarkable progress has also been made in the traditional monographic research topics. (1)  On Liang Qichao’s “Neo-​Historiography” Liu Lina investigated the rise and development of Neo-​ Historiography, pointing out that the Neo-​Historiography concept with new political and cultural characteristics has enabled scholars to have new understanding of the research objects, content and methods of historiography, which has directly affected the change in the research object of Neo-​Historiography from the ruling class to the masses, its content from political history to social life and cultural history related to people’s lives, its nature from “monarchial history” to “national history” and “people’s history,” and thus promoted the modernization of historiography. Ren Xingfang believed that Liang Qichao’s New People Theory (Xin Min Shuo) and Neo-​Historiography had the same aim and showed internal consistency in advocating modern views of evolution, the spirit of nationalism, and national concept, and so on, which indicated Liang’s attempt to instill modern enterprising spirit, nationalist spirit and national concept through Neo-​ Historiography, and to train new people to meet the needs of the times for saving the nation from extinction.42 Xu

22  HU Fengxiang and LIU Lina Xiaoqing pointed out that the original meaning of historiographical revolution centered on “Neo-​Historiography” was that the new intellectuals would like to define modern concepts such as “nation” and “people” through “historiographical” innovation, thus effectively promoting the rise of modern concepts of the nation-​state. Starting from discussions on the essence of Neo-​Historiography, some scholars who were not historiography specialists argued that the essence of Neo-​Historiography was actually to discuss the history of civilization, social history, cultural or social-​cultural history, which was embodied in patriotism, nationalism, scientific historiography and positivist historiography.43 These views go beyond traditional scope, introducing the study of “Neo-​Historiography” into a wider field, reflecting the interdisciplinary vision and revealing the multi-​dimensional characteristics of Neo-​ Historiography under the exceptional background of the times. (2)  On the Historiography during the May 4th Movement The research on this issue mainly focused on the theoretical construction of modern historiography, the influence of the concept of “science” on historiography, as well as the integration of China and the West, the understanding of new historical materials, the liberation from studies on Confucian classics, the spirit of science and truth-​seeking, and the movement to reorganize the national heritage. Luo Zhitian believed that the understanding of “science” before and after the May 4th Movement was far from the understanding we commonly have today. As for the reason why the “May 4th” historians paid more attention to the scientific “spirit” and “method” when talking about “science,” and crystallized them into experimentalism and dialectical materialism, which were once implemented in practice by Hu Shi’s “reorganizing the national heritage,” the “School of Clarifying Ancient Chinese History” headed by Gu Jiegang and “social history research” represented by Guo Moruo, he explained that it is not only because of the technical factor that Chinese scholars are relatively familiar with textual research methods and can do something about it, but also because of the function of Chinese people’s nationalist sentiment which manifested itself at different degrees. Without the support of science, the Classical Chinese Learning could not be put on the table. Without the “national heritage,” which was a specific object of study that most Chinese scholars were familiar with, the “science” based on methodology could not be put into practice. The peculiar combination of traditional culture and foreign culture has a tenuous relationship with some special concerns in the history of modern Chinese thought and academic research. Starting from discussion of the concepts, Liu Lina examined the construction of the theoretical system of modern historiography in the May

History of historiography  23 4th period, holding that at that time “scholars re-​understood the term ‘history’,” clarified and defined its basic meaning, and clearly distinguished and discussed concepts like objective history, historiography and works on historiography, which “had laid an important foundation” for the construction of modern Chinese historiography and had “positive significance” for “constructing a scientific historiography and establishing an environment for dialogue between Chinese and Western historiography so that Chinese historiography was able to move towards the world.”44 With regard to reorganizing the national heritage, Lu Yi held that there were two reasons for the blossoming of “the movement to reorganize the national heritage” in the 1920s and 1930s: one was the continuous discovery of new historical materials and the gradual application of new methods; the other was that scholars of that time generally held the mentality of “competing with foreigners.” Ge Zhaoguang thought that “since the 1920s, under the banner of reorganizing the national heritage,” historians just “quietly put a new label on the traditional textual research of the Qing Dynasty, and egrafted it on a Western scientific methodology.” In addition, China studies conducted by scholars from the East and the West “further reinforced Chinese scholars’ tendency to launch the Neo-​Historiography.”45 Zhang Yue thought that Guo Moruo criticized Hu Shi’s concept and practice of “reorganizing the national heritage,” but endorsed the research method of reorganizing the national heritage adopted by the “School of Clarifying Ancient Chinese History” represented by Gu Jiegang, which was related to Guo’s application of the Marxist materialist view of history to historical research. Zhang also proposed that Clarifying Ancient Chinese History should not be regarded as “having monopolized an era” because “the change of historical concepts brought about by the Theory of Clarifying Ancient Chinese History was soon integrated into the general trend of the transformation of Chinese historiography.”46 Sang Bing fully affirmed the role of Zhang Taiyan and his disciples in reorganizing the national heritage, saying that “if Zhang’s disciples did not respond to or even uphold the movement to reorganize the national heritage, it would be difficult for this movement to provoke wide responses from academia. If we thought Zhang’s disciples only played a supporting role in the New Culture Movement, we can at least say that they played the leading role jointly with other schools in the movement to reorganize the national heritage.”47 (3)  On Schools of Marxist historiography and historical materialism Zhang Yue inspected the importance that Marxist historians had attached to historical materials and methods of textual research in the 1940s, holding that Marxist historians theoretically discussed the importance of historical materials and methods of textual research and expounded the dialectical relationship between theoretical viewpoints and research methods and materials, which had greatly promoted the Sinicization of Marxist historiography.48 Hong

24  HU Fengxiang and LIU Lina Renqing examined the research on modern Chinese history in Yan’an during the Anti-​Japanese War, and demonstrated a series of innovative achievements made by Fan Wenlan, Zhang Wentian, He Ganzhi, Ai Siqi, Ye Huosheng, Yang Song and others in their organized studies of modern Chinese general history, revolutionary history, economic history and ideological and cultural history.49 Liang Lei examined the contributions of the early CPC members to the study of modern Chinese history. Wu Hanquan regarded Li Dazhao as the founder of the study of modern Chinese history guided by Marxism and held that Li’s scientific explanation of the position of historical philosophy and his research on the historical ontology and epistemology had contributed to the establishment of the Chinese school of historical philosophy. Lin Ganquan thought that Lv Zhenyu’s research on the theory of social and economic formation strongly criticized the view of “the unique stagnation of Chinese society” and made important theoretical contributions to the establishment of Chinese Marxist historiography. Hu Fengxiang proposed that Li Pingxin’s application of historical materialism to the study of modern Chinese history in the early 1930s was groundbreaking, which had set up a new model for the study of modern Chinese history.50 (4)  Research on other historians Some historians who had been barely noticed before began to receive scholars’ attention. For example, Shao Hua expounded Guo Songtao’s historicist attitude of substituting “propriety” for “reason” and proposed that Guo’s historical thought had modernity. Guo Liping studied Shen Yao’s study of the Northwest history and geography, revealing the contradiction between “methodology” (Ji) and “theory” (Xue) in his research. Sui Shufen studied Yan Fu’s view of history and historical research methods, holding that Yan’s proposition to explore historical laws from the perspective of world history, to discuss internal and external causes of historical development and whether the historical stages could be skipped or not in the process of historical development, and to study history by induction and comparison between China and Western countries had broken through the limitations of traditional historiography and made innovations and achievements both in historiographical theories and methods. Li Feng and Wang Jilu discussed Chen Fuchen’s historiographical achievements.51 Zhou Wenjiu discussed Zhu Xizu’s historiographical achievements. Tian Liang inspected the nationalist historical thoughts of Liu Yizheng and Miao Fenglin, an important historian of the “Xueheng School.”52 Chen Qitai and Tian Yuan pointed out that Xiao Yishan’s “National Revolutionary Conception of History” proposed in Outline of Qing History played a positive role in the Anti-​Japanese War. Zhou Shaochuan et  al. discussed Chen Yuan’s view of national cultural history and his research on religious history and patriotic historical thoughts. Zhao Qingyun examined Jin Yufu’s contribution to the study of modern Chinese history.53

History of historiography  25 1.3.2  The expansion of the research field First, many new research fields have been opened. For example, Zhang Haipeng and Gong Yun’s Research on Modern Chinese History (Fujian People’s Publishing House, 2005)  has made a systematic and in-​depth analysis of several works on modern Chinese history of different styles. Liu Lanxiao’s Newspapers and Periodicals in the Late Qing Dynasty and Modern History (China Renmin University Press, 2007)  studied the relationship between newspapers and periodicals in the late Qing Dynasty and the rise of modern historiography. Li Chunlei’s Inheritance and Renewal:  Chinese Students Studying in the United States and Historiography in the Republic of China (China Social Sciences Press, 2007) explored the role of a special group, Chinese students studying in the United States, in the development of historiography in the Republic of China and the influence of nationalism on the localization of their historiographical research. Tian Liang’s Historiography During the Anti-​Japanese War (People’s Publishing House, 2005)  discussed the historiography in Chongqing, Yan’an and areas occupied by the Japanese during the Anti-​Japanese War. Hu Fengxiang inspected the establishment and operation, institutional evolution, operation mode and function, and so on of specialized institutions of historiography from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China from the perspective of the construction of the modern academic system. Zuo Shuangwen systematically investigated the relationship between mainland historians and Hong Kong historiography in the 1930s and 1940s, holding that it was the mainland historians who had promoted the start and growth of Hong Kong historiography. Sang Bing inspected the coexistence and conflict between historical materials and the historical view of the history of science in China from aspects of the need for history teaching and the change in academic attitude during the Republic of China. Sang Bing and Hu Fengxiang also discussed the Association of Chinese Historians during the Republic of China.54 Second, interdisciplinary research and studies breaking through historiography and the study of Confucian classics have been carried out. In terms of interdisciplinary research, many scholars have placed modern historiography in the development of social culture and ideology. For example, some scholars pointed out that the mutual influence between the progressive Gong Yang Theory and the clear-​sighted intellectuals’ explorations of national salvation had promoted the cultural identity of the whole nation in the late Qing Dynasty.55 At the same time, there also appeared discussions on nationalist historiography. Some scholars pointed out clearly that under the background that nationalism had become the main trend of thought, people of that time were trying to bring history into the path of nationalist publicity as an important carrier of the mobilization of nationalism. Their interpretation of historical subjects or the content of historical narrations, the pursuit of historical functions, the selection of historical materials and the setting of historical criticism standards were all deeply branded with traces of nationalism.

26  HU Fengxiang and LIU Lina It can be said that the basic nature of “Neo-​Historiography” in the early twentieth century is nationalism. Some scholars also pointed out that Zhang Taiyan argued that historians would be more useful in troubled times and said that “China had been destroyed many times in history, but it could always revive,” which should be “credited to historians.” These scholars thought that Zhang’s cognition was not a traditional one, but was obviously influenced by Western nationalism.56 In terms of studies breaking through historiography and the study of Confucian classics, some scholars pointed out that modern New Text Confucianism had played an important role in promoting the modernization of Chinese historiography. Kang Youwei denounced the ancient classics as pseudo-​classics and put forward the saying that Confucius was the author of the “six classics,” which had shaken the foundation of traditional studies of Confucian classics and played an ideological enlightenment role in the modernization of historiography. Cui Shi, both a scholar of New Text Confucianism and a historian, not only expanded the scope of the pseudo-​classics in ancient Chinese and downgraded the authoritativeness of the classics, but also adopted the research method of studying history through Confucian classics, which directly started the change from the study of Confucian classics to historiography. Liang Qichao and Xia Cengyou, scholars of the New Text Confucianism and historians, were the representative figures creating modern Neo-​Historiography under the influence of New Text Confucianism and under the guidance of evolutionism. Liang’s Neo-​Historiography initially established the theoretical system of modern Neo-​Historiography, while Xia’s Textbook on Chinese History has been the first new-​style general history in modern China.57 Some other scholars discussed Zhang Taiyan’s view of history and classics and thought that Zhang Taiyan’s saying that the “six classics are all historical works” combined with modern Enlightenment thought and Neo-​Historiography thought, which made a qualitative breakthrough for previous theories. The theory of “believing the ancient history” formed on this basis, together with the trend of “doubting the ancient history” at that time, and Zhang’s spirit of “seeking truth,” together with predecessors’ spirit of “seeking reality,” were all important developments in traditional academic thought. Zhang Taiyan’s contribution in methodology was reflected in the application of methods of Neo-​Historiography to the study of Confucian classics, and the application of sociology, logistics and other methods to interpret Confucian classics.58 Finally, holistic discussions on modern historiography have also been started. For example, on the study of statecraft historiography (Jing Shi Shi Xue), Wu Guoyi thought that, from the perspective of its internal academic logic, the study of modern statecraft historiography was related to the decline of the Qian Jia School, which was formally expressed as the return and inheritance of the statecraft of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Neo-​Historiography has defined and explicated the statecraft functions and connotations of historiography with new characteristics of the times and

History of historiography  27 classes, and had raised the social role of historiography to an unprecedented level. Their understanding of the statecraft function of historiography was obviously different from that of Gong Zizhen and Wei Yuan who basically inherited the tradition.59 Another example is historical research in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. Through comparing the actual efforts and concepts of the folk National Essence School and the official Cun Gu Xue Tang (College to Preserve the National Essence), Luo Zhitian pointed out that after the Boxer Movement, most intellectuals thought that the government was unable to save the nation, and there existed strong antagonism between the Qing Court and the public. However, in terms of culture, the Association for the Preservation of Classical Chinese Learning (Guo Xue Bao Cun Hui), which was the organizational symbol of the National Essence School, and the Cun Gu Xue Tang, which was founded by the Qing government under the slogan “Preserve the national essence,” had similarity and showed commonality in their orientations. Both sides, to varying degrees, tended to reconcile China and the West and adopted a tolerant attitude toward the so-​ called “Europeanization” instead of rejecting it completely. However, their specific orientations in preserving the national essence were quite different, and sometimes they did see each other as opposites. Chen Qitai et  al. put forward that the historiography of the late Qing Dynasty had laid a new academic foundation for the development of the historiography of the Republic of China. The development trend and achievements of historiography in the early years of the Republic of China (1912–​1920) had greatly promoted the historical research and the modernization of the whole academic field before and after the May 4th Movement, which are all worthy of in-​depth study and re-​evaluation.60 1.3.3  The emergence of a new trend in research This new trend mainly refers to the gradual formation of a new research orientation and narrative mode. Luo Zhitian called it a “new genre” and pointed out that its writing purpose is different from that of the history of historiography in the past. It focused more on the development and evolution of the subject and its interaction with society from a social perspective…Besides the changes in historiographical thought emphasized by general historiography, it also hoped to pay attention to the changes in the theme and model of writing and expression of historiography, the historical knowledge being taught (such as the historical textbooks), the academic institutions related to historical studies, and the social cognition of historical studies. It started with specific historical phenomena when choosing its research topic and focused on the phenomena and figures neglected by previous grand

28  HU Fengxiang and LIU Lina narratives. It observed the problems “from a downward perspective,” “studied the practical issues from a theoretical perceptive,” and turned its research focuses more to specific lower-​and middle-​level organizations, groups, people and events. It attached more importance to the process rather than the result, and its goal was no longer to seek the law of historical development.61 Luo Zhitian’s Ten Essays on Modern Chinese History (Fudan University Press, 2003) can be said to be a demonstration of this new trend of research. This new trend of research is also reflected in the reinterpretation of the internal relations of historiography. For example, on Fu Sinian’s viewpoint holding that “historical materials are historiography” and the new observations made by the Institute of History and Philology, Liu Lina pointed out that Fu Sinian considered modern historiography as the study of historical materials, emphasized reorganizing historical materials with scientific methods and turned Chinese historiography into “the orthodoxy of scientific orientalism.” Liu argued that although Fu’s viewpoint embodied the characteristics of modernity, its development direction was different from that of the Neo-​ Historiography school emphasizing the interpretation of historiography and that of the modern historiography under the influence of a comprehensive view of history. Sang Bing also pointed out that in his paper “Objectives of the Institute of History and Philology,” Fu Sinian expressed his opposition to the conception of national heritage, the interpretation of historical materials and the popularization of historiography and philosophy, in order to distinguish his study from Gu Jiegang’s “doubting the ancient history” and the movement to reorganize the national heritage launched by the Department of Classical Chinese Learning (Guo Xue Men) of Peking University. Sang Bing held that although Fu Sinian put forward an extreme slogan that historiography should be the study of historical materials, the content and path he advocated were consistent with that of the Department of Classical Chinese Learning of Peking University. Chen Feng even summarized the relationship between Fu Sinian, the Institute of History and Philology and the trends of Western historiography as “heading towards the new but turning into the old” and held that the Institute of History and Philology had made painstaking efforts to keep up with the international trend, but had mistakenly taken the road of Ranke’s historiography and mixed with the traditional Western historiography which was in its later and decadent stage. At that time, the academic circles tried hard to seek new changes, but they lacked clear awareness of the time difference between the Neo-​Historiography and Ranke’s historiography. Owing to this restriction, Fu Sinian and the Institute of History and Philology headed by him made the improper choice between old and the new trends in Western historiography so that they embarked on a road contrary to the modern academic trend. “They have not paid attention to the importance of Western historiography’s viewpoints, topics, syntheses, methods and social science tools.” This mistake and defect had directly caused the gap between the Institute of History and Philology and the modern academic trend. The “orthodoxy of scientific orientalism” they planned to establish became merely

History of historiography  29 following in the footsteps of the European traditional Sinology which had already become a thing of the past. They plunged into the old declining trend and run counter to the emerging social scientific Sinology, making it meaningless for them to compete and surpass their predecessors.62 These studies seemed to involve some minor “trivial matters,” but they reflected to varying degrees the new orientations and new narrative modes of the study of modern Chinese historiography at that time. When analyzing the text, they not only attached importance to the influence of the social and historical context, but also drew lessons from the theoretical concepts, critical perspectives and analysis modes of other disciplines. They were quite different from previous studies which paid attention to the text itself, strictly observed the discipline boundaries and systems, and explored the laws and the correlation of various elements of the research objects. As a result, many previously neglected historical phenomena have entered the field of vision of researchers. Whether this kind of research can be recognized by historians is not important. What is important is that it spans academic history, intellectual history, cultural history and many other fields, shows the characteristics of comprehensive thinking with a broad vision, and gives people more room for association. Peter Kivy has said that contemporary aesthetics is moving from an era of “knowing only one big thing” to an era of “knowing many small things.” “Knowing only one big thing” is the characteristic of the grand narration, while “knowing many small things” is the characteristic of the new narration. If many small things you know are core and important, you will become a master of the whole subject.63 At present, the study of the history of modern Chinese historiography seems to be turning to an era of studying many trivial matters. Whether these trivial matters have “core” and “important” status is the key for researchers to become masters of “the whole discipline.”

1.4  New thinking and prospect Since the twenty-​first century, some researchers have clearly realized that previous studies on the history of modern Chinese historiography were becoming increasingly active under the influence of emerging disciplines such as modern cultural history, social history and ideological history, but on the whole most of them were specific case studies, and there was a lack overall comprehensive studies, let alone theoretical discussions. Therefore, they were trying to re-​explore the development clues of the history of modern Chinese historiography in order to establish a more scientific and better discipline system. Liu Lina discussed the transformation of modern Chinese historiography from the perspective of modernization, outlining the clue of “finding a way out of difficulties, seeking new ideas from changes, and finally completing the historical mission of establishing modern historiography by drawing on and absorbing new foreign historiography theories and concepts.” She thought that social transformation brought about changes in implements, systems and

30  HU Fengxiang and LIU Lina concepts, which jointly formed the social and cultural background of historical transformation, provided objective conditions and motive force, and directly promoted the progress of Chinese historiography from traditional to modern. And then according to the characteristics of the development of historiography itself, Liu also made a detailed examination of the renovation and change of modern history from many aspects like discipline norms, theoretical innovation, the introduction and perfection of methods, data collation and compilation of works.64 Hu Fengxiang et al. explored the internal logic behind the modernization of historiography from the aspects of scientific communication and adoption of scientific methods. Hu Fengxiang pointed out that the importation of Western scientific methods was a major driving force for China’s academic modernization. The connotation of Western scientific methods involved not only the general technical means, but also the general idea and direction of academic research. The “scientific method” advocated by Hu Shi and other scholars and their new line of thinking that modern humanistic academic research should draw on the experience of natural science and emphasize the denotative extension directly opened a new development path for historiography advocated by the Department of Classical Chinese Learning of Peking University, the Institute of Philology and History of Zhongshan University and the Institute of History and Philology of the Academia Sinica, which emphasized field investigation and modern interdisciplinary research. Hu Fengxiang thought that this construction route of modern historiography confused the boundaries between natural science and humanistic science, restricted the scope of “modern historiography” to historical materials, restrained the expansion of historical horizons, and blurred the difference between traditional textual research and modern scientific methods. He also tried to put forward the line of thinking of developing modern historiography through analyzing the coexistence of scientific and humanistic routes in the history of modern Chinese historiography, pointing out that the “scientific” practice, which has been the mainstream of the development of modern Chinese historiography, was not perfect and had an obvious tendency of “pan-​scientism.” The construction of modern historiography requires not only extensive absorption of various achievements and progressive methods of Western modern sciences, but also inheritance of the excellent heritage of traditional historiography. The historiographical practice of Neo-​Humanism, the research method of which combined humanistic interpretation and scientific demonstration, has not only enriched the theory and practice of modern historical construction, but also given considerable enlightenment to modern research.65 Sheng Banghe examined the changes in historiography from the perspective of cultural development. He integrated historiography with Confucianism to interpret the mechanism of mutual connection and stimulation between Chinese historiography and Confucianism in the process of cultural construction, and demonstrated the changing process of Chinese historiography in the disintegration and reconstruction of Chinese culture in the twentieth century.

History of historiography  31 Zhang Yue, on the other hand, discussed the transformation of historiography from the perspective of the renewal of historical views, arguing that the introduction of different views of history, including Reactionism, historicism, the evolutionary view of history, historical materialism and so on, reflected the fundamental transformation of Chinese historiography and its basic process from tradition to modern. Following the clue emerging from the gradually declining and renovating trend of the Neo-​Historiography in the Republic of China, Xie Baocheng discussed the development and evolution of historiography in this period.66 Sang Bing examined the development and evolution of modern Neo-​Historiography and pointed out that the researchers of modern Neo-​Historiography had regarded innovation as their major task, always taking the predecessor’s “Neo-​Historiography” as the object to destroy in order to develop new research models, left solid research efforts aside, and thus failed to come up with representative works surpassing the old historiography, which should be a lesson left to us. Therefore, Sang Bing argued that there exists no fixed method in historical studies, and even under the banner of Neo-​Historiography, it is impossible to unify all studies. In historical studies, scholars should aim high and avoid making an overall judgment based on a one-​sided viewpoint and regarding the wrong path as innovation. The premise of innovation is to review the past. Scholars should try not to subvert the predecessors blindly and fill up the gaps speculatively. It is often shallow to seek innovation blindly, so those who follow fashion blindly are liable to be outdated. Although sometimes the misdirected researchers can flourish for a while, they are often merely passers-​by.67 Therefore, while affirming the value of diversified studies, Sang Bing also pointed out the importance of inheriting the academic traditions and constructing holistic conceptions. At the same time, post-​modern Constructivism adjusted the influence of Deconstructivism, which also caused some scholars to rewrite, reread, redraw and reinterpret modern academic history. Some raised the issue of redrawing academic maps during the Republic of China, arguing that the biggest problem for the history of modern Chinese historiography was how to determine the respective proportions of historical materialism and historical textual criticism, and at the same time, scholars should also pay attention to the objectivity of the writing of academic history and pursue an objective narrative of academic history giving consideration to historical views, historical materials and objective methods. In order to achieve this goal, “in essence, it is not a question of subjectivity or consciousness, nor is it a question of historians’ personal qualities. but rather a question to establish a fair mechanism for exchange, evaluation and comparison.” The “objective narration of academic history” is neither a narrative centered on the “textual research of historical materials” nor a narrative centered on the “interpretation of historical materials”, but a narrative taking into account historical views, historical materials and research methods.

32  HU Fengxiang and LIU Lina Some even put forward the questions like “how should we rewrite the history of modern historiography” and “how should we set a more objective and common standard to put all the schools of modern historiography in suitable positions.”68 Concerning the question as to which paradigm should we use to write the academic history of modern China, Ge Zhaoguang said that the previous studies, whether they took the traditional clue of political history starting from the Opium Wars, or the clue of cultural history of several stages drawn from heavily armed warships and powerful cannons, to systems and law and then to ideological culture, did have various problems, since on the whole they regarded the history of thought as a continuous process of a group of new factions preset as advanced elements, as well as the deepening process of Chinese upper-​class gentry’s understanding of Western civilization. Ge Zhaoguang held that the clear theoretical boundary and clear historical presupposition often brought much convenience to researchers, but they also often replaced the complicated process of history. Ge hoped to redraw a complicated map of thought, society and academic learning in modern history, so as to show the intricate and complicated panorama of modern society, thought and academic learning. He noticed that the study of historiography referred to the concepts of public sphere and public space in social history, and brought some marginalized historians into the research field of vision. He argued that the existence of these marginalized intellectuals provided a more reasonable and profound explanation for solving many complicated problems in the analysis framework of modern thought and academic history. There is a need to rebuild an explanatory relationship between academic history and ideological history beyond social history, because the changes in knowledge are often the background and supporting resources for ideological changes. When the studies of ideological history habitually describe the ideological changes in the nineteenth century according to a certain political and historical route, although most of them also talk about the New Text Confucianism’s new orientation of emphasizing the profound meaning of subtleties, they seem to pay little attention to the old learning centered on the textual research and interpretation of historical materials. This historical narrative separating the new from the old has made both the academic history and intellectual history during the reign of Emperor Qianlong and Emperor Jiaqing and after the reign of Emperor Daoguang and Emperor Xianfeng always unable to connect and link with each other.69 As early as the beginning of the new century, Hu Fengxiang, Qu Lindong and others expressed their views on the new phenomena in the study of modern Chinese historiography. They also took part in the discussions on the research paradigm of modern Chinese historiography. Hu Fengxiang pointed out that in terms of research content, more research should be done on the operating system of historiography and the interaction between historiography and the public. Qu Lindong, on the other hand, from the perspective of relevant research content and methods, proposed to attach importance to

History of historiography  33 theoretical research, monographic research, comparative research and other issues, so as to promote the development and innovation of the research on the history of Chinese historiography in the process of inheritance.70 Some scholars advocated changing the research perspectives and observing the development process of traditional historiography with historiographical paradigm, and observing the history of historiography from the perspective of the relationship between the state and society. Some scholars advocated expanding the horizons, putting the history of Chinese historiography into the general environment of international Chinese historiography, Eastern and Western historiography research and exchanges, and exploring new research directions from the vertical and horizontal comparison of history.71 Undeniably, due to the dual impact of postmodernism and the research craze of social history, there also exists the phenomenon of “fragmentation” in the research of modern Chinese historiography. The research topics are too detailed. Each scholar fights their own battle and lacks communication and cooperation with others. There is not only a lack of hot theoretical spots and hot topics of common concern, but also concentrated academic discussions and contention. Profound case studies are necessary, but the lack of holistic studies will directly affect the complete understanding of the history of modern Chinese historiography. Supporting grand narrative with theoretical presupposition is liable to simplify complicated history, but fragmented research can only see scattered stories. We study the history of modern Chinese historiography not to entertain ourselves, but to better understand history, seize the day and foresee the future through understanding the development of historiography. The law of human cognition tells us that it is not necessary for us to regard some grand narrative frameworks as unquestionable “science,” but in order to understand history, we still need such frameworks. Therefore, based on the trend that historiography is becoming increasingly pluralistic, diversified, interdisciplinary, the boundaries between specific histories are being blurred, and new narration, new perspectives and new methods are emerging one after another in recent years. How to grasp the logical clues and systems of the history of modern Chinese historiography as a whole is an urgent issue to be discussed at present and there is also a need to rewrite the history of modern Chinese historiography. We should consciously re-​understand and re-​ construct the logical system of the history of modern historiography. Maybe this kind of system will continue to be reconstructed with the improvement of our cognitive ability and the renewal of research concepts, but this is an inevitable experience for the development of historiography.

Notes 1 Zheng Shiqu. (1991). Neo-​Historiography of the National Essence School in the Late Qing Dynasty. Journal of Beijing Normal University (5); Zheng Shiqu. (1993). Study of the National Essence School in the Late Qing Dynasty. Beijing Normal University Press.

34  HU Fengxiang and LIU Lina 2 Hu Fengxiang. (1985). On the Historiography of the National Essence School during the 1911 Revolution. Historical Research (5). 3 Zheng Shiqu. (1998). A  Preliminary Study of the Xueheng School’s Historiographical Thoughts. Journal of Beijing Normal University (4). 4 Zhang Hesheng. (1992). Annotations to Historical View of Cultural Morphology and Historiography of the Warring States School. Historical Review (2). 5 Hou Yunhao. (1992). Research on Lei Haizong’s Early Historiographical Thoughts. Historiography Quarterly (3); Li Fan. (1993). The Eastward Spread of the Historiographical View of Cultural Morphology—​The Warring States School and Toynbee. Modern Chinese History Studies (6). 6 Liu Zhenlan. (1984). Liang Qichao’s Explorations of the Law of Historical Development. Historical Research (5). 7 Hu Fengxiang. (1986). New Explorations of Liang Qichao’s Theoretical System of Historiography. Academic Monthly (12). 8 Hu Bin. (1957). On Liang Qichao’s Historiography. Journal of Literature, History and Philosophy (4); Li Kan. (1963). On Liang Qichao’s Historiographical Thoughts. New Construction (7). 9 Liu Zhenlan. (1984). Liang Qichao’s Explorations into the Law of Historical Development. Historical Research, (5); Hu Fengxiang. (1986). New Exploration of Liang Qichao’s Theoretical System of Historiography. Academic Monthly (12); Zhang Shuxue. (1998). Research on the Trends of Thought in Modern Chinese Historiography. Hunan Education Press, 286. 10 Ma Jinke. (1983). Criticism and Innovation Are the Characteristics of Liang Qichao’s Historiography. Guangming Daily, October 12; Cao Jingguo. (1985). Evolution of Liang Qichao’s View on Evolutionary Conception of History. Journal of Northeast Normal University (3). 11 Wu Huaiqi. (1984). Several Issues on the Evaluation of Liang Qichao’s Historiography. Guangming Daily, January 18. 12 Hu Fengxiang. (1986). New Explorations of Liang Qichao’s Theoretical System of Historiography. Academic Monthly (12). 13 Jin Jingfang. (1979). Discussions on the Periodization of Ancient Chinese History. Historical Research (2) and (3). 14 Gu Cheng. (1981). How Should We Correctly Evaluate The Memorial Ceremony for the 300th Anniversary of the Failure of Li Zicheng Uprising. Research on Chinese History (4); Wang Shoujia and Miao Zhenpeng. (1985). The Memorial Ceremony for the 300th Anniversary of the Failure of Li Zicheng Uprising and Its Position in the History of Modern Historiography. Research on Guo Moruo (1); Xie Ji. (1991). Why did Mr. Jin Jingfang Comment on Guo Moruo’s Historiography like This. Journal of Guo Moruo Studies (1). 15 Chen Qingquan, et al. (Eds.). (1985). Critical Biographies on Chinese Historians (Vol. II). Zhongzhou Ancient Books Publishing House. 16 Zhai Qingfu and Geng Qingheng. (1996). The Truth of an Academic Case. Journal of Chinese Historical Studies (3). 17 The “Preface” of History of Modern Chinese Historiography, edited by Wu Ze. (1989). Jiangsu Ancient Books Publishing House, 3–​4. 18 Ye Guisheng. (1989). Reflections on the History of Modern Historiography. Journal of Historiography (4). 19 Bai Shouyi. (1983). Talking about Modern Chinese Historiography. Journal of Historiography (3).

History of historiography  35 20 The “Preface” of History of Modern Chinese History, edited by Wu Ze. (1989). Jiangsu Ancient Books Publishing House. 21 History of Modern Chinese History, 379–​381, 470. 22 The “Preface” of History of Modern Chinese History edited by Wu Ze. (1989). Jiangsu Ancient Books Publishing House. 23 Hu Fengxiang. (1991). The Development Process and Characteristics of Modern Chinese Historiography. Journal of East China Normal University (4). 24 Chen Qitai. (1992). Historiography and Chinese Cultural Tradition. Bibliographic Literature Publishing House, 177–​ 179; Chen Qitai. (1987). On the Sublation of Modern Historiography to Traditional Historiography. Journal of Chinese Historical Studies (1); Chen Qitai. (1998). Chinese Historiography in the 20th Century (Part I). Guangming Daily, January 20. 25 Chen Qitai. (1998). Chinese Historiography in the 20th Century (Part II). Guangming Daily, January 27. 26 Zhang Shuxue. (1998). Study of the Ideological Trends in Modern Chinese Historiography. Hunan Education Publishing House, p.51. 27 Bai Shouyi. (1983). Talking about Modern Chinese Historiography. Journal of Historiography (3); Yu Danchu. (1985). Patriotic Thought in Modern Chinese Historiography. Journal of Historiography (2). 28 Wu Huaiqi. (1996). Intellectual History of Chinese Historiography. Anhui People’s Publishing House, 327–​328. 29 Hu Fengxiang and Zhang Wenjian’s Ideological Trends and Schools of Modern Chinese Historiography,  15–​16. 30 Hu Fengxiang. (1996). The “Scientism” Thought in the May 4th Period and the Modernization of Chinese Historiography. Academic Monthly (12). 31 The “Introduction” of Zhang Shuxue’s Research on the Trends of Thought in Modern Chinese Historiography,  5–​6. 32 Hou Yunhao. (1999). A Brief Discussion on the Schools of Chinese Historiography in the Early 20th Century, Historiography Quarterly (2). 33 Chen Qitai. (1998). Chinese Historiography in the 20th Century (Part II). Guangming Daily, January 27. 34 Hu Fengxiang. (1991). The Development Process and Characteristics of Modern Chinese Historiography. Journal of East China Normal University (4). 35 Wang Xuedian. (1999). From Pursuing Practical Application to Pursuing Truth-​ Seeking. Journal of Historical Science (1); Wang Xuedian. (1997). Historiography of 100 Years between Empirical Pursuit and Interpretation Orientation. Journal of literature, History and Philosophy (6). 36 Jiang Yihua. (1995). From “Historiography of Official Historians” to “Historiography of Official Historians”:  The Transformation of the Role of Contemporary Chinese Historians. Fudan Journal (3). 37 Ye Guisheng and Liu Maolin. On the Founding and Development of Chinese Marxist Historiography. Learning and Research (11). 38 Xu Diancai. (1997). A Summary of the Symposium on the Historical Status of Chinese Marxist Historiography. Journal of Historiography (3). 39 Chen Qitai. (1998). Chinese Historiography in the 20th Century (Part II). Guangming Daily, January 27. 40 Wang Xuedian. (1999). From Pursuing Practical Application to Pursuing Truth-​ Seeking. Journal of Historical Science (1).

36  HU Fengxiang and LIU Lina 41 Zhang Shuxue. (1998). Study of the Ideological Trends in Modern Chinese Historiography. Hunan Education Press, 40 and 112. 42 Liu Lina. (2003). Politics and Neo-​Historiography in the Late Qing Dynasty. Journal of Historical Science (8); Ren Xingfang. (2000). On the Internal Consistency Between Liang Qichao’s Neo-​Historiography and New People Theory. Journal of Zhejiang Normal University (3). 43 Xu Xiaoqing. (2006). Neo-​Historiography and the Rise of the Concept of the Nation-​State in the Early 20th Century. Social Science Research (6); Zhang Zhaojun. (2010). Liang Qichao’s Neo-​ Historiography is Cultural History. History Quarterly (2); Luo Jianqiu. From “Neo-​Historiography” to Social-​ Cultural History. Journal of Historiography, (4); Chen Yongxia. (2012). Nationalism and “Neo-​Historiography” in the Early 20th Century. Journal of Historical Science (5). 44 Luo Zhitian. (2000). “Mr. Sai’s” Heading Towards Classical Chinese Learning and Historiography—​An Example of “Science” in Chinese People’s Eyes Around the May 4th Movement. Modern Chinese History Studies (3); Liu Lina. (2003). Chinese Historians’ Understanding of History in the 1920s. Historiography Quarterly (1). 45 Lu Yi. (2006). An Investigation into the Reasons for the Blossom of the Movement to Reorganize the National Heritage. Southeast Culture (4); Ge Zhaoguang. (2003). After Neo-​Historiography—​Chinese Historiography in 1929. Historical Research (1). 46 Zhang Yue. (2003). Looking at Guo Moruo’s Historical Thoughts from His Evaluation of Reorganizing the National Heritage and “School of Clarifying Ancient Chinese History.” Journal of Guo Moruo Studies (1); Zhang Yue. (2001). Re-​understanding Theories of Believing in the Ancient History, Doubting the Ancient History and Interpreting the Ancient History. Journal of Liaoning Normal University (5). 47 Sang Bing. (2001). Transition and Inheritance in Modern Academic Studies: From Classical Chinese Learning to Oriental Studies—​ An Analysis of Fu Sinian’s “Objectives of the Institute of History and Philology.” Historical Research (3). 48 Zhang Yue. (2006). An Analysis of Chinese Marxist Historians’ Emphases on Historical Materials and Historical Textual Research Methods in the 1940s. Collected Papers of History Studies (2). 49 Hong Renqing. (2004). On the Study of Modern Chinese History During the Yan’an Period, Journal of Historiography (3). 50 Liang Lei. (2008). Contributions of the Early CPC Members to Modern Chinese Historiography. Journal of Bohai University (6); Wu Hanquan. (2002). Li Dazhao and the Theory of Historical Philosophy. Journal of Historiography, (2); Wu Hanquan. (2003). Li Dazhao and the Study of Modern Chinese History, Modern Chinese History Studies, (3); Lin Ganquan. (2000). Lv Zhenyu and the Study of China’s Social and Economic Formation. Journal of Historiography (4); Hu Fengxiang. (2005). Li Pingxin and the Study of Modern Chinese History. Jiangxi Social Sciences (4). 51 Shao Hua. (2008). Inheritance in Evolution—​On Guo Songtao’s Historiographical Thoughts. Journal of Historiography (2); Guo Liping. (2005). Behind Famous Schools of Thought:  A Review of Shen Yao’s Study of Northwestern Historiography and Geography. China’s Borderland History and Geography Studies, (1); Sui Shufen. (2003). Yan Fu’s View of History and Methods of

History of historiography  37 Historical Research. Journal of Historiography (4); Li Feng and Wang Jilu. (2007). Between the Old and the New: An Analysis of Chen Fuchen’s Historiographical Achievements. Collected Papers of History Studies (2). 52 Zhou Wenjiu. (2004). A  Brief Review of Zhu Xizu’s Historiographical Studies. Journal of Historiography (4); Tian Liang. (2004). Liu Yizheng’s Thought of Nationalist Historiography. Journal of Historiography (2); Tian Liang. (2002). Miao Fenglin’s Thought of Nationalist Historiography During the Anti-​Japanese War. Journal of Historiography (4). 53 Chen Qitai and Tian Yuan. (2010). Leaps in Xiao Yishan’s View of History During the Anti-​Japanese War. Journal of Humanities (1); Zhou Shaochuan. (2002). On Mr. Chen Yuan’s View of National Cultural History. Journal of Historiography (3); Chen Qitai. (2005). Chen Yuan:  The Founder of History of Religions. Jianghai Journal (5); Chen Qitai. (2010). Chen Yuan and Patriotic Historiography During the Anti-​Japanese War—​Commemorating the 130th Anniversary of Mr. Chen Yuan’s Birthday. Journal of Huaiyin Normal University (5); Zhao Qingyun. (2008). On Jin Yufu and the Study of Modern Chinese History. Journal of Historiography (2). 54 Hu Fengxiang. (2004). Institutional Construction and Operation of Modern Chinese Historiography. Journal of Zhengzhou University (2); Hu Fengxiang. (2007). Organizational Structure and Operation of Specialized Institutions of Modern Chinese Historiography. Historical Review (3); Zuo Shuangwen. (2004). Modern Historians and Hong Kong Historiography in the 1930s and 1940s. Journal of Historiography (1); Sang Bing. (2001). Teaching Needs and Transformation of Style of Study—​The Social Scientization of Historiographical Education in Modern Universities. Social Sciences in China, (4); Sang Bing. (2004). The Association of Chinese Historians in the First Half of 20th Century. Historical Research (5); Hu Fengxiang. (2005). The Rise and Operation of the Professional Societies of Modern Chinese Historiography. Historical Review (3). 55 Chen Qitai’s “Gong Yang Theory and the Promotion of Historical and Cultural Identity in the Late Qing Dynasty” (Journal of Historiography, No. 4, 2010), “The New Pattern of Historical and Cultural Identity in the Late Qing Dynasty” (Hebei Academic Journal, No. 4, 2006), “Realizing the Ideal of Democratic Republic and the Development of Modern Historical and Cultural Identity” (Journal of Shanxi Normal University, No. 1, 2007), and “Urgent Issues Faced by Modern Historical and Cultural Identity Under the Stimulus of National Crisis” (Journal of Humanities, No. 3, 2006), etc. 56 Chen Yongxia. (2012). Nationalism and “Neo-​Historiography” in the Early 20th Century. Journal of Historical Science (5); Luo Zhitian. (2010). Studying History for Practical Use: A Brief Analysis of the Rising Status of Modern Historiography, Social Science Front (2). 57 Wang Gaoxin and Deng Rui. (2009). New Text Confucianism and the Modernization of Historiography—​Focusing on Kang Youwei, Cui Shi, Liang Qichao and Xia Cengyou. Journal of Historiography (4). 58 Zhang Zhaojun. (2004). Zhang Taiyan’s Views on Classics and History. Journal of Historiography (2). 59 Wu Guoyi. (2003). On the Rise of the Statecraft Historiography in Modern China. Historical Review (6); Wu Guoyi. (2003). A  Re-​examination of the Statecraft Function of Neo-​Historiography. Journal of East China Normal University (3).

38  HU Fengxiang and LIU Lina 60 Luo Zhitian. (2001). Efforts Made by the Court and the Public to Preserve the National Essence in the Qing Dynasty and Their Conceptual Similarities and Differences. Modern Chinese History Studies (2); Chen Qitai. (2011). The Characteristics of Times of Well-​ Known Historiographical Works on Laws and Regulations in the Late Qing Dynasty—​Also on the Historical Position of Historiography in the Late Qing Dynasty. Journal of Beijing Institute of Administration (1); Zhang Kelan. (2007). The Transformation and Ingravidation of Historiography in the Late Qing Dynasty. Journal of Jianghan University (1); Chen Qitai et al. (2005). New Changes in View of History in the Early Republic of China. Journal of Shaanxi Normal University (2). 61 Luo Zhitian’s “Changes and the Changeless in the Study of Chinese Modern History over the Past 30 Years—​Some Unsystematic Reflections” (Social Science Research, No. 6, 2008), “The Editor’s Preface” (China in the 20th Century: Academic Study and the Society—​Historiography, Shandong People’s Publishing House, 2001), and “The author’s Preface” (Ten Essays on Modern Chinese History, Fudan University Publishing House, 2003), etc. 62 Liu Lina. (2004). On the Modernity and Limitations of Fu Sinian’s Historical Thoughts. In:  Proceedings of the International Symposium on “Fu Sinian and Chinese Culture.” Tianjin Ancient Books Publishing House; Sang Bing. (2001). Transition and Inheritance in Modern Academic Studies: From Classical Chinese Learning to Oriental Studies—​An Analysis of Fu Sinian’s “Objectives of the Institute of History and Philology.” Historical Research (3); Chen Feng. (2008). Heading Towards the New but Turning into the Old: Fu Sinian, the Institute of History and Philology and Western Historiography. Journal of Literature, History and Philosophy (3). 63 Peter Kivy. (2006). “Preface” to Beyond Aesthetics. In:  Noёl Carroll. Beyond Aesthetics. Commercial Press. 64 Liu Lina’s “China’s Social Transformation and the Development of Historiography in the Early 20th Century” (Teaching and Research, Issue 6, 2004), and From Tradition to Modern:  On the Transformation of Chinese Historiography. Social Sciences Academic Press, 2006. 65 Hu Fengxiang. (2008). The Trend of Modern Chinese Historiography after the Importation of Scientific Methods. Academic Monthly (3); Hu Fengxiang. (2003). Between Science and Humanities—​Some Thoughts on the Development Direction of Modern Historiography. Historiography Quarterly (3). 66 Sheng Banghe. (2002). Disintegration and Reconstruction:  Modern Chinese Historiography and Changes in Confucianism. East China Normal University Press; Zhang Yue. (2003). The Promotion and Influence of the View of Evolutionary History on the Transformation of Chinese Historiography. Seeking Truth (1); Xie Baocheng. (2011). A Review of Historiography of the Republic of China (1912–​ 1949). Shanghai People’s Publishing House. 67 Sang Bing. (2007). The New Historiography of Modern China and Its Evolution. Journal of Historical Science (11). 68 Wang Xuedian. (2000). Gu Jiegang and His Disciples. Shandong Pictorial Publishing House; Wang Xuedian. (2008). How Chinese Historiography in the 20th Century Is Narrated—​An Inquiry into the Objectivity in Writing Academic History. Journal of Tsinghua University (2); Zhu Fajian. (2004). Scientification of Historiography:  A New Way to Examine the History of Modern Chinese Historiography. Journal of Hunan Normal University (6).

History of historiography  39 69 Ge Zhaoguang. (2001). Redraw the Map of Modern Thoughts, Society and Learning—​On Luo Zhitian’s Power Transfer:  Thoughts, Society and Learning in Modern China. Historical Research (1). 70 Hu Fengxiang. (2012). My Opinions on Improving the Research Paradigm of Chinese Historiography. Journal of Historical Science (8); Qu Lindong. On the New Direction of the Study of the History of Chinese historiography. Tianjin Social Science (1). 71 Qian Maowei. (2012). The Change of Perspectives in the Study of the History of Chinese Historiography. Academic Monthly (1); Zhu Zhenghui. (2012). International Perspectives in the Study of the History of Chinese Historiography, Academic Monthly (1).

2 History of Sino-​foreign relations1 HOU Zhongjun and YANG Wanrong

The development of historical studies on modern Sino-​foreign relations over the past 70-​odd years can be roughly divided into two stages synchronizing with the development of the People’s Republic of China, that is, the 30 years from 1949 to 1976 and the 40 years since China’s reform and opening up.

2.1  An overview of the development For a long period of time since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, studies on the history of modern Sino-​foreign relations had focused on the history of imperialist aggression against China. This had two causes: first, the impoverished and weak Old China had been invaded by the big powers unceasingly since modern times. Objectively speaking, imperialist aggression against China had been an important part of the history of Sino-​foreign relations, so it was an inevitable requirement for this subject to study the history of imperialist aggression against China. Second, under the background of the “Cold War” between the East and the West, it was an important task for the historians to help people know the history and the imperialists’ nature correctly. So, it was also the requirement of our society and country to study the history of imperialist aggression against China. Influential works published during this period include Hu Sheng’s Imperialism and Chinese Politics (SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1950) and History of Imperialist Aggression Against China (Vol. 1)  (Science Press, 1958)  written by Ding Mingnan, Yu Shengwu and Zhang Zhenkun et  al. Grasping the main line of imperialist aggression against China and opposition to China’s independence and development of capitalism, Imperialism and Chinese Politics discussed the development and changes of contradictions between various ethnic groups and classes during the 80-​odd years since the Opium War. History of Imperialist Aggression Against China made serious discussions on many important issues such as the imperialist invasion from 1840 to 1895 and the evolution of China’s semi-​feudal and semi-​colonial society. This book was a collaboration of many experts and of a good academic standard in terms of textual research of historical facts, historical narration and overall framework, which has exerted great influence on the

History of Sino-foreign relations  41 following works on the history of Sino-​foreign relations. Besides, Hu Bin’s History of Imperialists’ Scrambling for Their Rights and Interests in China at the End of the Nineteenth Century (SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1957) clearly exposed how China was carved up by the imperialists who both ganged up with and fought against each other after the Sino-​Japanese War of 1894–​1895. Among the studies of imperialist aggression against China, the history of America’s aggression against China attracted the most attention because America was China’s biggest enemy in the 1950s. The most influential works include Liu Danian’s History of America’s Invasion of China (People’s Publishing House, 1951)  and Qing Ruji’s two-​volume History of America’s Invasion of China (SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1952 and 1956). Because of the same historical background, friendship between China and the Soviet Union was the theme of studies on Sino-​Soviet relations in the 1950s. Published works include Cao Xizhen’s Sino-​Soviet Diplomatic History (Shanghai World Affairs Press, 1951)  and Peng Ming’s A Brief History of Sino-​Soviet Friendship (China Youth Press, 1955). In the middle and late 1960s, studies on Tsarist Russia’s invasion of China began to heat up because of the sharp deterioration of Sino-​Soviet relations. In addition to the four-​volume History of Tsarist Russia’s Invasion of China coauthored by the Institute of Modern History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), other influential works include History of Tsarist Russia’s Invasion of China written by the Department of History of Fudan University (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1975) and A Brief History of Tsarist Russia’s Invasion of China written by the Department of History of Jilin Normal University (Jilin People’s Publishing House, 1976) and so on. However, we lack systemic studies on Britain and Japan’s invasion of China whereas the former had been a bellwether for long and the latter had launched the most violent invasion of China. Existing studies on these two countries mainly focused on the two Opium Wars and the Sino-​Japanese War of 1894–​ 1895. During this period, several monographs had been published such as Bao Zhenggu’s The Opium War (Shanghai New Knowledge Publishing House, 1954), Wei Jianyou’s The Second Opium War (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1955), Jiang Mengyin’s The Second Opium War (SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1965), Jia Yijun’s The Sino-​Japanese War of 1894–​1895 (New Knowledge Publishing House, 1955), Chen Lianfang’s Korea Issues and the Sino-​Japanese War of 1894–​1895 (SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1959), Qi Qizhang’s The Naval Battle of Weihai during the First Sino-​Japanese War (Shandong People’s Publishing House, 1962). Studies on other countries during this period were much fewer. Studies on the history of imperialist aggression against China were echoed by studies on the history of Chinese people fighting against aggression. On this topic the influential works include Chen Xiqi’s Suanyuanli People’s Struggles to Resist Britain’s Aggression (Guangdong People’s Publishing House, 1956), Li Shiyue’s Modern China’s Anti-​Christian Campaign (People’s Publishing

42  HOU Zhongjun and YANG Wanrong House, 1958) and Zhou Mingqi’s The Anti-​American Patriotic Movement in 1905 (Zhonghua Book Company, 1962) and so on. The achievements made by the modern studies of history of Sino-​ foreign relations during this period is of the groundbreaking significance. Researchers applied the basic theories of Marxism and Leninism, broke down old conventions of diplomatic history studies before 1949 and set up the new subject system under the guidance of Marxism and Leninism. Studies during this period touched upon several significant events in modern Sino-​foreign relations, drew the outline of the development of modern Sino-​ foreign relations, established the basic framework for this subject and laid foundations for its further development. Needless to say, studies during this period had been inevitably influenced by the “leftist” deviation of thought which used to dominate the Chinese politics from time to time. The rich and complicated history of Sino-​foreign relations had been covered by the simple mode of aggression and anti-​aggression, and many other aspects had been ignored by the researchers. Moreover, even the studies on the history of imperialist aggression against China were subjected to the impact of political agitation. For example, immediately after the first volume of History of Imperialist Aggression Against China was published, someone criticized that this book made a directional mistake and claimed that what the liberated Chinese people needed was a “history of exaltation and fulfillment” rather than a “history of being bullied and beaten.” As a result, the research group was dismissed and the second volume of this book was not published until 20 years later. The reform and opening up started from 1978 brought vitality to the studies of the modern history of Sino-​foreign relations. It not only put forward the question of how to know the outside world but also created a free academic environment. Meanwhile, with the all-​around opening up of Chinese society, cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries developed rapidly. Chinese scholars could get to know Western society directly, and thus their horizons were greatly expanded. Since then, the subject of history of Sino-​ foreign relations has begun to thrive. During this period, many comprehensive works on the modern history of Sino-​foreign relations came out. Besides the publication of the above-​ mentioned History of Imperialist Aggression Against China (Vol. 2) (People’s Publishing House, 1986)  and History of Tsarist Russia’s Invasion of China (Vols. 3 and 4) (People’s Publishing House, 1881 and 1890), a series of works on the general history of Sino-​foreign relations or diplomatic history came out as well. Works on the history of Sino-​foreign relations from late Qing to 1919 (or 1911–​1949 in some works) include Liu Peihua’s Modern History of Sino-​Foreign Relations (Peking University Press, 1986), Gu Mingyi’s A Brief History of Modern Sino-​Foreign Relations (Jilin Literature and History Press, 1987), Wang Shaofang’s Diplomatic History of China (From the Opium War to the Republican Revolution) (Henan People’s Publishing House, 1988), Yang Gongsu’s Diplomatic History of the Late Qing Period (Peking University Press,

History of Sino-foreign relations  43 1991), Zhao Jiaying’s Modern Diplomatic History of China (Associated Press of Universities in Shanxi, 1994), Tang Peiji’s Modern History of Sino-​Foreign Relations (Higher Education Press, 1994), and so on. All these works have systematically listed and elaborated on great events in the modern history of Sino-​foreign relations during the late Qing and early Republican period. A  common feature shared by all these general history works is that they were all adapted from the teaching materials used by college teachers. In the twenty-​first century, more works were published successively, such as Zhao Jiaying’s Contemporary Diplomatic History of China (World Affairs Press, 2005), Huang Fengzhi’s Modern Chinese Diplomatic History (1840–​1949) (Jilin University Press, 2005) and Xiong Zhiyong’s Modern and Contemporary Diplomatic History of China (World Affairs Press, 2005). Comparatively speaking, research on the diplomatic history of the Republican period is a newly-​emerging area. Most of the comprehensive works on this area were published in the 1990s, among which the influential ones were Wu Dongzhi’s Diplomatic History of China (The Republican Period) (Henan People’s Publishing House, 1990), Zong Chengkang’s Sino-​Foreign Relations (1840–​1949) (Nanjing University Press, 1993), Tang Peiji’s Modern and Contemporary History of Sino-​Foreign Relations (Higher Education Press, 1994), Shi Yuanhua’s Diplomatic History of Republican China (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1994)  and Modern Diplomatic History between China and Neighboring Countries (Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House, 2006), Yang Gongsu’s A Brief Diplomatic History of Republican China (The Commercial Press, 1997), Cheng Daode’s Modern Chinese Diplomatic History and International Law (Modern Press, 1993) and so on. Wu Dongzhi and Shi Yuanhua’s works are the first batch of monographs on the “diplomatic history of Republican China” after the founding of New China. All these works are of great significance for the development of diplomatic history studies in terms of research framework construction and accurate description of the historical facts. Besides, works studying Sino-​foreign relations by country were published, such as Tao Wenzhao’s History of Sino-​American Relations (1911–​1950) (Chongqing Publishing House, 1993), Xiang Liling’s Comprehensive History of Sino-​American Relations (East China Normal University, 2002), Xiong Zhiyong’s Sino-​American Relations over the Past 100 Years (World Affairs Press, 2006), Zhang Zhenkun et al.’s History of Japan’s 70 Years of Aggression against China (China Social Sciences Press, 1992), Xiang Qing et  al.’s The Soviet Union and Chinese Revolution (Central Compilation and Translation Press, 1994), Tian Baoguo’s Sino-​ Soviet Relations during the Republican Period (1917–​ 1949) (Ji’nan Publishing House, 1999), Shen Zhihua et al.’s Outline of the History of Sino-​Soviet Relations (1911–​1991) (Xinhua Publishing House, 2007), Xue Xiantian et al.’s History of Sino-​Soviet Relations during the Republican Period (1917–​1949) (Chinese Communist Party History Publishing House, 2009), Huang Hongzhao’s History of Sino-​ British Relations (Hong Kong Kaiming Book Company, 1994), Sa Benren

44  HOU Zhongjun and YANG Wanrong and Pan Xingming’s Sino-​British Relations in the 20th Century (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1996), Wang Weimin’s Sino-​British Relations over the Past 100 Years (World Affairs Press, 2002), Wu Jingping’s From the Fall of Qingdao to Kohl’s Visit to China:  Sino-​German Relations (1861–​1992) (Fujian People’s Publishing House, 1993), Huang Qinghua’s History of Sino-​ Portuguese Relations (1513–​1999) (Huangshan Publishing House, 2005) and Shi Yuanhua’s Korean Independence Movements and China (1919–​ 1945) (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1995).

2.2  Monographic studies 2.2.1  Diplomatic theory and systems The overall advancement in the studies of the history of modern Sino-​foreign relations had provided a sound basis for the study of modern diplomatic theory and systems. American scholar John King Fairbank thought that the tributary system best represented China’s traditional system of foreign affairs before modern Chinese diplomacy was dominated by unequal treaties. Many different opinions had been voiced, but none of them became systematic. Some scholars proposed a new concept besides the tributary system and the system of unequal treaties—​principles of the Chinese world order. Based on his study of the negotiations on establishing diplomatic relations between China and Thailand, he pointed out that the fundamental reason why the negotiations broke down was that after adopting the international law of Western countries, Thailand started to abandon the principles of the Chinese World order and seek equal standing, which caused conflict between the Eastern and Western principles of world order.2 From 2000, scholars have given more attention to the modernization of Chinese diplomacy. Some scholars pointed out that violent clashes broke out between the modern international system originating from Western Europe and the traditional China-​ centered East Asian international order. After the second Opium War, both China and Western countries began to adjust their policies. China gradually joined the modern international system. It took time for officials of the late Qing Dynasty to know and accept the diplomatic conceptions of Western countries. The acceptance of international law is an important factor in the modernization of Chinese diplomacy.3 Studies on the transformation of modern diplomatic systems have attracted more and more attention. A study pointed out that there were some important details to be explored more thoroughly, but in general we could confirm that Chinese diplomatic transformation started from the end of the Opium War and was completed during the time of the Beijing Government of the Republic of China.4 As for how to understand China’s traditional conceptions of foreign affairs, some scholars took Korea as an example and held that modern Chinese people’s views about Korea had always been confronted with the dilemma between sense and sensibility, which reflected the correlation between

History of Sino-foreign relations  45 modern China’s understanding of their own country and other countries and affected the formation of modern Chinese nationalism as well.5 In dealing with international relations, treaties must be observed. However, the late Qing government was confronted with unequal treaties which were against the right of equal communication. In this exceptional situation, it became a tough historical problem for the Qing government to decide whether to observe the treaties or not. During the two Opium Wars the Qing government attempted to break the shackles of unequal treaties; however, they finally developed the subject consciousness of adhering to treaties by which they could restrain their officials.6 Before entering modern society, China’s diplomatic values and systems were totally different from those of Western countries. After the Opium Wars, in negotiation with Western countries, these different diplomatic values and systems became the focus of conflicts and reconciliation. In the vortex of conflicts and reconciliation, Chinese modern diplomatic values and systems emerged, developed and presented the transitional features of constant evolution. Without knowing these, it would be impossible for us to fathom the causes of many important events in modern Sino-​foreign relations, such as the “Chinese Rites Controversy” before the Opium Wars, the Qing government’s “swing between war and peace” during the Opium Wars, the problem of “foreign envoys staying in Beijing” during the second Opium War and the Sino-​ Japanese War and Sino-​French War involving Vietnam and Korea, which were vassal states of China at that time. However, academia only made some advancement in the studies of the diplomatic system and published several monographs such as Qian Shifu’s Diplomatic Establishments of the Qing Dynasty (SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1959), Wang Licheng’s History of the Diplomatic System of Modern China (Gansu People’s Publishing House, 1992) and Gao Weinong’s Modernization of Relations between China and Its Tributary States (Guangdong Higher Education Press, 1993), but the studies on the evolution of diplomatic thoughts were obviously insufficient. 2.2.2  Unequal treaties (1)  Theories and conceptions in the study of unequal treaties Research on unequal treaties has been a traditional field, which had made great progress. In terms of collection and compilation of treaties, among numerous collections of treaties, the most cited one was Wang Tieya’s three-​volume Collection of Old Treaties Between China and Foreign Countries (SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1957, 1959 and 1962, reprinted in 1982). A dictionary must be mentioned here, The Dictionary of China’s Foreign Treaties (1689–​ 1949) edited by Zhu Huan and Wang Hengwei (Jilin Education Press, 1994). Based on Collection of Old Treaties Between China and Foreign Countries, this dictionary extended the number of China’s foreign treaties to 1,356. However, it was a pity that this dictionary did not list the sources of the newly-​added

46  HOU Zhongjun and YANG Wanrong treaties and only lists abstracts of some sections but not the whole content of these treaties. Since the birth of New China, both researchers in the field of the international law and historiography have gone through a process of development in understanding the conception of treaties. The former kept adjusting themselves to fit the constantly changing international situation, whereas the latter had divergent views on the concrete application of these conceptions. To meet the needs of the research on the imperialist aggression against China, historians paid closer attention to the question whether a document concerning foreign affairs could be considered as aggression against China or not, but paid less attention to the question whether this document had the features of a treaty or not. The vague understanding of treaties caused conflicting opinions on the number of treaties and unequal treaties in modern China. This situation did not change until China began to discuss the number of unequal treaties in 1990s. As for the number of unequal treaties, there had been widely-​accepted rumors that there were more than 1,100 unequal treaties. These rumors were also adopted by the White Paper on China’s Human Rights published by the State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China in 1991. Some scholars pointed out that this was a misunderstanding of Collection of Old Treaties Between China and Foreign Countries. First, not all the 1,100-​odd documents collected in this book are treaties; second, not all treaties collected in this book are unequal treaties. So, this number did not hold water.7 Then some other scholars proposed that there were two general criteria for judging whether a treaty is equal or not: 1) Was the form and procedure of its conclusion equal? 2)  Were its contents on an equal footing? Did they violate China’s sovereignty? The second criterion should be the major basis to judge whether a treaty was equal or not. There should be no other criteria except for these two criteria. According to the above criteria, there were 343 unequal treaties in modern China, and 23 countries were involved. Limited by various objective conditions, this number is not the final result, but only a provisional one based on Wang Tieya’s Collection of Old Treaties Between China and Foreign Countries.8 Foreign countries’ privileges in China granted by unequal treaties started from the Treaty of Nanjing, among which extraterritoriality is most harmful. Some scholars traced its origin and pointed out that as early as 1833, Britain had attempted to set up their court of extraterritorial nature in China. In 1839, Charles Elliot arbitrarily declared that they established the consular court without the authorization of the Qing government. After the Opium Wars, Britain finally obtained this privilege through unequal treaties.9 As for the retaking of extraterritoriality, some scholars pointed out that because of the various disadvantages and damage of extraterritoriality, both China and foreign countries intended to revise it. But the proposal of “mixed court” suggested by Britain after the second Opium War was not accepted by the Qing government. The First Sino-​Japanese War and the invasion of the Eight-​ Power Allied Forces aroused China’s radical demand for retaking consular

History of Sino-foreign relations  47 jurisdiction. Though the Qing government explicitly raised this issue and took substantive actions to reform China’s judicial and legal system, it was still mired in difficulties.10 (2)  Studies on the abrogation of unequal treaties Wang Jianlang’s History of China’s Abrogation of Unequal Treaties (Jiangxi People’s Publishing House, 2000) first put forward the conception of “abrogation of unequal treaties” and held that the abrogation of unequal treaties started from the late Qing, passed through the rise of the nationalist movement and was completed by the Nanjing Nationalist Government, which established a concrete and rigorous framework for this field. Li Yumin’s History of China’s Abrogation of Unequal Treaties (Zhonghua Book Company, 2006) furthered this research and proposed that China’s success in abrogating unequal treaties was not the achievement of a single government or movement, but the result of joined forces, and the contribution made by the Communist Party of China (CPC) was also one of the forces. Generally speaking, research on the abrogation of unequal treaties has become more and more refined and devoted more attention to case studies. It studies not only the abrogation of unequal treaties led by the government, but also the contribution made by individuals and even the opposition parties in the process of abrogation. Based on the case studies of abrogation of the unequal treaties during the Beijing Government period, some scholars pointed out that in terms of abrogation of unequal treaties between China and Tsarist Russia, the Beijing Government insisted that before new treaties were signed, old treaties should first be abolished; however, Soviet Russia’s position was contrary to China’s. In the end, they reached a compromise:  before new treaties were signed, all the old treaties were invalid. Some other scholars pointed out that the late Qing’s first overseas envoy He Ruzhang had realized that tariff autonomy and extraterritoriality were the main component of unequal treaties.11 There were also scholars who ignored the achievements of revising treaties from the perspective of orthodox revolution and doubted the abrogation of unequal treaties during the Beijing Government period. 2.2.3  Research on the late Qing government’s diplomacy (1)  The first Opium War and the beginning of unequal Sino-​foreign relations As for the causes of the Opium Wars, there have always been two different views: one held that it was because Britain wanted to protect its opium trade with China; the other was that Britain wanted to protect its free trade with China. In the 1990s, some scholars proposed that the Opium Wars were caused by both the above-​mentioned reasons and pointed out that the former was the direct reason performing an important function during a certain period of time whereas the latter was the basic motive performing a long-​term function.12

48  HOU Zhongjun and YANG Wanrong Studies in recent years mainly focused on the people and public opinion that had influenced the wars, such as the Westerners coming to China and their groupings, aiming to explain the interaction among various factors before the war. Researchers noticed actions taken by the Western groups to protect their own interests, including the establishment of the Guangzhou Aliens’ General Chamber of Commerce and public opinion becoming more in favor of using force against China. As an organization founded by British businessmen before the Opium Wars, Guangzhou Aliens’ General Chamber of Commerce got involved in the negotiations between China and Britain and exercised some influence. As public opinion became more favorable to using force against China and the influence of the Opium Wars, the latest research held that public opinion in favor of going to war against China was not sudden but had been festering for a long time. Along with the worsening of Sino-​British relations around 1830, groups of Westerners in China became more and more dissatisfied with Guangzhou’s trade framework and gradually swayed public opinion in favor of controlling China by force. After the John Napier Event, this advocation gradually developed into public support for declaring war on China and led to arguments in the English-​language newspapers and periodicals of Guangzhou. When the Hingtae Hong Debt Case took place, most Western people were dissatisfied with the Guangzhou government’s solutions, and thus there was consensus for waging war against China.13 As for the Qing government’s attitude toward the opium trade, for a long time academia had maintained that there were two groups:  one advocated strict prohibition and the other advocated loose prohibition. In the mid-​ 1980s, some scholars put forward different opinions and held that Emperor Daoguang had always advocated strict prohibition against opium; in the Qing government, there only existed differences in the strategy of opium prohibition, but no discrimination between strict and loose prohibition of opium; there was no opium interest group in ruling circles.14 Similarly, concerning the Qing government’s attitude toward Britain’s invasion, China used to link this discrimination with the struggle between the fighters and the capitulators. However, at present some scholars noticed that many “heroes” advocating fighting against Britain in the early stages of the Opium Wars had become leading figures advocating peace negotiations. They all agree that China should not view all advocation of peace talks as surrender and discriminate the war party and the peace party according to this standard.15 The opium trade was the fuse for the Opium Wars, but academia had no exact statistics on the volume of the opium trade before the Opium Wars. Some scholars held that because of the secret feature of the filthy opium trade, it was impossible to calculate exactly the volume of trade, but it was still possible to make a rough estimate. During the 18  years before the Opium Wars, every year there were more than 10,000 boxes of opium imported into China and 10  million taels of silver were plundered from China. Though this number is not as large as the one previously estimated, it is enough to disclose the plundering nature of opium traders and the interest group behind them. As

History of Sino-foreign relations  49 for the conflict between China and Western countries’ diplomatic systems is concerned, some scholars pointed out that this conflict had started before the Opium Wars rather than after them, and the John Napier Event in 1834 was a typical example reflecting the struggles between these two sides. Both China and Britain tried to lay down diplomatic rules. In 1837, in order to break the deadlock, Charles Elliot took the liberty of making a concession to the Qing Government and Guangdong Province, and fulfilled his plan of staying in Guangdong as a British official.16 (2)  The second Opium War and the formation and development of unequal treaty system Compared with studies of the first Opium War, studies on the second Opium War are unsystematic and their research foundations are relatively weak. In the 1990s, some researchers investigated the reasons why France participated in the second Opium War, the role it played in the war and the Anglo-​French relationship. They argued that there existed various reasons for France’s participation, involving not only the political and economic factors at home and abroad, but also the continuity of its diplomatic policy. Though France cooperated with Britain in military affairs, it competed with Britain fiercely in diplomacy and tried hard to share the benefits of the Far East with Britain.17 Through deep reading of Russian archives, some researchers touched upon Sino-​Russian relations during the second Opium War and pointed out that compared with Britain and France, though Russia was not a direct participant of the war, it obtained this privilege by treaties earlier than Britain and France and occupied a vast territory of China. The reinstatement and deposition of Qiying in dealing with foreign affairs reflected the weakness and incapacity of the late Qing Dynasty’s diplomacy. Some researchers held that after his reinstatement, Qiying established a relationship with Russia smoothly through Palladius (P. I. Kafarov), who was the High Priest of the Russian Embassy. However, in order to get Russia’s promise of mediation, Qiying thoughtlessly promised to sign the Treaty of Tianjin in advance, which led to his condemnation and suicide.18 It was once believed that the Qing customs’ loss of its administrative function was mainly caused by foreigners’ intentional connivance and destruction, but this is not the whole story. Some researchers have pointed out that Britain once helped the Qing government to suppress smuggling and tried to build up “fair” customs trade. Only after its attempt failed, did the Qing government try to establish the constitutionality of the customs unilaterally. It failed to follow the trend of the times and dissolved the customs’ administrative function.19 After Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region) was occupied, the Qing government tried again to restore the customs’ power to revive economic interest. Since 1868, in order to stop opium smuggling, the Qing government held the Hong Kong SAR for several years, but ended up reviving limited economic interest at the expense of national sovereignty.20

50  HOU Zhongjun and YANG Wanrong As for the development of unequal treaties, a consistent view is that the Treaty of Tianjin and the Treaty of Beijing signed between China and Britain, America, France and Russia after the second Opium War had greatly expanded the big powers’ privileges in China, which was the beginning of an unequal treaty system. The Treaty of Shimonoseki signed after the Sino-​ Japanese War enabled Japan to obtain all the privileges the Western big powers had in China. This treaty also reflected the big powers’ demand for exporting capital to China and became an important symbol of the transition from the invasion of capitalism invasion to the invasion of imperialism. Soon after, there appeared a series of unequal treaties by which the big powers almost carved China up. After the Boxer Uprising failed, the Peace Treaty of 1901 completed the system of unequal treaties, which symbolized the establishment of imperialists’ semi-​colonial rule in China.21 With the advancement of research, scholars found that some of the privileges obtained by the big powers were transferred by the officials of the Qing government voluntarily. The reason was that the Qing government knew nothing about the sovereignty of modern countries because of its long-​term seclusion. Thus, they were not aware of losing their own country’s important rights and interests. For example, the original purpose of transferring consular jurisdiction was to dump the problems of the foreign-​related cases to foreigners and reduce the judicial disputes between China and foreign countries. As for the unilateral most-​favored-​nation treatment, besides the Celestial Empire’s way of thinking that benefactions should be bestowed fairly, another important reason was to let the big powers hold each other up.22 (3)  The origin and development of Japan’s policy on invading China Previous studies of Japan’s occupation of Taiwan had always focused on the issues like the “loss of Ryukyu” and reparations. In the 1990s, some scholars conducted studies more accurately and pointed out that the fundamental issue to be solved in this Sino-​Japanese war was to verify whether Taiwan, especially eastern Taiwan belonged to China or not. Japan dispatched troops to Taiwan on the false pretenses of conquering “no man’s land,” and restated this point repeatedly in the negotiations, which of course was constantly refuted by the Qing government. Finally, Japan had no choice but to acknowledge China’s sovereignty over Taiwan, and diplomatic delegates of Britain, America and many other countries also made it clear that they acknowledged Taiwan was a part of China’s territory. China’s sovereignty over Taiwan was clarified accordingly.23 It was once believed that The Sino-​Japanese Beijing Treaty tacitly acknowledged Japan’s sovereignty over Ryukyu. Some scholars pointed out that this was a misunderstanding of the treaty. In the negotiations, the Qing government never admitted that the boaters in Ryukyu were Japanese people. The so-​called “Japanese people” in the treaty referred to the Japanese people hijacked in Taiwan but not boaters in Ryukyu. So, from this treaty we could not draw the conclusion that the Qing government

History of Sino-foreign relations  51 acknowledged Japan’s sovereignty over Ryukyu.24 Some other scholars also pointed out that China had to admit that the Qing government’s diplomacy on the issue of Ryukyu was not successful. Li Shuchang’s negotiations with Japan on the Ryukyu case were quite effective in the early stage, but in the later period it became a matter of writing strategy only, which had something to do with Japan’s increasingly mighty standpoint.25 Korea was another diplomatic issue between China and Japan. Some scholars studied the struggles for the right to control Korea’s telecommunications between China and Japan ten years before the Sino-​Japanese War and pointed out that the Qing government adopted a flexible foreign policy on Korea combining traditional suzerain-​ vassal diplomacy and modern treaty diplomacy, whereas Japan adopted a pragmatic diplomacy on China which renounced scrambling for the rights of constructing and managing Korea’s telecommunication lines, but gave priority to acquiring means of communication.26 As for the formation of Japan’s continental policy, some scholars held it was formed in the early years of Meiji period. Some others held that the continental policy was formed during the period of the Yamagata Aritomo Cabinet.27 The Sino-​Japanese War of 1894–​1895 has always been a hot topic for the study of Sino-​Japanese relations. Monographs published after the reform and opening up include Qi Qizhang’s History of the Sino-​ Japanese War of 1894–​1895 (People’s Publishing House, 1990)  and History of International Relations During the First Sino-​ Japanese War (People’s Publishing House, 1994), Sun Kefu and Guan Jie’s History of the First Sino-​ Japanese War (Heilongjiang People’s Publishing House, 1981 and 1984), and so on. It is worth mentioning that though there are numerous studies on the Sino-​Japanese War in Mainland China, there was a shortage of monographs systematically studying the Sino-​Japanese War from the perspective of international law. So, there even appeared a weird view considering the injured China as the violator of international law.28 Qi Qizhang’s History of the Sino-​ Japanese War of 1894–​1895 refuted this fallacy based on historical facts and pointed out Japan’s activities violated principles of international law completely. As for the causes of the Sino-​Japanese War, some scholars analyzed the diplomatic activities between China and Japan before and after Kim Ok-​gyun’s assassination and pointed out that there was no evidence that Li Hongzhang and his son took part in the assassination of Kim Ok-​gyun in advance. Japan’s invasion of Korea provoking the Sino-​Japanese War also had nothing to do with Kim’s assassination.29 As for Sino-​Japanese relations after the Sino-​Japanese War, China and Japan’s inclination toward an alliance has attracted more attention from researchers. Recent studies argued that from the end of the Sino-​Japanese War to the eve of the Wu Hsu Reform, Japan’s forces advocating an alliance with China carried out various activities involving many people and organizations. Though different forces varied with each other in terms of their allied activities and the people they dealt with, they also communicated, cooperated and integrated with each other; China’s reformers also differentiated in terms of

52  HOU Zhongjun and YANG Wanrong their responses to Japan’s activities of allying with China and gradually formed a broad and complicated circle of Sino-​Japanese alliances, which exerted influence on the Wu Hsu Reform.30 Besides, centering on the “Societies for Rejuvenating Asia,” some scholars analyzed the Sino-​Japanese alliance activities from 1898 to 1900.31 As for Japan’s attitudes toward the Wu Hsu Reform, some scholars pointed out that in the beginning, Japan spoke favorably of it, but offered little substantive assistance. After the Wu Hsu Reform, Japan conducted pragmatic diplomacy toward China. They not only had garrisons in Beijing, but also supported those who actually had strength and held power in China, and thus their influence in China increased progressively.32 (4)  Anti-​Christianity movements and the Boxer Uprising Anti-​ Christianity movements have been an unavoidable special issue in the history of modern Sino-​foreign relations. As for the causes of the anti-​ Christianity movements, a consistent view is that they were the product of the increasingly intensified contradiction between the Chinese nation and imperialism. It was also pointed out that the anti-​Christianity movements were the product of various interwoven contradictions, and we should not consider the factor of national conflict only and disregard other factors, such as the contradiction between Christianity and the feudal, political and religious customs of China, differences and clashes between Chinese and Western culture.33 As for the nature of the anti-​Christianity movements, some scholars held that the anti-​Christianity movements were both anti-​aggression and against the nature of the peasants’ revolution.34 Some other scholars held that social forces participating in the anti-​Christianity movements were very broad, and people from the landlord class always acted as the proponents. So, the anti-​ Christianity movements could not be considered as peasant revolutions. Moreover, though the mainstream anti-​Christianity movements were anti-​ aggression, they also blindly rejected foreign ideas and always fought against the capitalistic cultural consciousness with feudalistic cultural consciousness. So, they were always against the nature of progress.35 The same divergences also appeared in the evaluation of the Boxer Uprising. Some scholars held that the Boxer Uprising “killed foreigners and hated foreign religions” blindly and attacked all foreigners without any discrimination. The Boxers opposed advanced science and technology and were determined to wipe out all things capitalistic.36 However, others argued that the fundamental reason for Boxers’ opposition to everything foreign was that imperialism was going to destroy China. The Boxers’ opposition to everything foreign was the oppressed nation’s righteous resistance when the Chinese nation had reached a point where its very existence was at stake. Imperialists establishment of modern enterprises in China strengthened their economic hand and the political oppression of China. So, the Boxers’ opposition to all things foreign was the resistance to the imperialists’ policy of invasion but not the advanced mode of production.37 Some other scholars pointed out

History of Sino-foreign relations  53 that anti-​imperialism and opposition to everything foreign were two related concepts but of a different nature. Anti-​imperialism should be approved, whereas opposition to everything foreign was blind and became a sign of ignorance and backwardness. So, it is not expedient to rebuke or defend blind opposition to everything foreign.38 As for the Peace Treaty of 1901, this used to be considered as the true portrayal of the late Qing government’s complete surrender to imperialism. Through investigation into the Qing government’s diplomacy of the next ten years, some scholars proposed that though the Qing government did much to jeopardize China’s interests, it had conflicts, disputes and even struggles with imperialism as well. The wording of “complete surrender” was one-​sided, simplified and absolutized.39 (5)  The open-​door policy The appraisal of the open-​door policy has been a highly controversial topic for a long time. There was an opinion which used to be popular among the historians’ circles before 1949 that this policy was America’s means of protecting China from being carved up by the big powers. As it should be, this opinion is refuted by the historians’ circles of New China, whose appraisal had gone to the other extreme for a certain period. In 1979, a researcher reappraised some issues including the open-​door policy and argued that this policy respected China’s territorial and sovereign integrity. This policy was announced at an extremely critical moment when China was on the brink of being carved up, and was restated repeatedly, which played a role in bringing down or slowing down the imperialists invasion of China.40 Critics argued that the open-​door policy was America’s policy on invading China. Under the banner of “equality of trading opportunity,” America and other imperialist countries scrambled for China. China only wanted to keep an advantageous position and avoid risks in the meantime. It does not hold water to attribute the open-​door policy to the big powers not carving up China.41 These discussions thus provoked an important academic debate in the historical study of Sino-​foreign relations after the reform and opening up, in which many problems concerning historical facts had been clarified through discussion. Though there still existed divergences, views were also formed which were accepted by the majorities on some issues. As for America’s motive for this policy, researchers argued that what the American decision-​makers cared for was the practical and potential interests engendered by the overseas expansion of American monopoly capital. The open-​door policy was a colonial and expanding foreign policy instead of a democratic one. But as for its objective function, many scholars acknowledged that to some extent the open-​door policy had counterbalanced the power of other countries which were carving up China such as Tsarist Russia and Japan. In recent years, some scholars analyzed the popular and the late Qing government’s responses to this policy and indicated that both the bourgeois reformers and revolutionaries, who were

54  HOU Zhongjun and YANG Wanrong the most influential forces among people, were critical of this policy. The Qing government’s attitudes toward the open-​door policy were very complicated. The government saw some hope from this policy and welcomed it to some degree, but also doubted its effect.42 (6)  Sino-​foreign relations before and after the Republican Revolution Though the Qing government had suffered the invasion of the Eight-​Power Allied Forces, it did not blindly make compromises and concessions in signing foreign commercial treaties and dealing with foreign relations. For example, though The Sino-​American Revised Commercial Treaty was an unequal treaty, because of the Qing government’s increasing awareness of national sovereignty, it did not fulfill America’s goal of the open-​door policy in its main aspects and was not completely harmful to China’s interests. Compared with the previous unequal treaties, it even made some improvement in some aspects. As for America’s return of the Boxer Indemnity, some scholars argued that it was not because of the efforts of the Qing government’s envoy (Liang Cheng) in America, nor the result of the 1905 movement boycotting American goods, but because the American government planned to return the indemnity from the very beginning.43 As for the Anti-​Opium Movement during the reforming period of the late Qing government, there were already many studies on this topic. Recent studies gave more attention to Britain’s policy and reactions in responding to the Qing government’s ban on opium-​smoking and the opium trade, and also started to notice the external pressure on this movement. Supported by the opium interest group, British diplomats made an arbitrary attack on the Qing government’s “license tax” aimed at blocking the sale of opium and forced the Qing government to ultimately revoke this.44 Relations between the late Qing government and the Vatican had long been ignored by previous studies. Some scholars noticed that the late Qing government once tried to get in touch with the Vatican to abrogate France’s Protectorate of missions, but this attempt failed because of French opposition.45 As for the study of Sino-​Japanese relations, some scholars proposed the concept of “double diplomacy” emphasizing the bilateral diplomacy by which China, Japan, Europe and America made use of each other.46 2.2.4  Diplomacy in early Republican China (1)  Diplomatic dilemma in early Republican China After the Wuchang uprising, the big powers announced that they would adopt a neutral policy on China. Some scholars argued that this neutrality was not real because they first supported the Qing government and then propped up Yuan Shikai. It was a basic element of the big powers’ China policy to oppose the foundation of a bourgeois republic in China.47 But there were also many

History of Sino-foreign relations  55 scholars arguing that because the big powers’ stakes in China were quite complicated, they basically adopted a neutral policy between the Qing government and the revolutionary army. But between Yuan Shikai and Sun Yat-​ sen, they were obviously inclined to support the former. There were different opinions among the big powers, and even the same country could change its attitude from time to time. On the whole, forces supporting Yuan overcame the forces against him. During the early Republican period, the most noticeable trend was that the big powers, taking advantage of China’s turbulent political situation, conducted a new round of separatist activities in the border area. Russia was the vanguard in this aspect. Though Outer Mongolia did not secede from China completely as Russia wished, the seceding process was started. In recent years, some scholars also pointed out before and after the 1911 Revolution, Russia and Outer Mongolia had great divergence in its secession and independence from China. In order to realize the entirety of its interests, Russia did not expect Outer Mongolia’s formal independence, but instigated Outer Mongolia to secede from China and turn to Russia on the one hand and manipulated Outer Mongolia and China by utilizing the so-​called “suzerainty” on the other.48 There were other scholars who discussed Yuan Shikai government’s way of handling the independence of Outer Mongolia. They held that though the Chinese-​Russian-​Mongolian Agreement enabled Russia to carry out its established policies and made China lose its national sovereignty, after all, this agreement confirmed China’s territorial sovereignty over Outer Mongolia, which can be considered as a kind of breakthrough in the suzerainty theory in power politics.49 Tibet was another important issue for the diplomacy of early Republican China. She Su’s History of the British Invasion of Tibet during the Qing Dynasty (World Affairs Press, 1959), Zhu Zirong’s Imperialist Aggression in Tibet (Tibet People’s Publishing House, 1980), Zhou Weizhou’s A Brief History of Britain and Russia’s Aggression of Tibet (Shaanxi People’s Publishing House, 1984) and Lv Zhaoyi’s British India and Borderland of Southwest China (1774–​ 1991) (China Social Sciences Press, 1996)  all exposed Britain and other big powers’ aggression toward Tibet thoroughly. Scholars pointed out that Britain’s coveting and aggression of Tibet had lasted for a long time. After the 1911 Revolution, Britain speeded up its separatist activities, supported the upper-​class factious Tibetans in driving out the Sichuan army which was garrisoned in Tibet, and impeded the Republican Chinese army’s coming to Tibet to suppress the revolt. The acknowledgment of the government of the Republic of China was an important diplomatic issue after the establishment of the Nationalist Government. Both the Nanjing Provisional Government led by Sun Yat-​sen and the Beijing Government with Yuan Shikai as its president had done a lot to get the big powers’ acknowledgment. Among the major countries at that time, except for America and a few other countries, all the rest threatened to not recognize the Republican government so as to maximize their interests in China. Some scholars have noticed that at least America’s acknowledgment

56  HOU Zhongjun and YANG Wanrong of the Republic of China was mainly based on consideration of ideology rather than economic interests. America’s acknowledgment of the Republic of China was a typical case in which ideal politics defeated practical politics.50 It is certain that Japan had played a dominant role in postponing acknowledgment of the Republic of China. (2)  China’s participation in the First World War The Beijing Government of the Republic of China used to be regarded as a traitorous government, but along with the deepening of research, researchers discovered that China should not deny all its diplomatic activities. As for the reasons of China’s participation in the First World War, researchers jumped out of the perspective of president-​premier disputes and factional disputes, and started to examine the Beijing Government’s decision to participate in the war from the perspective of diplomatic history. Researchers pointed out that, on the whole, by participating in the war, the Beijing Government expected to gain not only the long-​term interests of postwar disposition rights, but also practical interests such as postponing payment of the Boxer Indemnity and increasing tariffs. Taking participation in the war as the bargaining chip, the Beijing Government negotiated with the Allied great powers painfully, and China’s request was partially satisfied. We can say that participating in the First World War marked the important transition of China’s diplomatic policy from a passive policy to a positive one. The Beijing Government’s positive diplomacy during its later period also started from then on.51 Some researchers noticed Morrison’s role in promoting China’s participation in the First World War and pointed out that Morrison did play an important role in promoting China’s participation through various ways such as giving advice to the Chinese government, transmitting messages of China’s participation to the Western big powers and lobbying Japanese senior officials for their approval.52 (3)  China’s diplomacy before and after the Washington Conference Academia mainly touched upon the following three issues: The first issue is about the role of public opinion and media in diplomacy. Some scholars paid special attention to public opinion in Shanghai during the Tariff Conference period and analyzed its impact on diplomacy.53 Some scholars pointed out that before the Washington Conference, the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Yan Huiqing had made use of open diplomatic principles to guide public opinion, which not only ameliorated the passive situation caused by direct negotiation of the Shandong Issue, but also disposed of Japan’s badgering for direct Sino-​Japanese negotiation, and thus enabled the Shandong issue to be submitted to the Washington Conference for discussion.54 Some scholars held that the rising of the Great Revolution reflected that China’s Nationalist Movement was not satisfied with the new international postwar order in the Far East decided by the Washington

History of Sino-foreign relations  57 Conference. China’s Nationalist Revolution had urged America to make important adjustments to its policy in China, which shook the backbone of the Washington System—​the principle of unanimity—​and foreshadowed the disruption of this system.55 The second issue is about domestic professional diplomats’ political factions and the Soviet Union giving up their privileges in China. Some scholars pointed out that the dispute over the Shandong issue at the Washington Conference was not only a diplomatic dispute between China and Japan, but also professional diplomats’ factional disputes while participating in the domestic politics. Though Chinese diplomats openly flaunted their independence and neutrality, they always had no choice but to rely on unconventional social relations and unofficial institutional arrangements to carry forward their diplomatic practices, and even took active part in the factional dispute.56 As for the Soviet Union giving up its privileges in China, some scholars pointed out that the Soviet Union did not intend to renounce them willingly. In the Agreement on General Principles for the Settlement of the Question between the Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics signed in 1924, the so-​called the Soviet Union’s giving up their privileges in China granted by the old treaties would become possible only after the Sino-​Russian conference. However, this conference did not produce any results, and thus the Soviet Union government’s promise ended in nothing.57 The third issue is about resuming the tariff autonomy and extraterritoriality. Some scholars pointed out that though the Washington Conference agreed to convene the tariff meeting and investigate China’s extraterritorial situation, these decisions were not carried out smoothly. In the negotiations over tariff autonomy, Japan insisted on the original thinking model toward China and refused to acknowledge that China had the right to abolish the old unequal treaties, which was not only opposed by the Chinese people, but was also different from Britain and America’s attitudes, and thus made itself fall into isolation.58 Some other scholars also pointed out that Japan’s opposition did not prevent the Tariff Conference from being held. The Beijing Government’s diplomats managed to add tariff autonomy to the topics of the Washington Conference, persuaded the delegates to approve the proposal for tariff autonomy which was not included in the topics for discussion at the Washington Conference, and broke through the 50-​50 tax rate provisions made by the Washington Treaty. Besides trying to gain the right of tariff autonomy, the Beijing Government also put the restoration of extraterritoriality on the agenda. Though the conference on extraterritoriality reflected that the Beijing Government’s diplomacy was a kind of improved “treaty revision” diplomacy, the diplomats’ attempts to withdraw and abolish foreigners’ privileges of extraterritoriality—​which undermined Chinese sovereignty greatly—​was worth mentioning.59 There were also scholars who held that in the Sino-​French negotiations over the Boxer Indemnity, the Beijing Government protected Chinese national interests better than the Nanjing Nationalist Government.60

58  HOU Zhongjun and YANG Wanrong (4)  The introduction of the concept of popular diplomacy (Guo Min Wai Jiao) Some scholars pointed out that the negotiating process for the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Soviet Union in the 1920s was an obvious feature of popular diplomacy. Leo Karakhan also kept in close contact with China’s commonalties and signed agreements with local governments while negotiating with the Beijing Government. These unconventional behaviors accorded with the Chinese people’s radical diplomatic psychology at that time.61 Some other scholars pointed out that the mass movements in the 1920s were not the pure expression of the people’s will but were always manipulated by the opposition forces or the ruling powers who wanted to assist diplomacy by utilizing people’s power.62 But in studying the concrete negotiation terms, some scholars pointed out that the reason why the “Thirteen Demands” became the formal negotiation terms of the Shanghai Incident was not only because the commissioners of the Beijing Government simply carried out the government’s intention of “localizing Shanghai Incident,” but also because the two parties interacted with and complemented each other.63 (5)  Treaty revision diplomacy Research on the treaty revision diplomacy was an important component of the studies on the Beijing Government’s diplomacy. Scholars working on the treaty revision pointed out that freedom from the restraints of the unequal treaties had been a consistent goal of the late Qing government, the Republican Beijing Government and the Nanjing Nationalist Government. During its later period, compromising the merits of treaty revision and abrogation, the Beijing Government developed the feasible strategy of “revising the treaties when they fall due and abrogating them when they expire” and made several successful cases, which became important foundations for the new treaties. The ultimate purpose of treaty revision was still to abrogate them. In 1926, when negotiating with the Belgian and Spanish governments over treaty revision, the Beijing Government flatly claimed abrogating the old Sino-​Belgian and Sino-​Spanish treaties because these two countries refused to make any concessions to China on important issues concerning sovereignty. This way of claiming abrogation of unequal treaties one-​sidedly regardless of the big powers’ opposition was unprecedented in the modern history of China, which demonstrated China’s considerable courage and determination.64 When the Beijing Government negotiated with the big powers over the revision of unequal treaties, the newborn Soviet government made three declarations successively claiming that they would abrogate all unequal treaties signed between China and Tsarist Russia. After the reform and opening up, scholars have studied Soviet Russia’s actions and made some new achievements. Some scholars pointed out that there were two documents

History of Sino-foreign relations  59 concerning Soviet Russia’s first manifesto on China. The former document contained the content about returning the Chinese Eastern Railway to China without any compensation, but the latter one did not. Soviet Union academia has consistently denied the validity of the former document. Chinese scholars argued that according to legal principles and diplomatic conventions, the diplomatic document submitted to the government of the other party should prevail over other versions; what is more, the document giving clear indication of “returning the Chinese Eastern Railway to China without any compensation” was once published by the Department of Eastern Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Soviet Russia. So, the first document undoubtedly stood for the official stance of Soviet Russia. The appearance of different documents reflected the changes of the Soviet government’s attitude toward the issue concerning the Chinese Eastern Railway.65 (6)  Sino-​foreign relations during the Great Revolution period Some scholars held that the Washington Conference proposed a whole set of policies on solving China’s problems, which had a direct causal relationship with China’s national revolution. China’s radical nationalists’ discontent with the policy made at the Washington Conference was one of the main causes for the rise of the Great Revolution.66 Some scholars studied Britain’s China policy and pointed out that at the very beginning, Britain attempted to resist the Northern Expedition by military force. After October 1926, it turned to the conciliatory diplomacy and proposed a “New China policy” in December. After the Wuhan Nationalist Government had taken back the British concessions in Hankou and Jiujiang, Britain sent its troops to Shanghai, and its China policy returned to its old way of “gunboat policy” when dealing with the Nanjing Incident.67 Some other researchers studied Britain’s attitude toward the customs surplus. Under the circumstances that the Southern Revolutionary Government had intercepted the customs surplus, in order to avoid arousing the Southern Revolutionary Government’s revolt against Britain, on the premise of acknowledging the Beijing Government as the only legitimate government of China, the British Foreign Office hoped to get the big powers to force the Beijing Government to reach a compromise with the Southern Revolutionary Government on the customs surplus, but all was in vain because of the opposition from Britain’s ambassadors to China and other big powers.68 Previous studies once held that all the imperialist countries such as Britain, America and Japan took a hostile attitude to the Great Revolution and instigated Chiang Kai-​shek to suppress the CPC. At present, researchers all have realized that this opinion was not right. Some researchers pointed out that during the Nanjing Incident Japan adopted a relatively compromising and muted policy and concentrated on seducing Chiang Kai-​shek into suppressing the CPC, which was different from the policy followed by Britain and America.69 In addition, some other researchers held that America’s policy toward China was different from that of Britain, and argued that America

60  HOU Zhongjun and YANG Wanrong had long since known the fragmented state within the Chinese revolutionary camp, so when the Northern Expedition began, America started to win over Chiang Kai-​shek and induce and force him to suppress the CPC.70 The Ji’nan Incident was another great event in the history of Chinese foreign affairs during the Northern Expedition period. Some researchers held that in handling the Ji’nan Incident Chiang Kai-​shek’s conciliatory diplomacy had a long-​term effect and became the beginning of his conciliatory diplomacy in the following ten years.71 Some other scholars pointed out that the Ji’nan Incident was an important turning point in the development of Sino-​foreign relations. Before this incident, the Kuomintang (KMT) had exerted all its efforts to retain steady working relations with Japan and put its relations with America into the second place. Afterwards, Chiang Kai-​ shek felt Japan’s serious threat to China, so he abandoned the Japan-​centered diplomatic orientation and turned to the establishment of a close relationship with America so as to counterbalance Japan’s invasion.72 There were also researchers analyzing reasons for this massacre from the perspective of big powers’ scrambling in the Far East after the First World War, arguing that it was Japan’s tentative step in getting rid of the system established by the Washington Conference. After this incident, though Britain and America put pressure on Japan, they essentially took a passive attitude, which had no force of constraint on Japan.73 As for the Tanaka Memorial, academia used to believe firmly that it was real, but different opinions had appeared since the mid-​1980s. Collected Works on the “Tanaka Memorial” edited by the Memorial Museum of the Chinese People’s Anti-​Japanese War (Beijing Publishing House, 1993)  collected the representative papers in the discussion about the Tanaka Memorial, most of which maintained that the Tanaka Memorial did exist. Based on the errors concerning several historical facts and its writing format, scholars who doubted this memorial argued that it could never be Prime Minister Tanaka’s authentic work. Besides, they also pointed out the contradictions in the two parties’ memory. Predictably the argument over the authenticity of the Tanaka Memorial will still go on. However, no matter whether the document is real or fake, it will not mitigate the Tanaka cabinet and Japanese militarists’ guilt for their aggression against China.74 2.2.5  Diplomacy during the early period of the Nanjing Nationalist Government (1)  Diplomacy in the early days of the Nanjing Nationalist Government One of the important tasks of the Nationalist Government’s diplomacy in this period was to revise the unequal treaties. However, for a long time, it had been a topic China hardly mentioned. It was not until the 1990s that objective introduction to the diplomatic history of this period was made, which both revealed the Nationalist Government’s diplomatic efforts and pointed out its compromises and limitations. However, there still existed significant

History of Sino-foreign relations  61 differences regarding the evaluation of the treaty revision during this period. Someone argued that most of the actions called “revolutionary diplomacy” by the Nanjing Nationalist Government were actually vacuous slogans and principles. Compared with the Beijing Government, except for withdrawing some privileges which the big powers could not maintain and were willing to give up, the Nationalist Government did not make any better progress in many substantial issues, the root cause of which lay in Chiang Kai-​shek’s tough policies on domestic affairs and weak policies on foreign affairs which had injured the country and the people.75 Some scholars argued that the Nanjing Nationalist Government had tried hard to revise the unequal treaties and made some achievements on some issues like customs sovereignty, settlement courts and the withdrawing of some settlements and leased land, which were of progressive historical significance. Some other scholars also pointed out that the period from the Northeast Flag Replacement to the Mukden Incident was the vigorous and positive period of the Nanjing Nationalist Government’s diplomacy, during which China and foreign countries signed treaties guaranteeing tariff autonomy, which had been the very first in the history of Sino-​foreign negotiations during the 80 years after the Opium War and should be affirmed.76 As for the “Chinese Eastern Railway Incident,” which resulted in the Soviet Union’s invasion of Northeast China, previous studies had always followed the Soviet Union’s opinion and accused the Chinese government of opposing the Soviet Union and the Communist Party. However, after the 1980s, some scholars put forward different opinions holding that the essence and main trend of the Chinese Eastern Railway Incident was that the Chinese government was trying to regain the sovereignty of the country.77 Some scholar believed that the dispute over the Chinese Eastern Railway was caused by many factors such as the contradiction of the Soviet Union and China’s “joint administration” system, the geopolitics, and China’s wrong decisions. However, Japan—​ who was not among the interested parties—​was the only real beneficiary of the Chinese Eastern Railway Incident.78 Some other scholars argued that during this incident, Zhang Xueliang was firmly supported by Chiang Kai-​ shek and the Nanjing Nationalist Government, and Chiang Kai-​shek tried to use diplomatic means to urge the big powers to suppress the Soviet Union, but in vain.79 As for the Soviet Union’s subsequent sale of the Chinese Eastern Railway to the Manchuria puppet government, most scholars held a critical attitude, believing that the Soviet Union broke the norms of international law and violated China’s sovereignty. (2)  The Mukden Incident and the Nanjing Nationalist Government’s diplomacy There were several influential works on the Mukden Incident, such as Yi Xianshi’s History of the Mukden Incident (Liaoning People’s Publishing House, 1981) and Liu Tinghua’s Research on the Mukden Incident (National

62  HOU Zhongjun and YANG Wanrong Defense University of People’s Liberation Army Press, 1986). As for the initiator of the Mukden Incident, most scholars considered it an aggressive event orchestrated by the Japanese Military Headquarters. There were also scholars thinking that the Mukden Incident was initially plotted by some senior officers of the Guandong army, and then was supported by the Japanese Military Headquarters and the Cabinet. Though this conspiracy was plotted by the army, the policy of aggression was formulated by the Cabinet and the Japanese Government did not oppose the army’s war against China. The Mukden Incident was the reflection of the official will of Japan under the imperial institution.80 As for America’s attitude toward the Mukden Incident, some scholars thought that America adopted an appeasement policy conniving with the invaders. The “doctrine of non-​recognition” proposed by America did not mean that they would support China in opposing Japan’s aggression, but meant that they would not allow Japan to seize their rights and interests in China.81 Other scholars thought that America’s “doctrine of non-​recognition” explicitly opposed Japan’s military occupation of China and damage to China’s sovereignty, which was no doubt repression of Japanese aggression. Although its function was limited at that time, it was a kind of futurism, retaining America’s right to interfere in the future under favorable conditions.82 After the September 18th Incident, faced with the growing national crisis, the Nanjing Nationalist Government adopted the policy of “stabilizing the internal situation first and resisting foreign aggression second,” which has been criticized unanimously by academia until now. The only slight change was that there were some new understandings of several specific issues. Some scholars suggested that Chiang Kai-​shek rejected the argument for immediate resistance against Japan on the grounds of stabilizing the internal construction of the interior, and called for long-​term resistance, which made “stabilizing the internal situation first and resisting foreign aggression second” become the KMT’s theory of resisting Japanese aggression. This theory took “stabilizing the internal situation” as a prerequisite for resisting Japan. While focusing on “stabilizing the internal situation,” the KMT also did some preparatory work on “resisting foreign aggression.” Therefore, it should not be equated with the theory of capitulationism.83 Some scholars also held that being beset with troubles internally and externally, the Nanjing Nationalist Government set up the “Special Diplomatic Committee” under the Central Political Council of the KMT as a temporary decision-​making body to deal with diplomatic difficulties. Although much work had been done, it devised no suitable plan to deal with Japan.84 Scholars have undertaken many studies on the issue of re-​establishing Sino-​Soviet diplomatic relations. Some studies were from the perspective of the Nanjing Nationalist Government’s coalition with the Soviet Union to resist Japan, and some were from the perspective of the Nanjing Nationalist Government’s adjustment of Sino-​Soviet relations. There were also studies starting from the perspective of historical figures involved in the negotiations on the re-​establishment of Sino-​Soviet diplomatic relations. In recent

History of Sino-foreign relations  63 years, some scholars also pointed out that the repeated delays in the process of re-​establishing Sino-​Soviet diplomatic relations were caused by both the mistakes made by the Nanjing Nationalist Government in judging the situation and formulating the domestic and foreign policies, and the difficulties in the internal and external environment. During the decision-​making process for re-​establishing diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, originally, the Nanjing Nationalist Government strictly differentiated the boundaries between “re-​establishing diplomatic relations” and “allying with the Soviet Union.” The ultimate reason for its decision to unconditionally re-​establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union was not allying with the Soviet Union to resist Japan but preventing the Soviet Union from supporting Japan, alienating China and acknowledging “Manchukuo.” At the beginning of 1935, Chiang Kai-​shek once tried to guard against the Soviet Union jointly with Japan in exchange for Japan’s improvement of relations with China. Only because the terms set by Japan were too difficult to accept, Chiang Kai-​ shek was eventually forced to ally with the Soviet Union and dared to fight against Japan.85 The Nanjing Nationalist Government gradually allied with the United States and Britain to resist Japan. Some scholars studied the “Sino-​American Cotton and Wheat Loan” in 1933 and the reform of the currency system in 1935 and pointed out the influence of these two events were too far beyond the economic level. The Nanjing Nationalist Government tried to strengthen ties with Europe and the United States through the Cotton and Wheat Loan, and then sought political, financial and technical support to curb the escalating invasion by Japan. Its fiscal and monetary policies marked by currency reform obviously revealed its tendency of breaking away from Japan and swinging to Britain and the United States.86 As for Sino-​German relations, scholars made sufficient study of issues like German military advisers coming to China, the trade between China and Germany, and Germany’s assistance to the development of China’s national defense industry. Scholars held that the German advisers participated in the KMT’s military action of “suppressing the CPC,” as well as the Songhu Anti-​Japanese War and the Anti-​Japanese War along the Great Wall. It also helped the KMT to train the army, carry out military education, and made the modernization of China’s army take a big step forward, which was conducive to China’s following resistance against Japan. This period could be called the “honeymoon era” of Sino-​German relations.87 2.2.6  The anti-​Japanese diplomacy (1)  The Sino-​foreign relations in the early period of the Anti-​Japanese War In the early period of the Anti-​Japanese War, China fought against Japan in isolation. The central task of China’s diplomacy was to strive for the assistance of friendly countries and isolate the enemy. Some scholars pointed out that during this period, the diplomacy of the KMT government was

64  HOU Zhongjun and YANG Wanrong basically successful. China had pushed the United States to amend legislation to restrict trade with Japan, and give financial assistance to China, which meant that US diplomacy had taken the road China had expected. Besides, China also put the ideological disagreement aside, managed to get large-​scale assistance from the Soviet Union, retard the German-​Japanese alliance as far as possible, and obtain a considerable amount of military materials from Germany, which were all wise moves.88 There are great differences in the evaluation of Britain and America’s policies on China during this period. Some scholars thought that appeasement of Japan was the keynote of the Britain and America’s policies in the Far East, and they attempted to compromise with Japan at the expense of China from time to time.89 Some other scholars argued that Britain and America’s policies regarding the Far East were different, and evaluation of them should be different. Generally speaking, both Britain and America’s policies had two tendencies:  one was to compromise with Japan, and the other was to aid China to resist Japan. As time went on, giving aid to China gradually became more mainstream, and there was no “Far East Munich Conspiracy.” Britain and America’s compromise with Japan in the Far East could not be compared with the “Munich Conspiracy” in terms of its motivation, degree and consequences.90 With regard to the evaluation of Sino-​Soviet relations during the War of Resistance against Japan, some scholars put forward that the evaluation of Sino-​Soviet relations during the War of Resistance against Japan should not focus on the ideology and social system only, because the main factors affecting this evaluation were not only the conflict of interests between the two countries, but also the chauvinism of the Soviet Union. Other scholars held that while judging Sino-​Soviet relations in the War of Resistance against Japan, truth must be sought from facts and history respected. Without specific analysis, it was not advisable to ignore all the Soviet Union’s policy on China or overestimate the Nationalist Government’s actions on safeguarding sovereignty. When the interests of the two countries were closely related, or in full agreement, Soviets policy on China would be in line with China’s interests; when contradictions or conflicts arose between these two countries, China’s interests would obviously be jeopardized.91 (2)  Sino-​foreign relations in the later period of the War of Resistance against Japan Some scholars pointed out that in the process of moving toward a big political power, China absolutely did not only play a passive role to be guided and supported by other countries but had its own positive thinking and planning. This thinking began shortly after the outbreak of the Pacific War. China had advance plans and behaved as a big country in terms of both supporting surrounding countries’ anti-​Japanese activities and participating in the discussions on the establishment of an international organization after

History of Sino-foreign relations  65 the Second World War. China was not just a follower of America’s policy, but had made its own contribution to the determination and maintenance of the concept of four big powers and the formulation of several principles of the United Nations.92 Sino-​American relations are the most important bilateral relations during this period. The United States had actively helped China to become a world power and the Sino-​American relations had developed rapidly because China could pin down Japan during the war and could become an important strategic partner after the war as America expected. However, due to the differences in history, culture, tradition, values, systems and strength, cooperation between China and America was also full of friction and conflicts. Joseph Stilwell’s resignation was an important event in Sino-​American relations during the later period of the War. Scholars have studied this event from various perspectives and pointed out that the contradiction between Stilwell and Chiang Kai-​shek was not only a conflict of their characters, but also a reflection of the contradiction between the United States and the KMT.93 Since the beginning of the twenty-​first century, as the Hoover Institute of Stanford University has opened the archives and diaries of the personages of the Republic of China it collected or held in trust, such as Song Ziwen’s archives and Chiang Kai-​shek’s diary, academia has made great progress in the study of the diplomacy of the Republic of China centering around the personages of that time. Based on these new data, some scholars reinterpreted Sino-​American relations in the later period of the Anti-​Japanese War and pointed out that after the outbreak of the Pacific War, Chiang Kai-​shek was seriously dissatisfied with America’s strategic choices in Europe and Asia. Jiang doubted America’s sincerity in supporting China and treated the Cairo Conference passively, and the Stilwell Incident further intensified the contradictions between Chiang Kai-​shek and the United States. These scholars argued that the contradictions and conflicts between China and the United States in the later period of the War of Resistance against Japan were much more serious than had been thought, which eventually led to the gradual loss of mutual trust between China and America.94 Although both Britain and the United States were the allies of China, there were differences between Britain and America’s policies toward China, and the Nationalist Government’s policies toward Britain and the United States were also different. During this period, China and Britain did not improve much in their relations but diverged from each other on some major issues. Britain had a skeptical and negative attitude toward China’s status as a great power, and the Nationalist Government also lacked interest in developing Sino-​British relations. Consequently, the Sino-​British relations had not been greatly improved by becoming allies. China wanted to rely on the United States to restrict Britain, but America’s support for China in Sino-​British conflicts was rather limited.95 As for the Korea issue in Sino-​American relations during the War, some scholars considered it the prelude to the Cold War in East Asia. Because of

66  HOU Zhongjun and YANG Wanrong the different power status, geographical relations and differences in historical and cultural relations with Korea, China and the United States could not agree on the settlement of the postwar Korea. The United States did not want to exclude the Soviet Union from the Korea issue so as not to influence the model of “four big powers” proposed by President Roosevelt, which left the Korea issue to be determined by the military posture of the United States and the Soviet Union after the Pacific War and foreshadowed the future Cold War.96 2.2.7  Sino-​foreign relations during the period of the War of Liberation (1)  The Nanjing Nationalist Government’s policy toward the United States Some scholars pointed out that Chiang Kai-​shek had a basic assumption and belief in formulating postwar policy toward the United States, that is, the United States would unconditionally support his Nationalist Government, which was the spiritual pillar of his starting and continuing the Civil War. However, Chiang Kai-​shek overestimated both the role of China governed by him in America’s global strategy and America’s determination to help him. The relationship between America and Chiang Kai-​shek was only one of mutual need and utilization, but in reality, there were contradictions that could not be bridged because of their different interests, goals and choices of path.97 (2)  America’s policy toward China Some scholars held that the United States wished there would be a unified and pro-​American China in the postwar Asia Pacific region. Therefore, George Marshall was sent on a diplomatic mission to China. The blueprint that Marshall envisaged was that the CPC should hand over the army and the KMT should give up some power as well, thus integrating the CPC into the coalition government dominated by the KMT. This policy could be summed up as the policy of “supporting Chiang Kai-​shek and dissolving the CPC.”98 Some other scholars then pointed out that Marshall’s going back for consultations in March 1946 could be considered as a turning point. Before this point, Marshall’s mediation was generally fair, and had achieved some positive results. However, from then on, Marshall became more and more partial to the KMT. As for the reasons for Marshall’s failure in mediation, besides the internal contradictions of America’s policies, it was also because there were contradictions between America’s policy and China’s reality which meant that America’s policy would be inevitably unfair.99 Some scholars pointed out that after Marshall had left China, the United States experienced a “wait-​and-​ see” period, and then began to publicly support Chiang Kai-​shek to start the Civil War. But there were also internal disagreements concerning the way and degree of support given to Chiang Kai-​shek. As Truman proposed the China

History of Sino-foreign relations  67 Aid Act to Congress, the public debate between the executive authorities and the pro-​Jiang clique in Congress reached a climax. Finally, these two sides reached a compromise, and Congress passed the China Aid Act of 1948, which was closer to the government’s stance of supporting Chiang Kai-​shek with limitations.100 There were also scholars thinking that from the autumn and winter of 1948, the American government had begun to consider the problem of withdrawing and repeatedly rejected the request of the Nanjing Nationalist Government for the expansion of aid. After Dean Acheson took over as the Secretary of State in January 1949, trying to get rid of the Nanjing Nationalist Government was one of the main options of America’s policy toward China. However, the resistance of all parties kept it from being put into practice in time, leading to America being mired down and unable to extricate itself.101 Concerning Wedemeyer’s diplomatic mission to China and the shift in America’s China policy, some scholars pointed out that Wedemeyer had tried his best in the investigation and had collected extensive data, but his investigation did not find out a realistic way for America’s China policy, and its result was the establishment of the policy of supporting Chiang Kai-​shek conditionally, which made the United States get caught in a dilemma between interfering in China’s Civil War and avoiding getting involved in China’s internal affairs.102 As for the issue of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) sending spies to sneak into Tibet, some scholars examined Douglas Mackiernan and Frank Bessac’s secret expedition to Tibet, and verified the fact that the United States had attempted to instigate the separatist forces of Tibet to confront New China.103 As for the intelligence work in China carried out by American intelligence agencies during the Civil War, some scholars held that although there were many problems affecting its accuracy and coverage, it was objective and credible in general, and still had some reference value for America’s policy making.104 (3)  The Soviet Union’s policy toward China In the early postwar period, the Soviet Union expressed its support for the KMT unifying China but did not conscientiously fulfill its commitments. Some scholars thought that Marshall’s mediation was closely related to the change in the Soviet Union’s policy. During Marshall’s mediation, the Soviet Union’s China policy had changed from supporting the Nanjing Nationalist Government to supporting China’s revolution conditionally.105 Other scholars pointed out that until the Crossing-​ the-​ Yangtze-​ River Battle, the Soviet Union had sit on the fence and made preparations for developing relations with both the KMT government and the CPC government.106 There were scholars holding that at the beginning of 1949, Stalin sent Mikoyan to China to dissuade the CPC from crossing the Yangtze River,107 but some scholars thought it was just a tale. From the telegrams between Stalin and Mao Zedong on the negotiations between the KMT and the CPC in January 1949 disclosed by Russia in 1994, it is evident that Stalin’s basic stance was to disapprove of

68  HOU Zhongjun and YANG Wanrong the peace talks and exhort the CPC not to stop the military action. Stalin’s so-​called advocacy of “the KMT and the CPC’s dividing China along the Yangtze River” could not hold water.108 As for the seemingly strange phenomenon of the Soviet Embassy’s following the Nationalist Government to move from Nanjing to Guangzhou on the eve of the founding of New China, some scholars thought that this was the inevitable result of the dual China policy historically adopted by the Soviet Union. It was neither the Soviet Union’s mistake in the judgment of the Chinese revolutionary process nor its adherence to the policy of non-​interference in the internal affairs of China.109 2.2.8  Related monographic historical studies (1)  Research on the history of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Macau Special Administrative Region. The study of the history of the Hong Kong SAR had not been given enough attention by the mainland scholars for a long time. At the beginning of the 1980s, the Chinese government stated the stance on regaining sovereignty over the Hong Kong SAR, which provided an opportunity for the development of Hong Kong SAR history studies. In the early 1990s, a number of important achievements were published, such as Hong Kong SAR in the 19th Century edited by Yu Shengwu and Liu Cunkuan (Unicorn Books Limited and Zhonghua Book Company, 1994), Hong Kong SAR in the 20th Century edited by Yu Shengwu and Liu Shuyong (Unicorn Books Limited and Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, 1995), A Brief History of Hong Kong SAR edited by Liu Shuyong (Hong Kong SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1998) and Liu Cunkuan’s A Collection of Essays on the History of Hong Kong SAR (Unicorn Books Limited, 1998). These works had proved the unequal nature of the three unequal treaties on ceding and leasing the Hong Kong SAR with a large number of historical facts and pointed out that these treaties were imposed on China by force and were barbarous violations of China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, which fundamentally violated the principles of international law, and thus had no legal effect. At the same time, they also fully affirmed the great contribution made by the Chinese people in the Hong Kong SAR to its social development and truthfully revealed the development of the social system of the Hong Kong SAR, the relationship between the Hong Kong SAR and the mainland, and the diplomatic negotiations between China and Britain. The study of the history of the Macau SAR did not develop much until the 1980s. Related works published successively mainly included Fei Chengkang’s Four Hundred Years of Macau (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1988), Huang Hongzhao’s A Compendium of Macau SAR History (Fujian People’ s Publishing House, 1990), and the special issue on Macau SAR (the 2nd issue) of China’s Borderland History and Geography Studies in 1999. The academic circles have basically agreed on the historical fact that though Portuguese

History of Sino-foreign relations  69 unjustly occupied the Macau SAR before 1887, the Chinese government still retained its sovereignty over the Macau SAR. However, there were different views on the status of the Macau SAR after 1887. Some scholars held that the Macau SAR had become a colony and China had lost its sovereignty over the Macau SAR after 1887. Some scholars thought that the Macau SAR had been Portugal’s “permanent” quasi-​colony.110 Some scholars held that although Portugal had gained permanent residency and right of administration in the Macau SAR, it still recognized the Macau SAR as Chinese territory, indicating that the Macau SAR’s sovereignty still belonged to China, and the Macau SAR was only a special Chinese territory managed by the Portuguese. Some scholars pointed out that since 1887, successive Chinese governments had launched struggles to regain sovereignty over the Macau SAR.111 Some scholars explored the relationship between Robert Hart and the issue concerning the “Macau SAR’s territory” and the “Macau SAR’s status,” pointing out that this was the true portrayal of Hart sacrificing China’s national rights and interests to expand his power and protect the rights and interests of Britain and other big powers in China.112 (2)  Research on the history of concessions In the late 1980s, a number of research works on the history of concessions came out, among which the more influential ones included Yuan Jicheng’s History of Concessions in Modern China (Chinese Financial and Economic Publishing House, 1988), Fei Chengkang’s History of Concessions in China (Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press, 1991), Zhang Hongxiang’s Treaty Ports and Concessions in Modern China (Tianjin People’s Publishing House, 1993), and Shang Keqiang and Liu Haiyan’s Social Research on the Concessions in Tianjin (Tianjin People’s Publishing House, 1996). These works had made thorough studies of the land, laws, administrative systems, social life and culture of the concessions, discussed the process and objective influence of the formation and development of modern China’s treaty ports, concessions and leaseholds, and introduced the historical process of China reclaiming the concessions and leaseholds. The most controversial issue in the historical study of concessions was the evaluation of the historical role of concessions. Some scholars thought that the concessions were the strongholds of imperialist aggression against China, and their establishment had deepened China’s semi-​colonization.113 Some scholars held that the impact of the concessions on Chinese society was multifaceted. On the one hand, they were “states within a state” that violated China’s sovereignty; on the other hand, they had a demonstrative effect for the construction and management of Chinese cities because of their modern municipal construction and management. So, they were not only the bridgeheads for colonialists’ invasion of China, but also “enclaves” of the capitalist world in China, which had exerted both motive force and resistance force on the historical movements in modern China.114

70  HOU Zhongjun and YANG Wanrong (3)  The missioners’ activities and functions Before the 1980s, missionary activities in China were basically regarded as a kind of religious and cultural aggression. Gu Changsheng’s Missioners and Modern China (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1981) was a pioneering comprehensive work on the study of missionaries in mainland of China, but still failed to transcend the mode of cultural aggression. In his From Morrison to Leighton Stuart published in 1985, Gu had made some changes and made positive evaluations of the missioners who acted as bridges in the cultural exchanges between China and the West. Gu Weimin’s Christianity and Modern Chinese Society (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1996) and Wang Lixin’s American Missioners and the Modernization of the Late Qing Dynasty (Tianjin People’s Publishing, 1997) were two influential comprehensive works on the discussion of the missioners’ activities in China. With regard to the historical role of the missioners, most scholars thought that the missioners were both members of the Western colonial power and the disseminators of the Western culture. Both the absolute affirmation and negation of their activities were one-​sided. Although the dissemination of Western learning was not the original intention of their coming to China, they did introduce Western scientific knowledge and technology to China, which had played an objective role in promoting China’s education, medicine, journalism and publishing.115 Some other scholars thought that the missioners’ knowledge level, religious and racial prejudice and utilitarian objectives had limited their vision, reduced the progressiveness, scientificity and value of their activities, and even misled China’s modernization.

2.3  Some reflections In the past 70  years, research on the history of Sino-​foreign relations in modern times has made remarkable achievements, but there are still some problems. To further advance the historical study of Sino-​foreign relations in modern times, we need a broader vision, a more macroscopic thinking and a more rigorous style of research. The first thing we need is a broader vision. While invading China, the imperialist powers also brought the capitalist mode of production and bourgeois political theories, and thus injected new factors into the reform of traditional Chinese society. The history of Sino-​foreign relations in modern times should be examined from different perspectives, and existing studies mainly focused on two perspectives: the first perspective is national sovereignty and national status from which researchers studied how the big powers’ aggression turned China into a semi-​colony step by step and how the Chinese people revolted and struggled, and finally brought about national independence and rejuvenation; the second perspective is the social development from which scholars studied the process of Chinese people’s recognizing and learning from the West from recognizing the military power of Western countries to

History of Sino-foreign relations  71 establishing modern industry, from accepting Western scientific knowledge to accepting Western political ideas, and then carrying out the national revolution and social revolution. These two different perspectives often led to unnecessary arguments. However, it is not advisable to impose a unified view based on one standard, because these two seemingly contradictory aspects constitute the unity of the development of Sino-​foreign relations. Only by examining the development of history from these two aspects can we fully explain the content of the history of Sino-​foreign relations in modern times. Broad vision is also necessary for studying every specific issue. Modern China was the biggest stage for the great powers to converge in the East (in other Asian countries, there was usually a dominant power exerting major influence), and the relations were complicated. As far as the Sino-​US relations are concerned, the study of America’s diplomacy toward China in the nineteenth century could not ignore Britain. The study of America’s diplomacy toward China during the period from the early Republic of China to the mid-​ 1940s could not ignore Japan, and the study of America’s diplomacy toward China in the middle and late 1940s could not ignore the Soviet Union, because these countries had influenced the direction and extent of America’s China policy. Some scholars engaged in the study of bilateral relations have often ignored the influence of multilateral relations. For example, in the discussion of several issues concerning America’s China policy in the late 1940s, some scholars had ignored the great influence of US-​Soviet relations on America’s decisions at that time, thus affecting the depth and accuracy of their research findings. Second, a more macroscopic thinking is needed. Up to now, the history of Sino-​foreign relations has made considerable progress in the microscopic research of some important events, but it is far from enough in macroscopic observation. For example, the description of the development clues of modern Sino-​foreign relations has always been based on the clues and stages of the development of the history of the revolution but ignored the special nature of the relations between China and foreign countries. Research on the evolution of modern Chinese people’s view of the nation and the world, the evolution of diplomatic thought and diplomatic strategies in modern China, as well as the groups of diplomats are also very weak. There has been no monograph on the history of the development of diplomatic thought, and related articles are also rare. So, we cannot say that the historical study of Sino-​foreign relations has become a complete discipline. Without a macro perspective, historical narration will lose its continuity. Most of the comments on specific events are isolated from the historical context and rarely explore their meaning of existence, developmental nature or turning point from historical perspectives. For example, as for the efforts of successive governments of the Republic of China to revise the unequal treaties, we will deviate from the principle of exploring issues historically if we do not consider how weak China had made difficult progress step by step in the face of strong resistance and do not make longitudinal comparisons,

72  HOU Zhongjun and YANG Wanrong but only accuse their lack of courage to revoke the treaties completely. Lenin once said: “we should not judge the historical activists’ achievements by the things they did not offer but required by the current times, but by the new things they offered.”116 Third, a more rigorous style of research is needed. One of the basic premises for academic research is to comprehend the existing research findings of a specific topic thoroughly and clarify the related previous studies carefully.117 Only in this way can we carry out research in a deep way. However, it has been a common phenomenon that researchers were unwilling to conduct thorough and detailed searches and thus ignored previous studies. Consequently, there have appeared a lot of repetitive studies and even low-​level repetitions, which have cost a lot of effort, but were useless. A rigorous style of research also requires researchers to avoid being over emotional in research. China had been humiliated as soon as it entered modern society, which has caused a bitter hatred for the aggression of the big powers and the governments’ compromise in Old China, so that scholars were liable to be over-​critical in their studies. When it comes to the relationship between rulers’ foreign negotiations, compromise and capitulation, scholars often regarded negotiations as a synonym for compromise or even capitulation. For example, Xu Jishe, like Lin Zexu, also advocated seeing the world open-​mindedly and wanted to expel the British from the city during the Shen Guang Temple Event. However, Xu’s solution was different from Lin’s, and was thus regarded by some scholars as the capitulator, which was obviously unfair. In the studies on the history of Sino-​foreign relations, the development of various specialized fields has also been unbalanced. In terms of countries, except for several big countries such as the United States, Japan, Russia (the Soviet Union) and Britain, research on bilateral relations between China and other countries, including France, has been very weak. In terms of categories, research on the economic and cultural relations between China and foreign countries has made some advancement in recent years, but is still relatively weak. In order to promote research on the history of Sino-​foreign relations, we need to make great efforts to open up and develop new research fields, put forward and explore new topics besides further deepening the research on well-​explored topics. Only if we make significant progress in this respect could the research on the history of Sino-​foreign relations truly become a systematic, scientific and comprehensive discipline.

Notes 1 This chapter is based on a chapter entitled “History of Sino-​Foreign Relations” from the book Modern Chinese History Studies over the Past Fifty Years. We would like to express our sincere thanks to the original authors—​researchers Wang Jianlang and Li Yongqing. 2 Zhang Qixiong. (2007). Conflicts between the Eastern and the Western Principles of International Order—​ Negotiation on the Status of Diplomatic Relations

History of Sino-foreign relations  73 between China and Thailand during the Late Qing and Early Republic Period. Historical Research (1). 3 Ji Qiufeng. (2001). Courses of China’s Joining the Modern International System. Journal of Nanjing University (6); Tian Tao. (2001). The Import of International Law and Late Qing China. Ji’nan Publishing House. 4 Li Zhaoxiang. (2008). Research on the Diplomatic Transformation of Modern China. China Social Sciences Press. 5 Wang Yuanzhou. (2007). Understanding the Other and Self-​Observation: Modern Chinese People’s Perception of Korea. Modern Chinese History Studies (2). 6 Li Yumin. (2004). On the Qing Government’s Policy of Abiding by the Treaties and Its Changes. Modern Chinese History Studies (2). 7 Zhang Zhenkun. (1993). On Unequal Treaties—​ Analysis of Collection of Old Treaties between China and Foreign Countries. Modern Chinese History Studies (2). 8 Hou Zhongjun. (2009). Discussion on the Number and Criteria of Unequal Treaties in Modern China. Historical Research (2). 9 Wu Yixiong. (2006). Britain’s Preparation for and Attempts at Its Extraterritoriality in China before the Opium War. Historical Research (4). 10 Li Yumin. (2009). The Late Qing Government’s Plan and Efforts to Improve and Retake Consular Jurisdiction. Modern Chinese History Studies (1). 11 Tang Qihua. (2006). “Sino-​Russian Agreement” of 1924 and the Abrogation of Old Treaties—​A Discussion Centered on the “Confidential Protocol.” Modern Chinese History Studies (3). 12 Liu Cunkuan. (1998). On the Double Motives of Britain’s Warring on China. Modern Chinese History Studies (4). 13 Wu Yixiong. (2004). Guangzhou Aliens’ General Chamber of Commerce and Negotiations between China and Britain on the Eve of the Opium War. Modern Chinese History Studies (2); Wu Yixiong. (2009). Western People in China and the Formation of Public Opinion of Warring on China before the Opium War. Modern Chinese History Studies (2). 14 Li Yongqing. (1985). Some New Understandings of Ban on Opium-​Smoking and the Opium Trade. Historical Archives (3); Lin Dunkui and Kong Xiangji. (1986). New Investigation into the Internal Struggles among the Ruling Classes before the Opium War. Modern Chinese History Studies (3). 15 Li Yongqing. (1990). Looking at the Qing Government’s Foreign Policies during the Opium War from the Archives. Historical Research (2); Mao Haijian. (2005). The Collapse of the Celestial Empire (Chapter 3). SDX Joint Publishing Company. 16 Wu Yixiong. (2002). Restudy of the Opium Trade before the Opium War. Modern Chinese History Studies (2); Wu Yixiong. (2007). Power and System—​Charles Elliot and Sino-​British Relations 1834–​1839. Historical Research (1). 17 Ge Fuping. (1997). France and the Second Opium War. Modern Chinese History Studies (1). 18 Chen Kaike. (2009). Qiying and Sino-​Russian Negotiation during the Second Opium War. Modern Chinese History Studies (4). 19 Wang Licheng. (2001). Britain and Establishment of Rule by Law in the Sino-​ Foreign Trade. Historical Research (2). 20 Chen Xinwen. (2003). Research on the “Block of Hong Kong” (1868–​1886). Modern Chinese History Studies (1).

74  HOU Zhongjun and YANG Wanrong 21 Zhang Zhenkun. (1993). On the Unequal Treaties—​Analysis of Collection of Old Treaties between China and Foreign Countries. Modern Chinese History Studies (2). 22 Mao Haijian. (2005). The Collapse of the Celestial Empire (Chapter 7). SDX Joint Publishing Company; Guo Weidong. (1997). Another Kind of Reason for the Loss of Rights and Interests in Modern China—​On the Establishing Process of Consular Jurisdiction in China. Modern Chinese History Studies (2); Guo Weidong (1996). Establishment of Unilateral Most-​Favored-​Nation Treatment in Modern China. Modern Chinese History Studies (1). 23 Dai Dongyang. (2007). Li Shuchang’s Strategy of Ryukyu Before and After the December Incident of 1884. Historical Research (2). 24 Chen Zaizheng. (1994). Analysis of the “Sino-​Japanese Peking Treaty” of 1874. In:  Association of Chinese Historians and National Society of Taiwan Studies (Eds.). Collected Works of Studies on Taiwan History. Huayi Press. 25 Dai Dongyang. (2009). China’s Diplomatic Mission to Japan and Kim Ok-​gyun—​ On the Relationship between Kim Ok-​gyun’s Assassination and the Breakout of the Sino-​Japanese War. Modern Chinese History Studies (4). 26 Guo Haiyan. (2008). Looking at Sino-​Japanese Relations from the Perspective of Korea’s Telecommunication Lines. Modern Chinese History Studies (1). 27 Mi Qingyu. (1985). The Origin of Modern Japan’s Continental Policy and Its Features during the Formation Period. In: Japanese History Association of China (Ed.). Collected Works on Japanese History. Liaoning People’s Publishing House. 28 Wang Jianlang. (2002). New Horizons in the Study of Modern History of Sino-​ Foreign Relations—​ Review of “Looking at the Sino-​ Japanese War from the Perspective of International Law.” Journal of Studies of China’s Resistance War Against Japan (2). 29 Dai Dongyang. (2009). China’s Diplomatic Mission to Japan and Kim Ok-​gyun—​ On the Relationship between Kim Ok-​gyun’s Assassination and the Breakout of the Sino-​Japanese War. Modern Chinese History Studies (4). 30 Qiu Tao and Zheng Kuangmin. (2010). Sino-​Japanese Alliance Activities before the Hundred Days’ Reform. Modern Chinese History Studies (1). 31 Sang Bing. (2006). Societies for Rejuvenating Asia’ and Sino-​ Japanese Nongovernmental Alliance from 1898 to 1900. Modern Chinese History Studies (3). 32 Mao Haijian and Zheng Kuangmin. (2004). Japanese Government’s Observation of and Response to the Wu Hsu Reform. Historical Research (3). 33 Tan Guangguang and Feng Li. (1987). Reflection on the Research Method of Modern Chinese Missionary Cases. In:  Federation of Philosophy and Social Sciences of Sichuan Province et  al. (Eds.). Research on the Missionary Cases of Modern China. Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences Press; Wu Jinzhong. (1987). A  Review of Research on the History of Modern Chinese Missionary Cases. In:  Federation of Philosophy and Social Sciences of Sichuan Province, et  al. (Eds.). Research on the Missionary Cases of Modern China. Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences Press. 34 Mou Anshi. (1985). Chinese People’s Struggle against Foreign Churches’ Invasion and Main Clues to Modern Chinese History. Social Science Research (4); Mou Anshi. (1990). Re-​analysis of Chinese People’s Struggle against Foreign Churches’ Invasion and Main Clues to Modern Chinese History. Modern Chinese History Studies (2).

History of Sino-foreign relations  75 35 Li Shiyue. (1985). On the Nature and Other Issues of Anti-​ Christianity Movements. Modern Chinese History Studies (5); Tan Guangguang and Feng Li. (1987). Reflection on the Research Method of Modern Chinese Missionary Cases. In: Federation of Philosophy and Social Sciences of Sichuan Province et al. (Eds.). Research on the Missionary Cases of Modern China. Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences Press. 36 Wang Zhizhong. (1979). Feudalistic Obscurantism and the Boxer Uprising. Historical Research (1); Zhang Yutian. (1979). The Boxer Uprising Should be Studied Comprehensively. Journal of Liaoning University (1). 37 Zhu Dongan, Zhang Haipeng and Liu Jianyi. (1981). How Should We Look at the Boxers’ Exclusivism? Modern Chinese History Studies (2); Chen Zhenjiang. (1981). Analysis of Several Problems Concerning the Boxer Uprising. Modern Chinese History Studies (1). 38 Ding Mingnan. (1985). Several Problems in the Appraisal of the Boxer Uprising. In: Lu Yao (Ed.). The Boxer Uprising. Bashu Publishing House; Li Kan. (1980). On the Appraisal of the Boxer Uprising. People’s Daily, April 10, 1980. 39 Zhang Zhenkun. (1982). Several Problems in the History of Sino-​ Foreign Relations during the Last 10 Years of the Qing Dynasty. Modern Chinese History Studies (2). 40 Wang Xi. (1979). On Several Problems in the History of Sino-​American Relations. World History (3). 41 Ding Mingnan and Zhang Zhenkun. (1979). Research on the History of Sino-​ American Relations: Forward or Backward? Modern Chinese History Studies (2); Ding Mingnan. (1986). Historical Review of America’s Open-​Door Policy on China. Archives and History (1). 42 Zhang Xiaolu. (1998). China’s Reaction to the Open-​Door Policy. Social Science Front (2). 43 Cui Zhihai. (2005). On the Sino-​American Revised Commercial Treaties of 1903. Modern Chinese History Studies (5); Cui Zhihai. (2004). On the Several Issues about America’s First Partial Return of the Boxer Indemnity. Modern Chinese History Studies (1). 44 Wang Hongbin. (2003). The Anti-​Opium Movement of Guangdong in Late Qing and the Sino-​British Diplomatic Disputes. Modern Chinese History Studies (6). 45 Yang Dachun. (2000). History of Diplomacy between the Late Qing Government and the Vatican. Journal of Historical Science (1). 46 Yu Xintun. (2000). History of the Sino-​Japanese Diplomacy during the Republican Revolution Period. Tianjin People’s Publishing House. 47 Qing Simei. (1983). On the Big Powers’ China Policy during the 1911 Revolution. In:  Proceedings of the Symposium Commemorating the 70th Anniversary of Republican Revolution (Vol. 2). Zhonghua Book Company. 48 Liu Cunkuan. (2004). Sino-​Russian Relations and Outer Mongolia’s Secession from China. Historical Research (4). 49 Zhu Zhaohua. (2009). Yuan Shikai Government’s Response to Outer Mongolia’s Independence. Journal of Historical Science (6). 50 Wang Jianlang. (2005). Restudy of Beijing Government’s Participation of the First World War. Modern Chinese History Studies (4). 51 Ibid. 52 Cai Shuangquan. (2009). On Morrison’s Role in Promoting China’s Participation in the First World War. Republican Archives (2).

76  HOU Zhongjun and YANG Wanrong 53 Yang Honglin. (2005). Entanglement between the Government and the Public—​A Case Study on the Special Meeting on Tariff. Journal of Historical Science (12). 54 Ma Jianbiao. (2008). Rumors and Diplomacy: On the Direct Negotiation over the Shandong Issue before the Conference of Washington. Historical Research (4). 55 Wang Lixin. (2001). The Washington System and China’s Nationalist Revolution: A New Analysis of Sino-​American Relations in the 1920s. Historical Research (3). 56 Chen Yan. (2005). Diplomacy, Foreign Loans and Cliques—​ A Look at the Beijing Government’s Diplomatic Operation in the Early 1920s from the “Dispute between Liang Huiqing and Liang Shiyi.” Modern Chinese History Studies (1). 57 Tang Qihua. (2007). A  Study of the Sino-​ Russian Conferences (1924–​ 1927). Modern Chinese History Studies (4). 58 Wang Jianlang. (2002). Japan and the Revolutionary Diplomacy of Nationalist Government:  An Investigation of the Negotiations on Tariff. Historical Research (6). 59 Yang Tianhong. (2007). Beiyang Government’s Foreign Policy and the Breakthrough in the Provisions Determined at the Washington Conference: Sorting out the Facts and Analyzing the Issues for the Tariff Conference. Historical Research (5); Yang Tianhong. (2005). The Beiyang Government’s Foreign Policy and the Abolition of Extraterritoriality:  A Historical Exploration Based on the Extraterritoriality Conference. Modern Chinese History Studies (4). 60 Ge Fuping. (2005). The Issue of Passive Bonds in the Sino-​French Dispute over Indemnities for the 1900 War. Modern Chinese History Studies (2). 61 He Yanyan. Negotiations on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between China and the Soviet Union (1923–​1924). Modern Chinese History Studies (4). 62 Feng Xiaocai. (2009). Negotiations on the Shanghai Incident, the May Thirtieth Movement, and the Duan Qirui Government in 1925. Historical Research (1). 63 Zhou Bin. (2009). Re-​discussion on the Proposition of the “Thirteen Demands” in the Negotiation over the May 30th Massacre. Modern Chinese History Studies (4). 64 Wang Jianlang. (1997). Investigation into the History of China’s Abrogation of Unequal Treaties. Historical Research (5); Xi Wuyi. (1986). On the Abrogation of Sino-​Belgian Unequal Treaties. Modern Chinese History Studies (2). 65 Fang Ming. (1980). On Soviet Russia’s Two Manifestos on China and Abrogation of Sino-​Russian Unequal Treaties. Historical Research (6); Xue Xiantian. (1991). On the Changes of the Soviet Russia’s First Manifesto on China. Social Science Front (3). 66 Xu Yijun. (1982). On the Nationalist Government’s Anti-​Imperialism Diplomatic Strategies during the Period of Guangzhou and Wuhan Government. Modern Chinese History Studies (3). 67 Ding Ning. (1989). Britain’s China Policy during the Great Revolution Period. Modern Chinese History Studies (1). 68 Zhang Junyi. (2007). The Incident of the Southern Government’s Interception of the Customs Surplus and Britain’s Response. Historical Research (1). 69 Shen Yu. (1984). Re-​ analysis of the Relationship between the April 4th Counterrevolutionary Coup and Imperialism. Historical Research (4); Shen Yu. (1984). On Shidehara Diplomacy’s Damage to China’s Great Revolution. In: Collected Works on the History of Sino-​Japanese Relations. Heilongjiang People’s Publishing House. 70 Niu Dayong. (1985). On the Relationship between America’s China Policy and the April 4th Counterrevolutionary Coup. Historical Research (4); Niu Dayong.

History of Sino-foreign relations  77 (1986). America’s Policy of Differentiation during the Northern Expedition and the Formation of America-​Jiang Jieshi Relation. Modern Chinese History Studies (6). 71 Yang Tianshi. (1981). Negotiations over the Ji’nan Incident and the Beginning of Jiang Jieshi’s Compromise with Japan. Modern Chinese History Studies (1). 72 Luo Zhitian. (1996). Ji’nan Incident and the Turn of Sino-​American Relations. Historical Research (2). 73 Shen Xiaoyun. (2001). Ji’nan Incident—​Japan’s Attempt to Challenge the System Established by the Conference of Washington before the Mukden Incident. Jiangsu Social Sciences (6). 74 Memorial Museum of the Chinese People’s Anti-​Japanese War (Eds.) (1993). Collected Works on the “Tanaka Memorial.” Beijing Publishing House. 75 Shen Xiaoyun. (1997). Commentary on Nanjing Nationalist Government’s Negotiations on “Abolishing the Unequal Treaties”—​Also on Wang Zhengting’s Revolutionary Diplomacy. Modern Chinese History Studies (3). 76 Ju Yiming. (1997). Analysis of Nanjing Nationalist Government’s Early Diplomatic Policies. Republican Archives (1). Cheng Daode. (1993). Successive Governments’ Negotiations’ on Tariff Autonomy of Republic of China. In:  Cheng Daode. Modern Chinese Diplomatic History and International Law, Modern Press. 77 Feng Guomin. (2009). Comment on the “Chinese Eastern Railway Incident.” World History (6). 78 Liu Xianzhong. (2009). Several Issues Concerning the Study of the Chinese Eastern Railway Incident. Historical Research (6). 79 Yang Kuisong. (2005). Jiang Jieshi and Zhang Xueliang and the Negotiations on the Eastern Railway Incident. Modern Chinese History Studies (1). 80 Lang Weicheng. (1985). The Japanese Military Headquarters, Cabinet and the Mukden Incident. World History (2). 81 Hu Dekun. (1979). The Mukden Incident and the Appeasement Policy. Journal of Wuhan University (3); Wang Mingzhong. (1983). The “Manchuria Crisis” and Stimson’s Doctrine of Non-​recognition. SDX Joint Publishing Company; Wang Mingzhong. (1983). Collected Papers on the History of America. SDX Joint Publishing Company. 82 Tao Wenzhao. (1985). History of Sino-​American Relations (Chapter  4). China Social Sciences Press; Yi Xianshi. On the America’s Attitude towards the Mukden Incident. In:  Collected Papers on Sino-​ American Relations. Fudan University Press. 83 Chen Xianchu. (1992). From “Stabilizing the Internal Situation First and Resisting Foreign Aggression Second” to “the KMT and CPC’s Joint Resistance against Japan”—​Review of the Nationalist Government’s Domestic and Foreign Policies during the Period of Regional War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. Journal of Studies of China’s Resistance War Against Japan (2). 84 Zuo Shuangwen. (2003). The Special Diplomatic Committee Set up by the Nanjing Nationalist Government after the September 18th Incident. Modern Chinese History Studies (1). 85 Lu Xujun. (2001). The Decision-​Making Process of China’s Re-​Establishment Diplomatic Relations with the Soviet Union in 1932. Modern Chinese History Studies (1); Lu Xijun. (2009). Jiang Jieshi and the Turn in the Sino-​Soviet and Sino-​Japanese Relations in 1935. Modern Chinese History Studies (3).

78  HOU Zhongjun and YANG Wanrong 86 Zheng Huixin. (1988). The Sino-​American Cotton and Wheat Loan in 1933. Historical Research (5); Wu Jingping. (1988). Britain and China’s Reform of the Currency System in 1935. Historical Research (6). 87 Ma Zhendu and Qi Rugao. (2012). Chiang Kai-​shek and Hitler—​the Sino-​German Relation during the Republican Period (Chapter 4). Jiuzhou Press. 88 Zhang Baijia. (1988). On the Nationalist Government’s US Policy in the Early Period of the Anti-​ Japanese War. Collected Papers on the History of Sino-​ American Relations (Vol. 2). Chongqing Publishing Group; Zhang Baijia. (1987). On the KMT and CPC’s US Policy During the Period of the Anti-​Japanese War. Historical Research (3); Wang Jianlang. (1995). On the Nationalist Government’s Diplomacy before the Second World War. Historical Research (4). 89 Liu Tianchun. (1985). “The Far East Munich Conspiracy” and Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. Journal of Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (4). 90 Wang Side, Li Julian. On America’s Far East Strategy and Its Evolution before the Pacific War. Collected Papers on Sino-​American Relations (Vol. 1); Wang Jianlang. (1996). What Exactly Happened at the Pacific Conference?—​An Investigation into the Far East Munich Conspiracy. Journal of Studies of China’s Resistance War Against Japan (3). 91 Sun Caishun. (2001). How to Evaluate Sino-​Soviet Relations during the War of Resistance against Japan. Journal of Studies of China’s Resistance War Against Japan (3); Wang Zhen. (2001). Seeking Truth from Facts and Respect History—​How to Scientifically Evaluate the Sino-​Soviet Relations during the War of Resistance against Japan? Journal of Studies of China’s Resistance War Against Japan (4); Luan Jinghe. Re-​Study of the Soviet Union’s China Policy during the War of Resistance against Japan; Wang Jianlang, Luan Jinghe (Eds.) (2008). Modern China, East Asia and the World (Vol.2). Social Sciences Academic Press. 92 Wang Jianlang. (2008). Consciousness and Deeds of Big Country—​ China’s International Role Definition and Diplomatic Efforts in the Late Period of the War of Resistance against Japan. Historical Research (6); Wang Jianlang. (2010). The Nationalist Government’s Diplomatic Strategy and Efforts after the Outbreak of the Pacific War. Wuhan University Press. 93 Wei Chuxiong. (1985). On the Stilwell Incident and Its Causes. Modern Chinese History Studies (1); Zhang Baijia. (1992). The Historical Experience of Sino-​ American Cooperation during the War of Resistance against Japan—​Inspired by Stillwell’s Experience in China. In:  Stilwell Research Center (Eds.). General Stilwell and China. Chongqing Press; Jin Guangyao. (1992). Relationship between Jiang Jieshi, Stilwell and Chenault. In:  Stilwell Research Center (Eds.). General Stilwell and China. Chongqing Press. 94 Wang Jianlang. (2009). The Loss of Trust:  Looking at the Sino-​ American Relations in the Late Period of the Anti-​Japanese War from Jiang Jieshi’s Diary. Modern Chinese History Studies (3). 95 Wang Jianlang. (2008). Looking at the Sino-​American Relations in the Late Period of the Anti-​Japanese War from Jiang Jieshi’s Diary. Republican Archives (4). 96 Liu Xiaoyuan. (2009). Prelude to the Cold War in East Asia: The Korea Issue in the Wartime Sino-​American Relations. Journal of Historical Science (7). 97 Rao Geping. (1988). The Nationalist Government’s Policy toward America from 1945 to 1949. Republican Archives (2).

History of Sino-foreign relations  79 98 Tu Chuande. (1988). America’s Special Envoy in China (Dec. 1945–​Jan. 1947). Fudan University Press. 99 Tao Wenzhao. Marshall’s Diplomatic Mission to China and the Truman Government’s Policy on China. Collected Papers on Sino-​American Relations (Vol. 2). 100 Yuan Ming. Looking at the Truman Government’s China Policy from the Debates in 1947 and 1948. Collected Papers on Sino-​American Relations (Vol. 2). 101 Zi Zhongyun. (1987). The Origin and Development of America’s China Policy (1945–​1950) (Chapter 6). Chongqing Press. 102 Yang Wanrong. (2009). Wedemeyer’s Diplomatic Mission to China and the Shift in America’s China Policy. In: Youth Forum of the Institute of Modern History, CASS (2008). Social Sciences Academic Press. 103 Cheng Zaoxia and Li Ye. (2009). Analysis of CIA Spies’ Secret Expedition to Tibet around 1949. Historical Research (5). 104 Yang Kuisong. (2009). The Intelligence Work in China Carried out by American Intelligence Agencies during the Civil War (1945–​1949). Journal of Historical Science (3). 105 Chen Hui. (2008). Marshall’s Diplomatic Mission to China and the Soviet Union’s China Policy. Historical Research (6). 106 Qu Xing. (1986). The Soviet Union’s China Policy before and after the Founding of New China. International Communist Movement (6). 107 Xiang Qing. (1989). My Opinion on the Soviet Union’s Dissuading the Liberation Army from Crossing the Yangtze River, Literature of the Chinese Communist Party (6); Liao Gailong. (1990). The Relationship between the Soviet Union and the Chinese Revolution during the Later Period of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the Period of the War of Liberation. Journal of Chinese Communist Party History Studies (Supplement); Wang Fangming. (1979). Seeking Truth from Facts and Thinking Independently—​Remembering One of Chairman Mao’s Conversations in 1957. People’s Daily, January 2, 1979. 108 Yu Zhan and Zhang Guangyou. (1989). Had Stalin Dissuaded Me from Crossing the Yangtze River? Literature of Chinese Communist Party (1); Shi Zhe. (1988). Accompanying Chairman Mao’s Visit to the Soviet Union. Figure (2). 109 Luan Jinghe. (2003). Analysis of the Soviet Union’s China Policy on the Eve of the Founding of the New China—​Centering on the Soviet Union’s Moving Its Embassy from Nanjing to Guangzhou. Contemporary China History Studies (2). 110 Wang Zhaoming. (1986). The Change of Macau SAR’s Status before and after the Opium War. Modern Chinese History Studies (3). 111 Huang Hongzhao. (1986). Historical Review of the Macau SAR Issue. Journal of Nanjing University (1); Huang Qichen. (1999). The Whole Story of the Issue Concerning Macau SAR’s Sovereignty. China’s Borderland History and Geography Studies (2). 112 Huang Qinghua. “Macau SAR’s Territory,” “Macau SAR’s Status” and Hart. In: Wang Jianlang, Lang Jinghe (Eds.). (2008). Modern China, East Asia and the World (Vol. 2). Social Sciences Academic Press. 113 Yuan Jicheng. History of Concessions in Modern China. Chinese Financial & Economic Publishing House 114 Zhang Zhongli, et  al. (1991). Development, Characteristics and Research Theories of Modern Shanghai. Modern Chinese History Studies (4); Ding Richu. (1994). Re-​Analysis of the Conditions for Shanghai’s Becoming the Economic

80  HOU Zhongjun and YANG Wanrong Center of Modern China. Modern Chinese History Studies (1); Zhou Jiming. (1997). The Concessions and China’s Early Modernization. Jianghan Tribune (6). 115 Shi Jinghuan. (1991). The Educational Activities of Calvin Mateer and Leighton Stuart in China. Taiwan Wenchin Press; Liang Biying. American Missioners and Cultural Exchange between China and the West in Modern Times. In: New Horizons—​Collected Papers on Sino-​American Relations (Vol. 3). 1 16 Lenin Valdimir. (1959). On the Economic Romanticism. The Complete Works of Lenin (Vol. 2). People’s Publishing House, 150. 117 Niu Dayong and Chen Changwei. (2005). Evaluation of the Research on the Big Powers’ China Policy during the period of the Northern Expedition. Historical Research (3).

3  Social history WANG Xianming

In the spring of 1987, Historical Research published a series of papers and reviews of studies on social history,1 which promoted a new vision for historical research in the new era after the reform and opening up. Many scholars have expressed their longings for the future: “with the development of social history research, the historiography will enter a new and prosperous stage”;2 “we have reasons to believe that the revival of research on social history will be irreversible, and the budding social history research is bound to bloom in the academic garden with its colorful and unique style.”3 This kind of expectation, through scholars’ joint efforts, has won the attention of academia after a few years of hard work. “The study of social history, or the new social history or new historiography seems to have become a ‘prominent subject’ or been regarded as the mainstream of historiography.”4 However, the motive force for the rising social history research and its theoretical pursuits is obviously not researchers’ whims, but the result of interaction between the internal pursuit of historiography and the demands of the times.

3.1  Predicament of the historiography and the germination of social historiography “Emphasizing social history research has been a tradition of Chinese historiography.” “Even before 1949, scholars had already put forward good ideas and published valued works on social history research.”5 As far as the research content is concerned, 58 works on Chinese social history from 1949 to 1966 have been published.6 However, in terms of their basic ideas or research paradigms, these works are still part of the “history of revolution,” “history of class struggles” or “history of social formation,” and are quite different from current social history research. The study of social history in the strict sense should be the product of the new period after the reform and opening up. In the 1980s, when the spring of the ideological reformation came, the theoretical thinking of historians’ circles also entered a very active period. Discussions on the “motive forces of historical development” and “creators of history”7 became an important weather vane of the ideological and

82  WANG Xianming theoretical turn of Chinese historians’ circles. At the same time, faced with the task of “taking economic construction as the central task” and facing the new changes of people’s social life, how to establish Chinese historiography’s status in the new period and realize its academic value became a problem in attracting people’s attention, but could not be resolved at once. Only in the era full of choices, could thoughtful topics be encouraged. It was under these specific historical conditions that people felt the existence of the so-​called “historiographical crisis” and its resulting pressure. “From 1983 to 1985, ‘historiographical crisis’ became a key word for historians’ circles. College students and young scholars put forward this issue first, and then whole historians’ circles became involved in the discussion on the ‘existence and crux of this crisis’.”8 On the basis of summarizing the achievements of Chinese historiography from 1976 to 1989, Zhang Zhilian put forward four noteworthy problems, and “the crisis of historiography” was one of them.9 Since the 1980s, with the establishment of the socialist market economy, it seemed that historiography had become useless for political life and the market economy. So, the tradition of historiography emphasizing current society and serving reality and society urged historians to look at the historiography with a new perspective and explore its functions in a larger context to find a way out for its development. Studies during this period presented the character of multiple perspectives and multiple directions, which not only reflected scholars’ rational thinking but also their eagerness. Starting from investigating the causes of the “historiographical crisis,” some scholars thought that the deviation in the understanding and application of the dominant Marxist historiography system and its theory caused the failure of its theoretical system and finally the crisis of historiography; some scholars held that due to the impact of the tide of the commodity economy, the traditional value of historiography was subverted, leading to a severe test of historiography; some others argued that there was no “historiographical crisis.” For historiography, the so-​called “crisis” was just the normal return of historiography to itself; for historians, it was a sense of loss resulting from comparisons of the historians’ own experiences. The above-​mentioned “crisis theory” had shown that historians were paying close attention to the same question, that is, in the new historical period, how to use the new scientific theories and methods to carry out effective scientific work to make full use of the social functions of historiography and thus make it develop healthily and prosperously. As a result, this issue triggered heated discussions on issues like “the relation between history and reality” and “social functions of historiography.” Although there was no consensus on the understanding of the “historiographical crisis” itself, we could not but admit that historiography itself is facing an unavoidable challenge of the times and great pressure to seek new breakthroughs. Confronted with the so-​called “historiographical crisis,” historians put forward various avenues and solutions. Some scholars put forward the theory of “Applied Historiography,” emphasizing the social function and practical

Social history  83 concerns of historiography to fully reflect the practical value of historiography. Since 1949, Chinese historiography, like other humanities, wrapped in a thick ideological shell, had become an appendage and tool of the political movements and publicity. Since the 1980s, historiography has gradually broken away from the hard shell of ideology and returned to itself, which resulted in the so-​called “historiography crisis.” Regardless of how mechanical and crude the ideological historiography was, it always provided a self-​contained grand narrative. Once this model disintegrated, how should history be interpreted? Historians had been looking at this question during the whole of the 1980s and hoped to re-​build an alternative grand narrative model. Under the tremendous pressure of the historiographical crisis, there appeared various innovative attempts and efforts aiming to break through the stereotypes—​ “social historiography” was just a more unique one among them. “Historiographical crisis” is undoubtedly the historical prerequisite of the historiographical turn during the “new period.” “Thus, discussions about the historiographical crisis became the self-​examination and repositioning of historiography, which probed into and foresaw the development of historiography.” Along with the rise of discussions about the “historiographical crisis,” other discussions also sprang up, such as the heated discussion on “three theories,” the debate between “theory of resultant forces for social development” and “creators of history,” and the proposition of “social history” and “cultural history.”10 When people are interested in the development of new a historiographical field and the construction of new historiographical theory, strong critical consciousness and deep reflection will inevitably follow. In his paper “Reflection on and Prospect of Research on Chinese Social History” (Social Science Front, Issue 3, 1989), Tian Jujian said, due to the influence of the “leftist” thought and the constraint of dogmatism, people’s understanding of historical materialism became increasingly rigid and one-​sided. We over-​exaggerated the effect of class struggle, stuck to the single cause-​effect class analysis method, simply reduced complicated social history to the history of class struggle … abandoned all the social relations other than class relations, denounced the colorful social life as “vulgarity,” “cumbersomeness” and “publicity about the decadent lifestyle of the exploiting class,” brutally expelled social life from historiography, and thus interrupted the fine tradition of Chinese historiography recklessly. Therefore, one of the deep-​seated reasons for the formation of the “historiographical crisis” is that the “content of history” was discharged from history, and thus biases and mistakes would inevitably appear. So, “actively

84  WANG Xianming advocating the ‘revival and strengthening of the study of social life history’ is a practical way to help historiography out of the ‘crisis’.”11 Feng Erkang, a pioneer in Chinese social historiography, also has a strong awareness of overcoming the “historiographical crisis.” He said, social historiography is the way to the prosperity of historiography and the starting point of a new stage, which is the third significance of social history research. Now some historians believe that history is in crisis and underappreciated, so they think about the function of history and its way out. And “social historiography can take this responsibility.” As we can see, the considerable pressure caused by the “historiographical crisis” has given people the initiative to forge ahead and seek new breakthroughs, and thus changed into the driving force to meet the needs of the times. “Carrying out social history research will prove the positive role of social historiography in promoting the development of historiography.”12 The internal requirements of the development of historiography constitute the motive force for the germination of the “social historiography,” which is the common personal experience of scholars who advocated social history research at that time. In terms of historiography, its research area is increasingly narrowing down and research topics are seriously outdated. This acute disease or crisis in the historiographical field can also be considered as a microcosm of the situation of all the other subjects in philosophical and social sciences. In the environment of ideological liberation, “along with the practice of life, people’s response to the above-​mentioned problems has changed from vague feelings to a clear and strong understanding.” “The revival of social history research today is the inevitable result of the above-​mentioned introspection.”13 The pressure of the crisis and the power generated from it are undoubtedly the only reason for many historians to study the social history in the new period. Wang Jiafan’s understanding is quite representative. He said that “in the beginning, social historiography should appear in the academic arena as a rebellious role of traditional history.” The current historiographical crisis is essentially a crisis of social trust. Centering on political history, traditional historiography, which has been deeply entangled in traditional fixed framework of “historical events—​ historical figures,” looks old and clumsy and is unable to solve the vexed problems arising from social changes. It is this “much deeper consciousness of crisis that forced historians to seek relief from Western enlightenment. The rise of cultural and social historiography are two different choices made from different perspectives.”14

Social history  85 Gong Zizhen once said, “a prosperous generation must have its own learning.” Yes! “More than ten years later, when we look back the development path of contemporary historiography, it is not difficult to find that the voice stating the ‘crisis’ was just a starting point for a new development period of historiography.”15 Moreover, the sense of mission and sense of responsibility to liberate the “historiographical crisis” have melted into the academic aspirations of “social historiography” and become one of its innate characteristics. On the first issue of Historical Research in 1987, the commentator’s article entitled “Turn Historical Content back to History” expressed this academic thought, appealing historians to expand horizons, revive and strengthen the study of social life development to “break through the writing patterns of general history, dynastic history and others centering on the three pillars of economy, politics and culture, which have been popular for more than half a century.” The rise of “social historiography” is not only the call of contemporary society for historiographical research, but also the conscious response of historiography to the requirements of this era.16 Therefore, the social historiography is of “revolutionary” value in terms of breaking through the rigid mode of traditional historiography, the one-​sided research pattern concentrating only on political and revolutionary history and the tendency toward the single theoretical and methodological approach. Hence, social historiography has sprung up and attracted lots of attention only for several years. People are pleasantly surprised to find that social historiography, detached from the bondages of previous research models, shows us a much broader territory, whose academic value and social significance will be far-​reaching and enduring.

3.2  Three stages of development In October 1986, “The First Symposium on Chinese Social Historiography,” co-​sponsored by Nankai University, Tianjin People’s Publishing House, and the editorial department of Historical Research et  al., was held in Tianjin. This conference can be roughly seen as the beginning of the planned resumption of social history research in Chinese academia. After this symposium, Historical Research published a series of papers on the “objects and research scope of Chinese social historiography.” It also published a commentary entitled “Turn Historical Content back to History,” which provoked great shock and reaction in academic circles and marked the new theoretical and methodological turn of the Chinese historiography. At that time, scholars of modern Chinese history are the main force advocating and promoting social historiography. From then on, the study of modern Chinese social history has flourished more and more and become the most impressive and dynamic direction in the field of Chinese modern history. Generally speaking, the research process of modern Chinese social historiography in the past 20 years can be divided into the following three stages.

86  WANG Xianming 3.2.1  The stage of disciplinary revival (1986–​1990) “The First Symposium on Chinese Social Historiography” held in October 1986 proclaimed the birth of Chinese social historiography. Since then, through the joint efforts of all aspects, this biennial national symposium has been held uninterruptedly, enabling social history research to develop steadily and make positive achievements. Since the late 1980s, Renmin University of China, Institute of Modern History and the History Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Nankai University, Shanxi University, Nanjing University and other universities and institutions have organized a number of research projects on social history research or set up research institutes. Many universities have offered courses on social history. Social historiography has begun to get the basic recognition of the academic community and started to revive. From 1986 to 1990, Tianjin People’s Publishing House first published four series of books on social historiography. Between 1989 and 1996, the Zhejiang People’s Publishing House, cooperating with Nanjing University, published a series on Chinese social historiography consisting of 20 different kinds of books. According to rough statistics, more than 120 kinds of books on Chinese social historiography had been published between 1986 and 1994. During the same period, more than 700 papers on Chinese social historiography had been published, among which 240 papers are on modern Chinese social historiography. In general, reaching a consensus on the “objects and scope of social history research” is the main achievement we had made during the first stage of social historiography revival. The theme of “The First Symposium on Chinese Social Historiography” held in October 1986 revolved round the basic issues of social historiography, to wit, “the objects and categories of Chinese social history research,” “the relationship between social historiography and other disciplines,” “the significance of conducting social history research and several research areas belonging to social history research,” and so on. At this conference, scholars treated social historiography as a history of a specific subject or a new research approach and proposed that its research methodology should learn from the theory and methods of sociology, folkloristics, anthropology and other disciplines. This conference can be considered as the beginning of the academic community’s attempt to organize and promote social history research, and thus was of great significance for the reconstruction and revival of Chinese social history research. Although the subjects of the following three conferences were slightly different, they still attached great importance to the objects, disciplinary features and methodology of social history research. Discussions on these issues continued till the early 1990s and became the main topic of modern Chinese social history research during this stage. The main findings on these issues can be summarized as follows:

Social history  87 First, social historiography takes the dynamic system of people’s social life in history, to wit, people’s social life and modes of living as its research objects, and social organizations, social structure, population society, way of social life, and material and spiritual customs as its research categories reveal their historical changes and their roles in the historical process. Second, social history is a kind of holistic history. Because history which can show us all the aspects of past times should be the general history, and general history is always social history, historiography should pay attention to the sum of the relations of production which are formed in production and which are commensurate with the development of certain productive forces. Thus, all the interpersonal relations based on economic activities should be the objects of social history research. Third, the special research field of social historiography is society, to wit, all aspects of social life except for politics, economy, and culture. This point of view holds that the content of social historiography should include three levels, namely, social composition, social life and social function. Similar views argue that the research field of social historiography should include social environment, social structure, social relations, social consciousness, social problems, social changes and so on. Fourth, social historiography is not a specific research field of historiography, but a new perspective, a new path, that is, a “bottom-​up” approach to study history. Fifth, social history is a human-​centered history. It should bring up people consciously, understand people accurately, reproduce people truly, criticize people reasonably and affect people deeply. It was also pointed out that the “centered human” is not a specific person, but the historical evolution of human beings of a certain class, hierarchy or group. Academia has not yet reached a consensus on these issues but has formed a broadly recognized view at the disciplinary and theoretical level. Based on extensive debates on the definition of social history, research objects and categories, academia has formed several relatively stable points of view such as “social historiography as a special history,” “social historiography as a general history,” “social historiography as a research paradigm” and “social historiography as a research perspective,” which have set off a culmination of research on social history. The proposition and discussion of the above-​ mentioned issues are of great significance to the promotion of research on modern Chinese social history. 3.2.2  Stage of system construction (1991–​2000) Before 1990, several monographic studies on modern Chinese social history had already been published. For example, on the secret societies of modern China, only

88  WANG Xianming two monographs have been published—​Cai Shaoqing’s History of Modern Chinese Secret Societies (Zhonghua Book Company, 1987) and Qin Baoqi’s Tiandihui during the Early Qing Period (China Renmin University Press, 1988). Since the 1990s, social history research has shown a more powerful momentum and monographic works on modern Chinese social history research have come out one after another, which have transformed social history into one of the most fruitful academic disciplines. For example, regarding the modern history of Chinese secret societies, there were Li Shiyu’s Secret Religions in Modern North China (Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, 1990), Pu Wenqi’s Chinese Secret Folk Religions (Zhejiang People’s Publishing House, 1991), Su Zhiliang’s Research on the Underworld Organizations of Modern Shanghai (Zhejiang People’s Publishing House, 1991), Zhou Yumin and Shao Yong’s History of Chinese Sinister Gangs (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1993), Huang Jianyuan’s Green, Red and Black (Jiangsu People’s Publishing House, 1998), Liu Caifu’s Powerful Gang Leaders (Jiangsu People’s Publishing House, 1998), and so on. On modern social life and mass organizations there were Yan Changhong’s History of Modern Chinese Social Customs (Zhejiang People’s Publishing House, 1992), Sang Bing’s Communities and Activities of New Intelligentsia in the Late Qing Dynasty (SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1995), Li Liangyu’s Intellectuals of Turbulent Times (Zhejiang People’s Publishing House, 1990), and so on. On the history of modern Chinese social structure, there were Jiang Tao’s Modern Chinese Population History (Zhejiang People’s Publishing House, 1993), Wang Xianming’s Modern Gentlemen: Historical Destiny of a Feudal Class (Tianjin People’s Publishing House, 1997), Ma Min’s Between Officials and Merchants—​Modern Gentry Merchants in the Social Upheavals (Tianjin People’s Publishing House, 1994) and He Yuefu’s The Gentry in the Late Qing Dynasty and Modern Social Changes: Comparison with Japanese Nobles (Guangdong People’s Publishing House, 1998)  and so on. Before and after 1998, publishers like Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House and Jiangsu People’s Publishing House also published nearly 20 series on social history. It seems that the prosperous stage of Chinese social historiography had begun. Although monographic research on modern Chinese social history has made remarkable achievements, systematic research on the discipline of social historiography is of greater significance to its development. In 1992, History of Modern Chinese Society edited by Qiao Zhiqiang (People’s Publishing House, 1992)  and Chen Xulu’s Metabolism of Modern Chinese Society (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1992)  were published. Subsequently, the eight-​volume General History of Chinese Society edited by Gong Shuduo (Shanxi Education Press, 1996) was published. The publication of these works has drawn a relatively clear scope for social history research at that time and combined the theoretical framework with historical facts to completely present disciplinary features of social historiography. These publications marked the initial formation of the disciplinary system of modern Chinese social historiography.

Social history  89 History of Modern Chinese Society proposed the disciplinary system of social historiography and held that it mainly included three aspects, namely, “social composition, social life and social function.” Different from the History of Modern Chinese Society holding that “the social history is a specialized history (Zhuan Men Shi),” Chen Xulu proposed that social history was actually a general history and argued that economic history and cultural history, after all, belong to specialized history, and their themes and scopes are always limited. Only general history can reflect the whole picture of a past era, and a general history should always be a social history. Studies on the disciplinary system of social history during this period had the following characteristics: first, in terms of research period, most of them chose modern society as their research object because of its dramatic changes. Modern Chinese social history has played an important role in the revival and study of Chinese social history. Second, the theoretical construction of modern Chinese social history was influenced more by sociological theories and methods; to a certain extent, the “sociological tendency” led to the loss of historiographical features. Third, although there were differences in the theoretical framework of modern social history, the overall theoretical construction was surprisingly similar. First of all, they all observe the content from the perspective of society, divide modern social history into three aspects and assign specific content to them. Second, they all set up the overall theoretical system from a certain society in history (the cross section) rather than the history of society (the longitudinal section). In this regard, I named the above-​mentioned features as the “three-​plate structure.” The overall historical process of social transformation in modern China cannot be highlighted in the “sociologicalized” theoretical system of “social composition, social life and social function (or social consciousness),” which made social history become the “historical projection of sociology.” This is the society of history seen from three sides, rather than the “history of society.” The theoretical framework of modern Chinese social history has a tendency of transplanting sociological theories simply, which has led to the sociological tendency of social history and should be noted by academia. 3.2.3  The stage of steady development (after 2001) Discussions on the disciplinary system of modern Chinese social history had become silent at the end of the twentieth century and ceased to be a hot topic of academia. Researchers have mainly focused on the study of monographic social history and preferred to highlight the problem of consciousness and develop new research fields, thus pushing the study of modern Chinese social history forward on the track of steady development. Regarding the characteristics of this stage, the following aspects should be noticed:

90  WANG Xianming First, the consciousness of problems is strong. Since the twenty-​first century, studies of modern Chinese social history have highlighted the consciousness of problems more. From the end of the twentieth century, there is now a consensus that we should no longer discuss macro disciplinary objects and categories but adhere to the problem-​oriented approach to deepen social history research gradually. In 1998, “The Seventh Symposium on Chinese Social Historiography” held in Suzhou had “Psychological Changes of the Families, Communities and the Masses” as its theme. In 2002, the theme of the Shanghai Symposium was “Social Changes and the Interaction between the Nation and the Masses.” In 2004, the theme of the Xiamen Symposium was “Rituals, Conventions and Social Changes.” The concentration of “themes” of the symposia on social history made it possible for scholars from all over the country to intensively study the same problem from different perspectives and knowledge backgrounds, which could not only avoid a “monologue” (Zi Yan Zi Yu) in research (to wit, scholars could not discuss and communicate with each other because their academic discourse and research topics are different. Social historians call this phenomenon “monologue”), but also promote the deepening of research topics. Moreover, the gathering of these “themes” actually revealed the historical deep ongoing process of social history research. The second is the expansion of the research field. The rise of the study of modern regional social history, the development of history of modern cities, the countryside and famine has greatly expanded the field of modern Chinese social history research. It should be noted that social historians have begun to study the construction and transformation of the “social space” at the basic level, which is different from the simple concern of the upper-​level political space and institutional arrangement in past historical studies and has brought about the “regional shift” to the methodology of social history research. “Regional social history” has gradually become the mainstream of Chinese social history research. Many widely-​accepted research models have appeared in academia, such as the “North China model,” the “Guanzhong model,” the “Jiangnan model,” the “Lingnan model,” and so on. The third is the rise of historical anthropology. With the deep development of social history and the rise of regional social history, anthropological methods have exerted more and more influence on social history research and have been widely used in practical research. In his New Historiography, Jacques Le Goff pointed out that historiography should “communicate with anthropology preferentially,” and the development of new historiography “may be the cooperation of the three closest social sciences, to wit, history, anthropology and sociology,” which was named by Le Goff as “historical anthropology.” A  group of young and middle-​aged scholars have begun to establish systems of research methods and academic categories of humanities and social science with their own features; on the other hand, scholars have paid attention to the collection and collation of folk literature and oral materials, which represent the effort to integrate anthropology and history, especially social history.

Social history  91

3.3  New trends in the modern social history research From the 1990s, the study of modern Chinese social history has entered the stage of steady development. Its research areas and topics have expanded increasingly, and its theories and methods have matured gradually. New achievements in the study of modern Chinese social history have kept emerging, which have made new contributions to the development of Chinese historiography in the new period. The main trends of its development can be summarized as follows: 3.3.1 Regional social history research has made notable achievements and theoretical research has been deepened as well Since the 1990s, regional social history research has become increasingly prosperous and presented the tendency of regionalization. The rich and diverse achievements of regional history studies have obvious effects on the transformation of traditional orientations, deepening of research questions and change of basic research patterns in historiography. Therefore, regional history studies have become the main part of modern Chinese social history research. Wang Di’s Transcending the Closed World:  Regional Social Studies on the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River (1644–​ 1911) (Zhonghua Book Company, 2001) is an early representative monograph on regional social history. It has made a holistic study on the modernization process of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River from multiple aspects, such as the natural geography and economic geography, population, arable land and grain, rural economic and agricultural development, regional trade and market networks, handicraft and industry, political structure and local social order, changes of new and old educational systems, social organizations and their functional changes, communities, social classes and social life, traditional culture and modern consciousness. Social history research on the Jiangnan region has made relatively more achievements, such as Duan Benluo’s The Modern Social and Economic History of Southern Jiangsu (China Commercial Press, 1997), Ma Junya’s Hybrid and Development:  The Modern Evolution of the Traditional Social Economy in the Jiangnan Region (1900–​1950) (Social Sciences Academic Press, 2003)  and Xiao Tian’s Modern Transformation of the Township Society in the Jiangnan Region (China Commercial Press, 1997). These works made in-​depth studies on the society of the Jiangnan region from the perspectives of the evolution of modernization of the regional economic society and the transformation process of the township society. Rural Social Changes of Nanhui in the 20th Century edited by Li Xuechang (East China Normal University Press, 2001) is another work with distinctive features, which traced and described the route of social changes in the villages of Nanhui and proposed theoretical understandings of the regional social changes based on historical classics, folk literature and field

92  WANG Xianming investigations and centering around the main dimensions and variables of social changes. Research on the regional social history of North China has been another hot spot in recent years. Works like The Transformation of the Modern Rural Economy in North China edited by Qiao Zhiqiang (People’s Publishing House, 1998), Yuan Shuyi et al.’s The Difficult Process of Transformation—​ Research on the Economic and Social Development of North China (People’s Publishing House, 1997) and Zheng Qidong’s Rural Society of North China during the Transitional Period (Shanghai Bookstore Publishing House, 2004)  have deepened modern social history research of North China. Focusing on the economic factors, Yuan Shuyi’s work mainly discussed the correlation between economic and social development in modern North China from the perspectives of agriculture and rural areas, urban economic and social structure, and changes in the political system. Unfolding its content by topics, Zheng Qidong’s work discussed the social changes in modern North China from the aspects of rural power structure, social organization, state requisition on rural areas, elements of rural economic life and peasants’ material living conditions. Comparatively speaking, the book edited by Qiao Zhiqiang has a broader vision. Within 19 chapters, it systematically studied the social changes of North China from the aspects of population, marriages, families, clans, classes, hierarchy, market exchanges, urbanization and urban-​rural relations, material life, social customs, folk beliefs, social psychology, interpersonal relationships, rural education, grassroots political power, local autonomy, famine relief, social problems and social changes. This book managed to find “a main line running through it” in the “knowledge system” of social history and finally took “the evolution of traditional society to modern society” as its “main line” (see page 17, in the “Introduction” to Qiao Zhiqiang’s book). From various perspectives such as the natural environment and social system, the agricultural reform of small-​scale peasant society, the rural commercial market, the rise of industry and the mining industry, the changes in villages, families and clans, new rural culture and fashions, Social Investigation and Study of the Taihang Mountain Area during the 1930s–​1940s edited by Wei Hongyun comprehensively and systematically studied rural social changes in this region. Zhang Limin et al.’s Research on the Modern Economy and Society of the Regions around the Bohai Sea (Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences Publishing House, 2003)  is the first monograph on the modernization of the Bohai Sea region. The authors not only discussed the role of agricultural economy, coastal trade, rural markets, the transportation system and the industrial system in regional social development, but also described the regional market network, the regional modernization process and modern changes of social mobility, social life and social structure, and strived to reveal the characteristics of regional social modernization. With the deepening of the study on modern regional social history, the theoretical direction of regional social history research has become much clearer.

Social history  93 Li Wenhai held that while studying regional history, first, we should discover and reveal the distinct differences between two regions; second, we should gain a global perspective and avoid studying a region in isolation; third, we should have a comprehensive view and reveal the interrelations among the various elements of a region; finally, we should pay special attention to the intersection of regional history with other disciplines.17 In 2006, Academic Monthly set up a column and published a series of papers on this issue. Tang Lixing argued that in the study of regional history we must expand our horizons at three levels: first, we should pay attention to the relationship between a region and its surrounding areas; second, we should compare one region with other regions; third, we should combine regional history with holistic history.18 Wang Xianming proposed that the spatial characteristics of the research questions determine the choice of regional history studies rather than the artificial selection of space, that is, regionalizing or localizing the research object simply from regional history studies. Therefore, we can consider the study of regional history as the study of the regional historical process with homogeneity or co-​trends within a certain time period and space.19 Zhang Limin posed the question of defining the spatial scope of regional history and argued that it was a basic and unavoidable problem for regional history studies to standardize and define the regional space. The space of regional history studies should be defined reasonably. If the name of regional history was used carelessly, it would not make regional history biased, but would also affect its scientificity and rigorousness, which harm the deepening of regional history studies and the comparative study of different subjects.20 Wu Hongqi held that the study of regional history has become a new orientation in the study of the major branches of Chinese history, but its tendency to fragmentation has also aroused the concern of many scholars. To avoid fragmentation and return to the right path of holistic history studies, regionalized Chinese social history should learn from the achievements, perspectives and theoretical methods of other relevant social sciences to achieve self-​construction and theoretical innovation.21 In view of the fact that most regional history studies tended to explore the function of “clans” and “temples,” Yang Nianqun put forward the perspective of “trans-​regional study” and argued that it was necessary to re-​understand the trans-​regional logic of the political changes on the basis of respecting the achievements of previous local history studies.22 Xu Guoli held that regional history was a branch subject of historiography studying regional history with its own historical features and systematicness which was organically made up of various homogeneous social elements or a single element of social and historical development, and aiming to reveal the systematicness and uniqueness of the development of the regional history.23 Modern regional social history research on Jiangnan and North China has made outstanding achievements and become one of the research fields deeply regarded by academia, and brought some new thinking on its research content and concept as well. In view of China’s vast territory, the space for

94  WANG Xianming further expansion is still quite broad. Future studies will develop continuously in terms of both geographical scope and theoretical methods. 3.3.2 Modern rural history research is still in the ascendant and keeps developing Rural social change has always been the main content of China’s historical change, which is not only because of the absolute advantage of location structure in rural areas, but also because rural life style and cultural traditions represent the tradition of Chinese history at a deeper level. Modern rural history has also become a major topic of concern in recent years. Wang Xianming wrote a paper entitled “Conducting Research on Chinese Rural History of the 20th Century” (Guangming Daily, December 1, 2000) and soon hosted the first symposium on Chinese modern rural history. Especially when the “three rural issues” constitute a prominent problem restricting China’s social development and modernization, the attention attached to it and the realistic demand for seeking a way out of it urge us to analyze it on the theoretical or academic level. In recent years, the following aspects of modern Chinese rural history have been highlighted: First, we shall look at research on the rural community and its history. Wang Qingcheng made a deep and systematic study of the population composition and its historical sources, size and structure of the villages in North China since the Yuan Dynasty, such as Hebei and Shandong. Wang argued that the “towns” in North China were not necessarily the commercial settlements. Many “towns” had small populations and had no store or market, so they were just ordinary villages. The average household population of villages and towns was about five, and the number of people attending school was only 1–​ 2 percent of the population. The population of the poor, the disabled, widows and such accounted for a considerable proportion of the population. The proportion of the elderly population was low and the sex ratio was generally seriously unbalanced. It was basically stable in terms of the age distribution of the population.24 Some scholars also studied the important role played by wells in the aspects of constructing the rural community space, stipulating the social order, managing the community population, creating the public space, influencing the inter-​village relationship and others by using the inscriptions of wells and materials collected from field investigations.25 Second, we shall examine the rural land relations, class relations and power structure. The study of the different natures of ground rents has been deepened. Cao Shuji held that from 1927, seen from the implementation of the “25  percent reduction of rent” policy of Zhejiang Province, although the phenomenon of “dual ownership” existed in the farmland of most areas of the Zhejiang Province, due to different land sources, different “land with emphyteusis” was of different nature. As the rent rates of the two types of “land with emphyteusis” were different, the owners of “land with relative emphyteusis” actively promoted the “25  percent reduction of rent” policy

Social history  95 during the government-​led reduction of rents, whereas the owners of “land with absolute emphyteusis” opposed this policy, and became the biggest obstacle to this policy.26 Li Deying’s research on the tenancy system of the Chengdu Plain showed that the rent deposit system (rent deposit without interest and rent deposit with interest) in the modern Chengdu Plain was not just a means to strengthen exploitation as some scholars had held, but had broader connotations and was the product of the natural ecology and social environment of this area. Through paying the deposit, the tenant could not only acquire the right to the land, but also get a certain amount of interest from the rent paid in the form of distrainment. Seen from the perspective of the system, the economic relationship between the tenants and the landlords was more equal than the relationship before the Qing Dynasty.27 Li Deying conducted a more detailed study on this topic in her monograph entitled National Laws and Folk Customs: A New Investigation into the Tenancy System of the Chengdu Plain During the Republic of China Era (China Social Sciences Press, 2006). However, on the principle of “convincing people with truth and historical facts” and “revealing the original appearance of the rent deposit system,” Liu Kexiang later published “Several Issues on the Rent Deposit and Modern Feudal Tenancy System—​A Response to Ms. Li Deying” (Modern Chinese History Studies, Issue 1, 2012) and pointed out that the rent deposit was originally the cash deposit charged by landlords to prevent tenant peasants’ arrears of rent. It was the product of replacing the non-​economic compulsion with the economic one, and soon was transformed into a usurious exploitation in different names. The rent deposit was most prevalent and severe in the Chengdu Plain and Sichuan Province. The rent deposit with interest was nothing more than a means by which the landlords could squeeze the rent deposit. The fundamental reason for the appearance of the tenancy system was the separation of the land from the producer, which had no internal relation with the market or market economy. In modern times, especially during the Republican Period, increasing rent and deposit and frequent cancellation of the lease frequently became the major means for the landlords to squeeze tenant farmers. The alternant increases in rent and deposit further aggravated the poverty of the tenant peasants and impecunious peasants and turned the former into the latter and the latter into hired farm hands. The rent deposit system and the feudal tenancy system had become the shackles of agricultural production and social and economic development. It is the “historical requirements of social development” to completely abolish the feudal land system and the feudal tenancy system including the rent deposit system to ensure that “every tiller has his land.” Huang Daoxuan investigated the correlation between the revolution and land in the 1930s and found that seen from all kinds of data of that time, in Jiangxi and Fujian, which were the central regions of the Chinese Soviet

96  WANG Xianming movements in the 1930s, landlords and rich peasants occupied about 30 percent of the land. Poor farmers and hired farm hands occupied about 20 percent. Huang argued that under what circumstances a revolution took place and where a revolutionary center was formed was not necessarily linked to the situation of land occupation.28 Centering on the villages of Hu’nan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang before the Anti-​Japanese War and taking the perspective of peasants’ debts and land ownership changes, Xu Chang proved that land ownership in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River before the Anti-​Japanese War was being centralized from various perspectives such as the proportion of peasants’ land mortgages, the possibility, reality and situation of peasants’ loss of land ownership because of the land mortgage loan, and the micro and macro changes of land ownership, and thus illustrated the unprecedented grim situation China’s rural areas faced in the early 1930s.29 Concerning the study of rural hired laborers, Hu Cheng held that the wages of modern rural areas in South China increased continuously, but when the actual purchasing power and the rate of inflation were considered, hired laborers’ wages were still relatively low, which led to a shortage of laborers. The reason why the operational farms of this area could not develop and grow was not because small-​scale farmers preferred to hire cheaper household laborers, but because of the advent of modern transformation at that time, people could not make a living solely by agriculture and the resources had to be reconfigured.30 Wang Xianming believed that the rural employer-​employee relationship of Shanxi in the early twentieth century had developed considerably, but the social structure of the employer-​employee relationship was related to the various social strata of rural society, and the roles of the employer and the employee were not completely solidified. The generalization of employer-​employee relationship was achieved through the non-​solidification of employees’ identities and interchangeability of roles in employment. The employer-​employee relationship of Shanxi rural society is a “network structure” with the crossing of multiple identities, status and roles. So, it was necessary to consider the fact that rural society was in general pauperization while studying the nature of the hired laborers at that time.31 The changes between old and new systems led to dramatic changes in the rural intellectual class. Through regional comparison, Guan Xiaohong argued that the abolition of the imperial examination system caused the disappearance of the traditional intellectual class, but through re-​alignment and re-​ grouping from various channels, most of the intellectuals of old learning still occupied socially prestigious important positions until the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. Although the Qing court tried hard to find more ways out for the intellectuals, it still could not restrain the middle-​aged intellectuals’ psychological imbalance and young students’ concern for the fate of the country.32 An entire chapter of Xu Maoming’s Jiangnan Gentry and the Society of Southeast China (1368–​1911) the (The Commercial Press,

Social history  97 2004) probed into the “gentry of Southeast China during the modern social changes,” and put forward some innovative opinions. In addition, the paper of Qu Guiping and Wang Xianming put forward the issue of social stratification of rural people from the perspective of “local resources” (Xiang Tu Zi Yuan). The authors held that from the 1920s to the early 1940s, before the rural people in North China accepted the concept of “class,” they had a whole set of endogenous evaluation criteria and differentiation systems in the hierarchical structure of the community they lived in. This dimension of social stratification was the “local resources” rooted in the context of rural culture.33 On the study of rural power structure, there are Li Huaiyin’s “The Xiangdi System in the Villages of North China during the period from the Late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China—​A Case Study on Huolu County of Hebei” (Historical Research, Issue 6, 2001), Qiu Jie “The Rural Grassroots Authorities of Guangdong Province in the Early Republic of China” (History Monthly, Issue 5, 2003) and so on. In his paper, Li Huaiqing held that the Xiangdi of the villages in Huolu county of Hebei Province during the period from the Late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China was a semi-​official post responsible for the collection or advancement of taxes and local security, which would be filled by villagers in rotation. The Xiangdi system characterized by the village community as an integrated unit had been prevailing in Huolu, which made the local power pattern different from both the lax peasant society found in most areas of North China and the rule of local gentry and patriarchal clans prevalent in South China, and should be treated as a third form of relationship between the state and the countryside during that period. Qiu Jie’s paper explored the problems in the reconstruction of rural grassroots power in Guangdong in the early years of the Republic of China and found that the provincial and county governments were often unable to fully exercise power over the rural areas because of the political turmoil in Guangdong, and thus the rural grassroots authorities gained a great deal of independence. After the establishment of the Nationalist Government, new county administration was carried out in Guangdong, but the rural grassroots power structure formed in the early years of the Republic of China lasted till the late 1940s. Third, we shall look at research on the rural social economy and peasants’ lives. In recent years, there has been a striking tendency in the study of rural society in modern North China, that is, “the villages in North China, which had always been considered to be dilapidated, were being depicted as a dazzling place where rural capitalism developed freely.” In view of this tendency, Xia Mingfang put forward a completely different opinion based on quantitative analyses and systematic investigations.34 Wen Rui argued that in the early twentieth century, to wit, before the Land Revolution in Soviet Regions, traditional rural private lending was quite common in the Jiangxi-​ Fujian border area. Its interest was not as high as that long recognized by the academic community, and it was indispensable for the development and operation of the local rural economy. Whether private lending should exist or

98  WANG Xianming not was not a matter for argument. What we should concern ourselves with was how could the government regulate and control it.35 Li Jinzheng made a special study on this issue. His monographs Loan Relationship and Rural Changes—​Research on the Rural Private Lending in North China during the Period of the Republic of China (Hebei University Press, 2000) and Research on the Rural Loan Relationship in the Republic of China (People’s Publishing House, 2003) carried out detailed and in-​depth investigations into rural private lending in North China and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River respectively, and sidewise revealed the new and old loan relationship and peasants’ living conditions in modern rural areas in the process of social-​ economic evolution. Li Jinzheng’s other book, Exploration into the Modern Chinese Rural Socio-​Economy (People’s Publishing House, 2004)  assembled the main findings of his research on modern China’s rural social economy in recent years, and conducted micro regional research from several aspects such as the theory and methods of rural area research, the peasant economy and life of modern North China and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the agricultural economy and social development of the anti-​Japanese base areas and the liberated areas. Scholars have also noticed the industrialization of modern rural areas. Zhang Si held that at the end of the nineteenth century, under the impact of foreign cotton products, the rural handmade textile industry in Zhili and Shandong underwent serious decline. In the meantime, it also got the development opportunity to keep pace with the developed areas and compete with machine-​made cotton products. Some scholars thought that it was debatable whether foreign machine-​made drapery and other goods had failed to edge into the North China market, and the view that “whether imperialism is a reality or a myth” was also highly debatable. The durability and counterforce in the face of the sudden impact, the quality of keeping pace with the times in the face of the opportunities, and the sustainable capacity for new technologies and new ways of production demonstrated by the “feudal” and “backward” rural economy was also worthy of concern. Peng Nansheng put forward the issue of semi-​industrialization and concluded that the coexistence of multiple forms of production made semi-​industrialization more flexible when the market was in fluctuation. The phenomenon of semi-​industrialization in developing countries and regions was different from the traditional handicraft industry of rural areas and the primitive industrialization, and thus was awaiting in-​depth study.36 Mainly based on the local archives, Huang Zhenglin made a study of the rural markets, economy and social development of the Shaanxi-​Gansu-​ Ningxia Border Region and concluded that in terms of market composition, the formation of the specialized markets, and so on, the rural markets of the Shaanxi-​Gansu-​Ningxia Border Region had the common features of the national rural markets as well as their own characteristics of the Northwest region. Since the late Qing Dynasty, the cyclical social unrest and natural disasters, together with the local warlords’ exactions, had resulted in the

Social history  99 sharp decline in rural population, the rural economic depression, peasants’ increasing poverty and low purchasing power, and the rural market recession. At the same time, the wide cultivation of opium, resulted in the abnormal development of the rural market in the Northwest and the appearance of specialized opium markets. These phenomena did not change much until the eve of the founding of the PRC.37 At the same time, he also studied the economy and finance, social changes and social trends of this region, and the related findings were collected in his newly published book Rural Economy and Society in the Shaanxi-​Gansu-​Ningxia Border Region (People’s Publishing House, 2006). In addition, some scholars have also studied the problems of peasants’ departure from the countryside,38 rural families’ separation of property,39 draught animals,40 and so on. 3.3.3 The beginning of the social gender history research The history of social gender has also entered people’s vision in recent years and generated new academic ideas on the premise of breaking through the history of the women’s movement. Li Xizhu made a study on the women’s participation in politics in the early Republican Period and concluded that women’s suffrage in the early Republic of China was the overall repression and exclusion of the male power on women’s political demands, reflecting the distinctive face of gender discrimination. The failure of the women’s political power movement in the early Republic of China could not simply be attributed to the obstruction and destruction of the feudal autocratic forces represented by Yuan Shikai.41 Xia Chuntao opened a new discussion on marriage and gender relations in the Taiping Army.42 However, the issue of concern was, as Li Boqiang has said, at the end of the twentieth century, under the impact of the international academic atmosphere, the study of social gender history has become a new noteworthy trend in China’s history.43 Researchers did not rigidly adhere to their previous perspective of “women’s movement history,” but developed new characteristics of “gender history” and historical anthropology. Therefore, Ding Yizhuang thought that “women’s history” was a “new research field” “based on social history.” For example, Yang Xingmei not only noted that “through reconstructing the historical process of the modern Sichuan anti-​foot-​binding movement, we could see the adjustment and redistribution of gentry power in the Qing Dynasty” and the influence of the banning and punishing rules on the anti-​ foot-​binding efforts in the Republic of China.44 We could also observe the “two world” problem caused by “foot-​binding” from the perspective of social concepts: due to the changes in modern society, there existed “two worlds” which were different from each other from the value orientation to ways of survival and competition. Most uneducated women could not get the

100  WANG Xianming social treatment of the “new world,” and foot-​binding has become a basic condition for the success of their marriage; this social factor in turn strengthened the concept of this “world” believing that small feet were beautiful.45

3.4  The disciplinary impact of the social history research The development and growing prosperity of social history research, to a certain extent, has changed the basic pattern of modern Chinese history studies, whose academic impact is worthy of attention. Its academic contribution is notable in the following three aspects: The first contribution is that it has broken the dogma and reconstructed the system. In the previous studies on modern Chinese history, the political history paradigm had been the mainstream direction. As a basic clue and basic theoretical framework for analysis, the political history paradigm embodied a narrative framework, that is, two processes, three climaxes, and eight important events of revolutionary history. In a certain historical period, the “two processes” may be the best perspective studying modern Chinese history, but the comprehensiveness and complexity of modern Chinese social change was clearly not fully incorporated into this research framework. Moreover, to fathom the process of the Chinese revolution, we had to study various aspects of the social evolution of this period, or it would be neither comprehensive nor perfect. Therefore, how to break through the existing research model and construct a new research framework is the most important problem confronting Chinese modern social history in the beginning of its ascendancy. The revival of modern Chinese social history in the 1980s was carried out under the general background of reflecting on the old research model, the situational transformation caused by the reform and opening up, the introduction of foreign social history theory and the revival and reconstruction of Chinese social history. Undertaking social history research met the needs of academic development and conformed to the trend of the development of the times as well. The main goal of the revival of social history in the beginning of its rise was “to return the historical content to history.” Pushed by the achievements made by modern social history research, the concepts, perspectives and methods of modern Chinese history research had undergone fundamental changes, and the simplification and dogmatic “revolutionary history” and “class struggle history” had been broken, making the content of the modern Chinese history obtain a newly-​constructed knowledge system, and thus enriching, deepening and expanding the content of modern Chinese history, which should be considered an epoch-​making change. The second contribution is the acquisition of new knowledge and the innovation in research methods. In the very beginning, the rise of social history has embodied a high degree of openness. As a “new historiography,” social history is actually a new discipline based on the cross-​infiltration of history and sociology. Thus, the implantation of the concepts, categories,

Social history  101 and theoretical approaches of sociology are beyond reproach. “In all social sciences, sociology and anthropology are closest to history in terms of ideas. The dividing line between contemporary society and the previous society is subtle, constantly changing, and artificial.” The mass introduction of sociological theories, categories and methods for history was obviously rooted in social history. Moreover, “in the strict logical sense, the only evidence used by social scientists—​no matter how special its research is—​can only be historical evidence.”46 “Thus, new terms crowded into historiography, which are more general, more abstract and more rigorous, and are totally different from the traditional historical concepts in nature. This ‘great migration’ of scientific terms to historiography is absolutely a progressive progress.”47 So, “no matter whether historians are willing or not, sociology will become an important part of the knowledge beyond historical materials, and without it, historians will be unable to cope with any of the most specific research.”48 It is from the rise of social history, the theory and methods of modern Chinese history have shown an ever-​changing trend, and a large number of theoretical models of Western scholars have been introduced, such as William Skinner’s “theory of regional economy,” Xiao Gongquan and Zhou Xirui et al.’s “gentry society” theory, William T. Rowe’s analysis of “civil society,” Huang Zongzhi’s analysis of “economic over-​ density,” Prasenjit Duara’s “cultural network of power” and the “involution” of rural grassroots regimes, Clifford Geertz’s “local knowledge” and Benjamin Elman’s “cultural capital.” In recent years, Chinese scholars have advocated the study of “new history” or “new social history,” trying to build a “localized” interpretation system in the process of introducing foreign theories. While adhering to the basic methods of history, social history borrowed more methods from sociology, folkloristics, historical geography and other disciplines. With the deepening of social history and the rise of regional social history, the anthropological method has a greater impact on social history research and has been widely used in studies, such as Zhang Peiguo’s Historical Anthropological Study of Modern Jiangnan Rural Land Rights (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 2002). Another prominent trend in contemporary historiographical changes was the socialization of research content on the one hand and “sociologicalization” of theory and methods on the other, which used theoretical models and the terminology of sociology to illustrate history. This trend also reflected the high degree of openness of social history. The third contribution is the three major turns and the accomplishment of transformation. The rise of social history is of epoch-​making significance for the study of modern Chinese history or even the whole of Chinese history. In my opinion, it has brought about three great turns to the content of China’s historical research: The first is the turn from the history of the elite to the history of ordinary people. Traditional historiography has been more concerned with the protagonists of the historical stage. The historiography of the PRC has been under the guidance of historical materialism, and scholars have accepted the

102  WANG Xianming historical view that “the masses are the creators of history,” but even the historical works on peasant wars have always been centered on the heroes and leaders of the peasant uprisings, and the real masses, to wit, the peasants, have been ignored in the study. Social history advocates the history of ordinary people and tries to reveal the social content of the historical dramas starred by the “heroes” through investigating the masses’ daily life, thus revealing the inevitable laws and basic trends of the social and historical movements comprehensively and profoundly. Many contents related to ordinary people, such as the untouchables, prostitutes, eunuchs, vagrants, displaced people, beggars, women and secret societies, have become the subjects of social history research. The “downgrading” or “popularization” of research objects caused by social history is one of its characteristics of the times. The second is the turn from the history of politics to the history of daily social life. The historical laws of human society lie in daily social life. Regardless of the final form and intensity of social change, its explosive power and trend of changes have long since been gathered and embodied slowly in the general process of social life. Traditional historiography is particularly concerned with the outcome of historical events or the major events themselves, and is relatively more indifferent to the causal historical process in which the events were fermented, bred and generated, whereas the social history of the new era is the opposite. Different from the previous historical works focusing on political events, social history pays close attention to the content related to the daily life of the masses, and the historical evolution of people’s social material and spiritual life such as folk customs, historical appellation, weddings and funerals, famine treatment, clothing, food, housing, and so on, which gives historical research a rich flavor of life. The third is the turn from general historical events to major social issues. From the beginning of the rise of social history, with strong social responsibility, we have focused on issues like population, famines, migrants and social crime, and tried to provide historical reference for the solution of social problems in the longitudinal exploration of history and to strengthen the social function of history. It is in this historic turn that Chinese modern history finished its transformation from “revolutionary history” to “holistic history” or “social history.” If we can say that the “revolutionary history” represents the mainstream trend of the study of modern Chinese history before the 1980s, then social history marks the main direction and development trend of the modern Chinese history in the new period.

3.5  The future development With a highly open attitude, social history has formed unique disciplinary characteristics of its own. Cross-​disciplinary infiltration and learning from the theory and methods of various disciplines have provided a broad academic foundation and attractive prospect for the innovation and development of

Social history  103 social history. However, this feature has also caused some inherent problems for its development, which should arouse our attention. First of all, the disciplinary system of modern Chinese social history is basically being confined to the “three-​plate structure” (to wit, social composition, social life, social function or “social consciousness”). It is actually a typical knowledge framework of sociology and does not confirm to its theme of revealing the longitudinal changes and their internal motivations. The value and significance of history cannot be highlighted in this “sociologicalized” theoretical system, turning social history into the “historical projection” of “sociology.” Modern social history with the “three-​plate” structure is actually modern population history, marriage history, family history, history of people’s clothing, food, lives and transportation, famine history and education history narrated from different perspectives. The most important inherent relevance that embodies the theoretical system of a discipline among these “three plates” is a lack of specific content, which means that it is just a history manifesting the historical society from three perspectives but not a “social history.” Mere “sociologicalization” can only drop the academic characteristics of history itself, making it move away from history and approach historical sociology. There is no doubt that the comprehensive and emerging modern social history should actively absorb the theoretical achievements of sociology under the background that the contemporary social sciences are mutually penetrating and influencing each other. The problem is that the disciplinary identity of modern social history can only be a history rather than a sociology. If social history loses the characteristics of history in the process of mutual penetration, social history will gradually lose its existence as an independent discipline. Second, the introduction of new theoretical methods is conducive to the expansion of modern historical studies and breakthroughs in the traditional model. On the other hand, the non-​normative introduction and application has also led to the imbalance and fragmentation of modern history studies. For example, the “regionalization orientation” has caused the anomie of historical research. Every study should have its own specific norms, and regional history study is no exception. However, many researchers and their findings did not follow the norms of regional history, but only followed the fashion in the name of regional history. Some of the highly-​specialized topics, such as resource history and environmental history, were also studied provincially under the signboard of “regional history studies,” ignoring their own disciplinary normative requirements. So, what is the normative regional division? What are the basic norms of regional history studies? These most basic questions have not yet been studied, which caused the appearance of the highly generalized “regionalization orientation.” The “regionalization orientation” has led to the “fragmentation” of modern history. Researchers’ choices of regions for study have been seriously imbalanced. There appeared large-​ scale inter-​ provincial regional history

104  WANG Xianming studies, provincial history studies, county history studies and even village history studies, and so on. If there were no widely-​accepted standards, the “regional unit” would be subdivided infinitely into the “village level,” or even into the “family level.” This trend not only separated the integrity of historical evolution, but also deviated from the gist of regional social history which “considers a particular region as a whole.” The above-​mentioned issues indicate that there still exist many problems to be solved in the study of modern Chinese social history. Study of the history of modern Chinese society has been going on for more than 20 years, made remarkable achievements, and maintained a strong trend of development. From the current development situation, it is not difficult to foresee that the study of the history of modern Chinese society will make new progress in the following aspects: First, there is the continuous development of regional social history. Since the 1990s, the study of regional social history has become increasingly prosperous and demonstrated the feature of regionalization in the selection of research directions. Regional history is an inevitable trend in the development of historiography itself, and it is also an objective requirement for historiography to serve local social and cultural development. Obviously, the rich and colorful achievements made by regional history studies are helpful to the orientation shift of traditional historical research, the deepening of research and the change of basic research patterns. Thus, regional history research has constituted the main part of Chinese social history research. The existing regional social history research has made outstanding achievements in the study of the Jiangnan and North China regions and become not only one of the areas of concern for academia, but also led to some new considerations in terms of the content and conceptions of research. However, in the face of China’s vast regions, the space for further expansion is still quite wide, and there will be further development both in geographical scope and theoretical approach. Second, there is the broad and in-​depth study of rural history. The change in rural society has always been the main content of Chinese historical change, not only because the countryside has an absolute advantage in the regional structure, but also because the rural life mode and cultural tradition represents the tradition of Chinese history at a deeper level. Therefore, rural history is also the main concern of social history academia. In 2000, I  published the paper “Research on Chinese Rural History in the 20th Century,” and one year later, I  presided over the first seminar on the history of villages in modern China. Since then, the study of modern Chinese rural history had become one of the hot spots for academia. When the “three rural issues” constitute a prominent problem restricting the development of Chinese society and the realization of modernization, the attention attached to the rural issues and the realistic demands for a solution urge us to analyze the rural issues academically or theoretically. Therefore, it has become an unavoidable topic for the modern historiography to take history

Social history  105 out of the modern perspective and examine modern times from a historical viewpoint because the “three rural issues” are not only a realistic problem, but also a product of history. The “three rural issues” which has been troubling the development of contemporary society have their own clues of formation, development and evolution; it can be said that the prominence of the social changes in the modern Chinese rural areas is the historical theme emerging along with the historical processes of industrialization, urbanization and even modernization. Only looking back at history and examining the “three rural issues” from the perspective of modern historical process, can we clarify the trend of their formation and evolution and recognize their characteristics of the times. This is the requirement of time for historiography and also the basic function for historiography to respond to and act on the times. Third, there is the expansion of new directions for social history research. The crossover and communication of various disciplines will make social history obtain a lasting vitality and innovative ability. In recent years, social history research has conformed to the needs of the times, and constantly expanded its research areas in the process of adopting new theories and methods, and thus has formed its new disciplinary clusters. One of these newly-​formed clusters is the social ecological history or environmental social history. Recently, along with the deepening of studies on environmental history and social history, these two directions have been joined together gradually. More and more researchers have realized that social history research not only needs to consider the interaction of various social factors, but also needs to consider the “role” and “status” of eco-​ environmental factors in the process of social development and change; we cannot only consider ecological factors as the “background” to social development, but also have to treat them as important participating variables of social movement, and conduct empirical studies on their actual impact upon social history. There have appeared some related studies, such as Li Yushang’s “Geographical Environment and the Infectious Diseases in the Modern Jiangnan Area” (Social Science Research, Issue 6, 2005)  and Yu Xinzhong’s “Sanitary Conception and Behavior of the Jiangnan Area in the Qing Dynasty and Its Modern Changes—​Focusing on the Environment and Water Hygiene” (The Qing History Journal, Issue 2, 2006). Based on a new concept of social history, social ecological history holds that human society is first a biological group, a special life system within the Earth’s biosphere, which has a wide range of material, energy and information exchange with its surrounding environment, and is dominated and influenced by the laws of ecology. Therefore, it is necessary and possible for us to study social history from a sociological approach. In recent years, Chinese ecological history (or environmental history) has made impressive achievements, indicating that a new branch—​ecological history or environmental history is gradually being established. The second is medical social history, which is another new subdiscipline of social history emerging in the in-​ depth development of the “new

106  WANG Xianming historiography.” In recent years, eye-​catching achievements have been made in this field, such as Liang Qizi’s “The Quarantine of Lepers and Modern China” (Historical Research, Issue 5, 2003), Li Yu Shang “The Coping Mechanism of Plague in Modern China—​A Case Study of Yunnan, Guangdong and Fujian Province”(Historical Research, Issue 1, 2002), Jiao Runming’s “The Great Plague in Northeast China during 1910–​1911 and Countermeasures of the Court and the Commonalty” (Modern Chinese History Studies, Issue 3, 2006) and Yu Xinzhong’s “A Study on the Plagues in the Jiangnan Area during the Reign of Xianfeng and Tongzhi—​Also on the Relationship between Wares and the Plague” (Modern Chinese History Studies, Issue 5, 2002). Monographs on this topic include Yu Xinzhong’s The Plagues and Society of the Jiangnan Area under the Qing Dynasty: A Medical Social Historical Research (China Renmin University Press, 2003), Zhang Daqing’s Modern Chinese History of Disease and Society (1912–​1937) (Shandong Education Press, 2006) and so on. All these studies had a strong consciousness of problems, indicating that a new research group and a new research direction in modern social history or even the whole of modern Chinese history have been formed. In terms of both in-​depth study on its central topics and the expansion of new research fields, social history research has shown attractive development prospects. The development of social history research has always been closely related to its unique academic concern and strong consciousness of problems. “To make the content of historical research more abundant”49 should become the pursuit of modern social history and researchers working on it.

Notes 1 Feng Erkang. (1987). Carrying out Social History Research. Historical Research (1); Lu Zhen. (1987). On Several Issues Concerning the Research Subjects of the Social History Study. Historical Research (1); Song Dejin. (1987). Exploring the Research Fields and Promoting the Prosperity of Historiography—​A Review of the Symposium on Chinese Social History. Historical Research (1). 2 Feng Erkang. (1987). Carrying out Social History Research. Historical Research (1). 3 Lu Zhen. (1987). On Several Issues Concerning the Research Subjects of the Social History Study. Historical Research (1). 4 Feng Erkang. (2004). Preface to An Introduction to Chinese Social History. Higher Education Press, 1. 5 Li Liangyu and Cai Shaoqing. (2010). Study on Modern Chinese Social History over the Past 60 Years. Journal of Nanjing Xiaozhuang University (4). 6 According to the bibliography of An Overview of the Studies of Chinese Social History (Feng Erkang et al. Tianjin Education Press, 1988). 7 In March 1979, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) held a meeting on the planning of historiography in Chengdu, at which scholars discussed the issue of “the driving force for historical development.” Soon afterwards, in the national academic circle (which has gone beyond the historical circle and became the hotspot of all the intellectuals) there appeared an upsurge of discussions on the “motive force of history.” Later, another upsurge of discussions on the “creators of history” appeared.

Social history  107 8 Zou Zhaochen, Jiang Mei and Deng Jingli. (2001). Trends of Thought in the Chinese Historiography in the New Period. Contemporary China Publishing House, 35. 9 Zhang Zhilian. (1994). Achievements and Perplexities of Contemporary Chinese Historiography. Historiography Quarterly (4). 10 Zou Zhaochen, Jiang Mei and Deng Jingli. (2001). Trends of Thought in the Chinese Historiography in the New Period. Contemporary China Publishing House, 35. 11 Tian Jujian. A Way Out for Historiography. Guangming Daily, June 20, 1986. 12 Feng Erkang. (1987). Carrying out Social History Research, Historical Research (1). 13 Lu Zhen. (1987). On the Several Issues Concerning the Subjects of Social History. Historical Research (1). 14 Wang Jiafan. (1989). On the Disciplinary Construction of Chinese Social History. Historical Research (3). 15 Zou Zhaochen, Jiang Mei and Deng Jingli. (2001). Trends of Thought in the Chinese Historiography in the New Period. Contemporary China Publishing House, 35. 16 Wang Xianming. (1993). The Theoretical Thinking on Modern Chinese Social History—​ Also on the Sociological Turn of Historiography. Modern Chinese History Studies (4). 17 Li Wenhai. (2007). Some Thoughts on Deepening the Study of Regional History, Journal of Anhui University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition) (3). 18 Tang Lixing. (2006). The Regionalized Studies of Modern Chinese History—​A Case Study on Huizhou Studies. Academic Monthly (3). 19 Wang Xianming. (2006). “Regionalization” Orientation and Modern Chinese History Studies. Academic Monthly (3). 20 Zhang Limin. (2006). On the Definition of the Scope of Regional History Studies. Academic Monthly (3). 21 Wu Hongqi. (2006). Modern Chinese Social History in the View of Historical Geography. Academic Monthly (3). 22 Yang Nianqun. (2004). “Local Knowledge,” “Local Sense” and the Prospect of “Trans-​Regional Studies.” Tianjin Social Science (6). 23 Xu Guoli. (2007). On Theoretical Issues in the Study of Regional History—​the Definition of Regional History and the Regional Definition and Choice of Its Regions. Academic Monthly (3). 24 Wang Qingcheng. (2007). The Northern Chinese Countryside in the Late Qing Dynasty:  History and Scale. Historical Research (2); Wang Qingcheng. (2002). Population of Rural Areas of North China in the Late Qing Dynasty. Historical Research (2); Wang Qingcheng. (2002). Villages of North China. Modern Chinese History Studies (3). 25 Hu Yingze. (2006). Wells and Rural Society in North China—​Field Study on the Wells in Some Rural Areas of Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan Provinces. Modern Chinese History Studies (1). 26 Cao Shuji. (2007). Two Kinds of “Land with Emphyteusis” and the “25 percent Reduction of Rent” Policy” of Zhejiang Province. Historical Research (2). 27 Li Deying. (2007). The Deposit Rent System in the Chengdu Plain during the Republic of China Era—​A Discussion with Mr. Liu Kexiang. Modern Chinese History Studies (1). 28 Huang Daoxuan. (2005). Land Occupation in the Southeast Regions of China from the 1920s to the 1940s—​Also on the Landlords, Peasants and Agrarian Revolution. Historical Research (1).

108  WANG Xianming 29 Xu Chang. (2005). Farmers’ Liabilities and Land Ownership Changes—​Centering on the Rural Areas in the Middle and Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River in the Early 1930s. Modern Chinese History Studies (2). 30 Hu Cheng. (2000). The Labor Cost in the Rural Areas of Jiangnan. Historical Research (6). 31 Wang Xianming and Niu Wenqin. (2006). The Rural Hired laborers of Shanxi in the Early 20th Century. Historical Research (5). 32 Guan Xiaohong. (2005). Abolition of the Imperial Examination System and Modern Rural Intellectuals:  A Comparative Study from the Perspective of Liu Dapeng and Zhu Zhisan’s Diaries. Historical Research (5). 33 Qu Guiping and Wang Xianming. (2004). Social Stratification in the View of the Rural People—​A Case Study on the Villages in North China from the 1920s to the 1940s. Journal of Humanities (6). 34 Xia Mingfang. (2002). Illusion of Development: An Analysis of the Income Status of Peasant Households in Modern North China and Peasants’ Living Standard, Modern Chinese History Studies (2). 35 Wen Rui. (2004). Traditional Private Lending and Rural Social Economy: A Case Study of the Jiangxi-​Fujian Border Region in the Early 20th Century (1900–​1930). Modern Chinese History Studies (3). 36 Peng Nansheng. (2003). Semi-​Industrialization: A Description of the Developing Process of the Modern Rural Handicraft Industry. Journal of Historical Science (7). 37 Huang Zhenglin. (2004). Research on the Modern Rural Markets of Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai. Modern Chinese History Studies (4). 38 Wang Yinhuan. (2004). Research on Peasants’ Departure from Their Villages in Hebei, Henan and Shandong (1911–​1937). China Social Press. 39 Wang Yuesheng. (2002). The Study of Rural Families’ Property Separation in the Southern Region of Hebei in the 1930s and 1940s. Research on Modern History (4). 40 Wang Jiange. (2006). Draught Animals and the Rural Society of North China. Social Science Research (2). 41 Li Yingzhu. (2005). Gender Conflict and the Limitations of Political Democratization in the Early Republic of China—​Taking Women’s Suffrage in the Early Republic of China as an Example. Historical Research (4). 42 Xia Chuntao. (2003). Marital status and Gender Relations in the Taiping Army. Modern Chinese History Studies (1). 43 Li Bozhong. (2002). Problems and Hopes:  Some Thoughts on the Study of Chinese Women’s History. Modern Chinese History Studies (6). 44 Yang Xingmei. (2000). From Persuasion to Punishment:  A Brief Account of the Anti-​Foot-​Binding Efforts of Sichuan in the Late Qing Dynasty. Historical Research (6). 45 Yang Xingmei. (2000). Concepts and Society: The Aesthetic Standard of Women’s Feet and the Two Worlds of Modern China. Modern Chinese History Studies (4). 46 Geoffrey Barractbugh. (1987). Main Trends in History. Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 76. 47 Boris Nikolayevich Milonov. (1988). Historians and Sociology. Huaxia Publishing House, 32. 48 Ibid., 97. 49 Wang Xianming. (2006). The Academic Concern and Consciousness of Problems of Social History Research. People’s Daily, February 24 (15).

4  Urban history HE Yimin

Chinese cities have a long history, the development of which has never been interrupted since ancient times. In the 1930s, academic circles had debated about China’s economic development road and argued whether China should rely on agriculture or industry. Some scholars spoke highly of the status and functions of the cities and put forward the view of developing cities to relieve the countryside. However, few scholars had conducted in-​depth research on cities at that time, and thus the new discipline of urban research had not yet been formed. During the first 30  years after the founding of the PRC, because class struggles had been considered as the guiding principle and cities had been regarded as the breeding ground for the bourgeois ideology, it had been impossible to conduct research on urban history. Since reform and opening up, China has made astonishing progress in urban modernization, and the great changes in cities have called on the social scientists to carry out thorough theoretical research on them, which have attracted the attention of the leaders and scholars of relevant departments. In 1986, a meeting was convened by the History Group of the Jury of the National Social Science Fund of China. Experts attending this meeting held that along with China’s socialist modernization, it had become a must and necessity of social and academic development to construct urban historiography, which was a new interdisciplinary subject combining historiography, economics, sociology and urban management. Under their proposal, the study of Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Wuhan and other modern emerging cities was included in the key research projects of the National Social Science Plan during “the Seventh Five-​year Plan.” “Urban Studies” has sprung up and become a new subject. It can be said that the above-​mentioned key research projects are the starting point for the rise in the urban history studies as a new subject. Urban history research started late in China, but has developed rapidly. In July 1988, the Institute of History of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and Shanghai Historical Society held the first “Symposium on Concession and Modern Chinese Society” concentrating on the double influences of concessions on Chinese society. Since then, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Center for Urban Research of Sichuan University, Institute of

110  HE Yimin Modern Chinese History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and other institutions, alone or in combination with other universities at home or abroad, have hosted 15 symposia of different sizes in succession, such as “The International Symposium on the Urban Studies of Modern Shanghai,” “The Symposium on Modern Chinese Cities,” “The International Symposium on Urban Studies and Shanghai Studies,” “The International Symposium on Urban Progress, Enterprise Development and Modernization of China,” “The International Conference on the Sixteenth Anniversary of Shanghai’s Port Opening,” “Cities, the Countryside and Folk Culture—​the First International Symposium on the Social History of Modern China,” “The International Symposium on Urban Space and Human Beings” and “The International Conference on the Urban Cultural History of China.”1 Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing and Wuhan have gradually become the research bases for modern urban history. Many college teachers and researchers from the academies of social sciences have joined urban history research teams. Some universities have set up research institutions concentrating on the study of modern Chinese urban history and started to recruit postgraduates and doctoral students majoring in modern Chinese urban history, and thus a research group of considerable size has been formed. Through more than 20 years of development, modern urban history research has made remarkable progress on the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of “the PRC.”

4.1  Plentiful achievements The study of modern urban history grew from the 1980s, and has developed into a new vigorous subject within 20-​odd years and yielded fruitful results by the beginning of the twenty-​first century. According to statistics, only from 1979 to 1994, 534 monographs, data collections and proceedings and numerous journal papers on modern Chinese urban history had been published in mainland China.2 According to the China Academic Journals Full-​Text Database (CJFD), from 1986 to 2008, nine CSSCI (Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index) source journals—​Historical Research, Modern Chinese History Studies, Journal of Chinese Historical Studies, Journal of Historical Science, Historical Review, Collections of Essays On Chinese Historical Geography, Collected Papers of History Studies, Historical Archives and The Journal of Chinese Social and Economic History—​had published 505 papers on urban history, which accounted for 2.8 percent of all the papers they had published during that period. The above-​mentioned studies are mainly about the following aspects: 4.1.1  Studies of a single city Modern urban history studies started from the research on a certain single city. Up to now, more than 20 monographs have been published. As for representative works, the following four books are recommended, namely,

Urban history  111 Modern Urban Historical Study of Shanghai (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1990)  edited by Zhang Zhongli, Modern Urban Historical Study of Chongqing (Sichuan University Press, 1991) edited by Wei Yingtao, Modern Urban Historical Study of Tianjin (China Social Sciences Press, 1993) edited by Luo Shuwei, and Modern Urban Historical Study of Wuhan (China Social Sciences Press, 1993)  edited by Pi Mingxiu. These four books are the first monographs on modern urban history published in “the PRC,” which are of pioneering significance. The common feature shared by these books is that they all take urban modernization as the main theme to investigate the status of internal development of these cities, display their periodical fluctuations in development, summarize their developmental characteristics and reveal the laws of urban development. Although they are different in research methods and writing styles, they all make use of historical research methods, and at the same time break through the traditional historical research approaches and adopt theories and methods of sociology, economics, political science, geography, demography and other disciplines to conduct comprehensive research, which have clear emphases, in-​depth analyses and are thus quite persuasive. These works will not only broaden the research fields of local history and modern history and open a new way for the research of urban history, but also provide historical references for contemporary urban planning, construction, management and modernization, which are of both important academic value and practical significance. Chang Zonghu’s Modernization of Nantong:  1895–​1938 (Chinese Social Sciences Press, 1998) is also of a high academic level. There are many other works with distinctive features, such as The Modern History of Kunming City edited by Xie Benshu and Li Jiang (Yunnan University Press, 1997), History of Kaifeng City edited by Cheng Ziliang and Li Qingyin (Social Sciences Academic Press, 1993), History of Anshan City edited by Liu Jingyu and Zhi Xijun (Social Sciences Academic Press, 1994), History of Baoji City edited by Wang Zanshu (Social Sciences Academic Press, 1994), History of Zigong City edited by Wang Renyuan et al. (Social Sciences Academic Press, 1995), General History of Beijing City edited by Cao Zixi (China Bookstore Press, 1994 onwards), History of Chengdu City edited by Zhang Xuejun and Zhang Lihong (Chengdu Press, 1993), History of Lhasa edited by Fu Chonglan (Chinese Social Sciences Press, 1994). 4.1.2  Research on modern regional urban history As early as the 1980s, there were some scholars who attempted to study cities from regional perspectives, such as Wu Si’s A Brief Regional History of Central Cities (Hubei People’s Publishing House, 1980), Fu Chonglan’s History of Chinese Canal Cities (Sichuan People’s Publishing House, 1985)  and Wang Changsheng’s Cities along the Great Wall (Orient Publishing House, 1990). However, these works mainly focused on the urban development of ancient cities and paid less attention to modern times. Wang Ling’s History of

112  HE Yimin Relations Between Beijing and Its Surrounding Cities (Beijing Yanshan Press, 1988) should be an early study on the regional urban history of modern cities. It takes Beijing as its focus and combines cities around Beijing as a group to study the relationship between Beijing and these cities. This study preliminarily reflects the theoretical characteristics of city group research that emphasizes the integrity, historicity and connectivity of the cities.3 After the 1990s, some scholars updated modern urban history from case studies to regional studies. They explored the city systems and city groups of the Southeast coast, North China, the Yangtze River Basin and other areas, and made some achievements. The study of regional urban history has been unanimously recognized as an important approach to broaden and deepen urban history research. “Southeast Coastal Cities and China’s Modernization,” a key research project of the National Social Science Plan during “the eighth Five-​year Plan” period hosted by Zhang Zhongli, studied the Southeast coastal cities as a city group for the first time. Focusing on the theme of southeast coastal cities and China’s modernization, this project studied the relationship between China’s modernization and the five earliest trading ports of China, to wit: Shanghai, Ningbo, Fuzhou, Xiamen and Guangzhou. Monographic studies, comparative studies and comprehensive studies were conducted one by one from the perspectives of politics, economics, culture and society. This project not only outlined the characteristics of each city, but also generalized the common features of these five port cities. It successfully grasped the historical positions and roles played by these five Southeastern port cities in promoting regional modernization and China’s modernization and corrected the defects of isolation and stillness existing in the previous case studies, which enhanced the research level, expanded the research horizons and extended the research field of urban history studies. Its final research achievement—​Southeast Coastal Cities and China’s Modernization—​was published by Shanghai People’s Publishing House in July 1996. In addition, there are many other representative works on modern regional urban history published in recent years, such as Different Views from Different Perspectives—​The Modernization Road of Cities in the Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River edited by Mao Jiaqi (Jiangsu People’s Publishing House, 1993), Historical Changes of Northeast Cities of Modern China written by Qu Xiaofan (Northeast Normal University Press, 2001), Cities along the Yangtze River and China’s Modernization edited by Zhang Zhongli, Shen Zuwei and Xiong Yuezhi (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 2002), Research on the Modern Urban-​Rural Relations in the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River edited by Wei Yingtao (Sichuan Publishing Group and Tiandi Press, 2003), Research on the Early Modernization of Chengdu City (Sichuan University Press, 2002) and Research on the Western Medium-​Sized Cities and Regional Development in China during the Twentieth Century (Bashu Publishing House, 2005) edited by He Yimin. If the Southeast Coastal Cities and China’s Modernization symbolized the initial transition from the study of Shanghai

Urban history  113 as a single city to the regional city group, Cities along the Yangtze River and China’s Modernization could demonstrate the maturity of the regional urban study. In this book, the editors renounced tedious descriptions of individual cities, but went straight to the theme of Yangtze River Basin. After a general and macroscopic introduction, in the following 15 chapters, the editors studied the cities along the Yangtze River from the following nine perspectives:  the economy, traffic, urban-​ rural relations, population, customs, quality of residents, guildhalls and administrative offices, gangs, and the cultural exchanges between China and Western countries. Research on the Western Medium-​Sized Cities and Regional Development in China during the Twentieth Century conducted studies on western medium-​sized cities such as Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Sichuan, which have been largely ignored by previous studies. At the same time, the number of papers on regional urban history research has increased as well. Zhang Zhongli’s “The Economic Modernization of Shanghai City and Its Influence on the Economy of the Yangtze River Basin” (Quarterly Journal of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Issue 3, 1992), Wei Yingtao and Xie Fang’s “Opening of Shanghai to the World and the Modernization of Cities along the Yangtze River” (Urban History Research, Vol. 10) studied the interactions between Shanghai and other cities along the Yangtze River in modern times from different perspectives. Wang Di’s “City Systems and Market Structure in the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River in Modern Times” (Modern Chinese History Studies, Issue 6, 1991) analyzed the impact of the development of the Southeastern coastal cities on China’s modernization. Mao Jiaqi’s “The Course of Urban Modernization in the Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River” (Journal of Hubei University, Issue 3, 1999) studied the modernization course of the cities in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River from the aspects of the economy, politics and culture. Dai Angang’s “Modern Shanghai and its Surrounding Countryside” (Journal of Historical Science, Issue 2, 1994) focused on the close interactive and complementary relationship between the rise of modern Shanghai and its surrounding rural economy. Cai Yunhui’s “The Urban-​Rural Relationship and the Issue of Urbanization in Modern China” (Journal of Southwest Normal University, Issue 5, 2003) systematically analyzed the characteristics of the urban-​rural relationship in modern China, the relationship between urban-​rural relations and urbanization, and the influences of the urban-​rural relationship on cities, the countryside, and especially on the urbanization process. Scholars from Tianjin have published a series of preliminary studies with distinctive characteristics on the evolution of modern city systems in North China, such as Luo Shuwei’s “On the Modern City Systems in North China” (Tianjin Social Sciences, Issue 5, 1995), Hu Guangming’s “The Beiyang New Deal and Modernization of Cities in North China” (Urban History Research, Vol. 6), Zhou Junqi’s “The Transformation of Urban Culture and Urban Development in the Late Qing Dynasty” (Urban History Research, Vols. 13–​14), and Zhang Limin’s “Urban Population Development and Its

114  HE Yimin Imbalance in Modern North China” (Modern Chinese History Studies, Issue 1, 1998). One of the important fields of the research on regional city groups and regional city systems is the inter-​and intra-​regional connections between cities. Based on the analysis of the situations, internal and external factors of the urban network development in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, Hu Guangming’s “The Historical Reasons for the Rapid Urbanization of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Provinces in the Late Qing Dynasty and the Early Republic of China and Its Revelation” (Journal of Hebei University, Issue 1, 1997) held that the rapid acceleration in the urbanization and modernization of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei during this period had fully demonstrated that Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei could co-​exist in the same living space, and these three parties should cooperate with each other more closely and make best use of their own advantages. Papers on regional urban research published by scholars from Northeast China mainly include Shen Yi’s “Research on the Relationship between the Agriculture and Urban-​Rural relations in the Concessions of Lvshun and Dalian” (Journal of East China Normal University, Issue 3, 1992), Gao Xiaoyan’s “On the Features of Urban Development in the Northeastern Border Areas” (Study and Exploration, Issue 2, 1993), Wang Gesheng’s “On the Evolution of the Northeastern Coastal Treaty Ports in the Qing Dynasty” (Research on the Regional History of Northeast China, Issue 3, 1991) and “The Northeast Treaty Ports of the Qing Dynasty” (Social Science Journal, Issue 1, 1994), Yang Tianhong’s “On the ‘Self-​Opening Commercial Ports’ in the Northeast Area in the Qing Dynasty”(Changbai Journal, Issue 1, 1998) and “The Establishment and Operational Systems of the Customs of the Self-​ Opening Commercial Ports in the Qing Dynasty” (Social Science Research, Issue 3, 1998), Wu Xiaosong “Traffic Development and Urban Construction in Modern Northeast China” (Urban Planning Forum, Issue 3, 1996) and so on. 4.1.3  Holistic research on modern cities In the late 1980s, some scholars wrote that “up to now, in our country there has been no article studying China’s modern urban changes and development holistically.”4 This situation had changed since the early 1990s. Not only had there been a considerable number of papers, but also several monographs on the holistic study of the modern urban changes and development, such as Dai Junliang’s History of Chinese Urban Development (Heilongjiang People’s Publishing House, 1992), He Yimin’s Survey of Chinese Cities (Sichuan University Press, 1994), Ning Yuemin et  al.’s Urban Development History of China (Anhui Science and Technology Press, 1994), Gu Chaolin’s City Systems of China: History, Current Situations and Prospect (The Commercial Press, 1992), Cao Hongtao et al.’s Urban Development of Modern China (The Commercial Press, 1998), Wei Yingtao’s Comprehensive Research on Cities of Different Types in Modern China (Sichuan University Press, 1998), and He

Urban history  115 Yimin’s Development and Social Changes of Modern Chinese Cities (1840–​ 1949) (Science Press, 2004). The first three monographs all belongs to general history works, which studied the origins of Chinese cities, development in ancient and modern times from the perspectives of the economy, politics, culture, society and so on, and could be considered as the pioneering works of Chinese urban history. Gu Chaolin’s City Systems of China: History, Current Situations and Prospect is also a general work on urban history, but its content concentrated more on the formation, development and evolution of China’s city system, and did not touch upon the political, economic, cultural and social evolutions. Cao Hongtao et al.’s Urban Development of Modern China gave us a comprehensive description of the development of some major cities in modern times and provided us with ample data. However, because of the lack of theoretical guidance, it did not study the development of modern Chinese cities holistically, and thus was not in-​depth enough. There exist two kinds of objective differences in the development of modern Chinese cities: the regional difference and typological difference, which constitute the academic prerequisite for the study of modern urban history at the meso-​level. Regional urban research is premised on regional differences and imbalanced development of the cities. Typological urban studies are based on the typological differences among cities and the complexity of urban typology in the modern transitional period. Regional urban research pays more attention to urban network systems and urbanization. Typological urban research is more concerned about the nature and characteristics of cities, the driving forces and conditions for urban development, and the historical succession and evolution throughout time, that is, issues concerning urban modernization. The combination of these two research directions can solve the two main problems in modern urban history studies, namely, modern urbanization and urban modernization, and lay a solid foundation for understanding the law and progress of modern urban development in China at the macroscopic level. Taking modernization as the main line, Comprehensive Research on Cities of Different Types in Modern China edited by Wei Yingtao divided modern Chinese cities into different types, and conducted in-​ depth investigation into the vicissitudes, developmental causes and driving forces, and internal relationships of cities of different types. Its academic achievements can be summarized as follows: first, it is the first comprehensive and systematic study on the classification of modern Chinese cities and thus is of pioneering significance. Second, it has made theoretical breakthroughs in the comprehensive studies on the classification of cities. Third, it has adhered to Marxist theory, analyzed the complex phenomena of urban history and modernization dialectically and historically, and put forward many new ideas. Its publication marked the transition of modern urban history from the study of a single city to the overall, comprehensive macroscopic study, and thus played

116  HE Yimin an important role in promoting the development of China’s modern urban history research. 4.1.4  Study on the motive forces of urban economy and urban development From the very beginning, the urban economy has been the focus of researchers in the field of modern urban history studies. From the beginning of the twenty-​first century, research on the driving forces of the urban economy and urban development has developed in terms of both depth and breadth, and there have even appeared pioneering studies on the declining cities of modern China. The semi-​colonial and semi-​feudal nature of modern China determined that China could neither have a reasonable economic development environment nor embark on a normal development road, so its urban economic development in modern times had been greatly influenced by external forces. For this reason, in the studies of driving forces for urban economy and urban development, researchers have always attached great importance to the role of the external forces generated by the treaty ports and concessions in promoting urban economic development, and emphasized that foreign exchanges had improved the external environment for economic development. For example, some scholars held that the overseas Chinese in the International Settlement of Gulangyu Island had promoted the economic development of Xiamen City by investing in commerce, financial industries, banking, business, and so on.5 The foreign exchanges after the establishment of the Free Port System in Dalian had promoted its economic development, urbanization and industrialization;6 the opening of the port in Jiujiang had caused changes in traditional trade routes, thus causing the shift of urban centers and changes to the urban structure of Jiangxi, and finally formed the urban structure taking Jiujiang and Nanchang as its axis, and promoted the gradual modernization of Jiangxi’s economy.7 Other scholars affirmed the promoting effects of the cities which opened their trading ports voluntarily because of regional economic development, urban prosperity and urbanization.8 There are some other scholars arguing that the influences of Tianjin’s foreign trade on the internal structure and external environment of the market had promoted the development of Tianjin market and the establishment of its status as the economic center of North China.9 As for the driving force for urban development, some scholars held that although emphasizing the development and modernization of newly developing cities could reflect the characteristics of modern Chinese history, it was far from enough to consider only the development of some cities to truly reflect the overall situation and level of urban development in modern China. Understanding and studying the causes, characteristics and laws of the decline of the “declining cities” was also the objective need for contemporary urban development to seek historical reference.10 Thus, many scholars began to study declining cities and the reasons for their decline.

Urban history  117 Study on the Declining Cities of Modern China (Bashu Publishing House, 2007) edited by He Yimin is a representative work on this topic. This book argues that the metabolism is universal law, and prosperity and decline are a pair of relative and coexisting concepts. Everything has a process of changing from prosperity to decline. Modern Chinese cities’ degree of, manifestation and distribution of decline are unbalanced, and this imbalance is a concentrated expression of the imbalances in modern China’s political, economic, social and urban development, which further exacerbates China’s imbalance in political, economic, social and urban development. This book first proposed that we should study urban development cycles in the agricultural era and the industrial era respectively. It focused on the urban decline caused by modern social politics, economic changes, traffic and geographic changes, wars and natural disasters, and conducted case analyses of typical “declining cities.” 4.1.5  Research on municipal construction and urban management With the transformation from the traditional political consumption city to the modern economic production city, the big powers had brought Western municipal concepts into China and thus promoted municipal transformation to some extent. Municipal modernization had greatly changed the lives of modern Chinese people and influenced the traditional Chinese townspeople’s ideology and way of thinking. Municipal construction is one of the important administrative works shouldered by governments, especially modern governments. Zhou Zifeng divided the municipal construction of Xiamen from 1920 to 1937 into two stages:  the slow development stage and the rapid development stage, and held that the development of modern Xiamen in material civilization, public consciousness and social structure had also affected Xiamen society.11 Cao Sheng held that the municipal construction of Qingdao during German occupation had a strong colonial color.12 Zhao Ke thought that the imported modern European and American political systems had promoted the rise of Guangzhou municipal construction in the twentieth century.13 Zhang Wei analyzed the impact of the concessions’ on Shanghai’s urban construction from the perspective of cross-​border road construction.14 Public transportation is an important aspect of municipal construction, and the related studies mainly concentrated on the development of public transportation and the conflicts between the old and new modes of transportation. Qiu Guosheng held that the successive introduction of rickshaws and trams had improved traffic conditions in Shanghai, but the rickshaws and trams coexisted contradictorily.15 Wang Yinhuan pointed out that though there appeared contradictions between the rickshaws and trams in the process of traffic modernization, these two modes of transport coexisted in the urban public traffic system.16 Chen Wenbin argued that the development of Shanghai’s urban society and economy and the acceleration of townspeople’s

118  HE Yimin pace of life after its opening up had promoted the modernization of its transportation.17 The management of public utilities is one of the important aspects of urban public utilities. Qiu Guosheng pointed out that since modern times, under the circumstances of increasing foreign population and insufficient government management, Shanghai’s organizations of country people had played a significant role in managing the external population, and promoted Shanghai’s urbanization.18 Du Lihong discussed the reform of Beijing’s sewage management in the 1930s, and pointed out that the change from official management to public-​private joint management had made the reform of Beijing’s excrement management achieve some initial success.19 Wang Chaoguang discussed the control of state power over culture and arts through investigating the development of the Shanghai Film Censorship Committee.20 4.1.6  Studies on urban society, public space and popular culture Urban society and public space are two of the principal areas of urban history studies, which have been a new trend in the urban history research for the past 60 years. Since the twenty-​first century, it has got beyond the previous research paradigm and highlighted the “top-​down” orientation of urban history studies. Urban society research mainly focused on strata of society such as the middle and lower levels of the society including the gentry, rickshaw drivers and prostitutes, social organizations such as associations, clubs and chambers of commerce, townspeople’s lives, and so on. Concerning the study of gentry and merchants, representative works include Yu Ziming’s “From Villages to the Cities: Urbanization of the Gentry in the Late Qing Dynasty” (Journal of Historical Science, Issue 8, 2002), Guan Wenbin’s The Dawn of Civilization—​ Modern Tianjin Salt Merchants and Society (Tianjin People’s Publishing House, 1999), Qiu Jie’s “Modern Guangdong Businessmen and the Early Modernization of Guangdong” (Guangdong Social Sciences, Issue 2, 2002), Hou Xuanjie’s “Chambers of Commerce and the Grain Management in Cities—​A Case Study on the Chambers of Commerce in Tianjin” (Journal of South China Agricultural University Social Science, Issue 1, 2006), Ren Yunlan’s “On the Relief Measures of Tianjin Chamber of Commerce in the Natural Calamity of North China (1903–​1936): the State-​Society Relations in Modern Charities and Social Relief ” (Journal of Historical Science, Issue 4, 2004)  and so on. Concerning the study of lowest social groups such as rickshaw drivers, there were Kong Xiangcheng’s “A Study of Shanghai’s Rickshaw Group in the Process of Modernization—​Centering on the 1920s and 1930s” (Academic Research, Issue 10, 2004), Jiang Pei’s “On the Structure of Prostitution in Tianjin during the First Half of the 20th Century” (Modern Chinese History Studies, Issue 2, 2003). On the study of social organizations, there were Wang Yunjun’s “On Citizens’ Consciousness of Participation in Government and Political Affairs—​The Case of Nanjing City Community in

Urban history  119 the Republic of China” (Jiangsu Social Sciences, Issue 1, 2002), Li Bohuai’s “Analysis of the Relations Between the Chamber of Commerce and Trade Guilds during the Republic of China—​A Case Study of Chengdu, 1929–​ 1949” (Journal of Sichuan Normal University Social Sciences, Issue 2, 2005), Guo Xuyin’s “Characteristics of Modern Shanghai’s Guild Halls during the Urban Transformation Period” (Academic Monthly, Issue 3, 2003), Wang Chunying’s “Multi-​ Visions of Government-​ Merchant Dynamics:  On the Formation of the Chamber of Commerce in Late Qing Dynasty” (Journal of Central China Normal University [Humanities and Social Sciences], Issue 5, 2005) and Song Meiyun’s “The Function of the Chamber of Commerce in Marketization—​A Case Study of Tianjin” (Journal of Tianjin Normal University Social Sciences, Issue 3, 2005). As for the study of townspeople’s lives, Xin Ping’s Discovering History from Shanghai—​People and their Social Life in the Process of Modernization (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1996) can be regarded as a representative work. Xin Ping studied Shanghai residents and their social life in the process of modernization with a holographic conception of history and made innovations both in theory and methodology. Papers on this topic include Wang Yi’s “Wandering between the Tradition and the Modern: Looking at the Cultural Changes in Shanghai from the Perspective of Zhuzhici” (Historical Review, No. 6, 2008), Zhao Nan’s “Urban Life of Shanghai in the Mid-​19th Century—​Seen from The Chinese Shipping List & Advertiser” (Historical Review, No. 1, 2004), Ge Tao’s “Photographs and Shanghai’s Social Life in the Late Qing Dynasty and the Early Republic of China” (Historical Review, No. 4, 2003), Qiao Shan’s “Reasons and Characteristics of Changes in Consumptive Life of Modern Cities” (Forum on Chinese Culture, Issue 2, 2001), Chu Xiaoxi’s “Study on the Grocery Markets of Modern Shanghai” (Historical Review, No. 5, 2005), Li Deying’s “Urban Public Space and Social Life—​Taking Modern City Parks as an Example” (Urban History Research, Vols. 19 and 20, Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences Press, 2000), and so on. As for the study of urban public space, scholars had been concerned about the physical space of urban buildings, and conducted research on the urban-​ human space, to wit, the public domain as well. The most representative work on the former topic is Liu Haiyan’s monograph Space and Society: The Evolution of Modern Tianjin City (Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences Press, 2003); on the second topic, there appeared lots of articles, such as Li Wei’s “Cinemas in Modern Shanghai and Urban Public Space (1908–​1937)” (Archives and History, Issue 3, 2004), Chen Yunxi and Qi Xu’s “Elite Culture and Popular Culture in the Reorganization of Modern Urban Space—​A Case Study of Popular Theaters in Nantong of Jiangsu” (Jiangsu Social Sciences, Issue 6, 2008), Wang Wei’s “The Opening of Parks in Modern Beijing and Extension of Public Space” (Beijing Social Science, Issue 2, 2008)  and Ye Zhongqiang’s “Formation of the Public Cultural Consumption Space in Modern Shanghai and Its Social Function” (Journal of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics [Philosophy and Social Sciences], Issue 4, 2006).

120  HE Yimin

4.2  Theoretical explorations Since the beginning of urban history studies, scholars have always attached immense importance to the discussion of urban history theories, and initially formed diversified theoretical models and research methods with Chinese characteristics. The hot topics can be summarized as follows: 4.2.1  The basic content of urban history studies The study of the basic content and clues of modern urban history studies was a problem the urban historians had often faced and disputed in the mid-​ 1980s and early 1990s. The city is an organic whole complexly composed of numerous factors covering a wide range. Most researchers acknowledged that compared with other theoretical works, works on modern urban history studies had distinctive characteristics. They were different from the general chronicles which take politics as their main content and are compiled in strict chronological order. They were also different from specialized history investigating a specific field, and they were more different from the local chronicles and city annals aiming at organizing, studying and preserving historical facts. However, as for how to distinguish the characteristics of modern city history and other disciplines, and determine its connotations, scholars had disputed heatedly with each other and proposed quite different opinions. Some scholars argued that urban history was different from local history and emphasized that as a third-​level discipline, urban history was a branch of social history and was cooperatively studied by the historians and sociologists in foreign countries, so urban history was actually the social and economic history of cities. The focus of urban history studies should be on the social and economic aspects of the cities, and its research field should be extended to the various and in-​depth aspects of urban society, such as the evolution of modern urban society, the change in urban economic structure, the social classes and ranks, folk organizations and political parties, townspeople’s movements, changes in the public psychology, lifestyles, social outlooks and customs, the intersection of and conflict between Chinese and Western civilization, social management, municipal transportation, and development and reforms in culture and education. Scholars holding the above-​mentioned opinions were called “the Sociology School” at the time. However, some other scholars proposed different opinions and argued that although urban society was an important aspect of the cities, it was not the whole content of urban history studies, and thus advocated that urban history should take the structural and functional development and evolution of cities as its basic content. They emphasized that urban history should be an organic social entity and a comprehensive social moving progress occurring under specific environmental and historical conditions. Urban history research should focus on the evolution of urban structures and functions from the simple and primary form to the complex and high-​level form. Only by grasping this main line

Urban history  121 could we clearly define the field and connotation of urban history research, and make it have its own features different from local history and annals of cities. We should also distinguish two types of urban history studies: the first taking national or regional city systems or city groups as its research objects and the second taking individual cities as its research objects. The content of these two types of research was interrelated but different from each other. The former focused on the city system or the overall structure and function of cities, and the latter focused on the concrete structure and function of a specific city. Both these two types could reveal the development and evolution of the structure and function of a city through studies on its five aspects: region, the economy, society, politics and culture. These researchers were then called “the Structure-​Function School,” whose views seem imperfect now, but at that time, they did exert an important influence on urban history and played a vital role in helping researchers grasp the basic content of urban history quickly. In addition, some scholars proposed that we should strengthen the comprehensive study of urban history, because the city is a comprehensive entity consisting of many aspects such as politics, economy, culture, society and population, and urban history should be a comprehensive developing history covering all these aspects. These scholars are known as the “Comprehensive Analysis School.” Some other scholars believed that the city should be a structure, a dynamic three-​dimensional society and advocated taking the study of evolution and characteristics of urban society and civilization as the main line of urban research. They held that researchers’ vision must cover the entire urban society, urban civilization and its history. Vertically, we should study the context and stages of the formation and development of cities, the developmental status and historical features of cities in different historical periods. Horizontally, we should study the subsystems of cities such as urban geography, geomorphology, natural landscape, gardens, urban industry, commerce and finance, urban architecture, public utilities, transportation, municipal engineering, and science and technology. These subsystems had their sides and branches, which further extended to many subsystems, and thus could be studied from different perspectives. Furthermore, the rise and fall of urban society and civilization should be the basic clue of urban history studies and the following elements should be emphasized:  first, the formation, vicissitude, developmental chain and sections of cities; second, the social formation and social structure of cities (geo-​spatial structure, urban administration and municipal structure, economic structure, population, social stratum, etc.); third, the nature and functional evolution of cities, including economic, political, military and cultural functions, and so on; fourth, the cultural features of cites, including the styles, fashions, townspeople’s temperament and lifestyles, social psychology, cultural genres and even favored products of cities. Concerning the research methods and orientations of urban history, some scholars proposed that there should be four main directions: region, society, space and culture. Other scholars emphasized that urban history research

122  HE Yimin should pay attention to the history and argued that although it was necessary to explore the law of urban development from the perspectives of different disciplines, studying cites through the historical approach should be the most basic way. However, not all scholars agreed with this view, because urban history research itself was comprehensive. They even put forward that the study of architectural history should be closely integrated with urban history research to make urban history more open and more specialized. 4.2.2  Modernization and urbanization of cities Cities are political, economic and cultural centers of a country or a region, and thus the bases of modernization. Cities are also windows or mirrors of a country, through which people can see how well a country has modernized. Therefore, all scholars studying modern urban history attached great importance to the study of urban modernization. It can be said that most of the existing mainland scholars’ studies on the modern city history have followed this mainline, and the only difference lay in the specific perspectives. Some scholars proposed that there existed two mainlines promoting and restricting each other in modern Chinese urban history studies. One is the process of modern urbanization, and the other is the process of urban modernization. However, in the study of different types of cities, these two mainlines should be emphasized differently. In national or regional city systems, the distribution and density of the population in different cities and towns were different, and the rank, hierarchy and spatial distribution, types of urban socio-​economy, industrial layout and social and economic ties among cities and towns were also different. So, the focus of regional urban research should take urbanization as its mainline. Single city research taking a specific city as its research object should take urban modernization as its mainline and focus on the modernization process of urban structures and functions. The division of these two mainlines, to some extent, was to facilitate our expression. In fact, these two mainlines referred to the same historical process. Urbanization itself was an important symbol of modernization, and urban modernization is only a reflection of improvement in the urbanization level. The main characteristics of early urban modernization were as follows: the clustering and development of modern national industry and commerce in the cities, the rise and development of the anti-​imperialist and anti-​feudal national democratic movements in the cities, the rise and development of modern education, science, technology and culture in the cities, and changes caused by the above-​ mentioned factors in social structures, class structures, social organizations, values, conceptions, and so on. Some other scholars proposed that China’s modern urbanization was different from the urbanization of Western countries, and their differences could be summarized as follows: first, their driving forces were different. The main driving force for Western urbanization was industrialization, and modern China’s urbanization was mainly driven by commercialization; second, the

Urban history  123 difference between China and Western countries’ urbanization was huge, and the main reason was that modern Chinese cities’ “pulling force” on the rural area and the rural area’s “pushing force” on the cities were insufficient; third, in the process of global modernization, the major Western countries were the winners of the “ultimate interests” in the world’s economic exchanges, because the cities of Western countries were at the center and the cities of developing countries were on the periphery, and the central cities had strong economic control over the peripheral cities and forced the wealth to flow from the latter to the former. The peripheral cities could only gain some related or intermediate interests in the process of wealth outflow. This economic relationship reflected some semi-​colonial features in the process of urbanization in modern China, and the divergent functions and characteristics of modern urbanization in China and the West as well. The study of urbanization also involves many theoretical issues, for example, concerning the connotation of urbanization, there existed two different views: one view held that urbanization should refer to the shift of population from the countryside to the cities and advocated that the migration of the population from rural to urban areas should be the key indicator of urbanization; the other view held that modern urbanization should include not only the urbanization of the population, but also many other aspects such as the centralization of secondary industry and tertiary industry in cities, the increase in the number of cities, the expansion of urban area in a region, the popularity of the cities’ mode of production, lifestyle and values and their spread in the countryside. Historical researchers’ reflection on this issue is echoing with the study of contemporary urbanization done by researchers in the fields of demography, urbanology, geography, economics, sociology, and so on. In recent years, other disciplines in mainland China have made great theoretical developments in urbanization research, so all related disciplines should learn about each other’s strong points for common progress. 4.2.3  Semi-​colonization and urban development Only after the invasion of foreign capitalism, did the modernization of Chinese cities take place. Therefore, most scholars believe that China’s urban modernization and urbanization was simultaneous and intertwined with colonization and semi-​colonialization. After foreign capitalists’ aggression against China, China was forced unwillingly to adopt foreign civilization, and aggression became an unconscious historical tool stimulating the change of Chinese cities and the start of the modernization process. It is especially noteworthy that in recent years, most scholars can look at the relationship between semi-​ colonialization and modernization objectively and dialectically and make objective and correct evaluations of the role of foreign capitalists’ invasion of China in the face of one-​sided research tendencies of previous studies emphasizing the destruction of China by colonial aggression. Many scholars have pointed out that the discrepancy between colonialists’ motives and effects

124  HE Yimin was quite common. In modern history, the motives of colonialists’ aggression against China did not always conform to their effects. They pointed out that though the motives of colonialists’ aggression against China were extremely contemptible, objectively speaking, they played a certain role in stimulating the progress of Chinese cities. Scholars generally believe that the semi-​colonies in the cities of modern China have the following four characteristics:  first, the functions and structures of these cities were marked with semi-​colonial features; second, these cities’ development and layouts were unbalanced; third, national capital was squeezed and the compradors were quite active; fourth, the “urban disease” was very popular. As for Western influence and semi-​colonialization, we should pay attention to the following two issues:  first, not all China’s modern civilization came from the West; second, it was a historical trend that the Western civilization would permeate developing countries and regions in different ways and forms. Although the aggression of foreign capitalism brought some Western civilization, it was precisely this kind of aggression which violated China’s sovereignty and gave them privileges in China, which hindered Chinese people’s faster and better study of Western advanced culture to a considerable extent. The combination of imperialism and Chinese feudalism had made China’s modernization process very slow and gave China features of colonial and dependent countries. Therefore, in the study of China’s urban modernization, we should fathom Chinese people’s own role and fully analyze the promotive and obstructive function of imperialists aggression. Concessions were a special phenomenon in modern Chinese cities and an important symbol of the semi-​colonialization of Chinese urban colonization. The existence of concessions had a profound impact on the development of modern Chinese cities. Since the mid-​1980s, scholars from Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Wuhan and Beijing have conducted in-​depth study of concessions. Some scholars have explored the experiences of construction and management of modern Western cities and their objective influences on China’s urban modernization and pointed out that concessions and Chinese communities are interrelated and interact with each other. In the initial stages, concessions relied on Chinese communities. When the concessions became prosperous, they exerted great impact on Chinese communities, stimulating their modernization. For example, the advanced municipal facilities and administration in the concessions had been imitated by Chinese communities continuously; the economy of the concessions had a strong radiation effect on Chinese communities, which caused changes in the industrial structure of Chinese communities and their suburbs. Scholars also dialectically analyzed the motives and effects of the colonialists, pointing out that the colonialists establishing concessions, running factories, and engaging in trade was mainly for their own interests, with the aim of making profits and provoking economic aggression against China. On the one hand, colonialist aggression had deepened China’s degree of semi-​colonization; on the other, it had also

Urban history  125 accelerated the disintegration of China’s natural economy and created an environment for the development of modern industry and promoted the development of urban modernization. 4.2.4  The driving forces for the urban modernization and urbanization Scholars generally believe that there are two kinds of driving forces—​internal and external—​ behind China’s urban development in modern times. For example, Zhang Zhongli et al. held that traditional Chinese cities could not breed townspeople and the public movements confronting feudal society could not bring about the industrial revolution, and could not open the doors to the modernization either. They argued that Shanghai’s modernization began from opening the port and establishing concessions forced by armed colonial invaders and undertaken by imitating the new models of foreign capitalist management. Shanghai’s modernization showed foreign influence and had strong with Western features. However, the impact of foreign countries was only the external factor, which was fully manifest through the changes in internal factors, that is, the people of Shanghai’s understanding of Western democratic political thought, modes of urban management, modes of business management, technology, and so on. They also believed that the exchanges between Shanghai and foreign countries were not unidirectional but bidirectional. On the one hand, Western democratic political thought, modes of urban management, modes of business management and technology and other reasons promoted the modernization of Shanghai. On the other hand, Shanghai also contributed to the prosperity of Western countries.21 He Yimin also held that the driving forces for the beginning and development of China’s urban modernization came from two aspects: first externally, namely, the foreign capitalist invaders and second, internally, that is, the forces produced by the revolution in the internal structure of Chinese society. Both these driving forces consisted of various elements, formed a comprehensive and interactive force, and promoted the start of China’s urban modernization. The impact of external forces on Chinese cities is like a double-​edged sword with both negative and positive sides. The negative side was that some cities were reduced to colonial or semi-​colonial cities, which suppressed and hindered the development of China’s capitalism, resulting in the abnormal development of China’s cities. The positive side was that they promoted China’s urban modernization. First, external forces promoted the transition to the opening up of the urban economy to early modernization and brought about the evolution of urban economic and functional structures. Second, the external forces changed the outlook of the cities, promoted the development of urban construction for early modernization, and created certain conditions for the emergence of Chinese urban capitalism. Zhang Zhongli et  al. also pointed out that though the process, speed, scale, scope and nature of the early modernization of Chinese cities were influenced by external forces, they were ultimately determined by the internal conditions of China’s social revolution, such as the

126  HE Yimin form, degree, nature and scale. The driving force for modernization mainly came from the internal part of Chinese society and Chinese people’s efforts to adapt to the new situation and promote modernization.22 However, there were also some scholars who placed more emphasis on the role of external forces in the modernization of modern Chinese cities. For example, based on ample data about old customs and local places, The Jigsaw Puzzle of China’s Economy over the Past 100 Years: Port Cities and Their Hinterland and China’s Modernization (Shandong Pictorial Publishing House, 2006)  edited by Wu Songdi comprehensively studied China’s process of modernization since 1840 from the perspectives of the global trend of modernization, China’s vast territory and regional disparity. It described the modernization process starting from the coastal cities to the vast interior along important transport routes and discussed the relationship between port cities and their hinterland as well. It not only studied the trade and economic development of 12 important port cities including Shanghai and their bidirectional interaction with the hinterland, but also discussed the relationship between the port cities in regions like the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta and the whole regions, as well as the impact on the current regional economic development and modernization. Some scholars believe that commercialization is the main driving force for the development of modern cities in China. China’s modern industrial development had been very slow. Modern China’s rural population had to move to cities through commercialization. Commerce was far lower than industry in terms of adsorptive capacity of population, resulting in the low levels of modern urbanization in China. For example, Le Zheng thought that the opening of commercial ports and their resulting commercial power started modern China’s urbanization process and the new driving force and new features of urban development.23 Some other scholars do not agree with this view. For example, Li Yunhua thought that industrialization alone was the lifeblood of China’s urban modernization and urbanization. He stressed that the developing process of China’s industrialization was the developing process of urban modernization and urbanization. The developing speed and developing level of industrialization determined the developing speed and developing level of urban modernization and urbanization. To some extent, the nature and developing characteristics of modern Chinese industry determined the nature of China’s urban modernization and its evolving characteristics.24 More researchers look at this issue in two ways: on the one hand they attach foremost importance to the role of opening port cities in the urban development and think that in the process of China’s urban development, opening port cities was a new form and different from the primary cities and traditional open cities. The opening of port cities was first manifested in the economy. The opening of their economy characterized by treaty trade determined that they were bound to frequently, heavily and ceaselessly make material, energetic and informative exchange with the outside world, and other cities at home and abroad, as well as the vast rural

Urban history  127 hinterland that it could radiate to maintain the cities’ metabolism. The opening of port cities was also manifest in their continuous absorption of developed cities’ advanced technology, equipment, scientific achievements and various technical personnel, and ceaseless importation of all kinds of raw materials and consumer goods from surrounding areas. The opening of port cites constantly exerted great influence on the development of other cities and surrounding rural areas from various aspects such as politics, economy, culture, technology, equipment, materials, personnel and knowledge. Therefore, once opened, modern Chinese cities would develop to varying degrees. The opening of commercial ports had promoted the rise of many new industrial and commercial cities. By the early twentieth century, the open commercial cities were mainly China’s emerging cities, and some of them had become regional and even national economic centers, which initially became centers of regional and national economic networks. It is thought that opening trade to urban development was mainly manifested in the following aspects: first, the forced opening of commercial treaty ports, the establishment of foreign concessions, and the various Western countries’ penetration into China’s politics, economy, culture and other aspects brought many cities into the world capitalist system. Second, open cities became distribution centers for foreign capitalism’s import of goods and export of raw materials in China, which contributed to their development. Third, the opening of these cities made them first get in touch with Western industrial civilization and lay foundations for the development of China’s capitalism and urban modernization. On the other hand, they also emphasize the relationship between the development of these cities and industry and hold that industrialization was the internal driving force for China’s modern urban development. Though these cities became prosperous because of business, it was industry which supported their further development. The development of industry doubled cities’ absorptive capacity and stimulated their expansion and industrialization which directly provided the material basis for urban development and promoted their modernization. 4.2.5  Urban and rural relations Though cities are different from villages in many aspects such as society, economy, culture and architecture, they still have close relations with the villages. The existence and development of cities require a certain range of villages as their hinterland. Therefore, urban history research should not be confined to the city itself but must expand its field of vision and link the city with its surrounding villages at a certain distance to further fathom the process of urbanization. China is a big agricultural country, and urban history research must pay special attention to the study of urban-​rural relations. Some scholars believe that in the development of Western cities, the separation and opposition of urban and rural areas was mainly manifested as the social division between rural and urban areas and the opposition between the

128  HE Yimin urban capital right and the rural land right. However, in China’s urban development, the urban-​rural social division was not obvious, and there was no sharp opposition between capital and land right, which was a very different feature between Chinese and Western urban-​rural relations. Modern China’s urban-​rural relations were manifested in two aspects:  on the one hand, as economic centers, cities had a greater radiating capacity and attractiveness to villages, which strengthened the link between urban and rural areas to a certain extent; on the other, urban expansion and opposition between the rural and urban areas, and the city’s political oppression and economic exploitation of the villages resulted in the backwardness and bankruptcy of the rural areas, intensified the inherent contradictions of villages, and ultimately delayed the process of urbanization and urban modernization in China. However, we should also notice that the evolution and development of modern China’s urban-​rural relations was a complex historical process. We should pay attention to not only the impact of urban modernization on rural areas and the social and economic changes brought in these areas, but also the infiltration of the backward and medieval characteristics of rural areas into cities.25 There are some scholars proposing that we should study urban-​ rural relations at various levels within the scope of the whole modern world. Shanghai was a city in China, but a village of Western countries; Chongqing was a city in the Southwest region of China, but a village of Shanghai, because Shanghai was the market and supplier of raw materials for Western industrial products, and Chongqing was the market and supplier of raw materials for Shanghai’s industrial products. This view had its novelty, and the study of the development of China’s urban-​rural relations within the scope of the whole modern world also had its own reasons, but its statement considering Shanghai as the village of Western countries and Chongqing as the village of Shanghai caused many dissenting views and many scholars believed that it would lead to new misunderstandings in the study of modern Chinese urban history. Some other scholars believe that since modern times, due to the invasion of foreign capitalism, as well as the growth of China’s capitalism, urban-​rural relations had also undergone corresponding changes in two major aspects: on the one hand, the development of urban economic function exerted a wider range of absorption and attractiveness to rural areas, expanding the economic link between urban and rural areas. On the other hand, the social division of labor between urban and rural areas had developed considerably. Most mechanized manufacturing industries were concentrated in the cities, but the essential raw materials required and urban people’s goods were mainly from the rural areas. With the transformation of urban functions and the improvement of urban living conditions, the gap between modern cities and villages had been widened and the traditional view of “home village” (Xiang Tu) had been broken gradually, and cities had become more attractive to the rural population. More and more of the rural population stayed in the cities and became permanent urban dwellers, and did not return to rural areas, which broke

Urban history  129 the traditional urban-​rural relations. However, some scholars believe that the traditional urban-​rural relationship was not changed in modern China, and the clear social division of labor between rural and urban areas was not yet formed. Urban economic life was dominated by the trinity of landlords, businessmen and usurers. The countryside was politically oppressed, economically exploited and pillaged by the cities, which led to the bankruptcy of the rural economy and delayed the urbanization process of the rural areas. Some other scholars believe that the delay in rural urbanization also restricted the development of urban modernization. Modernized Western capitalist countries took cities as the bases for the development of modernization and promoted the development of the whole region including the rural areas. Comparatively speaking, the tension between cities and the countryside was not very serious in these countries. But in China, early modernization was not a natural evolutionary historical process but a disseminated modernization process which was forced by the aggression of Western powers to maintain the rule of the Qing Dynasty and the survival of the Chinese nation. The early modernization advocated by the Qing court gave priority to the development of modern military industry and heavy industry to meet the needs of national survival, which accordingly determined the historical position of the Chinese urban and rural areas: early modernization could only take place in the cities and was totally detached from grassroots rural society. In this way, from the very beginning, the modernization during the late Qing Dynasty could only take place where the urban and rural areas were split, and this split structure excluded the rural areas from the modernization process. The rural areas could not benefit from the initial achievements of modernization but must bear the heavy burden of launching modernization. Under such circumstances, the rural areas plunged into a serious decline and instability, which counteracted the early modernization movement and became a significant cause for the setback of China’s early modernization. 4.2.6  Research on regional urban history Modern regional urban research is the latest trend in current urban history studies. It is characterized by the fragmentation of China into a number of smaller research units and the holistic and comprehensive study of the interrelated geographical, economic, social, political, cultural and other factors among these units in one system. The theoretical prerequisite for the methodology of regional urban history studies is based on objective national conditions and the existence of extremely uneven economic levels of social development and significant regional and local variations in China. Only when the form, content and extent of regional variations are accurately and meticulously analyzed can we accurately grasp the whole picture of urban history. To some extent, our study of regional urban history has been influenced by the Skinnerian Model, but many scholars have tried to construct theories and

130  HE Yimin methods of regional urban history with Chinese characteristics on the basis of reviewing Skinner’s theory. First, as for the nature and definition of the regional urban history, some scholars thought that regional urban history should be a branch of regional history, and also a branch of urban history; to be more precise, it is a new research field combining regional history and urban history. They argued that the definition of regional urban history should be “an urban history which takes the city system and city group with common links and features in politics, economy, society, culture and other aspects as its research subject.”26 Some other scholars thought that the history of regional cities should be part of regional history studies and a branch of regional history.27 On the surface, there exists no huge discrepancy between these two arguments. However, they will lead to different research content and focuses. So, the former has won wider recognition among historians of urban history. Second, as for the research content and subjects of regional urban history, some scholars proposed that the research subjects of regional urban history should be the city system and city groups in a certain region; and the basic research content should include at least three aspects: the history of the evolution of the city system in that region, the historical road and the level of development of regional urbanization, the relationship between urban and rural areas in that region.28 Some other scholars are more concerned about the function and impact of regions on urbanization and believe that regional urban history should include the regions which have interrelated city groups with common features in politics, economy, society, culture and other aspects as its research subject, and study the formation and development of city systems and the historical changes in the relations between cities of various types and the urban-​rural relations in that region.29 The focus of regional urban research should be the city system which has one or several cities as its center, and has the integrated internal structural function. Regional urban research should pay attention to the impact of cyclical changes in urban development, the structural characteristics of regional city systems, and inter-​regional differences.30 Regional urban research is a new research area combining regional history and urban history. It will study the regional background and also the theme of urban development. These two aspects are indispensable, but at present, researchers have different emphases on them, which is understandable. In order to distinguish the research boundaries between regional urban history and general regional history and highlight the characteristics of modern urban history research, in a certain period of time, it is more appropriate for regional urban history to center on regional city systems and the development and evolution of city groups. The third is the division of the regions. The primary problem encountered in regional urban research is the division of regions. Skinner’s macro division of China’s regions has had a significant impact on Chinese scholars, but because his theory has some shortcomings and its regional research lacks operability, more and more researchers are questioning his division of regions.

Urban history  131 Skinner’s division is mainly based on natural geographical conditions.31 But the criteria for regional division are various, and the referential indexes can either be economy, politics and culture, be nature, geography, nations, and so on. Therefore, as for the division of regions, some scholars advocate that in addition to considering the specific administrative, geographical, and economic conditions to determine the research scope, we should also take the characteristics of urban history into consideration to determine the criteria of division. First, we must consider the role and sphere of influence of the central city in the city system, which can be regarded as the scope of regional urban history studies; second, we should consider the dynamic state of the range of city systems. So, the scope of regional urban history studies should take the historical dynamic division criteria according to the development and evolution of city systems.32 Other scholars hold that the regional city system refers to the geographical distribution of cities of different types and standing within a certain area. This distribution not only constitutes the city system of that region, but also a comprehensive reflection of its economic system and economic development.33 A  multi-​ disciplinary and multi-​ perspective historiographical concept should be established in defining the concept of city systems. The city system reflects not only the economic system and economic development, but also the integrated system in which various factors (economy, politics, culture, society, etc.) are intertwined. Therefore, the concept of regional city system should be defined as follows: in a specific region, different cities form a city group because of their connections of certain frequency in politics, economy, culture, society, and so on. As a large system, a city is an integrated whole combining various factors. There are intricate connections among the cities in a city group and we should attach importance to the integrity and interconnections of the city system. The main task of regional city system research is to uncover the connections, development and changes of cities in the same city group in a specific area, and the formation and development of the city system.34 The proposition of the concept and approach of a regional city system reflects the new trend in Chinese regional urban research that Chinese scholars are trying to break through Skinner and other foreign scholars’ thinking modes overemphasizing the economic and geographical aspects in studying regional cities, and striving to learn from theories and methods of various disciplines to carry out comprehensive, integrated, interrelated research on Chinese regional cities. 4.2.7 Discussions on the law of urban development The historical responsibility and mission of urban historians is to reveal the inherent law of Chinese urban development through the in-​depth study of urban history, which not only has academic significance for urban history research, but also has important practical significance for guiding the current urban development. The contemporary cities are the continuation and development of the modern cities. Through the study of modern urban development

132  HE Yimin and social changes, we can provide historical experience and lessons for the construction of contemporary cities. Through 20 years of explorations and research, scholars have proposed the following laws of urban development. The first is the law of privileged development of political administrative centers in the agricultural era. A city is a complicated complex affected not only by economic and political factors, but also cultural, social and psychological factors. However, at different times, the extent to which each factor works is different. In the agricultural era, political factors were more important than other factors like the economy. The highly centralized political system which had been adopted since the Qing Dynasty determined that the primary factor for the development of a Chinese city was its political status in the feudal regime. The formation of the law of priority development of the cities established as political administrative centers has a direct connection with the continuous strengthening of China’s centralized political system. All the cities were included in the hierarchy of political administration, and the planning and construction of cities were constrained by it. So, cities established as political administrative centers could obtain capital, labor and technology more easily through administrative power and thus develop faster than other cities. The higher the administrative level of the city was, the faster it developed and the larger it grew. The capital city was often the largest city in an area, and the provincial capitals were generally larger than the prefectural capitals and county towns. The second is the law of privileged development of economic centers in the industrial era. After entering the industrial age, besides the law of privileged development of political centers, the privileged development of economic centers became a new law. Since the mid-​ nineteenth century, the world economy had been transformed into the direction of integration, and the external conditions of Chinese cities had changed. So, the dynamic mechanism of urban development had also changed accordingly, and external factors had been increasingly affecting the development of Chinese cities. Because of the invasion of Western forces, the traditional law of political factors determining the scale of urban development was challenged by external forces, which led to the changes in the power mechanism of urban development. Besides the privileged development of political centers, it had also become a new law to give priority to the development of economic centers. A number of emerging economic centers sprang up, whose growth not only had an impact on the economic layout of certain regions, but also on the whole of China, and even the world, which had initially laid the basic pattern of China’s modern urban development. The main reason for the privileged development of economic centers was that since the industrial revolution, the proportion of urban economy—​with modern industry, commerce and finance as its main body—​ in the national economy had increased gradually and the urban economy had dominated the national economy and cities become the national and regional economic centers. The prosperity of urban economy not only reduced its dependence on administrative rights, but also promoted social progress.

Urban history  133 During this period, cities were built on the basis of the open economy whose main feature was mechanized large-​scale industrial production and the wide circulation of commodities. The industrial products of modern large-​scale production were not mainly aimed at the cities’ internal consumption, but were mainly for external exchanges. Profits obtained through the flow of goods were then used to expand reproduction to maintain the value of the capital and the development of the enterprises. Therefore, the nature of the cities of the industrial era had undergone qualitative changes. They were no longer simple consumer centers, but production centers in the first place. The export-​oriented urban economy put the city in a state of socialized large-​scale production. Under and economic environment where the regional division of social production was rigid and the commodity exchanges were extensive, urban development depended on foreign exchanges and the trading of industrial products. In order to better economical communications, it was necessary to develop modern traffic networks which take cities as their hubs. At the same time, the rise of modern traffic had provided the most favorable tools for breaking the geographical restrictions. The development of transportation had strengthened the openness of the cities, promoted the horizontal urban-​rural connections and inter-​city relations, broken the regionally closed state of the cities, and created a wider space for their development. In the industrial age urban development was synchronized with industrial development. Industrialization was the driving force for urban development, and urban development in turn promoted the development of industrialization. Industrialization and urban development influenced each other and promoted each other. However, it should be noted that the city’s functioning as an economic center and the economic center city are different concepts. Not all cities can become economic centers, and in a country or region, only part of the cities can become economic centers. In the early stage of industrialization and modern urban development, the characteristics of economic development were centralization rather than dispersion. Some cities were well regarded in economy, society, environment, construction, and so on, which other cities lacked or could not be compared with. So, the essential factors of population, production and social culture were all gathered around these cities, and the resulting aggregation effects had become an important reason for the advanced development of large cities. The third is the cyclical regularity of urban development. Scholars hold that urban development has a cyclical law. The decline of cities is like the rise, development and prosperity of cities, which are all inevitable stages of urban development. The rise, development, prosperity and decline of cities constitute the city’s cyclical development. In several successive cyclical development periods, cities have constantly accumulated quantitatively and advanced qualitatively, and thus made their leaps from the agricultural age to the industrial age, from the industrial age to the information age. It was first proposed that we should study the urban development cycle from the perspectives

134  HE Yimin of the agricultural age and the industrial age respectively. China is a traditional agricultural country with a history of agricultural civilization lasting for thousands of years. In the whole era of the agricultural society, Chinese urban civilization had never been interrupted, which constitutes a prominent feature of Chinese cities. The development and decline of Chinese cities are always consistent with the prosperity and replacement of the feudal dynasties. Cites would flourish when the dynasty thrived and the wars in its late period would destroy them and cause their rapid decline. The cities would return to prosperity when another dynasty sprang up. There is no doubt that the low-​ level cycle of development, decline, destruction and restoration in the urban development of the agricultural society—​coincident with the alternation of dynasties—​is only an external manifestation of the cyclical development of urban development. To fathom the inherent laws of urban development cycles in the agricultural society, we need to analyze and grasp the urban development cycle in combination with urban-​rural relations and the features of the urban and rural areas in the agricultural society. In the industrial age, cities expanded and differentiated rapidly driven by economic power, which led to the intensification of imbalance among cities and the appearance of new forms in the development cycle of cities, such as the acceleration in urban development, the increase of uncertainties, the shortening of the urban development period, the increase of city types, different development cycles of different cities and the growing of external influences on the urban development cycles.35

4.3  Problems and prospects Since the reform and opening up, modern urban history research has sprung up and fully demonstrated its vigorous academic vitality and strong momentum of development. But it should also be noted that this is only the first step. As a new discipline which has just begun to take shape, there are still a number of problems and shortcomings in its theoretical system, research methods, research areas, and so on, which need to be solved through hard work. Mainland academia has initially formed a theoretical framework with Chinese characteristics in modern urban history research, but has still not produced an authoritative theoretical model. Many researchers still have the problem of ambiguous understanding or mechanical application of theories, and the study of many theoretical issues such as the connotation and the basic clues of the urban history. The connotation and driven forces of urban modernization still need to be deepened further; the understanding of some theoretical issues like the periodization of urban development, classification of types of cities and the criteria of regional classification are still in a state of confusion. In the field of regional urban history, some scholars are still greatly constrained by foreign theories. In terms of research methods, some researchers have noticed the importance of diversity and strive to use the multi-​disciplinary research method combining theories and methods of social

Urban history  135 and natural science, and some achievements have been achieved. However, there are also many researchers who do not attach importance to the research method, still follow the traditional and single historical research method and are satisfied with the general description of the status of urban development. There are also some problems in the research fields and topics. Urban research of individual cities mainly concentrated on several large and medium-​sized cities, and the study of many small and medium-​sized cities and towns with great variations is still in a weak state. This situation has seriously restricted the overall development of regional urban history research and holistic macro research. The current situation of research on a single city and all levels of cities lead to the result that there are more studies on regional urban history from the economic perspective, but fewer studies from cultural, social and other perspectives. The situation is directly related to the difficulty of research, and also has something to do with the lack of theories and methods. Some scholars have proposed that we should study regional urban history comprehensively and uncover the forms and content of the urban-​rural links from political, economic, cultural, social and other perspectives. In addition, we should strengthen cultural and social studies of regional cities, which may be the most promising direction of academic innovation. The study of regional urban history has so far remained the study of the development and interrelations between a small number of regional central cities and sub-​central cities, as well as some regional central cities, and has rarely studied the interactive relations among regional cities, small towns and country fairs of considerable number and various functions, and thus cannot fully reflect the multi-​level characteristics of the regional urban systems. In addition, the lack of research on the numerous towns and country fairs which directly link the urban and rural areas also lead to a lack of solid foundation for the research on regional urban-​rural relations. Current regional urban history studies is also faced with the problems of how to improve and integrate to fully reflect the advantages and characteristics of “holistic and comprehensive research” on the basis of research on individual cities and how to avoid the shortcomings that regional urban history research is only a simple combination of studies on individual cities. As a new discipline, modern urban history research is very inclusive and comprehensive, which is attracting more and more researchers to the study of this field. The rapid development of Chinese cities in the twenty-​first century will surely be a great impetus to the study of modern urban history. It can be expected that the study of modern urban history will show a prosperous situation of diversified development in the near future. Perhaps its academic growth points and research trends would be mainly shown in the following aspects: First, the study of macroscopic theories will become a hot point showing a trend of rapid development, so we need to further strengthen the research and discussion on theories and methods of urban history. To break through the existing research level and obtain innovative research results, modern

136  HE Yimin urban history studies must first make theoretical and methodological innovations and rely on the comprehensive application of multi-​disciplinary theories and methods, which is a major direction for the in-​depth development of urban history studies. A  point which needs special emphasis is that while using the theories and methods of other disciplines, we must pay attention to the problem of introducing theories and methods of the same layer. Specifically speaking, we should bring in macroscopic theories and methods for macroscopic research, mesoscopic theories and methods for mesoscopic research and microscopic theories and methods for microscopic research. If the theories and methods we bring in and our research is not at the same level, it is inevitable that incompatibility or exclusion will occur, and the introduction will inevitably become a mechanical application or just labels. To promote the theoretical construction, we need to carry out extensive academic argument, further emancipate our minds and extensively absorb the academic essences of other countries; at the same time, we should be aware of innovation, strive to make theoretical and methodological innovations, and gradually form a research team with modern ideas and knowledge. Second, we should further strengthen the overall macroscopic research and the individual microscopic research on urban development, and the comprehensive study combining the two. With the extensive development of urban modernization, there has appeared an urgent need for macroscopic research on urban development to explore its laws and characteristics. In the next five to ten years, China will enter an important transitional period full of intense changes, contradictions and opportunities. Many cities will face the rigorous test caused by global structural adjustment, and thus it is not only of academic significance but also of direct practical significance to carry out timely research on the development cycles and laws of cities of different types and the macroscopic study of urban development. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary for us to organize forces to compile one or more authoritative multi-​ volume masterworks on Chinese urban history and the urban development of macroscopic regions. While carrying out macroscopic research on urban development, we must further strengthen microcosmic urban research. The macroscopic urban research should be based on the microscopic studies. If the microscopic studies are very weak, it will be difficult to provide a solid foundation for macroscopic research. Therefore, it is one of the tasks of modern urban history research in the twenty-​first century to further expand the microscopic research fields at all levels, especially to combine more disciplines and strengthen the microscopic study of urban society and culture. The combination of macroscopic and microscopic research methods should also become a new research trend. As mentioned above, the macroscopic urban research should be based on the microscopic research. If there is no microscopic research or it is very weak, the macroscopic research will lack foundation and cannot stand up on its own. However, if macroscopic

Urban history  137 research is lacking, we will see only the trees, but not the forest. Therefore, we must strengthen the organic combination of macroscopic and microscopic research to promote urban history studies to a new stage of in-​depth development. Third, we should further expand the scope of urban development research, extensively carry out research on regional cities, the types of urban development, and the numerous small and medium-​sized cities. In addition, the study of urban areas at all levels, especially urban society and urban culture will become one of the tasks of urban research in the twenty-​first century. Fourth, we should extensively carry out comparative studies of urban history. Comparative research on Chinese and foreign cities, cities of different regions and different types is still in the ascendant, and it will also become an important academic growth point favored by researchers in the future. Special attention should be paid to the longitudinal and horizontal comparisons, and comparability between cities cannot be ignored. Fifth, there is the new trend of the combination of urban history research and modern urban development research. Emphasizing the combination of historical research and the reality has been a consensus of urban historians in recent years, and it is also the attractiveness of urban research, on which researchers of urban studies have made unremitting efforts and exploration. Different urban researchers can find the points of integration and points of entry from different perspectives, but one thing in common is that urban researchers should have a strong sense of the times, sense of mission and historical perspective. Researchers of urban studies should stand at the intersection of history and the future, focusing on topics closely linked to the socio-​economic development of the country to find the point of integration and point of entry between the history and the reality. The vast majority of Chinese cities, especially the medium and large cities, have a long history and have evolved on the basis of modern cities. They are closely related to the development of urban politics, economy, military, culture and other fields in the modern times. The study of the urban history, especially the history of modern cities, can help us reveal the characteristics and laws of urban development in modern times. It is of great significance for us to fathom and promote the process of urban modernization and urbanization. It can provide strategic thinking, in-​depth cultural connotation and a solid development basis for the development of contemporary cities. It will enlighten our thoughts, give us inspiration, unearth and utilize our potential cultural power. Therefore, strengthening urban history research is not only an academic issue, but also an urgent requirement of the times. In addition, we must also take good care of the following specific issues in the study of modern urban history: First, we should pay attention to the study of individuality of cities and the nodes of urban development. China has a very large number of cities, and the individual differences between cities are huge. Cities of different regions are different, and the cities of same regions are also different, so in the historical

138  HE Yimin study of the urban development of modern China, we should have a clear understanding of the road of urban development or modernization. We also should find out its major features in all aspects and seize the most prominent features, that is, the city’s individuality. To grasp the individuality of cities is the key to the deepening of urban history studies. The history of a city’s development is often the history of constant enrichment of its types of features. Among these rich types of features, only those which permanently affect the development and growth of a city can constitute its individuality. In the study of the individuality of a city, we should also pay attention to the nodes of its development. The so-​called nodes of development of a city are the internal and external factors which have clearly affected its development including some important historical events, such as the wars, the opening of ports, the construction of roads, the establishment of some systems, the establishment of some institutions, the signing of some treaties, the formulation of some regulations and publication of some laws. The periodical regularity of urban development will immediately emerge when we seize these nodes. Through the analysis of the nodes of urban development, we can then take the pulse and reveal the law of urban development. Second, we should investigate urban development from the perspective of the trend of global modernization and urbanization. The study of early urban modernization is a core issue in the study of modern Chinese urban history. At present, academia has gradually changed the Western-​ centered research model, showing a wide range of research trends. Besides the constant theoretical innovation, we should also pay attention to several methodological issues: first, we should focus on the dynamic and periodic nature of early urban modernization. Urban modernization is a process of continuous development and evolution and is in constant motion. There is no doubt that urban modernization has a number of stages like emergence, development and accomplishment, and different stages have different characteristics and content. Second, we should pay attention to the holistic and systematic nature of urban modernization. Viewed from the perspective of general features, modernization is the process of transition from traditional agricultural society to modern industrial society. It is an omni-​ directional and multi-​level historical process of reformation and its core is industrialization and the resulting economic growth. Along with economic modernization, urban politics, culture, and people’s values should be modernized. It is noteworthy that some researchers tend to overemphasize economic modernization and hold that modernization equals industrialization, so they only stress modern economic development and the development level of large-​scale machine industry in the study of early urban modernization and did not pay enough attention to the modernization of other fields. For example, the modernization of the urban infrastructure, urban management, culture and education and other aspects has often been ignored and has not been given the attention it deserved. Third, we should pay attention to the imbalance and fluctuation of urban modernization,

Urban history  139 which is a common phenomenon in the world. Modern development is not a linear process, but a non-​linear one with fluctuations. In China because early modernization was initiated by external forces and urban economic modernization has been closely linked with the opening up to the outside world, opening up has become an important opportunity for urban development, and urban economic modernization has become the solid foundation for the opening of cities. In contrast to the coastal and riverside areas, the inland cities have been at a relatively backward level in transportation, means of communication and other aspects. Therefore, in the ever-​expanding Sino-​ foreign trade, it was difficult to conduct cross-​region and cross-​item trade in the process of modernization and the advantages of the commodity economy could not be fully exploited. Therefore, the inland areas, which had been economically backward, fell further behind in the process of modernization, and imbalance in the early development of urban modernization had been increased. Fourth, we cannot study early urban modernization in isolation. We must examine it under a broader background and conduct multi-​disciplinary, multi-​level research. On the one hand, urban modernization must coordinate with national or regional modernization, and play a central role in promoting the modernization of the countryside and the regions, or even the modernization of the whole country. On the other hand, urban modernization is subject to many national or regional factors. Urban modernization is carried out in the economic, political and humanistic environment of the country or regions, and the external environment will have a direct impact on the development of urban modernization. Modernization and urbanization are common processes of the whole world. Though China’s modernization and urbanization has its own special laws, it must be constrained and influenced by the general laws of global modernization and urbanization. Therefore, while studying the urban development of modern China, we should examine our research objects from the perspective of global modernization and urbanization. At the same time, since the world has become more and more integrated since the nineteenth century, the development of a country or region has become more and more restricted by the development of international politics, economy and social order. Therefore, the study of urban modernization must take the international environment into consideration. This requires us to study early urban modernization from a global and diachronic perspective. Only in this way can we be strategically situated and broad-​minded. Since the study of urban modernization overlaps in many respects with the research on the modernization of the country or the region, in order to reflect the characteristics of urban modernization, it is also necessary to focus on the issues that can best reflect the connotation of urban modernization, such as the urbanization of urban infrastructure, urban construction and management, urban social structure and social life, as well as the urban people. Third, we should pay attention to the study of the status and role of cities in the national or regional city system, urban and rural networks. Any city,

140  HE Yimin regardless of its size, will have an impact on its surrounding towns and villages in its hinterland. The more developed the city is, the stronger and wider its influence becomes. On the other hand, the social changes of these towns and villages will also promote or hinder the development of the city. In exploring the internal historical process of a city, we should link it to the development and change of its status and role in the national or regional city system, urban and rural networks, which is an important aspect revealing the history of its development. Fourth, we should pay attention to the research on the thoughts, activities and related historical events of the people having close relations with the development of the city. People are the main body of the city, and all the activities of the city are inseparable from the people, so the history of the city’s development, to a large extent, is the history of urban people’s production and life. The upper-​class figures’ words and deeds have direct and great impact on the urban development, but the lower-​classes figures also have non-​negligible influences on the specific development of the city and ought to be fully valued. The deepening of urban history studies also requires a deep understanding of the major historical events occurring in the city from the perspective of urban development, rather than merely a city’s simple response to some historical events occurring all over the country. Understanding the causes, processes and results of some major historical events from the perspective of the internal relationship, development and change of social politics, economy and public consciousness in a single city or several related cities will enrich the content of urban history studies. Fifth, we should pay attention to the role of pictures and maps. Pictures and maps related to cities can sometimes play an important role in increasing the perceptual knowledge of urban history, which is a role that the written materials do not have. In many cases, a map or a picture can explain the problems directly. Therefore, in urban history research, various ways should be adopted to collect as many maps and pictures as possible to increase the perceptual knowledge of the historical development of the cities. The twenty-​first century has been a great century for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. It is also a new century for Chinese cultural reconstruction. Historiography will re-​establish its position and role in this hopeful new century. As a new research field, modern urban history studies not only have their important academic significance, but also have direct and indirect relationships with the main carriers of the national economy, so it will be highly valued by academia. Therefore, how to make academic innovations in the new century and create conditions for further research of urban history will be important work for every researcher to think about and strive for. A city is a “living history,” which is associated with the history and the reality, the past and the future. Urban history research is to reflect the reality and the future through the history of the cities. Society is eager to have more academic newcomers to join the research team, and work together for the development and prosperity of Chinese cities.

Urban history  141

Notes 1 Xiong Yuezhi and Zhang Sheng. (2008). Review of the Studies on Modern Chinese Urban History (1886–​2006). Historical Review (1). 2 Zhang Limin. (1997). Index of Works on Modern Chinese Urban History. Urban History Research (Vols. 13–​14). Tianjin Ancient Books Publishing House. 3 Yu Li. (1992). Setting a Precedent for the City group Research—​A Review of History of Relations Between Beijing and its Surrounding Cities. Social Science of Beijing (1). 4 Luo Shuwei. (1989). A  Summary of Chinese Urban History Research. Urban History Research (1), Tianjin Education Press. 5 He Qiying. (2005). The International Settlement of Gulangyu Island and the Economic Development and Municipal Construction of Xiamen in Modern Times. Journal of Chinese Social and Economic History (4). 6 Lu Shaokun. (2004). The Implementation of the Dalian Free Port System and Its Influences on the Urban Economy. Social Science Journal (3). 7 Chen Xiaoou. Port Opening of Jiujiang and Social and Economic Changes in Modern Jiangxi. Historical Review (4). 8 Xu Liu, et al. (2000). Self-​opening Commercial Ports and the Reginal Social and Economic Development. Journal of Anhui Normal University (Humanities and Social Sciences) (4). 9 Wang Qingsong. (2000). Foreign Trade and Market of Modern Tianjin. Urban History Research (Vol. 21). The Press of Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences. 10 He Yimin. (2007). Declining Cities in Modern China:  An Ignored Important Research Area. Journal of Sichuan Normal University (Humanities and Social Sciences) (4). 11 Zhou Zifeng. (2004). The Municipal Construction Movement in Modern Xiamen and Its Influences (1920–​1937). Journal of Chinese Social and Economic History (2). 12 Cao Sheng. (2004). The Characteristic and Inspiration of Qingdao’s Municipal Construction During the German-​ Occupation Period. Journal of Qingdao University of Science and Technology (Humanities and Social Sciences) (1). 13 Zhao Ke. (2006). System Innovation and the Rise of Guangzhou’s Municipal Construction in the 1920s. Social Sciences in Guangxi (3). 14 Zhang Wei. (2000). On the Cross-​Border Road Construction in the Concessions of Shanghai. Academic Monthly (8). 15 Qiu Guosheng. (2004). Looking at the Evolution of Modern Shanghai’s Public Transportation from the Perspective of Rickshaws. Journal of East China Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences) (2); Qiu Guosheng. (2004). Rickshaws and the Evolution of Modern Public Transportation. Journal of Chinese Social and Economic History (1). 16 Wang Yinhuan. (2003). Analysis of the Contradictions between the Rickshaws and the Trams in the Process of Traffic Modernization. Journal of Historical Science (4). 17 Chen Wenbin. (2005). Evolutions in the Townspeople’s Pace of Life and the Structural Changes in Modern Shanghai’s Public Transportation. Academic Monthly (7). 18 Qiu Guosheng. (2005). From Governmental Inability to Non-​ government Organizational Intervention—​ Fellow Societies and the Administration of

142  HE Yimin Non-​ native Population in Modern Shanghai. Journal of East China Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences) (3). 19 Du Lihong. (2005). The Reform of Sewage Management in Beiping City in the 1930s. Modern Chinese History Studies (6). 20 Wang Chaoguang. (2004). Censorship, Control and Guidance:  A Study of the Shanghai Film Censorship Committee. Modern Chinese History Studies (6). 21 Zhang Zhongli (Ed.) (1990). General Introduction to the Urban Research of Modern Shanghai. Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 30. 22 He Yimin. (1994). Outline of Chinese Urban History. Sichuan University Press. 23 Le Zheng. (1991). The Opening of Commercial Ports and China’s Urbanization. Journal of Sun Yat-​sen University (1). 24 Li Yunhua. (1992). The Lifeblood of China’s Urban Modernization and Modern Urbanization. Urban History Research (Vol. 7). Tianjin Education Press. 25 Wei Yingtao (Ed.) (1991). Introduction to the Modern Urban History of Chongqing. Sichuan University Press. 26 Wei Yingtao and Xie Fang. (1992). An Initial Proposition about the Modern Chinese Urban History Research. Tianjin Social Sciences (1). 27 Wan Ling. (1992). Study of the Theory and Method of Chinese Regional History Studies. Journal of Nanjing Normal University (3). 28 Wei Yingtao and Xie Fang. (1992). An Initial Proposition about the Modern Chinese Urban History Research. Tianjin Social Sciences (1). 29 Ren Yunlan. A  Summary of the Third Symposium on Modern Chinese Urban History Research. Urban History Research (Vol. 6), Tianjin Education Press. 30 Liu Haiyan. (1992). Retrospect and Prospect of Modern Chinese Urban History Research. Historical Research (3). 31 Skinner, William George. (1989). The City in Late Imperial China. Jilin Education Press. 32 Wei Yingtao and Xie Fang. (1992). An Initial Proposition about the Modern Chinese Urban History Research. Tianjin Social Sciences (1). 33 Luo Shuwei. (1992). On the Modern Regional Urban Systems in North China. Tianjin Social Sciences (5). 34 Zhou Junqi. (1992). Several Issues Concerning the Modern Regional Urban System Research. Tianjin Social Sciences (5). 35 He Yimin (Ed.) (2007). Research on the Declining Cities in Modern China. Bashu Publishing House.

5  History of workers’ movements in China LIU Jingfang

Since the founding of the PRC, especially from the reform and opening up, great progress has been made in the study of the history of workers movements. According to incomplete statistics, up to 2009, more than 210 kinds of monographs on the history of workers’ movements have been published, and about half of them were general history, specialized history and biographies which are of great academic value. In addition, nearly 900 articles have been published. We can see that Chinese academia has made great achievements in the field of the history of workers’ movements through 60 years of hard work, but it also experienced a tortuous process of development, which can be roughly divided into four stages: almost 30 years from the founding of the People’s Republic of China in October 1949 to the end of 1978 is the stage of rising and tortuous development; the ten year from the end of 1978 to 1989 is the stage of recovery, all-​round development and prosperity; the ten years from 1989 to 1999 is the stage of in-​depth development; during the ten years from the beginning of the twenty-​first century, though the scale of research on the history of workers’ movements has been reduced, researchers have made new extensions in the research field and new progress in the understanding of the history of workers’ movements.

5.1  The rise and serious setbacks During the 30 years from the founding of the People’s Republic of China in October 1949 to the end of 1978, the study of workers’ movement history had experienced three different states: rise, initial prosperity and serious setbacks, and these 30 years can be divided into two phases: the 17 years before 1966 and the 13 years from 1966 through the transitional period until 1978. The first 17  years were the period of beginning and initial prosperity for the research on the workers’ movement history, during which nearly 60 monographs and 170 articles had been published. The main purpose of workers’ movement history research during this period was to cooperate with education which taught the cadres and the masses class consciousness and revolutionary tradition. Most of the works then were popular pamphlets reflecting the heroic struggles of the Chinese working class from different

144  LIU Jingfang aspects, such as The February 7th Strike and Shanghai Workers’ Three Armed Uprisings. But there were also some works of high academic standard, such as Liu Likai’s Chinese Workers’ Movements from 1919 to 1927, which systematically introduced the development of Chinese modern industry and the formation process of the Chinese working class, recounted the workers’ movements before and after the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) during the First Revolutionary Civil War, and expounded the historical role of the working class in the Chinese revolution. There were also approximately 20 kinds of influential monographs on the history of the factories and mines which were worth mentioning, such as The Red Anyuan, Red Star in the North—​Sixty Years of the Changxindian Vehicle Factory, History of the Mentougou Coal Mine, and The Cradle of the Trains (about the history of the Shenyang locomotive factory). These monographs reflected the hardship of the working class and their heroic and tortuous struggles, and have certain academic value. During this period, the Chinese Workers’ Movement History Research Office of the All-​China Federation of Trade Unions had done a lot of work in the collection, compilation and editing of historical data, and achieved fruitful results. In 1957, they edited and published Documents of All Previous National Congresses of the Chinese Laborers. In 1958, they edited and published the 5-​volume Historical Documents of the Chinese Labor Union, which compiled abundant important documents issued by the leading body of the Chinese Labor Union during various revolutionary periods from the birth of the CPC to the founding of the People’s Republic of China. This research office also started a restricted publication entitled Historical Data of the Chinese Workers’ Movements and published eight issues up to 1966. The People’s Publishing House and the Workers’ Publishing House also distributed photocopies of publications on the workers’ movements, such as Chinese Workers, Shanghai Colleagues (Shanghai Huoyou), Labor Worker Circles, Road of Workers, References for Workers, Labor, Communications of the All-​China Federation of Trade Unions and Workers in the Chinese Soviet Area, which greatly facilitated the development of studies on the history of workers’ movements. Articles on the history of workers’ movements published during this period discussed various topics. Some articles systematically discussed the experiences of workers’ movements during the period of the democratic revolution and the history of “May Day,” such as Li Lisan’s “Lessons and Experiences of Movements Led by the Chinese Labor Union,” Gong Yunshi’s1 “The Origin, Development of May Day and Its Forty Years in China,” Zhang Zhuhong’s “History of Chinese Laborers’ Commemoration of May Day,” Li Shu’s “The October Revolution and Chinese Workers’ Movements,” Zhao Qin’s “Chinese Workers’ Movements before and after the 1911 Revolution” and “The Problem of Stage Division in the History of the Chinese Workers’ Movements,” Shang Yue’s “On the Formation and Development of the Chinese Propertyless Class,” Liu Mingkui’s “The Situation of the Chinese Working Class from 1912

History of workers’ movements in China  145 to 1921,” Li Shiyue’s “Chinese Workers’ Movements and the Labor Party of Republican China before and after the 1911 Revolution” and Liang Jiahe’s2 “The Historical Significance of the February 7th Movement.” Some articles discussed workers’ movements during the period of the Great Revolution, such as Liang Jiahe’s “The Historical Significance of the May 30th Movement,” Qi Wu’s “The Historical Significance, Experiences and Lessons of the May 30th Movement,” Jin Yingxi’s “Guangdong Workers’ Fighting against the KMT’s Right Wing before the April 12th Counterrevolutionary Coup,” Ma Honglin’s “Three Armed Uprisings of Workers in Shanghai”; some articles discussed the workers’ movements during the Agrarian Revolution, such as Jin Yingxi’s “Workers’ Movements in Shanghai from the April 12th Coup to the September 18th Incident,” Xue Zhu’s “Coal Mine Workers’ Struggle in Fushun before the September 18th Incident”; Some discussed the workers’ movements during the Anti-​Japanese War, such as Gong Yunshi’s “Workers’ Situations in the KMT-​Controlled Areas from 1945 to 1937,” Fu Shangwen’s “Kailuan Coal Mine Workers’ Anti-​Japanese Strike in 1938” and Li Yibin’s “Harbin Streetcar Workers’ Anti-​Japanese Struggles.” From 1960 to 1962, researchers on the history of workers’ movements held an academic discussion on the time when the Chinese working class completed the transformation from a class-​in-​itself to a class-​for-​itself and published the following three opinions: The first held that the working class had become a class-​for-​itself during the May 4th Movement. Scholars holding this view thought that the deciding factor in distinguishing whether the working class was a class-​in-​itself or a class-​for-​itself was that whether it had had a reasonable understanding, to wit, the essential understanding of the society they were living in. During the May 4th Movement, under the influence of Marxism, China’s working class had realized that the nature of the Chinese society they were living in was semi-​ colonial and semi-​feudal. They had participated in the movement consciously as an independent class and exhibited four characteristics in the struggles, to wit, clear consciousness of politics, independent political action, high operational capability and extensive unity with other classes. The Chinese working class had already played a decisive role in the evolution of the situation, so they were worthy of the title of class-​for-​itself.3 The second held that the transformation of the Chinese working class from a class-​in-​itself to a class-​for-​itself was a long historical process. The period from 1914 to 1919 was the preparatory stage. After the May 4th Movement, the Chinese working class quickly changed from a class-​in-​itself to a class-​ for-​itself. In 1921, the founding of the CPC marked the transformation of the working class from a class-​in-​itself to a class-​for-​itself. Scholars holding this view thought that there should be three conditions for the changing of the Chinese working class from a class-​in-​itself to a class-​for-​itself: first, the formation and growth of the class; second, experiences accumulated in the class struggles; third, the introduction of Marxism into China and the appearance of a number of revolutionary intellectuals who had preliminary communist

146  LIU Jingfang thoughts and were willing to work with the workers and peasants. These three conditions were not interrelated. The symbol of the working class’s changing from a class-​in-​itself to a class-​for-​itself was the combination of intellectuals and the working class. During the May 4th Movement, revolutionary intellectuals had taken a first step in combining with the working class, and the working class had begun to show their own strength and accept the influence of Marxism, so it should be said that the working class had begun to change from a class-​in-​itself to a class-​for-​itself. But we could not say that the May 4th Movement was the symbol of this transformation, because during the May 4th Movement period, the working class was not mature enough politically. It had not yet reached the level of understanding the semi-​colonial and semi-​feudal nature of Chinese society and the historical mission of the propertyless class, and they had not yet established their own organization, either. After the May 4th Movement, the revolutionary intellectuals with preliminary communist thoughts accelerated the pace of combining with workers, especially after the Shanghai Communist Group was founded in May 1920. These intellectuals strengthened the publicity and implantation of Marxism and sped up the organizing of labor unions among the workers, which had made some preliminary achievements. The process of combining Marxism with the workers’ movements was the process of the working class changing from a class-​in-​itself to a class-​for-​itself.4 The third held that the Chinese working class had been a class-​in-​itself before the founding of the CPC and it was the founding of the CPC which had made the working class become a class-​ for-​ itself. Those scholars holding this view believed that in order to transform from a class-​in-​itself to a class-​for-​itself, the working class must accomplish the following three tasks. First, in terms of ideology, they must fathom the essence of capitalist society, the exploitative relationships of social classes, and the historical task of the propertyless class. To fathom these points, we must carry out unified, organized and planned inculcation of socialist consciousness to the working class. After the May 4th Movement, the intellectuals with initial communist thoughts inculcated a socialist consciousness to the workers but had not made the workers understand these three points yet. This task could only be achieved by the political party of the propertyless class. Second, the working class must form their own unified class force to strike against the old regime. They had to not only organize labor unions, but also set up parties. And it should be the first task for them to set up a party to unify their action and make it the action of the class. During the middle and the later period of the May 4th Movement, some labor unions were established under the influence of the Communist Group, but they were only local, industrial or individual groups and were not consolidated. Third, the struggles of the working class must be conscious and organized economic and political struggles. During the period between the May 4th Movement and the founding of the CPC, workers’ strikes had been greatly developed, but they were basically scattered economic struggles. Several individual political struggles were also partial,

History of workers’ movements in China  147 scattered and lacked political goals. Therefore, we cannot say that the Chinese working class had begun to change from a class-​in-​itself to a class-​for-​itself before the founding of the CPC.5 In 1977, to commemorate Shanghai workers’ three armed uprisings, some commemorative articles were published in Shanghai, Beijing and other places. In the autumn of 1978, the All-​China Federation of Trade Unions restored the Chinese Workers’ Movement History Research Office and other institutions, preparing for the restoration and development of research on the history of the workers’ movement.

5.2  Restoration, development and prosperity In the 1980s, studies on the history of the workers’ movement had shown unprecedented prosperity, which could be considered as the golden age of Mainland China’s research on the history of workers’ movements. According to incomplete statistics, during these ten years, more than 60 monographs, 90 resource books and 400 articles on the history of workers’ movement had been published, which had exceeded the studies of the previous 30 years in terms of both quantity and quality. First, great achievements had been made in data compilation and publication. Data published during this period mainly consisted of the following three types: (1) Data on general history, such as the first volume of the first series of Historical Conditions of China’s Working Class (Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC Press, 1985)  edited by Liu Mingkui collected detailed historical data on Chinese industrial workers from 1840 to 1927 and the Selected Documents of the CPC Central Committee on Workers’ Movements (The Archive Press, 1985) edited by the All-​China Federation of Trade Unions compiled all the archival documents of the CPC Central Committee and some Central Bureaus on workers’ movements from the founding of the CPC in 1921 to the establishment of the PRC in 1949. The Chinese Workers’ Movement History Research Office of the All-​China Federation of Trade Unions also compiled and published 20 issues of historical data on workers’ movements by stage and by year, disclosing lots of data on the workers’ movements from the May 4th Movement to 1937. (2) Data on a special subject, such as Selected Data on the February 7th Strike (Workers’ Publishing House, 1983), Shanghai Workers’ Three Armed Uprisings (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1983), Historical Data on the May 30th Movement (volumes I and II, Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1981, 1986), The May 30th Movement and the Guangdong-​ Hong Kong Strike (Jiangsu Ancient Books Press, 1985), Compilation of Historical Data on Chinese Laborers’ Going Abroad (Zhonghua Book Company, 1981–​1984), Selected Historical Data on

148  LIU Jingfang the Jiaozuo Coal Mine Workers’ Movements (Henan People’s Publishing House, 1984), Data on the Guangdong-​Hong Kong Strike (Guangdong People’s Publishing House, 1986)  and Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions (Archive Press, 1989). (3) Data on the regional movements, such as Selected Historical Data on the Jiangxi Workers’ Movements (Jiangxi People’s Publishing House,1986), Historical Data on Workers’ Movements in the Chinese Soviet Area of Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi (Jiangxi People’s Publishing House, 1989), Selected Historical Data on Sichuan Workers’ Movements (Sichuan University Press, 1988), Selected Historical Data on the Workers’ Movements in North China (1921–​1923) (Beijing Press, 1981), Selected Historical Data on the Workers’ Movements in the Border Regions of Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia (2 volumes, Yunnan People’s Publishing House, 1989) and Historical Data on the Workers’ Movements in Beijing (4 volumes, Workers’ Publishing House, 1982). The publication of these historical data had created favorable conditions for the further development of the research on the workers’ movement history. Second, there were few popular pamphlets and most of the publications were academic writings, some of which were even gap-​filling works. They can be classified into four types in terms of content: (1) Works on the general history of workers’ movements in different periods of the democratic revolution. The work that should be mentioned first is A Brief History of Workers’ Movements during the Different Periods of the Democratic Revolution (Workers’ Publishing House, 1985) edited by Tang Yuliang. This book is the first work on the general history of workers’ movements in the different periods of the democratic revolution, providing useful reference to the compilation of national, local and industrial workers’ movement history in terms of content and structure. The second work is History of Chinese Workers’ Movements (Liaoning People’s Publishing House, 1987) edited by Wang Jianchu et al. This book is the first general history of the workers’ movements. Another important work is A Short Course on the History of Chinese Workers’ Movements (1919–​1949) (East China Normal University Press, 1988) edited by Gai Jun et al., which has made a detailed study of the strategic evolution of workers’ movements led by the CPC. (2) The history of local workers’ movements. Eight monographs had been published successively, including History of Workers’ Movements in Shijiazhuang (Workers’ Publishing House, 1985), History of Workers’ Movements in Chongqing (Southwest Normal University Press, 1986), History of Workers’ Movements in Wuhan (Liaoning People’s Publishing House, 1987), History of Workers’ Movements in Zhejiang (Zhejiang People’s Publishing House, 1988), History of Workers’ Movements in Shandong (Shandong People’s Publishing House, 1988), History of

History of workers’ movements in China  149 Workers’ Movements in Tianjin (Tianjin People’s Publishing House, 1989), History of Workers’ Movements in Dalian (Liaoning People’s Publishing House, 1989), History of Workers’ Movements in Qingdao (History of the Communist Party of China Press, 1989). These works on the history of local workers’ movements had good explanations of the historical features, experiences and lessons of the workers’ movements in their own regions, which echoed the national general history of workers’ movements and reproduced the magnificent and colorful picture of Chinese workers’ movements. (3) History of specific subjects. The important works in this field include Qi Wu’s History of Chinese Workers’ Movement during the Anti-​Japanese War (People’s Publishing House, 1986), which had made comprehensive and in-​depth analysis of the workers’ movements led by the CPC in the liberated area, Japanese-​occupied areas and the KMT-​controlled areas during the Anti-​Japanese War for the first time, are Chen Weimin’s Chinese Labor Union Secretariat in Shanghai (Knowledge Press, 1989), Ren Jianshu and Zhang Quan’s History of the May 30th Movement (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1985), Cai Luo and Dong Quan’s Guangdong-​Hong Kong Strike (Guangdong People’s Publishing House, 1980), Zhou Shangwen and He Shiyou’s History of Shanghai Workers’ Three Armed Uprisings (Shanghai People s Publishing House, 1987), Lu Xiangxian’s A Brief History of Chinese Labor Association (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1987), and so on. These works carried out in-​depth research on all specific subjects and proposed many original opinions, which were of positive significance for further studies on these issues. History of the Workers’ Movements in the Central Revolutionary Base Areas edited by the Editorial Group of the history of workers’ movements in the Central Soviet Areas (Reform Press, 1989), History of Chinese Coal Mine Workers’ Movements (Henan People’s Publishing House, 1986) edited by Xue Shixiao has filled the gaps in research on the history of workers’ movements of the revolutionary base areas the industrial workers respectively. (4) Study of the leading figures in the workers’ movements. The important works include Wei and Qian Xiaohui’s Biography of Deng Zhongxia (People’s Publishing House, 1981), Tang Chunliang’s Biography of Li Lisan (Heilongjiang People’s Publishing House, 1984), Liu Shaoqi and Chinese Workers’ Movements (Jilin People’s Publishing House, 1988)  edited by the College of Chinese Workers’ Movements, Chen Juncong and Cao Hongsui’s Study of Liu Shaoqi’s Thoughts on Workers’ Movements (Workers’ Publishing House, 1988), which made an in-​depth study of Liu Shaoqi’s contributions to the theories, strategies and practices of Chinese workers’ movements. During these ten years, the mainland newspapers and journals published lots of papers of good quality on the history of workers’ movements, which

150  LIU Jingfang had deepened the research content of the history of workers’ movements greatly in the following two aspects: 5.2.1 Research on the theories and strategies of workers’ movements had been strengthened During these ten years, scholars had put forward many new questions and new insights into the discussions of the theories and strategies of the workers’ movements. As for the internal united front of the working class, for a long time, this research had been confined to the relationship between the working class and other classes, but there had been no discussion about whether or not there was a united front within the working class. Since 1985, scholars have pointed out that the existence of the internal united front of the Chinese working class was an objective fact and have made preliminary discussions on its characteristics. For example, Wen Feng and Zou Xiaomeng proposed that the characteristics of the united front of Chinese working class is: (a) the united front of the CPC and other working-​class parties did not exist; (b) the united front was basically in the secret and hidden state; (c) its main task was to cooperate with the struggles in the rural base area; (d) its relations with the revolutionary united front led by the CPC was inseparable. They thought that the CPC had applied Marx’s thoughts about the internal united front of the working class to the practices of Chinese workers’ movements, which had enriched and developed the theory of the internal united front of the working class to some extent.6 As for the strategy of the workers’ movements, through investigations into the strategic evolution of the workers’ movements in the White Area (the KMT-​controlled area during the Second Revolutionary Civil War, 1927–​ 1937) led by the CPC and the red labor unions in the White Area after the failure of the Revolution, Liu Jingfang thought that the CPC’s working strategy in the White Area during this period—​taking the red labor unions as the main organizations in the struggles against the reactionaries—​was wrong and should be denied.7 Wang Yang investigated the CPC’s long-​term strategy of wiping out the yellow labor unions in the White Area and pointed out that it was wrong for the CPC to simply consider the yellow labor unions as counterrevolutionary and adopt the strategy of striking them down, and the right strategy should be to make use of the yellow labor unions as much as possible.8 As for the relationship between the CPC’s strategy for workers’ movements and the Communist International and the International Red Labor Union, scholars utilized new historical data and made an in-​depth study of the relationship between the formation, development and changes of the CPC’s strategies for workers’ movements in the White Area and the Communist International. Gai Jun and Liu Jingfang pointed out that the development and changes of the CPC’s strategies for workers’ movements in the White Area, especially the “leftist” strategy which lost touch with the reality of

History of workers’ movements in China  151 Chinese workers’ movements, was closely related with the wrong guidance of the Communist International.9 Tang Yuliang fully affirmed the support and assistance given by the International Red Labor Union to Chinese workers’ movements before 1927. In the meantime, he also pointed out that the International Red Labor Union had certain leadership responsibilities for the mistakes and setbacks of Chinese workers’ movements caused by the “leftist” decisions made after “the Fourth Congress of the International Red Labor Union.” Tang Yuliang thought that it was necessary to summarize the experiences and lessons of the international workers’ movements and approve of the solidarity and cooperation between the propertyless classes of different countries; however, it was improper to take the centralized and unified organizational form of the International Red Labor Union and let the international command center—​which was far away from the countries involved—​to command workers’ movements in these countries.10 As for the evaluation of Liu Shaoqi’s theories and strategies of workers’ movements, during these ten years, about 50 papers had been published on this topic, most of which were about Liu’s theories and strategies of workers’ movements during the democratic revolution period. Scholars affirmed Liu Shaoqi’s thought proposing that while guiding the workers’ movements in the Chinese Soviet area, workers should take the working attitude of the masters under their own regime. Scholars also spoke highly of Liu’s strategies of workers’ movements in the White Area and held that his strategies were the innovation combining Marxism and the actual situation of Chinese workers’ movements. Based on the study of Liu Shaoqi’s thoughts and strategies of workers’ movements, researchers had overcome the previous tendency of absolutized and metaphysical evaluation of historical figures and pointed out that Liu Shaoqi’s correct strategical thoughts were formed and developed in a process. His thoughts could also be a mixture of right and wrong at a certain stage and had to go through the transition from obscurity to clarity and from wrong to right. Therefore, the study of the historical figures’ thoughts should also be objective and realistic.11 5.2.2 The academic contention had been widely carried out During this period, in line with the spirit of seeking truth from facts, scholars had made unprejudiced discussions on many theories, practices and figures in the history of workers’ movements on which final conclusions had been reached. The main issues involved are as follows: The first issue was whether intellectuals and farm laborers in the semi-​ colonial and semi-​feudal China were part of the working class or not. One opinion held that most of the intellectuals in old China were part of the proletariat. The reason was that they did not possess any production goods, and they were employed by others and made a living by selling their labor. Therefore, judging by the possessive relationship of production goods and people’s status and role in the social and economic structure, which was the

152  LIU Jingfang only standard of class division, we should say that most of the intellectuals in old China were part of the proletariat.12 Another opinion held that most of the intellectuals in old China were not part of the working class.13 There were also different opinions on whether the farm laborers in the rural area belonged to the proletariat or not. Some scholars held that they were part of the proletariat and argued that this opinion conformed more to the objective historical conditions in which the Chinese proletariat was formed, the objective fact of Mao Zedong’s concept of the Chinese proletariat, and the history of the Chinese proletariat’s concerted struggles organized by the CPC and the labor unions led by it.14 Others held that farm laborers were part of the proletariat, but not part of the working class and the reason was that the proletariat and the working class were two different concepts. The farm laborers had nothing to do with modern machine industry, and they lacked the characteristics of the working class, for example centralization, revolutionary steadfastness and thoroughness and strict organizational discipline.15 The second issue was whether industrial workers’ centralization was a special merit of the Chinese proletariat or not. As one of the merits of the Chinese proletariat, “centralization” had been widely acknowledged by academia since the mid-​1950s. There had been no significant change in this opinion for 30 years till the end of 1983, when Miu Chuhuang proposed a dissenting view. Miu pointed out that it was one-​sided for Chen Boda to conclude that Chinese workers were more centralized than the industrial workers of the capitalist countries from the perspective of the percentage of centralized workers in large factories and small and medium-​sized factories, so we should not accept the formulation that centralization was a special merit.16 Subsequently, starting with the analysis that the formation and structure of the Chinese proletariat was different from that of the proletariat of the Western capitalist countries, some scholars further pointed out that the connotation of the Chinese proletariat was much broader than that of the proletariat of the Western capitalist countries. Besides the industrial workers, the majority of the Chinese proletariat were handicraft workers and agricultural workers, so we could not draw the conclusion that centralization was a special advantage of the Chinese proletariat.17 The third issue was about the limitations of the Chinese proletariat. For a long time, the advanced nature of the proletariat had always been emphasized in the historical study of the workers’ movements. From 1980 to 1982, academia held a discussion on this issue. There were three major views: the first held that the Chinese proletariat had limitations, the main manifestations of which were backwardness, conservativeness, superstition, disrespect for science, and so on. There were two main reasons for these limitations. First, the Chinese proletariat had a congenital deficiency. By 1919, the population of the urban proletariat was less than 2 million, accounting for only 1/​200 of the national population, and most of them were still narrow-​minded, selfish and slack because of the influences of the small handicraft industry. Second, the Chinese proletariats were descended directly from peasants and

History of workers’ movements in China  153 still had the attributes of them. Even farm laborers, who were the most revolutionary class among the peasants, lacked the necessary material conditions to become the proletariat. The proletariat who just descended from the peasantry to the working class could not suddenly eradicate peasants’ attributes and become as highly organized and disciplined as the proletariat. Scholars holding this view thought that the limitations of the proletariat would inevitably bring damage to the cause of revolution and construction, and acknowledgment and study of the limitations of the proletariat would be conducive to the self-​transformation of the proletariat and their transformation of the world.18 The second view was that the Chinese proletariat had no limitations. They argued that scholars who affirmed the limitations of the proletariat had confused the concepts of limitation and infinity and class limitations with the temporality and historical attributes of specific things. The fundamental defects of a class were determined by its economic status and thus could not be changed. All the exploiting classes in history had their limitations, whereas the proletariat’s economic status decided that they had a sense of solidarity, cooperation, organization, discipline and progressiveness and the concept of public property because they were related to the advanced mode of production. The Chinese proletariat’s nature was advanced rather than limited. Although the proletariat would be affected by the peasant mentality because they had close contact with them, this effect was, after all, an external cause, and thus secondary. Besides, these peasants’ ideology had been constantly transformed since they joined the working class, and their peasant mentality had been eliminated gradually. It was wrong to say that the Chinese proletariat had its limitations, which was neither supported by the Marxist theory nor in conformity with the reality of the Chinese proletariat. It was harmful to emphasize the weakness of the proletariat and to elevate it to theoretical heights, which would inevitably lead to the obliteration or distortion of the nature of the party, thus harming the CPC’s leadership.19 The third view was an eclectic one holding that the affirmation of the Chinese proletariat’s progressiveness did not conflict with the affirmation of its limitations. The reason was that no historical phenomena could bring benefits to society without any drawbacks. The Chinese proletariat had extremely close relations with the peasantry, which undoubtedly was a great advantage to the alliance of workers and peasants, the mobilization and organization of a strong anti-​imperialist and anti-​feudal force. However, it should also be seen that it was for the same reason, that the peasants’ psychology, habits and thoughts had exerted strong influence on the proletariat, which caused the long-​term existence of the small producers’ habitual practices like egalitarianism and slackness in the proletariat’s team. Moreover, if China was still a country where peasants constituted the majority of the population, and the difference between workers and peasants, urban and rural areas still existed, peasants’ attributes were bound to be reflected in the proletariat. But this did not mean that the essential attributes of the proletariat would be changed.20

154  LIU Jingfang The fourth issue was about the leadership of the Hong Kong Seamen’s Strike. For a long time, in the study of the history of workers’ movements, it had been generally believed that the Hong Kong Seamen’s strike was led by the CPC. During this period, scholars proposed two new views: the first one held that the strike was led by the KMT, whose arguments were that the CPC was only established when the strike took place. The number of party members was small and they could only operate covertly, so the CPC’s power was quite limited, especially in Guangdong. Besides, because the CPC focused on the workers’ movements in North China at that time, it was impossible for them to initiate and lead the Hong Kong Seamen’s Strike. Moreover, there were also facts proving that the strike was initiated and led by the KMT headed by Sun Yat-​sen, including: (a) the leading body of the strike, the Federation of Chinese Seamen, was formed under the initiative of Sun Yat-​sen and others and was registered by the KMT government of Guangdong; (b) the strike was presided over by the KMT’s Lianyishe (a seamen’s association). Su Zhaozheng and Lin Weimin took part and led the strike as members of the Lianyishe; (c) most of the funds for the strike came from the KMT. From the beginning to the end of the strike, the Guangdong government had always played an important role in it.21 The other view held that Hong Kong Seamen’s Strike was not led by the KMT, but was initiated and led by the Hong Kong Seamen’s Union with Su Zhaozheng and Lin Weimin as its backbones under the influence of the domestic and international trends at that time. The reason was that the Hong Kong Seamen’s Union was established with the support of Sun Yat-​sen, but it has no direct affiliation to Sun Yat-​sen and the KMT. The Lianyishe was a community of Hong Kong seamen but not an organization of the KMT. As a matter of fact, the KMT had never led any strike in the name of the Lianyishe; Su Zhaozheng and Lin Weimin did not appear as members of the KMT when they led the Hong Kong Seamen’s Strike. Moreover, we had not found any materials, such as the public declarations or secret instigation, which could prove that the KMT had played the leading role in the strike.22 The fifth issue was about the leadership of the Guangdong-​Hong Kong strike. There also existed different opinions on this question. One opinion was that the strike was conducted under the direct leadership of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee of the CPC and the All-​China Federation of Trade Unions, whose arguments were as follows: (a) the strike was initiated by the CPC. On the second day of the “May 30th Massacre,” the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee of the CPC decided to set up a provisional committee to lead the Guangdong people in their struggles to support the Shanghai people. On June 8, Deng Zhongxia, a member of the CPC, went to Hong Kong to organize the strike after the provisional committee decided to organize a strike, Huang Ping, Deng Zhongxia, Yang Yin, Su Zhaozheng, and Yang Paoan were appointed as the commanding agency for the strike. (b) The strike was led by the CPC. When the strike was launched, as the headquarters of the strike, the Provincial Committee on the Guangdong-​Hong Kong

History of workers’ movements in China  155 strike created the organizational form of the Striking Workers’ Congress and the workers’ armed picket corps, formulated the concessionary system, and established principles aimed at the UK. It was the correct leadership of the CPC that ensured the smooth progress and the great victory of the Guangdong-​Hong Kong strike.23 Another view was that we should not just mention that the CPC led the Guangdong-​Hong Kong strike, but also should admit that the KMT played a leading role in it as well. The KMT drafted the plan for the strike, dispatched members with secret orders on behalf of the central government to Hong Kong and Shamian to launch the strike, and issued the order demanding workers in Hong Kong and Shamian to come back to Guangzhou. As the strike went on, the Guangzhou government took a series of effective measures to blockade the British, such as providing accommodations and transportation for workers coming back to Guangdong, so that the strike could be sustained. The KMT established the policy directed only against the UK but no other big powers, set the terms of workers’ returning to work and carried on diplomatic struggles successfully. The representative figures of the KMT’s leftists Wang Jingwei, Liao Zhongkai, Song Qingling, and He Xiangning had made great contributions to the strike. All these facts had shown that the KMT had played a leading role in the strike. Considering that the KMT was in cooperation with the CPC at that time, and the CPC members in the KMT also were important organizers and leaders of the strike, we should consider the Guangdong-​Hong Kong strike as an anti-​ imperialist political movement jointly led by the KMT and the CPC under the KMT.24 The sixth issue was about the “leftist” mistakes in the workers’ movements during the Wuhan government. There existed a “leftist” mistake in the Wuhan workers’ movements during the Wuhan government, which was first pointed out by Liu Shaoqi in 1937 in his article entitled “A Problem Concerning the Historical Lessons from the Great Revolution.” During this period, some scholars began to discuss this issue one after another. Scholars had reached a consensus on the existence of the “leftist” mistake in the Wuhan workers’ movements during the Wuhan government, but still had different opinions on the degree, duration and evaluation of consequences of the mistake. One view held that the “leftist” mistake existed in the workers’ movements during the Wuhan government from the very beginning and became more and more severe afterwards, which was illustrated by the following aspects:  (a) continuously making demands that the enterprises and stores could not meet; (b)  unrestrictedly organizing demonstrations, gatherings, and political and economic strikes; (c) violating the economic interests of the petty bourgeoisie; (d)  implementing the government’s political functions, casually arresting people, framing cases against them and parading them through the streets, shutting down factories and stores without permission, extorting sundries from people, forcing employers to employ workers, solving labor disputes by force, and so on. The “leftist” mistake had caused continuing decline in production, exacerbated the economic and political crisis, created dissatisfaction

156  LIU Jingfang among the bourgeoisie, petty bourgeoisie, and peasants, and generated tension between the CPC, the trade unions and the workers, between the workers and the soldiers, and between workers’ pickets and citizens. In short, the “left” deviation was the main mistaken trend in the workers’ movements during the Wuhan government.25 The other opinion held that during the Wuhan government, the mainstream workers’ movements were good. The “leftist” mistake did exist but was not very serious. It did not run through the whole period of the Wuhan government but mainly existed in its first stage (from October to December, 1926). During the second stage (from January to May, 1927), the mistake had been gradually corrected and developed into the “rightist” mistake, which became the main danger of the third stage (from May 6 to July 15, 1927). In fact, workers did not constantly make demands that the companies and stores could not meet. There were many strikes, demonstrations and gatherings, but they were not unlimited and most of them were necessary. Scholars holding this view thought that we should holistically grasp the evaluation of the workers’ movements during the Wuhan government. We should see the “leftist” mistake and the overall “rightist” mistake as well. We should not overemphasize the “leftist” mistake but should properly point out the shortcomings on the premise of basic affirmation.26 The seventh issue was about how to evaluate the Wuhan workers’ pickets’ handing in their firearms. The CPC’s “August 7th Conference” held in 1927 thought that it was a typical example of the CPC’s mistaken opportunism regarding workers’ movements. In the following decades, the CPC and academia all viewed it in this light. In 1980, some scholars affirmed this incident for the first time, thinking that it was a realistic decision and a necessary compromise to preserve and develop the revolutionary forces. In the face of the fact that the revolution was going to fail and the enemy’s strength far outweighed the CPC’s, the workers’ pickets could neither organize effective resistance nor run away, and thus handing in their firearms voluntarily was the only feasible way to save power. As a matter of fact, only 1,000 broken guns were handed in, accounting for about 30 percent of the total number of guns owned by the pickets. The good guns were hidden and later handed over to the armies of Ye Ting and He Long, becoming part of the CPC’s assets for future armed uprisings. In terms of its consequences, handing in guns had made the CPC gain the political initiative and time to prepare for a larger-​scale armed struggle against the KMT. Therefore, the disarming could not be viewed as capitulationism.27 The publication of this statement caused a strong response from academia. Some scholars examined the decision-​ making process of dismissing the workers’ pickets and pointed out that the decision of the CPC Central Committee was neither based on strategic considerations nor for the sake of preserving and developing the revolutionary forces. On the contrary, it showed the CPC’s subjection to Wang Jingwei and other people’s criticism of the pickets and express its unconditional obedience to and support of the KMT and Wang Jingwei. This decision was the result of Chen Duxiu’s implementation of his right opportunism in workers’

History of workers’ movements in China  157 movements. Some scholars examined the situation in Wuhan at the end of June 1927 and compared the enemy’s forces with the CPC’s and argued that handing in arms was not the only choice and it was still possible to withdraw the pickets from Wuhan and preserve their energy. Some scholars investigated the actual situation of the disarming and pointed out that all guns were handed in and there was no proof that the good guns were saved and handed over to armies of Ye Ting and He Long. Some other scholars also investigated the consequences of pickets’ disarming and held that the dismissing of the pickets did not exert any positive influence, but brought grievous and grave consequences to the revolution, which caused great confusion in the revolutionary team, aggravated the revolutionary crisis, and encouraged the Wang Jingwei Group’s rebellion. This was a typical manifestation of Chen Duxiu’s abandoning the leadership of the armed struggle and was an incident of rightist capitulationism.28

5.3  In-​depth development in the 1990s In the 1990s, research on the history of workers’ movements became more extensive and in-​depth. According to incomplete statistics, during these ten years, the mainland of China had published more than 80 books and more than 240 papers on the history of workers’ movements. Although the quantity of books on the workers’ movement history published during this period was greatly reduced, their quality was good, for example, Book 2 of the first volume of The Historical Conditions of Chinese Working Class (Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC Press, 1993) edited by Liu Mingkui, The May 30th Movement (3 volumes, Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1991) edited by the Shanghai Archives, The Second Front during the Liberation War Period:  Workers’ Movements and Townspeople’s Struggles (Vol. 1) (Chinese Communist Party History Press, 1999)  edited by the Party History Studies Department of the Shanghai Committee of the CPC and Library of the CPC’s Thoughts on Workers’ Movements (China Workers’ Publishing House, 1993) edited by Li Guozhong. In terms of reference books, there were The Chronicle of Events of Workers’ Movements during the Democratic Revolution (Liaoning People’s Publishing House, 1990) edited by Tang Yuliang and Wang Ruifeng, Encyclopedia of China’s Labor Unions (Economy and Management Publishing House, 1998)  edited by the All-​ China Federation of Trade Unions, and Encyclopedia of China’s Working Class (China International Broadcasting Press, 1992) edited by Ru Xin, et al. Among these books, The Chronicle of Events of Workers’ Movements during the Democratic Revolution made detailed descriptions of the major events in all the aspects of workers’ movements during various stages of the democratic revolution. It paid attention to the regional extensiveness of the events recorded and highlighted the professional nature and characteristics of history of workers’ movements which were different from modern history, the history of the CPC and revolutionary history, and thus became an important

158  LIU Jingfang and convenient reference book for readers to study and revise the major events of Chinese workers’ movements from 1840 to 1988. A more important manifestation of the deepening of the research on the history of workers’ movements in the 1990s was the successive publication of a batch of good and comprehensive monographs on the workers’ movement, among which the most outstanding one was the six-​volume History of Chinese Workers’ Movements (Guangdong People’s Publishing House, 1998)  edited by Liu Mingkui and Tang Yuliang. This book had more than 250  million characters and had been the most comprehensive and informative work on the workers’ movements in the period of the Chinese democratic revolution since 1949, which was authoritative and was of high academic standard. Other important works included Wang Erxi et al.’s History of China’s Trade Unions (Chinese Communist Party History Publishing House, 1992), Seventy Years of the All-​China Federation of Trade Unions (China Workers’ Publishing House, 1995) edited by the All-​China Federation of Trade Unions, which all centered on the production, organization, and activities of the trade unions and outlined the history of workers’ movements in more than 100 years before and after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Zou Pei and Liu Zhen’s Historical Narrative about Chinese Workers’ Movements (Chinese Workers’ Publishing House, 1993)  adopted the techniques of Zhanghui novels (a type of traditional Chinese novel with each chapter headed by a couplet giving the gist of its content) and described the profound history of the workers’ movements from the birth of the Chinese working class to the founding of the PRC in simple language, which had made a useful attempt at the popularization of the history of workers’ movements in modern China. In addition, research on the local history of workers’ movements had also made great progress. A  batch of works on the workers’ movements in large regions, municipalities, and provinces were published, such as Qi Wu’s History of Workers’ Movements in Northeast China (1866–​ 1949) (Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC Press, 1992), Shen Yixing et al.’s History of Shanghai Workers’ Movements (Volumes I and II, Liaoning People’s Publishing House, 1991 and 1996), History of Shanghai Workers’ Movements During the Anti-​Japanese War Period (Shanghai Far East Press, 1992)  and History of Shanghai Workers’ Movements during the War of Liberation (Shanghai Far East Press, 1992)  edited by the Research Institute for the History of Workers’ Movements of the Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions, History of Fujian Workers’ Movements (China Workers’ Publishing House, 1990), Outline of the History of Fujian Workers’ Movements (1927–​1949) (Xiamen University Press, 1999), History of Hu’nan Workers’ Movements (China Workers’ Publishing House, 1994), History of Hubei Workers’ Movements (1863–​1949) (Hubei People’ Publishing House, 1996), History of Jiangxi Workers’ Movements (Jiangxi People’s Publishing House, 1995)  and Guangdong Workers’ Movement History (Guangdong People’s Publishing House, 1997). A  batch of works on the history of the workers’ movement in small and medium-​sized cities was also published, such as the

History of workers’ movements in China  159 History of Ji’nan Workers’ Movements (China Workers’ Publishing House, 1992), History of Changsha Workers’ Movements (National University of Defense Technology Press, 1993), History of Zhengzhou Workers’ Movements (Henan People’s Publishing House, 1995), History of Hangzhou Workers’ Movements (1876–​ 1992) (China Industry and Commerce Press, 1996), History of Luoyang Workers’ Movements (Henan People’s Publishing House, 1992), History of Ningbo Workers’ Movements (China Workers’ Publishing House, 1994), History of Huzhou Workers’ Movements (China Radio and TV Press, 1992), History of Tangshan Workers’ Movements (Central Party Literature Press, 1993), History of Baoding Workers’ Movements (China Workers’ Publishing House, 1994), History of Shaoxing Workers’ Movements (Zhejiang People’s Publishing House, 1999), and History of Yueqing Workers’ Movements (1925–​1990) (China Workers’ Publishing House, 1995). Most of these works were rich in content and were of high academic standard, among which Shen Yixing et  al.’s History of Shanghai Workers’ Movements had a prominent feature in its structure. Unlike other works on workers’ movement history, it divided chapters chronologically according to the central and key issues in the development of the Shanghai workers’ movements rather than the revolutionary periods. Whether this structure was appropriate or not was open to discussion, but the editors’ original intention to break the old frame which divided chapters according to the history of the CCP and the history of the revolution and create a framework with the characteristics of the workers’ movement history was advisable. Since the mid-​1980s, many provinces had collaborated on the compilation of works on the history of workers’ movements in the revolutionary base areas. In the 1990s, initial success had been achieved. History of the Workers’ Movements in the Hu’nan-​Jiangxi Revolutionary Base Area (Jiangsu People’s Publishing House, 1991) co-​edited by the trade unions of Hu’nan and Jiangxi, summarized the rise, role, experiences and lessons of the trade union movements in the revolutionary base area created and led by Mao Zedong. History of the Workers’ Movements in the Shanxi-​Hebei-​Shandong-​Henan Revolutionary Base Area (China Workers’ Publishing House, 1991), History of the Workers’ Movements in the Shanxi-​Suiyuan Revolutionary Base Area (China Workers’ Publishing House, 1992), History of the Workers’ Movements in the Shanxi-​ Chahaer-​Hebei Revolutionary Base Area (China Workers’ Publishing House, 1992)  co-​edited by the trade unions of Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Beijing, Tianjin and Inner Mongolia made detailed accounts of the glorious course of the working class’s heroic fighting for national independence and people’s liberation together with people of all ethnic groups and all ranks under the leadership of the CPC during the War of Resistance Against Japan and the War of Liberation. These books were the most valuable works among the works on the history of the workers’ movements in the revolutionary base areas. Zhang Xipo’s The Guiding Principles for Workers’ Movements and the History of Labor Legislation in the Revolutionary Base Areas (China Labor Press, 1993) systematically examined the history of the emergence and

160  LIU Jingfang development of labor laws in revolutionary base areas, carefully studied the achievements and problems in the guiding principles for laborers and labor legislation in the liberated areas and summarized the experiences and lessons in labor legislation, which was the only monograph on labor legislation in the revolutionary base areas. In the 1990s, a series of works of high academic value on the history of workers’ movements in the factories and mines were also published, such as History of Anyuanlu Coal Miners’ Movements (History of the CPC Press, 1991) and History of Kailuan Coal Miners’ Movements (Xinhua Publishing House, 1992), History of Shandong Coal Miners’ Movements (Coal Industry Press, 1995), History of Guangdong Seamen’s Movements (Guangdong People’s Publishing House, 1993) and History of the CPC and Workers’ Movements in the Factories and Enterprises of Shanghai (this series has been successively published by the History of the CPC Press since 1991. Nineteen books of the first volume had been published and 13 books of the second were still under publication). This series changed the previous style of writing which was only restricted to the strikes and added the description of the development of the relevant industry or enterprise, the formation and development of the workforce, and their situation in various periods, which better accounted for the basis of and conditions for the occurrence and development of the workers’ movements. In addition to the major political and economic struggles, this series also reflected the conditions of workers’ organization and education. The important monographic works on the history of workers’ movements include Lu Quan and Xuan Qianhong’s The Guangdong-​Hong Kong Strike (Guangdong People’s Publishing House, 1997), Zhu Yikuan’s Hurricane—​ The 70th Anniversary of Shanghai Workers’ Three Armed Uprisings (Shanghai Xuelin Press, 1997) and so on. The Guangdong-​Hong Kong Strike surpassed their previous counterparts in terms of both depth and breadth. Zhang Qi’s The Chronicle of the Shanghai Workers’ Movements (Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, 1991), Yang Changchun’s The Self-​Statement of a Liaison—​Memoirs of Yang Changchun (CCP History Press, 1999), Cao Zhongbin’s Biography of He Mengxiong (Jilin University Press, 1990), The Workers’ General Liang Guang (Guangdong People’s Publishing House, 1995) edited by the Guangdong Research Society of the Workers’ Movement History, and Lu Quan and Xuan Qianhong’s Biography of Su Zhaozheng (Guangdong People’s Publishing House, 1993)  were all valuable works in terms of memoirs and biographies.29 Collected Papers on the Chinese Workers’ Movements (Liaoning People’s Publishing House, 1996) edited by Shen Yixing, Jiang Peinan, and Zheng Qingsheng had been the most significant symposium on the history of workers’ movements over the 70 years since the founding of the PRC. Although the number of articles on the history of workers’ movements published during this period were less than that of the 1980s, there had been considerable progress in the depth and breadth of research, mainly reflected in the following aspects:

History of workers’ movements in China  161 5.3.1 The relationship between the secret societies and the workers’ movements before liberation Since the 1990s, Shanghai scholars had achieved fruitful results on the relationship between the Shanghai workers’ movement and the secret societies. Chen Weimin’s “Secret Societies and Workers’ Movements before Liberation” (Historical Review, Issue 2, 1993), Zhang Jun and Huang Meizhu’s “Secret Societies and the First Climax of Workers’ Movements” (Party History Studies and Teaching, Issue 2, 1993), Shao Yong’s “Problem of Workers’ Secret Societies in the May 30th Movement” (Party History Studies and Teaching, Issue 3, 1993)  and Rao Jingying’s “Secret Societies and Labor Unions of Shanghai in the 1930s” (Historical Review, Issue 3, 1993)  were representative papers on this issue. The authors of these papers objectively analyzed the role of secret societies in Shanghai workers’ movements and pointed out that in the early period they had led workers to strike, won some economic benefits for them and played a progressive role to some extent. Under certain specific periods and specific historical conditions, they could also participate in the anti-​imperialist and anti-​military struggles. However, with the establishment of the CPC and the real beginning of the workers’ movements, these secret societies had gradually become a stumbling block to the development of workers’ movements. In 1927, the Shanghai Qing-​Bang (a secret society founded by Chen Yuan toward the last years of the Qing Dynasty) collaborated with Jiang Jieshi and participated in the “December 12th Coup.” Attached to the KMT’s headquarter in Shanghai, Qing-​Bang organized trade unions, competed with the CPC for the leadership of workers’ movements, destroyed the revolutionary trade unions, and undermined or even suppressed strikes by force, which had brought great harm to workers’ movements. Especially in the 1930s, forces of the secret societies expanded rapidly with the support of the imperialist and the KMT regime. They controlled workers’ movements through various organizations set up within the trade unions, and most of the leading members of the Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions and other major trade unions controlled by the KMT were disciples of Du Yuesheng. As for the reason why the gang forces could control the workers’ movements at that time, researchers held that it was closely related to Shanghai’s economic and political conditions. Economically, affected by the world economic crisis and Japanese aggression, national industries had fallen into bankruptcy and semi-​bankruptcy. Workers’ employment and personal safety could not be guaranteed, and they had to seek protection from the secret societies to contend with the harsh environment, maintain their careers and keep their jobs. Politically, the KMT’s Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions took the lead in organizing gangs; in order to disunite the workers and control the trade unions and workers’ movements. The KMT made use of these gangs on purpose; the CPC’s “leftist” leaders organized red unions despite the serious white terror, and carried out adventurous activities and caused serious losses, which made the workers take the moderate position neither daring to

162  LIU Jingfang approach the red trade unions nor wanting to attach themselves to the KMT, so they chose the gang as a tool to protect themselves temporarily. Scholars also studied the CPC’s tactics for dealing with the secret societies and pointed out that in the long-​term struggle, the CPC had worked out many tactics, such as infiltrating the gangs, mobilizing the masses, making use of the conflicts between different gangs and destroying them one by one, uniting the lower-​ class people of the gangs, resolutely cracking down the “heads” who clearly undermined the strike, and making use of the gang’s “regulations” under certain circumstances. Based on these tactics, the CPC had achieved good results of continuously eliminating resistance from the gangs and winning the revolution. 5.3.2 The KMT’s trade unions After the failure of the Great Revolution, the KMT established its national regime. In the 1990s, research in this area had made some progress, and many articles had been published, such as Chen Weimin’s “Analysis of the Southern Trade Unions” and “Re-​Analysis of the Southern Trade Unions—​ An Analysis of the Guangdong Machinists’ Union,” Zhou Yongxiang’s “Comment on the KMT’s Hired Tools—​Shanghai Industrial Association and Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions,” Zheng Qingsheng’s “On the Seven Major Trade Unions of Shanghai in 1928” and Rao Jingying’s “Shanghai Postmen’s Union—​Analysis of China’s Yellow Trade Unions.” Chen Weimin dissected the Guangdong Machinists’ Union in detail and showed us one of the most reactionary types of the KMT-​controlled labor unions. Zheng Qingsheng gave a meticulous analysis of the seven major trade unions in Shanghai controlled by the KMT after the failure of the Great Revolution and put forward a different view from traditional viewpoints. He pointed out that although the seven major trade unions were politically opposed to the CPC and supported the KMT, to some extent, they could speak up for the workers and win some economic benefits for them. Therefore, the seven major trade unions could not be regarded as yellow unions but should be regarded as intermediate unions. Trade unions like the seven major trade unions were numerous in the KMT-​controlled area. For such trade unions, a strategy of uniting them and winning them over should be adopted. Based on her analysis of the evolution of the Shanghai Postmen’s Union, Rao Jingying revealed the basic characteristics of China’s yellow trade unions: establishing and maintaining their own dominance with the KMT as their patron; making use of secret societies to strengthen their dominance; colluding with the postal authorities; opposing the CPC politically and giving petty favors to workers economically. Rao pointed out that besides the KMT’s manipulation, the Shanghai Postmen’s Union’s changing into the yellow union was also related to its internal conditions. As a national enterprise, the postal service was in a relatively good economic condition and therefore the breeding ground for reformism. Most postal workers were from intellectual families, and their

History of workers’ movements in China  163 progressive members were prone to accept revolutionary ideas. At the same time, some of them became the pillars of reformist ideas. Judging from its behavior, there were similarities between the Postmen’s Union and the western yellow unions, but it also had its own characteristics and was a variant of the western yellow unions. Rao thought that in China, this kind of yellow trade union was extremely rare and it underwent constant changes in the trend of national liberation. The CPC’s correct tactics should be worked out from the correct understanding of the characteristics of the yellow unions.30 5.3.3 Several issues concerning the workers’ movements during the War of Resistance Against Japan The national commemorative activities of the fiftieth anniversary of the victory in the Anti-​Japanese War in 1995 promoted study of the history of workers’ movements during the War of Resistance Against Japan. More than 20 papers had been published in these ten years, touching upon the characteristics of workers’ movements during this period, the workers’ armed anti-​Japanese struggles, workers’ struggles in the occupied areas, overseas Chinese workers’ resistance against Japan’s invasion, and so on. Among them, research on the workers’ movements in the Japanese-​occupied areas was carried out somewhat deeply. After the fall of the Northeast in the September 18th Incident, the Northeast workers’ movements were quickly transformed from the domestic war to the anti-​ Japanese struggles. Xiao Tongshui’s “Heilongjiang Workers’ Anti-​Japanese and National Salvation Movements after the September 18th Incident” (Academic Exchanges, Issue 1, 1994), Sun Jiying’s “The Northeast Workers’ Anti-​Japanese Struggles from 1931 to 1937” and “The Northeast Workers’ Anti-​Manchu and Anti-​Japanese Movements in 1938 and 1939” (Social Science Front, Issue 1, 199; Issue 1, 1996) revealed in detail the hardship and tortuousness of the working class’s struggles against the Japanese in Northeast China. Shanghai workers’ movements during the period of occupation was the focus of scholars’ attention. In her article “Shanghai Workers’ Movements during the Period of Occupation” (Historical Research, Issue 4, 1994), Huang Meizhen discussed the impact of changes in the social contradictions of the workers’ movements and the resulting new characteristics after the fall of Shanghai, analyzed the reasons for the despondency of the workers’ movements in 1938, and the social background and various manifestations of their revival in 1939, revealed the economic driving force and the guiding role of various political forces that promoted the rise of workers’ movements, and fully affirmed the CPC’s correct tactics for the workers’ movements in Shanghai. Huang also carried out a detailed investigation into the formation and activities of the Japanese puppet organizations in workers’ movements, which were the adverse current appearing in Shanghai workers’ movements during this period. Rao Jingying’s “Review of Shanghai’s Pseudo-​ Trade Unions during the Period of Occupation” (Historical Review, Issue 4,

164  LIU Jingfang 1994) examined the pseudo-​trade unions in the early period of the occupation, the pseudo-​trade unions under Wang Jingwei’s puppet regime, and the pseudo-​trade unions during the period of Shanghai’s complete fall after the outbreak of the Pacific War, pointed out that these trade unions were considerably lacking in stability and independence as well as charisma and cohesion, and expounded the different strategies adopted by the CPC in the face of the intricate environment and different conditions of the pseudo-​trade unions. Wang Yangqing’s “On the Shanghai Workers’ Struggles for Survival and Their Strategies during the Isolated Island Period—​Comment on the Infiltration of Japan’s Puppet Forces into the Concessions” made much use of statistical data to expound the gradual germination, the upsurge and the twists and turns of the workers’ struggles, the infiltration of Japanese puppet forces into the concessions and control of the workers struggles, and how the CPC competed with the Japanese puppet trade unions and effectively prevented the Japanese and the puppet forces from utilizing workers and were victorious in the strikes by adopting correct strategies.31

5.4  Progress and deepening in the early twenty-​first century Since the beginning of the twenty-​first century, based on the studies in the past decades, research on the history of workers’ movements has made some progress, and more than ten kinds of reference materials and monographs and 60-​odd papers have been published. What is most worthy of recognition during this period is the outstanding achievements in the compilation and publication of historical data. Two important works have been published, one is Modern China’s Working Class and Workers’ Movements (Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC Press, 2001) edited by Liu Mingkui and Tang Yuliang, which consists of 14 volumes and 10 million characters. This book compiled the historical data on the Chinese working class and workers’ movements from the Opium War to the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The editors have spent nearly 20  years extensively collecting various historical records, newspapers and magazines and other related materials in various periods at home and abroad. They also properly collected some memories and important works authored by the persons involved. All these materials on the conditions of working-​ class teams, work, life and movements were carefully compiled and divided into different volumes in chronological order and each volume was further divided into chapters, sections, items and detailed items by content. There was an editorial note at the beginning of each chapter and an index of important bibliographies at the end of each volume. The editors of this series of books devoted great effort to the compilation of historical materials and the editorial notes could reflect their insights into the historical materials. The other important work is the Complete Collection of Historical Materials on Chinese Trade Unions Movements edited by all the departments attached to the All-​ China Federation of Trade Unions. The compilation of this book took eight

History of workers’ movements in China  165 years. It consists of 62 volumes and more than 15,000  million characters, which was divided into Volumes on the Comprehensive Data (reflecting the general situation of national workers’ movements and trade unions’ international contacts during various historical periods), Volumes on Industry (one volume for each system of the National Confederation of Industrial Trade Unions), Volumes on Local Places (one volume for each province, autonomous region and municipality except for Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Macau Special Administrative Region and Taiwan, which remained to be compiled). There were 22 volumes in electronic and paper editions. The historical materials collected in this book ranged from 1840 to 1993. All the historical materials in each volume were compiled in terms of the central and key content of the workers’ movement history in each period and were divided into chapters, sections and items. Each volume had an appendix containing the memorabilia of the workers’ movements, name list and introduction to the advanced models and leaders of the workers’ movements, the organizational evolution of trade unions, the selected statistical data on workers’ movements, the index of important bibliographies, and so on. The publication of this book was of great significance for understanding the history of the Chinese workers’ movements, summarizing the experiences and lessons, and inheriting and carrying forward the fine traditions of the workers’ movements. It was also an important reference work for the in-​depth study of modern and contemporary Chinese history, the history of the CPC, the history of the Chinese people’s revolution, the history of the new-​democratic revolution and the history of socialist construction. As for the monographs, the most important one was Liu Mingkui’s History of the Chinese Workers’ Movements in Pictures (Guangdong People’s Publishing House, 2006), which collected a total of 2,500 historical pictures, demonstrating the glorious history of the Chinese working class during the democratic revolution vividly, emotionally, comprehensively and systematically. Among the works on the history of local workers’ movements, there were Yunnan Workers’ Movement History (1872–​ 2000) (Yunnan Nationalities Publishing House, 2003)  edited by the Yunnan Provincial Federation of Trade Unions and the Yunnan Provincial Party History studies Office with Wang Yuanfu and Li Jihong as its editors-​in-​chief, Liu Gongcheng and Wang Yanjing’s History of Dalian Workers’ Movements in the 20th Century (Liaoning People’s Publishing House, 2001), Liu Gongcheng and Lin Wei’s 100 Historical Events in Dalian Workers’ Movements (Jilin Literary and History Publishing House, 2005), Xie Fuqian’s Overview of the History of Shanxi Military Industrial Workers’ Movements (Shanxi People’s Publishing House, 2008), and so on. In these ten years, several collections of research papers on the history of workers’ movements were published. For example, Collected Works on Chinese Workers’ Movements (China Workers’ Publishing House, 2000)  edited by Cao Yanping collected more than 50 papers which were divided into five themes:  annals of workers’ movements, study of the personages, organizations and historical sites, textual research on the

166  LIU Jingfang historical data and research review. This book recorded and analyzed the important events, personages, organizations and research status of the Chinese workers’ movement history. Liu Gongcheng’s Collected Works on Workers’ Movements (China Society Press, 2003) collected 100 articles demonstrating his achievements in 20 years of research on the history of workers’ movements. Research on Chinese Trade Unions (History of the CPC Press, 2008) edited by Yan Hui and Wang Erxi comprehensively and systematically tracked and studied the entire process of the Chinese working-​class and trade unions’ movements, and the purpose, organizational principles, operating mechanism and functions of the trade unions created by the CPC, and so on. The progress in the research on workers’ movement history in the early twenty-​first century was mainly reflected in the following aspects: 5.4.1  The CPC’s theories of and strategies for workers’ movements Scholars conducted in-​depth research on the CPC’s theories of and strategies for workers’ movements during the democratic revolution period. In the article “The Historical Review of the Relationship between the CPC and the Chinese Trade Unions,” He Gang and Cao Yanping held that from the establishment of the Secretariat of the China Labor Association to the 6th National Laborers’ Congress, the CPC’s guidelines for trade unions were as follows: (a) always regarding the establishment and leadership of trade unions as an important task for the Party; (b)  guiding the trade unions to adhere to the correct political direction, and determining the Party’s work policies based on the revolutionary situation and tasks at each stage; (c) upholding the CPC’s leadership of the trade unions, in the meantime, respecting the trade unions’ relative independence in terms of their organizational system and operation, and opposing taking everything on the Party itself and confusing the Party with the masses; (d) insisting on conducting the trade unions’ work in accordance with the nature and characteristics of mass organizations.32 Dai Wenxian’s “Review of and Reflection on the Development of China’s Marxist-​ Leninist Theories about Trade Unions” made a comprehensive and systematic examination of the emergence and development of trade union theories in each historical period during the new-​democratic period, and summarized the content and characteristics of the theories based on the practices of the Chinese workers’ movements at each stage.33 How to deal with labor relations in the new-​democratic society was a new problem encountered by the new democratic regime established and led by the CPC. Scholars have conducted in-​depth studies on Li Lisan, Liu Shaoqi, and Mao Zedong’s theories on the labor relations in the new democratic society. Gao Aidi thought that Li Lisan had elaborated his thought on labor relations and labor disputes while dealing with complex labor relations before and after the founding of the PRC, the main points of which were as follows:  (a) summarizing the characteristics of the labor relations under the new-​democratic regime and pointing out that the contradictions and

History of workers’ movements in China  167 struggles between the working class and the bourgeoisie still existed, but the nature and methods of the struggles fundamentally changed. Since the new democratic regime was led by the proletariat, the bourgeoisie was the ally and friend of the working class, but not the enemy. Therefore, the purpose of the struggle between the working class and the bourgeoisie was to achieve better solidarity and mutual benefits. The working class’s struggle was to consolidate this regime; (b)  putting forward a set of principles, approaches and means to deal with labor disputes that were suitable for the new democratic policy. First, the basic principles for dealing with labor disputes was to consider both the public and the private interests, and to benefit both labor and the capital; second, the labor decrees of the government and collective contracts of the enterprises were the main ways to guard the interests of labor and capital and to handle labor disputes; third, negotiation, mediation and arbitration were the basic means of handling labor disputes; (c) clearly pointing out the fundamental difference between the policy of mutual benefit of labor and capital implemented under the new democratic regime and the reformist labor-​capital cooperation advocated by the European social democratic parties; (d) clearly stating that in resolving labor disputes, the trade unions representing the interests of the workers should negotiate with those representing the capital on behalf of the workers, instead of standing between the two classes to mediate and arbitrate, which positioned the trade unions in the right place in dealing with the labor relations. Gao Aidi held that Li Lisan’s theory about labor relations during the new democratic period had played an important role in implementing the CPC’s policy of considering both public and private interests and the mutual benefits of labor and capital, and guiding trade unions to correctly handle labor relations and labor disputes, achieve social stability and promote production under the new-​democratic regime.34 Wang Xiaoming and He Zan thought that Li Lisan had conducted a pioneering theoretical exploration into trade unions. His bold exploration and pioneering work on the theoretical issues concerning the role of trade unions and the rationality and inevitability of the continued existence of the trade unions at that time, the theory about trade unions’ organization and the legislative work, how to correctly handle the conflicts between the labor unions and the administration, how to correctly handle the relationship between the party, the government, and the workers, and how to deal properly with the relationship between the trade unions and workers and the role of trade unions in private enterprises, had exerted great impact on the perfection of trade union theories and the full range of the trade unions’ functions, which not only laid the theoretical foundation for the work of the trade unions at that time, but had great guiding significance even for today’s work.35 Wang Erxi’s “Liu Shaoqi’s Trip to Tianjin on the Eve of the Founding of the PRC and His New Theoretical Exploration into the Labor Unions” (Theory and Practice of the Trade Unions, Vol. 13, Issue 1, 1999) fully affirmed the historical significance of Liu Shaoqi’s speech delivered in Tianjin to the trade unions’ theoretical construction. In that speech, Liu Shaoqi stated that

168  LIU Jingfang we must rely wholeheartedly on the working class, unite with other working people, win over intellectuals, and try our best to persuade the liberal bourgeois and their representatives who can cooperate with us to stand on our side or remain neutral so that we can resolutely fight against the imperialists, the KMT, and the bureaucratic bourgeoisie, and overcome them step by step. At the same time, we must start to carry out our construction undertakings and learn to manage the city step by step to restore and develop the productive enterprises in the city. Liu Shaoqi’s statement was the general line and the general policy on urban work which clearly showed the direction for the fundamental changes in workers’ movements before and after the founding of the PRC and provided the theoretical basis for the formulation of guidelines and policies for trade union work. Liu Shaoqi’s speech and instructions on the establishment of trade unions in Tianjin, and the principles, methods, and procedures he stated had promoted the workers’ rapid participation in the unions during this period, and thus provided a solid and extensive mass foundation and organizational guarantee for the reception and transformation of large and medium-​sized cities, the creation, consolidation of people’s regimes at all levels, and the restoration and development of the national economy. Liu Shaoqi’s thoughts on strengthening the workers’ education, strengthening internal solidarity among the working class, resolving conflicts between managers and workers in the state-​owned enterprises, teaching workers to actively participate in production, and emphasizing that the improvement of workers’ political awareness, cultural knowledge, technology and so on stipulated the key points and methods for labor unions’ organization and education of workers before and after the founding of the PRC. Liao Shaoqi’s new ideas on the status and role of the trade unions before and after the founding of the PRC, and his preliminary assumptions on the division of internal organizations and tasks of trade unions at all levels, the collection and management of trade union funds had provided the theoretical basis for taking production as the primary task and central work of the trade unions before and after the founding of the PRC, which was conducive to mobilizing and organizing the masses of workers to fully devote themselves to restoring and developing the national economy and the subsequent construction upsurge. In his article “The National Interests of ‘Benefiting both Labor and Capital’—​Analysis of Mao Zedong’s New Democratic Thought on Labor-​ Capital Relations” (Journal of China University of Mining and Technology [Social Science Edition], Issue 4, 2004), Wang Qiang pointed out that the spiritual essence of Mao Zedong’s thought on the new-​democratic labor-​capital relations was to gradually highlight the importance of national interests through the implementation of the principle benefiting both the labor and the capital, and to guide, balance, and judge the interests of the labor and the capital on the basis of national interests. Mao Zedong managed to protect the national interests through the settlement of labor disputes, to guarantee

History of workers’ movements in China  169 the national interests through the education of all parties inside and outside the CPC and embody the national interests in the implementation of the PRC’s economic development policy. 5.4.2 The KMT and the Nationalist Government’s theories and policies on the labor In the first ten years of the twenty-​first century, the KMT and the Nationalist Government’s theories and policies on the labor had attracted researchers’ attention. Zhou Liangshu and Wang Hua’s “Analysis of the KMT’s Labor Policies after Its First Assuming Power” (Academics, Issue 118, 2006) held that after the establishment of the Shanghai regime in 1927, the KMT formulated and implemented a series of labor policies, which not only fulfilled the commitments made by the KMT during the Great Revolution, but also reflected the new regime’s political attempts to use the labor laws to appease labor and control society. While making commitments to some workers’ rights, it also imposed restrictions on laborers’ actions in extremely clear terms. In addition to the suspense of business, the employers also had many other means to deal with the workers and suppress workers’ struggles, such as dismissal, pecuniary punishments, pay cuts and demotion. But the workers had no other means to compete with the employers except for the strike. Therefore, even though employers and laborers were explicitly prohibited from taking direct action such as suspension of business and strikes, it seemed that this policy was only fair and just on the surface but was directed more at the vulnerable labor group. Chen Zhujun’s “Research on the Labor Welfare Policies of the Nanjing Nationalist Government” (Jianghan Tribune, Issue 6, 2002) analyzed the causes and the general situation of the Nationalist Government’s implementation of labor welfare policies. Chen affirmed that the Nationalist Government’s “labor welfare policies developed from nothing, from decentralization to systematization, and eventually formed a relatively complete system.” Chen also pointed out that “due to various historical limitations, the Nationalist Government’s labor welfare policies and its implementation measures had many drawbacks, so the effect was far from expectation.” Chen’s article “On the Nationalist Government’s Labor Welfare Policy during the Anti-​Japanese War Period and Its Defects” (Republican Archives, Issue 1, 2003) described the Nationalist Government’s efforts to promote the laborers’ welfare to meet the needs of the war of resistance and the laborers’ requirements. Chen affirmed that the welfare policies implemented by the Nationalist Government during the Anti-​Japanese War had played a positive role in maintaining social stability, improving the quality of the workers, promoting the development of productive forces, supporting the long-​lasting resistance, and so on. At the same time, Chen also pointed out that there were various shortcomings in these policies themselves and their implementation.

170  LIU Jingfang Tao Yanwu’s “The Nanjing Nationalist Government’s Reform Policy on the Labor’ Salaries” (Journal of Xianning Teachers College, Issue 4, 2001)  analyzed the background of the Nanjing Nationalist Government’s reform policy on the laborers’ salaries, summarized its specific content and concluded that the KMT regime is the first government in modern China to deal with labor issues as a relatively modern concept. The first promulgation of some labor laws and regulations affirmed the basic rights of workers in a legal form, which is great progress in history. Several laws and regulations such as the “Minimum Wage Act” promulgated by it, to a certain extent, restricted the capitalist’s exploitation of workers. However, due to various reasons, the actual effect of these laws was far from reaching the ideal goal. 5.4.3  The labor legislation during the Republic of China period This issue has received more attention, and both the depth and breadth of related research has been greatly expanded. For example, in the examination and evaluation of the “Factory Law” formulated by the Nanjing Nationalist Government, researchers no longer confined their perspective to the workers’ interests but extended it to modern China’s overall legal construction and economic development. Peng Nansheng and Rao Shuili’s “On the Factory Law of 1929” (Historical Research in Anhui, Issue 4, 2006)  conducted a comparatively comprehensive analysis of the causes, characteristics and effects of the “Factory Law” promulgated in 1929. They held that the reason why the Nanjing Nationalist Government promulgated the “Factory Law” was objectively due to the poor working conditions and the low wages of the workers and laborers, which made the contradiction between labor and capital increasingly acute and the urban social order fluctuate, thus threatening the stability of the new Nationalist Government. Subjectively, the Nanjing Nationalist Government also wanted to ease labor disputes, guarantee laborers’ basic rights, create a more harmonious environment for the development of industry, cultivate tax sources, and consolidate the government’s ruling foundation. They argued that the transferability, hereditability and over-​transcendality of the “Factory Law” were important obstacles to its implementation. They also fully affirmed the “Factory Law” and believed that it had promoted the formulation of other labor laws and regulations and the gradual formation of the legal system centering around the “Factory Law” and consisting of many local labor laws and regulations, which normalized the state-​labor-​capital relations and protected the laborers’ basic rights and interests. To a certain extent, it was conducive to the Nationalist Government’s retrieving the previously lost state power from the hands of Western countries in accordance with the law

History of workers’ movements in China  171 and protecting China’s national rights; it was also conducive to improving the laborers’ working conditions, living conditions, and safeguarding their rights and interests. At the same time, they also pointed out that the law’s legal protection for labor was still one-​sided. As a slip law, its regulations on the standard of factories excluded the widespread labor issues in handicrafts and commerce, which had a greater number of workers. Moreover, it allowed traditional handicrafts to employ workers lawlessly, which objectively maintained old-​fashioned production methods that hindered the early industrialization of China. Zhu Zhengye’s “Review of the Nanjing Nationalist Government’s ‘Factory Law’ ” (Social Sciences in Guangxi, Issue 7, 2007) also made fully affirmative evaluation of the “Factory Law” and considered that it was the first real labor law in modern China and its implementation was conducive to the protection of laborers’ interests and promotion of social and economic development to a certain extent. The “Factory Law” clarified the rights and obligations of both employers and employees, but mainly protected laborers’ rights: (a) there were strict restrictions on the employers’ power unilateral dismissal, ensuring that workers would not be easily dismissed, but there were few restrictions on workers’ resignation. (b) Workers were the owners of the factory to a certain extent and could participate in the year-​end bonus, management and decision-​ making of the factory. For example, an equal number of representatives for the factory congress, which was the management and decision-​making body, should be elected by the employer and the employees respectively, and the congress should be chaired by the representatives elected by the two parties in turn. These regulations had greatly mobilized workers’ enthusiasm and initiative. (c) The reform of the wage system had completely changed the situation in which wages were completely determined by the capitalists and ensured a normal life of the workers and their families. (d) Regulations on the working hours, rest time and vacations had played a positive role in restoring workers’ energy, strength and ensuring their health. The formulation and implementation of the “Factory Law” had increased the awareness of workers’ participation and labor efficiency, thus greatly promoted the further development of the economy. (e) Since the promulgation and implementation of the “Factory Law,” the gap between the employers and employees had been eased, and the rule of the Nanjing Nationalist Government had been consolidated. 5.4.4  Research on the relations among workers, capitalists and the KMT in labor disputes For a long time, research on the history of workers’ movements in China had been confined to the history of the CPC and the history of the Chinese revolution. While explaining the relationship between workers and capitalists, researchers had always put stress on the confrontational aspect of the class struggle, and generally stereotyped the labor-​capital relations, whereas they neglected the analysis of their cooperation. In recent years, through the case

172  LIU Jingfang studies on the typical events in the history of workers’ movements, scholars have revealed the very complicated relations among these three parities. In his article “Between the ‘Patriotism’ and ‘Private Interests’—​A Case Study of the Industry-​Commerce Relations in the Nationalist Movement during the Nationalist Revolution” (Historical Research in Anhui, Issue 5, 2006), Huo Xinbin pointed out that during the Nationalist Revolution, weighing between “patriotism” and “private interests” had always influenced the duration of the merchants’ participation in the Nationalist Movements. At the beginning of the Guangdong-​Hong Kong strike, inspired by anti-​imperialist and patriotic national sentiments, merchants in Guangdong could always participate in the economic boycotts of foreign countries at the cost of sacrificing their “private interests.” However, with the development of the movement, the serious damages caused to their “private interests” impelled them to re-​ examine the “risk and cost” of investing in the strike. After the cancelation of the “concession,” they started to support the strike in a cooperative manner. Compared with the short-​term labor-​capital coalition in Shanghai’s “May 30th Movement,” the “industry-​commerce cooperation” in the Guangdong-​ Hong Kong strike was firmer and more durable. Such an “industry-​commerce coalition” formed in the interplay between the interests of the class and the nation was closely related not only to the maturity of the CPC’s united front strategy in the Nationalist Movement and the KMT’s labor-​capital policy of “protecting industry and restricting business,” but also to the tradition of Guangzhou that “the industry and the commerce belonged to the same guild” and the improvement in the merchants’ awareness of the Nationalist Revolution; what was more important was that the strikes promoted the economic development and benefited merchants a lot. It was the dual motives of “patriotism” and “private interests” that collectively built up the continuous and unstable industry-​commerce relations in the Nationalist Movement. In another article “ ‘The Ruthless Chicken’ Incident: An Empirical Study of the Labor Disputes in the Late Period of the Nationalist Revolution” (Modern Chinese History Studies, Issue 1, 2007), Huo Xinbin made a detailed investigation into the labor dispute caused by the merchants’ dismissal of workers in late 1926 and early 1927 and revealed the different attitudes and behaviors of the Guangzhou industrial and commercial circles in the conflict of interests in the late period of the Nationalist Revolution, which demonstrated the differences between the KMT and CPC’s policies on the issues concerning labor and capital, reflected the dilemma faced by the KMT regime flaunting “coordination between classes” about choosing the “just” position between labor and capital in process of social integration, and revealed that the CPC was limited in its ability to politically mobilize the working class in dealing with this dispute through the cooperation between the employers and employees. Wang Qisheng’s “Workers, Capitalists and the KMT—​A Case Analysis of a Labor Dispute in the 1930s” (Historical Research, Issue 5, 2001) conducted a case study on the large-​scale labor dispute taking place in Shanghai from 1932 to1933, which was triggered by the closure of the Sanyou Industrial

History of workers’ movements in China  173 Corporation. Through careful description and analysis of the entire process of its development, this paper objectively demonstrated the complicated relationship between the workers and the capitalists, the capitalists and the KMT regime, and the workers and the KMT regime, showing that the KMT Central Committee did not simply represent the interests of a certain party, but mainly aimed to safeguard its ruling order; it also studied the activity mode, characteristics and functions of the trade unions and workers’ movements besides the CPC-​led red unions and the KMT-​controlled yellow unions. Based on his detailed investigations into the capitalists’ attitude toward the labor disputes in China in the first half of the twentieth century, Xu Siyan’s “Cooperation and Conflict: The Capitalist Class in Labor Disputes” (Historical Research in Anhui, Issue 6, 2007) concluded that at the conceptual level, the capitalists unexceptionally sang odes to the cooperation between capital and labor; in practice, the capitalists could always make compromises to a certain degree in the spirit of cooperation and seek to ease or resolve the conflicts, but there were also capitalists who resisted stubbornly. Whether employers would make compromises or not mainly depended on their trade-​ offs between their gains and losses. However, it also had something to do with the development of the labor organizations, the enhancement of the laborers’ awareness of class and rights, and their choices of specific strategies for advancement and retreat. In fact, there was only very limited space for labor-​capital cooperation. 5.4.5 The relationship between the guilds and trade unions Gao Aidi’s “Influence of the Guilds on the Early Workers’ Movements” (Theory and Practice of the Trade Unions, Vol. 17, Issue 3, 2003) made a comparatively comprehensive and objective analysis of the relationship between the guilds and trade unions and pointed out that guilds were the main organizers of the early workers’ movements and the main reference model for the early workers’ organizations. However, due to their unique narrow view of interest, the guilds also affected the internal solidarity of the working class, hindered the improvement of the working class’s awareness and weakened the effectiveness of the workers’ struggles in some cases, and thus brought many negative effects on the early workers’ movements. Most scholars thought that the CPC had a profound understanding of the nature of guilds noticing that they could either become a kind of revolutionary force or do harm to the workers’ movements, and positively affirmed the CPC’s tactics for dealing with the guilds in the revolutionary practices.36 In the 70  years since the founding of the PRC, the historical study of workers’ movements has made remarkable achievements. However, we cannot but see that there are still some problems. The major ones of can be summarized as follows: First, there is a lack of in-​depth theoretical research. Although the research on the theories of the workers’ movements during the democratic revolution

174  LIU Jingfang period has begun to be taken seriously by academia and initial progress has been made, few achievements have still to be made. Many important theoretical issues have been ignored and lacked in-​depth study. For example, how did the CPC utilize and develop the Marxist theory on labor movements from the reality of China? What are the characteristics of the semi-​colonial and semi-​feudal China’s working class and workers’ movements compared to capitalist countries’ working class and workers’ movements? What is the status and role of the workers’ movements in the democratic revolution? What is the relationship between the workers’ movements and the armed struggle and the strategic tasks in various periods? In the anti-​imperialist and anti-​feudal democratic revolution and in the process of China’s modernization, what kind of policies and strategies should the working class adopt for the bourgeoisie? Second, the content of the study is unbalanced and lopsided, and the academic arguments are not heated enough. For example, in terms of the research content, more attention has been concentrated on the early labor movements. Among the published works, there are many articles discussing the labor movements before and during the Great Revolution, but there are few articles on the labor movements in the Agrarian Revolutionary War and the War of Resistance against Japan, and there are even fewer articles on the labor movements in the Liberation War; although there has been some progress in the research on the labor movements led by the KMT and other organizations other than the KMT and the CPC, these studies are not deep enough yet. There are still research gaps in the historical research on the labor movements in some important industries and important areas. Some important questions have been proposed, but in-​depth discussions and disputes between different views are lacking, which has hindered the depth of the research to some extent. Third, data collection still needs to be strengthened. For decades, research organizations at all levels of the All-​China Federation of Trade Unions have collected a large amount of data and made important achievements in the compilation and publication of data. However, there are still many other important historical materials remaining to be explored and compiled, for example the data on the labor movements led by the KMT and the Nationalist Government. The initial data compilations and research findings made by the social scientists in old China are rarely utilized. To further deepen the research on the history of the labor movements, it was still essential for us to go a step further in the collection, compilation and publication of data. Fourth, the discipline of Chinese labor movement history has not been established yet. As a discipline, the connotation of research on the history of Chinese labor movements not only requires the publication of monographs defining its subjects, tasks and major issues, but also requires that all the big research gaps should be basically filled; it not only requires effort on the collection, compilation and utilization of data, but also requires scientific understanding and discussions of these data; it not only requires general understandings of the information and development of the research on the history of labor movements at home and abroad, but also requires a systematic

History of workers’ movements in China  175 review of and monographs on the disciplinary history of labor movement history. It not only requires mastering historical materialism, absorbing a reasonable number of traditional Chinese historical research methods and Western research methods on the labor movement history, but also requires systematic summarization based on our own practical experience in order to form the scientific and localized methodology. In this regard, strictly speaking, the scientific system for the historical study of labor movements in China has not yet been fully formed. To enrich and perfect the scientific system of the history of China’s labor movements, we should at least strengthen theoretical research on the history of labor movements in China, broaden the research field, plug the research gaps, establish the science of historical data on the history of labor movements in China, attach great importance to the summary of the research progress and experience, adopt the effective methods of Chinese historiography, and draw on and use multidisciplinary research methods and so on. Fifth, there is a lack of specialized agencies and research teams. The Chinese Workers’ Movement History Research Office of the All-​ China Federation of Trade Unions was canceled in the early 1990s. Since then there have been few full-​time researchers in the field of labor movement history and trade unions. Few research institutions of labor movement history have been established by the academy of social sciences, and there have been very few researchers working in this field. The courses on the history of the CPC and the history of the Chinese revolution have been canceled in the universities, and almost all the courses on labor movement history have also been canceled at the same time. The Research Society of Chinese Workers’ Past and Present established in 2005 has carried out some academic activities but focused more on the present situation of the Chinese working class. Because there has been neither a standing and specialized research organization nor a basic research team, academic activities have been seriously limited. Many researchers have left the labor movement history research team and the rest of them are basically skirmishers working separately, which has seriously restricted the in-​depth and extensive development of the research on labor movement history. In a word, the research on the history of labor movement is an indispensable part of China’s social science research and I sincerely hope it will bloom and flourish forever.

Notes 1 Gong Yunshi was a pen name of the Chinese Workers’ Movement History Research Office of the All-​China Federation of Trade Unions, and the main writer of this article was Tang Yuliang. 2 Liang Jiahe was a pen name of the Chinese Workers’ Movement History Research Office of the All-​China Federation of Trade Union, and the main writers of this article were Tang Yuliang and Liu Mingkui.

176  LIU Jingfang 3 Rong Tianlin, Zhang Zhuhong and Zhou Chengen. (1959). Chinese Working Class Before and After the May 4th Movement. Peking University Historical Review; Zhang Qi. (1962). Had the Chinese Working Class Become a Class-​for-​ itself during the May 4th Movement Period? Hanjiang Journal (4). 4 Li Xing, Zhao Qin and Huang Du. (1961). On the Changing of the Chinese Working Class from a Class-​in-​itself to a Class-​for-​itself. Academic Monthly (2); Li Xing, Huang Du. (1961). Re-​discussion on the Changing of the Chinese Working Class from a Class-​in-​itself to a Class-​for-​itself. Academic Monthly (7). 5 Xiang Liling. (1961). On the Change of Chinese Workers’ Movements from Spontaneity to Consciousness. Academic Monthly (7). 6 Qi Wenfeng and Zhou Xiaomeng. (1986). Marx’s Thought about the Internal Front of the Working Class and Its Influences on the Chinese Revolution and Construction. Journal of Yichun Normal University (1). 7 Liu Jingfang. (1987). Red Labor Unions in the White Area during the Agrarian Revolutionary War. Modern Chinese History Studies (4). 8 Wang Yang. (1989). On the Two Strategies for the Yellow Labor Union. Journal of Liaoning University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition) (2). 9 Gai Jun and Liu Jingfang. (1989). Strategies for Workers’ Movements during the Agrarian Revolutionary War Period and the Communist International. Journal of Chinese Communist Party History Studies (3). 10 Tang Yuliang. (1989). Preliminary Discussion on the Relationship between the International Red Labor Union and Chinese Workers’ Movements. Journal of Chinese Workers’ Movements College (3). 11 Liu Jingfang. (1989). Review of Liu Shaoqi’s Strategical Thoughts of Workers’ Movements in the White Area from the September 18th Incident to the January 28th Incident. In:  Collected Papers on Liu Shaoqi Studies. Central Party Literature Press. 12 Gu Bangwen. (1985). Most of the Intellectuals in Old China Were Part of the Proletariat. Social Sciences (3). 13 Zheng Zhaoan. (1986). Most of the Intellectuals in Old China Were Not Part of the Working Class. Journal of Hu’nan Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), The Supplementary Issue. 14 Liu Xingxing. (1985). Research on the Concept of the Chinese Proletariat and the History of Chinese Workers’ Movements. Workers’ Daily, July 5th. 15 Zheng Qingsheng. (1986). On the Research Object of the Chinese Workers’ Movement History. Historical Review (3). 16 Miu Chuhuang. (1983). Historical Development of Mao Zedong’s Thought. Newsletter of the CPC’s History (23), (24). 17 Liu Xingxing. (1984). “Centralization” Is Not a Special Advantage of the Chinese Proletariat. Jianghan Tribune (12). 18 Huang Wansheng and Yin Jizuo. (1980). On the Limitations of the Chinese Proletariat. Social Sciences (5); Huang Wansheng and Yin Jizuo. (1982). Re-​ discussion on the Limitations of the Chinese Proletariat—​In Response to Several Critics. Social Sciences (3); Xu Gao. (1982). Comment on “On the Limitations of the Chinese Proletariat.” Social Sciences (2) 19 Xu Yiming and Ma Chenghua. (1982). Analysis of the So-​called Limitations of the Chinese Proletariat. Social Sciences (6); Cao Zhongbin. (1981). On the Progressiveness of Chinese Proletariat—​Questions about “On the Limitations of the Chinese Proletariat.” Social Sciences (5); Wang Zhaofeng. (1982). Several Issues on the Limitations of the Chinese Proletariat. Social Sciences (6).

History of workers’ movements in China  177 20 Cheng Jiyao. (1981). The Affirmation of the Chinese Proletariat’s Progressiveness Do Not Conflict with the Affirmation of Its Limitations. Social Sciences (6). 21 Liu Li. (1986). Hong Kong Seafarers’ Strike Was Led by the KMT. Modern Chinese History Studies (2). 22 Xuan Qianhong and Lu Quan. (1987). Was the Hong Kong Seafarers’ Strike Led by the KMT? Modern Chinese History Studies (5). 23 Lu Quan. (1979). Brief Discussions on Several Questions about the Guangdong-​ Hong Kong Strike. Academic Research (4); Chen Shanguang. (1985). The First KMT-​CPC Cooperation and the New Development of Workers’ Movements. Academic Research (1). 24 Li Xiaoyong. (1987). The KMT and the Guangdong-​Hong Kong Strike. Modern Chinese History Studies (4). 25 Liu Jizheng, Mao Lei and Yuan Jicheng. (1981). The “Leftist” Mistakes Existed in the Workers’ Movements during the Period of the Wuhan Government. Jianghan Tribune (4). 26 Zeng Xianlin. (1982). Discussion of the Problems Concerning the “Leftist” Mistakes that Existed in the Workers’ Movements during the Period of the Wuhan Government. Newsletter of the CPC’s History (2); Cheng Taoping. (1982). How Should We Look at the “Leftist” Mistakes that Existed in the Workers’ Movements during the Period of the Wuhan Government. Journal of Chinese Communist Party History Studies (3). 27 Liu Jizeng, Mao Lei and Yuan Jicheng. (1980). Investigation into the Disarming of Wuhan Workers’ Pickets. Historical Research (6). 28 Run Tiecheng. (1982). Should We Affirm the Decision of Dismissing the Wuhan Workers’ Pickets—​To Discuss with Liu Jizeng and Others. Journal of Chinese Communist Party History Studies (2); Zhang Guangyu. (1982). On the Nature of the Wuhan Workers’ Pickets’ Handing in Their Firearms—​To Discuss with Liu Jizeng and Others. Journal of Wuhan University (4). 29 Lu Quan and Xuan Qianhong’s Biography of Su Zhaozheng was a revised version of their previous work of the same name published in 1985. This new version made great extension and progress in terms of both content and volume because it made use of extensive archives, newspapers, historical data obtained from investigations and interviews, and the latest research findings. 30 These articles were originally published in Historical Review and were collected in Jiang Peinan’s Historical Essays on the Chinese Workers’ Movements published by Liaoning People’s Publishing House in 1996. 31 Jiang Peinan. (1996). History of Chinese Workers’ Movements. Liaoning People’s Publishing House, 419–​431; 403–​418. 32 Cao Yanping. (2000). Collected Works on Chinese Workers’ Movements. China Workers’ Publishing House, 27–​31. 33 Yan Hui and Wang Erxi (Eds.) (2008) Research on Chinese Trade Unions. History of the CPC Press, 125–​143. 34 Gao Aidi. (2000). A Summary of Li Lisan’s Theory about the Labor Relations during the New Democratic Period. A View of Labor Unions, 24. 35 Wang Xiaoming and He Zan. (2007). Li Lisan’s Theoretical Exploration into the Trade Unions and Achievements before and after the Founding of the PRC. Trade Unions’ Tribune (5). 36 Shao Yong. (2002). Guilds in Republican China (Vol. 6 of The Secret Societies in China). Fujian People’s Publishing House.

6  Women’s history ZHENG Yongfu and LV Meiyi

Since the founding of the PRC, the study of modern women’s history has gone through three historical stages. The first stage lasted from October 1949 to May 1966. During this stage, the study of women’s history did not arouse historians’ due attention. Few achievements had been made and the scope was extremely limited, which showed that it was obviously at a low ebb. The second stage lasted from 1966 to 1978. Only an extremely limited number of papers on modern women’s history were published. After the announcement of reform and opening up at the end of 1978, the study of women’s history reached its climax. That is the third stage. Especially in the last decade, with the worldwide advancement of gender mainstreaming and the introduction of gender theories and methods, the study of women’s history has experienced unprecedented prosperity, showing a delightful trend of changing from a marginal field to a mainstream one. The incomplete statistics indicate that more than 2,000 papers and more than 100 monographs and textbooks on modern Chinese women’s history have been published over the 30 years after the reform and opening up, which fully reflect the academic level of research in this field during the new era.

6.1  Women’s movements and thoughts on women’s liberation The research on women’s movements has been the most fruitful area of the research on women’s history in modern China over the past 60 years. More than ten monographs have been published, including Liu Jucai’s History of the Modern Chinese Women’s Movements (The New Democratic Period) (China Women’s Publishing House, 1989), Lv Meiyi and Zheng Yongfu’s Chinese Women’s Movements (1840–​ 1921) (Henan People’s Publishing House, 1990), Tang Yahui’s History of Chinese Women’s Struggle Over the Past 100 Years (Hu’nan Normal University Press, 1990) and The History of Women’s Movements in Shanghai: 1919–​1949 (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1990)  edited by the Compilation Committee of the Shanghai Women’s Federation on the Women’s Movement History. In 1989, the All-​ China Women’s Federation compiled and published History of Modern Chinese Women’s Movements (The New Democratic Period) (China Women’s

Women’s history  179 Publishing House). In 2008, it published the first volume of Chinese Women’s Movement History in the 20th Century (China Women’s Publishing House). These monographs and related papers have mainly discussed the following questions: 6.1.1  The periodization and characteristics of women’s movements in modern China The women’s movement, by its very nature, is human beings’ reform of their way of existence. Academia has made extensive discussion on the occurrence, development and characteristics of the Chinese women’s movements. Liu Jucai held that there were four historical conditions for the emergence of women’s movements: industrial civilization was the material prerequisite for the rise of women’s movements; acute gender contradictions and serious social problems concerning women’s issues were its social basis; gender awareness was its ideological basis; women with democratic ideas and concept of equality were its mass base.1 Some other scholars pointed out that the rise of the women’s liberation movement, on the one hand, required that social productive forces develop to a certain level to provide a considerable material basis for women’s return to society; on the other, it required that human beings have the ability to re-​examine their own values of existence.2 When the Chinese women’s movements began is a highly controversial issue. Rong Tiesheng proposed that the late nineteenth century was the enlightenment stage of the women’s liberation movements in modern China, which reached a climax around the 1911 Revolution.3 Most scholars regarded the Reform Movement in 1898 as the start of the Chinese women’s movements. However, Li Jingzhi and others argued that the Reform Movement was only the prelude to the Chinese women’s movements, and the women-​dominated, organized and large-​scale women’s movements with guiding principles did not appear until the 1911 Revolution.4 As for the periodization of women’s movements in modern China, academia generally took 1921 as the dividing point and split the movements into two stages, each of which was further divided into several small sections. Liu Jucai held that the former stage was the intellectual women’s liberation movement (1898–​1921) synchronizing with the old democratic revolution, and the latter stage synchronized with the new democratic revolution and was the women’s liberation movement with the proletariat as its leader, working women as its main element and the intellectual women as its pioneers.5 Some researchers summarized the characteristics of women’s movements in the old democratic revolution period as follows: first, women’s liberation movements in modern China have always been an organic part of the Chinese people’s anti-​imperialist and anti-​feudal bourgeois democratic revolution. The upsurges of women’s movements often synchronized with the upsurges of the political revolution. The hardship of the anti-​imperialist and anti-​ feudal period made the bourgeoisie focus only on women’s strength and role

180  ZHENG Yongfu and LV Meiyi but neglected the rights that women should enjoy. In the face of severe political struggle, the broad masses of women often only highlighted their social responsibility but ignored their sense of entitlement. Second, because of the difficult growth and slow development of China’s national capitalism, the necessary historical conditions created for women’s liberation movements were extremely limited. The national bourgeoisie had assumed the leadership of women’s movements when it was still quite weak, making the Chinese women’s movements start ahead of time under insufficient conditions and causing the special phenomenon that men were active advocates of women’s liberation but women were only followers, which led to the lack of women’s movements independent of the anti-​ imperialist and anti-​ feudal struggle and the lack of women’s liberation movements independent of men. Third, Chinese women’s movements in the period the old democratic revolution were extremely complicated. The oppression and humiliation of Chinese women resulted not only in the needs of men and their families, but also the needs of the rulers of the past dynasties to maintain their ruling strategy. Any effort to change the social status of women would meet strong resistance from many aspects.6 Li Guihai summarized the characteristics of women’s liberation movements in modern China into four points:  “it was connected with the bourgeois revolution; it explored women’s liberation from the perspective of criticizing feudal family ethics; male thinkers played enlightening roles in the movements; it paid attention to women’s social rights.”7 As for the reasons why women’s liberation in modern China was often initiated by men, Sang Bing emphasized that in addition to the fact that men were better educated than women, there were also two other reasons: one was that in traditional Chinese society, mothers had to shoulder more responsibility for the education and growth of their children than fathers, and thus they exerted deeper influences on their children. The accompanying Oedipus complex in a cultural sense affected future generations’ attitudes toward women. Second, men who were oppressed by their patriarchs tended to have strong sympathy for women who were socially inferior to themselves and were tired of the men who ruled society and dominated families. Commiserating and eulogizing women could express their resentment against the oppression and injustice in the world.8 Wang Xiaodan and others emphasized the “defeminization” feature of modern Chinese women’s movements from the aspects of women’s lack of self-​consciousness and dislocation of subject consciousness.9 Some researchers generalized the characteristics of the women’s movements during the new democratic revolution under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) into six aspects:  it was theoretically guided by the Marxist view on women; it was closely linked to the revolutionary movements; it emphasized the legal status of equality between men and women; it aroused women’s subjective consciousness; it regarded working women as the main part and united women from all walks of life; it established women’s organizations under the leadership of the CPC to represent and safeguard women’s interests.10 Some scholars also pointed out that women’s movements

Women’s history  181 played an important role in promoting social development and progress. They believed that the direct and indirect achievements of the women’s movement were generally manifested in two aspects: First, women’s social status has been improved or raised to a certain extent, the dislocation of the relationship between men and women has been gradually corrected, and the interests of gender groups have been adjusted constantly. Second, women’s movements have affected whole society greatly and exerted significant impact on people’s values, codes of conduct and lifestyle, which made people gradually accept new things, generated new consensus and promoted the “positive” social change.11 6.1.2  About the thought on women’s liberation Many monographs have been published on the thought of women’s liberation successively, such as Xia Xiaohong’s The Intellectuals’ Views on Women in the Late Qing Dynasty (Writer’s Publishing House, 1995), Wang Zheng and Chen Yan’s Research on the Thought of Women’s Rights in China over the Past 100 Years (Fudan University Press, 2005) and Zhang Lianbo’s The Development of Thought on Modern Chinese Women’s Liberation (Henan University Press, 2006). In discussing the emergence of thought on the equality of men and women, researchers have generally held that since the late Ming Dynasty, with the emergence of capitalism in China, humanism representing the civil class had emerged in the ideological field, and thus thought on the equality of men and women flourished and people (both women and men) began to pursue the equality of men and women consciously. This flourishing had lasted for nearly 300 years, but a complete theory on the equality of men and women had never been formed. This view was first clearly proposed by Li Guotong.12 Another view accepted by most scholars was that the thought of women’s liberation in modern China appeared in Chinese ideological circles after the introduction of the Western theory of innate human rights and the bourgeois ideas of freedom, democracy and equality in China. Meng Xin’an held that the thought of equality of men and women came into being in the Reform Movement of 1898, which was a milestone of the times.13 However, He Liping argued that the Reformists’ thought on the equality of men and women during the Reform Movement of 1898 was still immature, and there existed self-​contradiction in terms of thought and the theory. At the beginning of the twentieth century, under the influence of Western feminism, China made a great leap in the thought of women’s liberation.14 Many scholars thought that Jin Tianhe’s famous work Women’s Bell (Nv Jie Zhong) represented the best level of feminist thought in the late Qing Dynasty.15 As for the origin of women’s liberation thought in China, Wang Meixiu proposed that we should neither only attribute it to the spread and influence of Western culture, nor only ascribe it to the domestic factors, but should regard it as the result of the collision and blending of Chinese and Western cultures.16 Xia Xiaohong

182  ZHENG Yongfu and LV Meiyi pointed out that an impressive ideological achievement of the eastward transmission of Western learning was the elucidation of the concept of equality, which was formed in China around the Reform Movement of 1898, and “had been gradually replaced by the saying of ‘equal rights of men and women,’ especially ‘women’s rights’ by the early 20th century.”17 It is thus clear that researchers had different understandings of these issues. As for the thought of women’s liberation during the May 4th Movement period, some scholars summarized that it had three characteristics:  first, it uplifted personal liberation with the idea of personality independence as its core; second, the thought of women’s liberation was closely combined with the exploration of reforming society at that time, presenting an unusually active and complicated pattern of pluralistic competitive advancement; third, its social foundation was sound and its thought and theory were profound. What is more, because of the initial spread of Marxist theory about women, the thought of women’s liberation in this period leaped to a new level.18 Wang Ruqing compared and analyzed two different tendencies in the thought of women’s liberation represented by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, Hu Shi and Zhou Zuoren respectively, pointing out that the former represented the “class emancipation” theory paying attention to women’s overall emancipation, while the latter represents “individual awakening” theory paying more attention to women’s individual consciousness. Both of them are of pioneering significance for women’s liberation theory, but also had hidden biases and limitations.19 As for the dissemination of the Marxist view on women in modern China, Shi Qiaolan and Li Xingzhi proposed that it could be divided into three stages: the years before and after the 1911 Revolution was the stage of early introduction, the years before and after the May 4th Movement was the stage of preliminary propagation, and the years from the founding of the CPC to the Second National Congress of the CPC was the stage of establishment. The Second National Congress of the CPC approved The Resolution on Women Issues in the form of the Party’s resolution and established the Marxist concept of women as the fundamental concept of observing and solving women’s issues, marking the establishment of the Marxist concept of women in China.20 Liu Jucai held that the combination of the Marxist view on women with the reality of the Chinese women’s movement produced the new democratic theory of women’s liberation with Chinese characteristics. The basic content of this theory was as follows: Chinese women’s liberation movements should be an important part of the new democratic revolution against imperialism and feudalism; female workers and peasants and other laboring women should be the main and basic force for women’s movements; the progressive intellectual women should be the vanguard and bridge of the women’s liberation movements; the CPC’s leadership could guarantee the healthy development of women’s movements; the establishment and perfection of all kinds of women’s organizations should be the organizational basis for launching women’s movements; the main content of the new democratic women’s

Women’s history  183 movements should be the ideas of and strategies for forming the united front of women’s movements, and to support and participate in the armed struggle; the relationship between women’s special interests and the interests of the class as a whole, and the inequality of men and women among the working masses were important issues that must be paid attention to.21 6.1.3  Opposing to foot-​binding, promoting women’s education, publishing newspapers and magazines, and organizing groups of women The Anti-​ Foot-​ Binding Movement has become a hot topic in the study of women’s history in the new era, which originated from Fan Xin’s “The Forerunner of Modern Women’s Liberation: A Brief Discussion of the Anti-​ Foot-​Binding Movement during the Reform Movement of 1898” (Journal of Shanghai Normal College, Issue 1, 1983), and a series of papers on this issue had been published from then on. These papers focused on the late Qing Dynasty and involved the following topics: the operation process of the Reformist advocating for the Anti-​Foot-​Binding Movement, the publicity and demonstrative role of foreign missionaries in promoting the Anti-​Foot-​ Binding Movement, and the significance of the Qing government advocating non-​foot-​binding in the implementation of the New Deal. Since the 1990s, new progress has been made in the research of the Anti-​Foot-​Binding Movement. Li Fengfei and Bao Hongchang made a comprehensive survey of the regional, ethnic and hierarchical distribution of the foot-​binding phenomenon, and analyzed various standpoints and perspectives against foot-​binding which had appeared since the Qing Dynasty from various aspects like aesthetics, practicality, national rise and fall, human civilization and health, and women’s liberation.22 Yang Xingmei’s “The Nanjing Nationalist Government’s Effort to Ban Women’s Foot-​Binding and Its Effect” (Historical Research, Issue 3, 1998) is also worth mentioning. Yang disagreed with historians saying that foot-​binding had become a “spent arrow” since 1911 and “the corrupt custom of foot-​binding tended to be eradicated” during the New Culture Movement.23 She pointed out that “in fact, the phenomenon of foot-​binding among Chinese women after the New Culture Movement was much more widespread than we had thought previously.” She affirmed the positive and lasting efforts made by the Nanjing Nationalist Government to prohibit foot-​ binding which could be considered as the climax of the Anti-​Foot-​Binding Movement in modern times. But she also stressed that the implementation of this policy, at least in terms of its ways of implementation, had caused popular discontent because officials at all levels often violated folk customs in the process of enforcing the prohibition and punishment. Together with Yang Nianqun and others, she also studied the Anti-​Foot-​Binding Movement from the perspective of physical history or conceptual history.24 The emergence and development of modern women’s education has always been one of the focuses of the study of modern Chinese women’s history. In addition to the monographs like Huang Xinxian’s Modern and Contemporary

184  ZHENG Yongfu and LV Meiyi Chinese Women’s Education (Fujian Education Publishing House, 1992) and Zhu Feng’s Christianity and Modern Chinese Women’s Higher Education (Fujian Education Publishing House, 2002), more than 90 papers on this topic have been published since the 1980s, most of which focused on the modernization of Chinese women’s education and the establishment of the women’s education system. Yan Wenfen’s “The Modernization Course, Characteristics and Enlightenment of Chinese Women’s Education” (Journal of East China Normal University, Issue 2, 1996) put forward three characteristics of modern women’s education, namely, complexity, pluralism and overall backwardness in the development of women’s education. Liang Jinghe revealed the development history of modern women’s education and analyzed the status and role of the two women’s education charters promulgated by the Qing government in 1907 and the school system promulgated by the government of the Republic of China in 1912 and 1913 in the development of modern women’s education.25 The issue of missionary schools for girls has been one of the hot topics studied by researchers. Cui Yunwu divided the development of missionary schools for girls into two stages: in the first stage, the missionary schools for girls were developed initially (1844–​1860) and in the second stage they were expanded (1860–​1920s). In the former stage, missionary schools for girls were few and low level, and the students were mainly from the poor families; in the latter stage, a complete education system ranging from primary school to university was formed, and more and more students were from the rich families. Cui affirmed the role played by missionary education for women in advocating for the equality of men and women’s education, replacing the old customs with foreign customs and promoting the liberation of Chinese women in a certain area and to a certain extent, but he also stressed that this was not the original intention of the ecclesiastical groups.26 Wang Qisheng thought that the missionary universities for women initiated Chinese women’s higher education, and far exceeded Chinese universities of the same period, and thus played a very important maternal role in the growth of the first generation of Chinese female intellectuals.27 Qiao Suling held that the founding and development of schools in modern China was influenced not only by the Western educational system, but also by Japanese system.28 Women’s studying abroad is another hot topic for scholars. Several monographs on international students have already touched up this topic a lot. Many of the related papers dealt with female students studying in Japan during the late Qing period. Papers like Zhou Yichuan’s “Females among the Students Studying in Japan during the Late Qing Period” (Historical Research, Issue 6, 1989)  and Xie Changfa’s “Female Students’ Studying in Japan during the Late Qing Period” (Modern Chinese History Studies, Issue 2, 1995)  examined the basic situation of female students’ studying in Japan in detail. Guo Changying and Su Xiaohuan discussed the initial motivation for women’s studying abroad in the late Qing Dynasty. Cai Feng investigated the channels of women’s studying abroad and the majors they chose during the republican period.29

Women’s history  185 Few achievements had been made in the study of the impact of modern women’s education on women’s movements and women’s lives. Song Ruizhi pointed out that the movement of promoting women’s education during the Reform Movement of 1898 had enlightened women’s liberation. The development of women’s education during the 1911 Revolution had aroused women’s revolutionary consciousness, and the rise of civilian education and the removal of the ban on women attending universities during the May 4th Movement had made the women’s liberation movement break through the circle of intellectual women and extend to workers and peasants and thus unveiled the era of Chinese women’s real awakening.30 Other scholars emphasized that the establishment of the modern women’s education system was the earliest right Chinese women had obtained; the development of women’s education had greatly improved the overall quality of women; in a sense, the enlightenment of Chinese women should be attributed to the emergence and development of women’s education.31 The early newspapers and periodicals for women were not only effective tools for women’s elementary education, but also the important front for the advocacy of women’s rights. Pan Tianzhen and Du Jikun thought that the first Chinese newspaper for women was the Chinese Girls Progress (Nv Xue Bao) founded by the Chinese Women’s Society in Guishuli of Shanghai in 1898.32 In the early 1980s, researchers like Lin Hong, Liu Jucai and Fang Hanqi also wrote articles to expound on this issue and other related ones, letting us know that the reformist women’s serial activities were rarely noticed by people in the past, such as the founding of the women’s society and the women’s newspapers, participating in founding women’s schools, and their propositions about women’s liberation. The significance of this study lies not only in determining the ownership of the first women’s newspaper, but also in answering important questions like whether the women’s movement was formed during the Reform Movement of 1898. As for the relationship between women’s newspapers and magazines and women’s liberation, in her paper “The Rise and Significance of Modern Women’s Newspapers and Periodicals” (Journal of Hebei Normal University, Issue 1, 1997), Zhou Zhaoyi pointed out that since their birth, women’s newspapers and periodicals had become the mouthpiece of women’s struggle for liberation. Women’s participation in setting up newspapers and periodicals also reflected the progress of society and the awakening of women’s subjective consciousness. Although The Youth (Xin Qing Nian) was not a magazine for women during the May 4th Movement, it had played an important role in women’s liberation. Zhang Xiaoli’s “Feminist Thought in The Youth and Its Influence” (Journal of Historical Science, Issue 4, 1996) pointed out that the feminist thought of The Youth epitomized modern theories on women’s liberation and played an important role in the enlightenment of Chinese women’s thought, and its sharpness and spirit is still quite enlightening even today. There have been a lot of women’s newspapers and periodicals in modern China, which had exerted great influence on women’s movements and women’s lives. Unfortunately, related researches on this topic

186  ZHENG Yongfu and LV Meiyi have been insufficient in quantity until now, and the rich historical materials contained in these newspapers and magazines have not been utilized fully. The study of modern women’s organizations focused on many aspects like the classification of these organizations, the content and forms of their activities and their social influence. Many scholars classified women’s organizations into three types according to their inclinations: one with the goal of revitalizing women’s rights, one with the emphasis on participating in the political struggle of the time, and one with the purpose of improving social custom or doing charitable work. The emergence of women’s organizations showed that Chinese women had begun to participate in social life as a group, which had a far-​reaching impact. Zhang Lianbo listed 35 women’s organizations during the 1911 Revolution, analyzed their characteristics and pointed out that the many women’s organizations that appeared before the 1911 Revolution had laid ideological and organizational foundations for the climax of the feminist movement after the Wuchang Uprising.33 Some other scholars emphasized that early women’s organizations did not have a strong sense of political participation and were politically weak and naïve. Some scholars also undertook case studies on women’s groups such as the Common Love Society (Gong Ai Hui) and the Chinese Women’s Association (Zhong Guo Fu Ren Hui). Women’s organizations developed most quickly during the War of Resistance against Japan. Liu Jing’s “A Brief Introduction to the Newly-​Established Women’s Organizations in the KMT-​ Controlled Areas during the Anti-​ Japanese War” (Research Data on Women’s History, Issue 3, 1985) estimated that there were about 358 women’s anti-​Japanese organizations in the KMT-​ controlled areas around 1940. Among them, the most influential national organizations included “Chinese Women’s Association for Supporting the Anti-​Japanese War,” “Chinese Women’s General Association for Comforting the Officers and Soldiers of the War of Self-​ Defense and Resistance,” “Association for Child Care in Wartime,” “Women’s Steering Committee of the General Association for Promoting the New Life Movement,” “Women’s Committee of the Chinese-​Soviet Cultural Association,” and so on. Liu also reviewed the origins, internal organizations and characteristics of these organizations. Wu Jinlian’s “ ‘Women’s Steering Committee’ and its Activities in the Early Period of the War of Resistance Against Japan” (Journal of Shanghai Normal University, Issue 2, 1989) emphasized that after its reorganization in 1938, although Song Meiling was still the director, the nature of the “Women’s Steering Committee” had changed, and that it became a united front of women from the KMT and the CPC and women without party affiliations standing on equal status, which played an important role in the War of Resistance against Japan and women’s participation in politics. Some scholars introduced the founding process, activities and social impact of some influential women’s organizations such as “Women’s Service Corps in the Battlefield.”34 Women’s organizations in the areas ruled by the Japanese puppet regime like “Women’s Associations of the New People’s Association,” “Women’s Defense Association” and “The Joint Association of

Women’s history  187 Women’s Associations in Manchuria” have also begun to attract researchers’ attention.35 6.1.4  Movements for women’s political participation Movements for women’s political participation have also been a concern of researchers. Li Xizhu pointed out that there were two opposite schools of thought in the late Qing Dynasty. The first one was represented by a small number of male feminists and some advanced women who held that women, like men, were part of the nation and of course had the right to participate in politics; the second one was that most people, while discussing national consciousness, either intentionally or unconsciously ignored gender issues, or belittled or even negated women’s citizenship and their right to participate in politics and so on. However, the power of these two schools was extremely disproportionate, affecting the success or failure of the movement for women’s political participation.36 Many of the investigations into the movements for women’s political participation touched upon the early period of the Republic of China. Yan Changhong emphasized the historical inevitability of the movement for women’s political participation in the early years of the Republic of China, analyzed the reasons for its failure and held that the direct reason was that this social movement of great significance had been suppressed by men and not valued by women, and thus become the action of a few brave people, and that the fundamental reason was the incompleteness and rapid failure of the 1911 Revolution.37 Jiang Tingwei argued that the failure of the women’s political participation movement in the early years of the Republic of China was mainly due to the disagreement over the gender definition between the supporters and the opponents, which resulted in the inability to hold dialogue and reach consensus between them.38 The period from 1921 to 1922 was the second climax of women’s participation in politics. Wu Shuzhen emphasized that the May 4th Movement further enlightened women’s awareness and consciousness of participation in politics; in 1921, the autonomy movements were active in various provinces, and the re-​enactment of the provincial constitutions offered new opportunities for women’s participation in politics. Wu thought that the struggle for women’s political participation in 1922 lacked the vigor and courage of the advocates of women’s political participation in the early years of the Republic of China, but it had salient characteristics of the times, reflecting some features of the transition from old democracy to new democracy.39 Wu also inspected the movements for women’s political participation under the cooperation of the KMT and the CPC during the period of the Great Revolution, which had attracted less attention. She held that the national revolution had constantly renewed the concept of women’s political participation, and many people had gradually realized that the movement for women’s political participation was meaningful only when it was combined with the majority of women. The national revolution was a prerequisite for promoting the movement for

188  ZHENG Yongfu and LV Meiyi women’s political participation. The movement for women’s political participation should not be turned into a movement for women becoming officials and parliamentarians. The movement for the women’s constituent national convention launched in the winter of 1924 made Chinese women’s movements achieve organizational unity for the first time and begin to be active under the same strategy with the same goal, pushing the movement for women’s political participation to a new stage. Women’s participation in politics lay in anti-​warlordism and striving for national independence, indicating that the women’s movement was beginning to join the New Democratic Revolutionary Front.40 Zhang Lianbo further pointed out that this movement had gone beyond the scope of the bourgeois feminist movement and received timely guidance from the CPC, and thus had the nature of proletarian women’s liberation. However, there were still problems like the lack of ideological foundation and mass foundation. Therefore, it was doomed to fail.41 The movement for women’s political participation under the leadership of the CPC has attracted much attention from researchers. Zhou Yaping pointed out that wherever the revolutionary regime was established, a broad tranche of working women would gain their rights for political participation, which had been proved by the Communist-​held Soviet areas, the anti-​Japanese base areas and the liberated areas.42 Zhang Yongying thought that the founding of the CPC not only raised people’s theoretical understanding of women’s participation in politics, but also formulated a series of policies, making the level of women’s participation in politics in the base areas under the leadership of the CPC the most upfront of the country.43 6.1.5  The KMT, the CPC and women’s movements The relationship between the KMT, the CPC and women’s movements has been a concern of researchers in the last 30 years. Great progress has been made in the study of the CPC’s leadership and women’s work in the early days of its founding, the women’s united front during the Anti-​Japanese War and women’s movements in the KMT-​controlled areas. History of Modern Chinese Women’s Movements (The New Democratic Period) (Spring and Autumn Publishing House, 1989)  edited by All-​China Women’s Federation systematically investigated the CPC’s policies on and leadership of women’s movements in the early days of its founding. While fully affirming the CPC’s leadership and contribution to the women’s movement in the early days of its founding, Chang Yinting also pointed out that the development of women’s movements was also limited by various factors, such as the high-​pressure policy of imperialism and reactionary warlords, the fetters of feudalism, the lack of qualified women, economic difficulties, the lack of funds and experience, and mistakes made in work, which objectively reflected the actual situation of women’s movements led by the CPC at that time.44 Ye Mengkui thought that Zhang Tailei’s report to the Communist International reflected the early CPC leaders’ level of understanding of women’s issues.45

Women’s history  189 The study on the establishment of the united front for women’s movements by the KMT and the CPC during the Anti-​Japanese War mainly involved the Lushan Conversation chaired by Song Meiling, the formation and characteristics of the united front and its promotion of women’s movements. Researchers generally held that the Lushan Conversation held by Song Meiling realized the great union of women from all walks of life and marked the formal establishment of the Chinese women’s anti-​Japanese united front. Dong Miaoling and other researchers pointed out that there always existed three factions in the women’s anti-​Japanese united front, to wit, the leftist, the centrist and the rightist, which gave way to united front cooperation with class antagonism. Song Meiling’s attitude toward the resistance against Japan, the CPC and the progressives, in the final analysis, depended on Jiang Jieshi’s overall deployment.46 Regarding the CPC’s role in women’s united front, Li Yuan held that the Women’s Committee of the CPC’s Southern Bureau under the leadership of Deng Yingchao had successfully applied the strategy for the united front of developing progressive forces, winning over centrist women and isolating stubborn women, united women from all walks of life to the greatest extent and promoted the all-​round upsurge of the women’s movement in the KMT-​ ruled areas.47 Papers like Wu Jinlian’s “ ‘Women’s Steering Committee’ and its Activities in the Early Period of the War of Resistance Against Japan” (Journal of Shanghai Normal University, Issue 2, 1989) and Li Yuan’s “Song Meiling and Women’s United Front during the Period of the Second Cooperation between the KMT and the CPC” (CPC History Studies and Teaching, Issue 2, 1993) carried out meaningful research on the KMT’s attitude to and policies of the united front of women’s movements. Chao Haiyan’s “Women’s Training in the KMT-​Controlled Areas during the Anti-​ Japanese War” (Journal of Northwest University, Issue 4, 1997) investigated the general situation of women’s training in the KMT-​controlled areas.

6.2  Women’s lives Since the 1990s, a number of monographs on the changes of women’s lives in modern times have been published, covering all aspects of women’s material and spiritual lives, such as Zheng Yongfu and Lv Meiyi’s Women’s Lives in Modern China (Henan People’s Publishing House, 1993), Li Xiaojiang’s Gender and China (SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1994), Luo Suwen’s Women and Modern Chinese Society (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1996)  and Xia Xiaohong’s Women in the Late Qing Dynasty and Modern China (Peking University Press, 2004). In addition, other monographs like Qiao Zhiqiang’s Modern Social History of China (People’s Publishing House, 1992), Yan Changhong’s History of Changes in Chinese Social Life in the 20th Century (People’s Publishing House, 2007), Sun Yanjing’s Research on the Social Styles of the Late Qing Dynasty (China Renmin University Press, 2002), and Li Changli’s Social Changes in Shanghai in the Late Qing Dynasty (Modernization of Lives and Ethics) (Tianjin People’s Publishing House,

190  ZHENG Yongfu and LV Meiyi 2002) all carried out monographic studies on some topics related to women’s lives at considerable length. Furthermore, a number of monographic papers have also been published. Accordingly, the research on the history of modern women has been upgraded to a new level. 6.2.1  Lives of women at different levels Research in this field involves modern industrial women, intellectual women, professional women, rural women, as well as prostitutes, servants and other special strata. Industrial women workers were a new rising stratum in modern times. They not only had the general characteristics of the working class, but also had their own characteristics. Zheng Yongfu, Luo Suwen, He Liping and other scholars discussed modern women workers’ emergence, development, distributional characteristics, quantitative changes, wages and other basic conditions. Their statistics indicated that the number of women workers in modern times had always accounted for about 30–​40  percent of the total number of industrial workers (not including the miners) and women workers had become a force that could not be ignored. Luo Suwen emphasized that modern women, as a considerable labor resource, were brought into the capitalist labor market and were involved in commodity exchange, but they did not receive equal treatment.48 Chi Zihua’s “ ‘Working Girls’ in Modern History” (Journal of Chinese Women’s Studies, Issue 1, 2000) analyzed working girls’ flow and occupational distribution in modern times, and pointed out that the word “working girls” appeared in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China. Chi held that the emergence of this group was an accompanying phenomenon of social transformation and a progressive trend of the times. Taking the recruitment of female workers in Hu’nan by Shanghai Housheng Yarn Mill in the 1920s as an example, Li Nianzhong explored the controversy over female workers’ personality triggered by this recruitment and aroused public concern about the labor issues.49 Professional women were also a new rising class in modern times. He Liping pointed out that the earliest occupation women engaged in after entering society in modern times was as skilled workers, and later teachers and doctors. The women’s industrial movement in the early Republic of China was a great precursor of women’s employment; in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the government legally affirmed that men and women should enjoy equal working right, but this was not so for women. Many occupations were not open to women, especially high-​level occupations.50 Some other scholars pointed out that in the 1920s and 1930s, the scope of women’s employment had expanded rapidly. Some women began to enter the high-​level professional field and there appeared a group of women professors, headmistresses, managers, bankers and chief executives, which was a new feature of women’s careers at that time.51 He Liping also made a comparative study of the state of women’s employment in the KMT-​controlled areas and the liberated areas during the War of

Women’s history  191 Liberation and pointed out that the employment environment of women in the KMT-​controlled areas was somewhat deteriorating, while women in the liberated areas enjoyed extensive equal rights in employment.52 People’s attitudes toward women’s professions and the consequent issue of women’s roles as virtuous wives and good mothers are controversial issues to which researchers have always paid close attention. In the mid-​1990s, Zang Jian and Lv Meiyi successively published “Historical Review of the Conflict between Women’s Professions and Roles: Three Debates on Women’s Retuning Home” (Beijing Research on the History of the CPC, Issue 2, 1994)  and “Review of the Debates on the Principle that Women Should be Virtuous Wives and Good Mothers in Modern China” (Tianjin Social Sciences, Issue 5, 1995). New progress has been made in the study of this issue since the twentieth century. Xia Rong examined the divergence of views between men and women in the debates on the view of “a virtuous wife and good mother” and pointed out that the fundamental divergence lay in their views on the relationship between women’s family roles and social roles.53 In his article “The Trend of Thought Advocating for Women’s Employment and the Formation of the Concept of a Virtuous Wife and Good Mother in China at the Beginning of the 20th Century” (Historical Review, Issue 6, 2005), Cheng Yu pointed out that, at least in the early period of the formation of the concept of a virtuous wife and a good mother in China, almost all political factions in modern times advocated women’s self-​sufficiency, believing that one of the aims of women’s education was to cultivate more professional women. After comparing the Japanese and Chinese views of virtuous wife and good mother, Li Zhuo concluded that the introduction of the Japanese concept of a virtuous wife and good mother was a process of reverse transmission. Whether being knowledgeable and educated was included in the connotations of a virtuous wife and a good mother was the fundamental difference between the Chinese and Japanese concept.54 Some scholars also discussed modern intellectual women’s independent spirit, self-​saving consciousness and patriotism from different aspects.55 Since the 1990s, some scholars have begun to study modern rural women from broader perspectives. Zheng Yongfu and Lv Meiyi’s Women’s Lives in Modern China analyzed the changes of modern rural women’s lives from the aspects of family life, customs, agricultural production activities, the household handicraft industry and so on. Luo Suwen’s Women and Modern Chinese Society carried out a case study on Dingxian County in North China and Jiangcun of Jiangsu Province and undertook comparative analysis of issues like peasant women’s living environment, family status, gender division in production in the North and the South of China. Wang Simei, Huang Zhenglin and others studied rural women’s great changes in politics, economy and social life in specific historical periods and in specific areas—​ the base areas.56 Zhu Xiaotian probed into the change of rural women’s occupational structure south of the Yangtze River and argued that this change not only expanded rural women’s means of survival, but also contributed

192  ZHENG Yongfu and LV Meiyi to the emergence and development of modern local industry south of the Yangtze River.57 Prostitutes were a special and complicated group of women. Taking Shanghai and Tianjin as examples respectively, Xin Ping and Jiang Pei discussed the reasons for and characteristics of the prosperity of prostitution from the perspective of diversification of social development. They analyzed the population structure, guild regulations, management and income distribution of prostitution and the living conditions of the prostitutes and pimps, and concluded that the social foundation of prostitution should be sought from the aspect of social economy.58 Starting from analyzing early urban modernization, Zhang Baiqing explored the social causes of the prosperity of prostitution in modern cities.59 Lin Hong reviewed the discussions on the abolition of prostitutes from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to the May 4th Movement and argued that the abolition of prostitutes in modern times was the direct result of the awakening of the consciousness of human rights and the trend of women’s liberation, which has shaken the dominant attitude that “prostitution is a social necessity” in male-​centered society and triggered people’s humanitarian thinking on prostitution. Lin thought that the lack of consciousness of human rights was the main reason why the theory of abolishing prostitution in China has not been developed rapidly.60 6.2.2  Marriage and family In the 1950s and 1960s, research on the modern marriage and family system mostly touched upon the marriage and family issues of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Researchers at that time gave high praise to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom’s setting up separate camps for men and women, establishing houses for women, reforming the bad custom of mercenary marriage. The research in this field had been basically interrupted since then and was not restarted until after the 1980s. The research contents included the basic conditions and changes in the concept of marriage, the marriage system, marriage legislation, marriage customs and the family system in modern times. Chen Zhenjiang held that modern reform of the marriage and family was a profound social revolution, a feminist movement opposing autocracy and striving for democracy and freedom, and an important symbol of the awakening of human nature. The revolutionaries and anarchists advocated marriage reform before and after the 1911 Revolution. Although some radicals regarded family as the root of all evil and regarded abolishing marriage and family as a panacea for saving China, which was only a utopian fantasy, the social ideological trend of marriage and family revolution had an indelible positive effect.61 Xu Jiansheng pointed out that people exposed and criticized old-​fashioned marriage and its customs from three aspects and touched on all aspects of its essence acutely and profoundly. First, they criticized the nature of the old-​fashioned marriage which was arranged, bought, sold and forced, holding that these practices were the strangling of love and the most

Women’s history  193 explicit manifestation of the superiors’ suppression and the abolition of the personality of the humble and the young in the family. Second, they criticized the bad convention of getting engaged and married too early, holding that these vulgar conventions would not only damage the physical and mental conditions of women, but also impede social progress and national prosperity. Third, they criticized the concept of chastity and the conventions that men could divorce their wives easily and marry several women legally. They argued that imposing one-​sided chastity on women was a kind of abnormal morality, that is, immorality; the provisions of “Qi Chu” (seven grounds for a husband to reject his wife and send her back to her parents in feudal law, including childlessness, debauchery, poor service to in-​laws, tale-​telling, theft, jealousy and bad habits) meant that women were required to give up their most basic and most legitimate rights in the family; polygamy meant that the married women were actually sold to their husbands long-​termly, and the difference between them and prostitutes lay only in the time limit and way of selling.62 In his article “New Trends in Marriage in Late Qing and early Republican China” (Modern Chinese History Studies, Issue 3, 1991), Xing Long pointed out that influenced by the Western ideal principles of natural rights, freedom and equality, three noteworthy new trends appeared in the thought of modern marriage reform: first, people began to seek openness and freedom in terms of deciding on their own marriage, the form of media for marriage, the standard and scope of spouse selection, divorce and remarriage and other aspects; second, the wedding custom was simplified and became more civilized; third, the undesirable custom of mercenary marriage became more popular and people’s living burden became heavier, resulting in a variety of abuses and a series of social problems. There were also scholars examining the changes in marital status during the period of the Republic of China. With a great deal of statistical data, Chen Yunxi and Ye Qing proved that during the republican period, urban people’s attitudes toward issues like discretion over marriage and the purpose of marriage changed greatly. For example, the first goal of marriage had evolved from eugenics to seeking a life partner; women were increasingly opposed to their husbands’ concubinage; and the concept of free divorce had gradually been accepted by most people. The alterations of the urban marriage system was the change and development of the traditional marriage system formed by long-​term historical accumulation under new historical conditions. The completion of this transformation process depended on the transformation of the whole society.63 On the relationship between legal reform and reform of the marriage system, scholars generally thought that modern legislation on marriage tended to affirm women’s equal status in marriage in the legal system. Existing studies focused on the KMT and the CPC’s reform of legislation on marriage. Zhang Shudong, Li Xiuling and others analyzed the KMT’s Civil Law: The Compilation of Relatives from two aspects. They not only fully affirmed the new provisions on monogamy, freedom of marriage and equality between men and women in civil law, but also criticized the

194  ZHENG Yongfu and LV Meiyi hypocrisy of allowing concubinage and restricting women’s right to ask for divorce.64 Tan Zhiyun utilized the civil cases of the Jiangsu Provincial High Court during the period of Nanjing Nationalist Government to analyze the reasons why women were still troubled and restricted by legal, social, cultural and other factors after they had obtained the equal right to divorce with men in law.65 Cheng Yu’s “The Legal Status of ‘Concubines’ and Its Changes” (Historical Review, Issue 4, 1999)  pointed out that although the Nanjing Government’s judicial interpretation admitted that the relationship between concubines and their householders had changed from a legal contractual one to a family relationship, but there was no essential difference from the laws of the Beijing Government. Many scholars also highly praised the progressiveness of the “Marriage Regulations of the Soviet Republic of China” and the “Marriage Law of the Soviet Republic of China” promulgated by the CPC in the revolutionary bases, as well as the marriage regulations formulated by the governments of the border areas during the Anti-​Japanese War. Yue Long and others pointed out that reform of the marriage system in the Shaanxi-​Gansu-​ Ningxia Border Region not only brought about new changes to women’s production and lives, but also provided valuable experience for the enactment, promulgation and implementation of marriage law in the PRC.66 In the study of marriage custom in modern times, some scholars thought that the taboos and rituals to ward off evils, the custom of brides kneeling in front of their parents-​in-​law and serve them tea, the custom of rough horseplay and the custom of chastity testing in weddings reflected that women had no individual will and independent personality. The civilized weddings, combining the old and the new, the east and the west, were the positive result of integrating Chinese and Western marriage customs. The reform of marriage customs not only reflected the limited improvement of women’s status, but also avoided the potential crisis of family relations caused by the abuses of old-​fashioned weddings.67 Some scholars emphasized that as a kind of conceptual culture, marriage customs were historical inertia. The new marriage customs may have a strong vitality in terms of “quality,” but the old marriage customs still occupied a dominant position in terms of “quantity” and had universal influence, and thus could not be eradicated quickly. The imbalance of modern social and economic development would also bring about imbalance in the reform of the marriage system.68 Some scholars studied the formation of the unique marriage custom of “self-​combing women” and “women not staying at their husbands’ home” in modern Guangdong and pointed out that the reasons why the custom of women putting up their hair by themselves or not staying at their husbands’ home and living with their husbands only existed in the Pearl River Delta region were not only because of the local economic development of this region, but also directly because of the conditions for women’s economic independence.69 Some scholars have studied the problem of modern women’s celibacy, holding that the emergence of this phenomenon was mainly the result of social and economic changes and the improvement of people’s living standards, which was a symbol of social

Women’s history  195 transformation from traditionality to modernity.70 The “zou hun” (walking marriage) convention of the Naxi nationality in Southwestern China has been a hot topic in the study of the minorities’ marriage systems. In the 1950s and 1960s, Liu Guanghan, Yan Ruxian and Song Zhaolin investigated “zou hun” systematically. In 1983, they published a book entitled Maternal System of the Naxi Nationality in Yongning, in which they regarded “zou hun” as the remains of the maternal system. Nowadays, some scholars still agree with this conclusion. For example, He Zhonghua thought that Mosuo (a branch of the Naxi nationality) people’s convention of “zou hun” arose from specific geographical conditions, socio-​economic development conditions and cultural psychological background, which was a lifestyle suitable for their living environment.71 6.2.3  Women and religion Religion is a kind of ideology and also a way of life. Some women had suffered discrimination and oppression for a long time, so they were more in need of spiritual support, and thus had formed an indissoluble bond with religion. In recent years, the study of women and religion has expanded in its research fields and renovation in its concepts, and its evaluation of the influence of religion on women has changed from the total negation to realistic assessment. Catholicism and Protestantism once exerted a great impact on modern China. Gender and History:  Modern Chinese Women and Christianity (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 2006) edited by Tao Feiya is a collection of monographic papers on the relationship between Christianity and Chinese women, which touched upon the identities, beliefs and religious lives of female Christians, the undertakings of Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), female missionaries coming to China, famous Chinese Christian women, and so on, which conclusively demonstrated the new achievements made in this field. Some scholars surveyed the general situation of the spread of Catholicism and Christianity among women in modern China, outlined the religious lives of Chinese nuns, virgins and ordinary believers and pointed out that the influence of Christianity on modern women’s lives had gone beyond the scope of religion, and had played a catalytic role not only in disseminating the concept of women’s equality with men, promoting the emergence and development of women’s education and the reform of the crude customs that disabled women, but also in introducing modern lifestyles to women. It was only because of the long-​term hostility that people could not calmly identify and absorb the beneficial things from Western culture.72 Some scholars wrote about the labor and rural undertakings of the YWCA in the 1920s and 1930s, pointing out that Christian groups had noticed the problem of women workers earlier, established a number of civilian schools and night schools for women workers and labor service offices to help the disadvantaged groups which were mainly composed of women.73 Some other scholars explored the relationship between the YWCA’s activities and Chinese women’s movements

196  ZHENG Yongfu and LV Meiyi and considered them as another kind of women’s movement or another way to achieve equality between men and women.74 As for the relationship between modern women and Buddhism, some scholars have written articles on the origin and distribution of modern female Buddhists, the religious practices of Bhikshuni and Upasikas, and the influence of modern social changes on their lives; they analyzed the social and psychological factors of women’s worship of Buddha and the characteristics of Buddhism, and also explored the reasons for the decline of modern Buddhism in women by comparing Buddhism with Christianity.75 Some others held objections to some of the views put forward by these scholars, arguing that the modern transformation of female Buddhists’ conception was a difficult process, during which the revival of Buddhist culture emerged and female Buddhists gradually stepped out of the shackles of tradition and made remarkable achievements in launching social undertakings, organizing modern women’s groups and carrying out academic research on Buddhism and so on; they also pointed out that Chinese Buddhism was in the tide of social change at that time and was actively adjusting its feminist ideology, exploring the spirit of equality between men and women in Buddhism, rationally explaining some derogatory remarks about women in Buddhist scriptures and emphasizing the importance of a woman’s right to education and the relationship between the enjoyment of rights and responsibility.76 The study of the relationship between women and Islam in modern China started relatively late, focusing mainly on female education and characteristics of Islam. The cooperation between Shui Jingjun and Maria Jaschok from Britain on the study of modern Chinese mosques opened up a new field for the study of the relationship between Chinese women and Islam. Their work has revealed taking into consideration the historical background and impetus how these women’s mosques situated in the central plains and in the areas inhabited by Hui people had developed from Muslim schools for women and what impact they had exerted on the majority of Muslim women, which could be said to be a work to fill the gaps. They pointed out that women’s mosques, which appeared in the middle and late Qing Dynasty and were presided over by female imams, were the product of the localization of Islam in China and a collective innovation of Chinese Muslim—​which is far from the main Islamic world—​in the process of adapting to the mainstream culture. With the appearance of women’s mosques, Muslim women began to have their own public spaces, which implied gender equality or the demand for equality.77 6.2.4  Other issues related to women’s lives Qin Yan and Yue Long’s Out of the Closed State—​Women’s Marriage and Fertility in Northern Shaanxi (1900–​1949) (Shaanxi Publishing House, 1997) is an early monograph on the issue of women’s fertility. This book pointed out that in traditional society, women’s reproductive behavior and perceptions were all constrained and influenced by local lifestyles and social mores. The

Women’s history  197 special natural and social environment of the Northern Shaanxi made people have strong desires to reproduce and give greater value to sons but downgrade and avoid daughters. This book also discussed in great length the benefits to women brought by the reproductive revolution and the promotion of new delivery methods in the Shaanxi-​Gansu-​Ningxia Border Region under the leadership of the CPC. Lv Meiyi et al.’s “The Introduction and Promotion of New Delivery Methods in Modern China” (Journal of Shanxi Normal University, Issue 5, 2007) stressed that the Nanjing Nationalist Government included maternal and child health care in public health undertakings and took a series of measures to promote new delivery method, which was the most effective work of the Nationalist Government in the development of public health undertakings. Xu Yongzhi investigated the practice of drowning newborn girls in Shanxi, Hu’nan, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangxi and other provinces, pointing out that this corrupt practice had been widespread among the rich and the poor and reached its climax in modern times. There existed deep economic reasons behind this practice: the first was the overpopulation and the influence of the idea of valuing men over women; the second was the custom of paying large dowries which meant that ordinary families could not afford to marry off their daughters. The common practice of drowning newborn girls caused serious proportional imbalance between men and women and facilitated the prevalence of the corrupt customs of adopting young girls as daughters-​in-​law-​to-​be, which had affected family and social stability.78 There are a series of other issues related to women’s fertility such as restriction of birth, sound child rearing and sexual education. Unfortunately, few scholars had shown interest in these issues.79 Changes in women’s dress and personal adornment have always been the concern of researchers. From the perspective of the trend of the reform in women’s dress and personal adornment in the early years of the Republic, Jin Bingliang’s “Review of the Reforms of Women’s Dress and Personal Adornment in the Early Years of the Republic” (Journal of Historical Science, Issue 6, 1994)  pointed out that women who had undergone social changes became bold and unrestrained in their dress and personal adornment. Though it was partly because of women’s desire to break the conventions, there also existed shortcomings of blindness and deviation from the feminist movement. Luo Suwen stressed that after the beginning of the Republic, women’s dress and personal adornment presented a seductive color of the times and made women have the dual identity of being both the aesthetic subject and the object, and also transformed women’s dress and personal adornment into a means to show their individuality. Luo also made a comparative study on the changes of women’s dress and personal adornment in Shanghai, Beijing, Xi’an, Lanzhou and other regions.80 Zhang Min analyzed the characteristics of the clothing of women from different groups such as prostitutes, professional women and lower-​class women.81 Other scholars took economic development as the basis and emphasized that in addition to the change in people’s aesthetic views, the development of fashion performance and beauty contests,

198  ZHENG Yongfu and LV Meiyi the promotion of mass media and the emergence and development of the modern clothing industry had also provided important material foundation for the evolution of women’s clothing during the republican period.82 In addition, other issues like the development of modern sports for women and their relationship with women’s liberation, the social phenomenon of women’s suicide in the 1920s and 1930s, the changes of women’s practice and role in disaster relief in modern times and the property of modern women have all been touched upon by different scholars.83

6.3  Female figures The research on the female figures has been an important field in the study of modern Chinese women’s history, the research objects of which mainly focused on three types of figures: the empress, concubines and other related figures of the late Qing Dynasty; the influential heroines in the peasant uprisings; the pioneers of the women’s liberation movements in modern China and women leaders, celebrities and heroines in the Chinese democratic revolution. Most of the achievements made in this field are about Cixi, Qiu Jin, Xiang Jingyu, Song Qingling and so on. Monographs on the study of Cixi include Wei Jianxun’s The Autocratic Empress Dowager Cixi (Liaoning Ethnic Publishing House, 1992), Bao Chengguan’s Political Disputes between Yixin and Cixi (Jilin People’s Publishing House, 1993), Xu Che’s A Biography of Cixi (Liaohai Publishing House, 1994), and so on. More than 100 papers have also been published, the contents of which mainly covered Cixi’s life, political activities and anecdotes of the court. Among them, Li Jinquan, Su Quanyou and others also made monographic research on Cixi’s political actions and their influence on the Reform Movement of 1898 and the New Deal of the late Qing Dynasty.84 However, strictly speaking, the study of Cixi has not yet entered the established research category of women or gender history. Among the female figures during the period of the old democratic revolution, no one attracted more attention than Qiu Jin. Besides monographs like Collection of Qiu Jin’s Works (Zhonghua Book Company, 1960), Qiu Jin’s Chronology and Biographical Materials (Zhonghua Book Company, 1983), A Chronology of Qiu Jin (Qilu Publishing House, 1983) and Zheng Yunshan’s A Commentary Biography of Qiu Jin (Henan Education Publishing House, 1986), more than 300 papers have also been published. Concerning the textual research of Qiu Jin’s historical facts, the most controversial question is about the year of her birth. Apart from holding that Qiu Jin was born in 1875 proposed by Guo Yanli and others, there are also other possibilities like 1875, 1878 and 1879.85 Other works mainly focused on Qiu Jin’s patriotic and anti-​imperialist activities and her democratic thought, which fully affirmed Qiu Jin’s ideal of striving for women’s liberation, attacking feudal ethics, opposing feudal marriage and demanding equality between men and women.86 In the past ten years, scholars have gradually gone deep into Qiu Jin’s awakening as a female and the dynamic

Women’s history  199 formation process of her thought of women’s emancipation. Xia Xiaohong studied Qiu Jin’s trip to Beijing around 1902, holding that this period was a great opportunity for her to develop the concept of women’s independence, and her belief in women’s liberation had been established since then.87 Shen Qian explored Qiu Jin’s transformation process from the dependent state to the independent state and the cause for this transformation.88 The study of the early prominent women leaders of the CPC paid more attention to Xiang Jingyu. In addition to the publication of the Collection of Xiang Jingyu’s Works (Hu’nan People’s Publishing House, 1985)  edited by Dai Xugong et al. and Xiang’s biography, dozens of related papers were also published. Liu Huaqing’s “On the System of Xiang Jingyu’s Thought on Women’s Liberation” comprehensively explored the connotation of Xiang’s thought on women’s liberation and her understanding of the fundamental goals and ways of women’s liberation. Liu pointed out that Xiang made historical materialism run through the whole ideological system of women’s liberation, which was pioneering and deep.89 Li Weiping studied Xiang Jianyu’s thought on the united front of the women’s movement, pointing out that Xiang advocated that while actively supporting the labor women’s movement, the CPC must unite with and guide other bourgeois women’s movements, formulate correct strategies and establish the united front of women’s movements in terms of organization. Li thought that Xiang Jingyu’s thought and strategy of a women’s united front had a positive influence on the development of women’s movements in the early stage of the CPC.90 Concerning Xiang’s activities and life story, there were also some disagreements within academic circles on some issues. For example, does Xiang belong to the Han nationality or the Tujia nationality? Was she elected to the Central Committee and appointed Minister for Women?91 Studies on Song Qingling—​“the greatest woman in Chinese history”—​ have made great achievements over the past 60  years. Five kinds of biographies of Song Qingling and more than 500 papers have been published, the content of which covered Song Qingling’s extraordinary life experience, great historical contributions to the Chinese revolution, the transformation from a democrat to a communist and so on. Song’s relationship with women’s liberation movements has attracted considerable attention of researchers. Though few achievements have been made, the starting point of the research was high. Song Qingling’s life had always been closely related to the Chinese revolution, and a large number of works have touched upon this aspect, the majority of which can be summarized as follows: Song had always been standing in the front line of the Chinese revolutionary struggle; she had been adhering to and developing Sun Yat-​sen’s New Three People’s Principles, and formed her own thought; Song had promoted the first and second KMT-​CPC cooperation and protected the revolutionary united front vigorously; she had done a great deal of work to protect the interests of women and children, which had effectively promoted the development of social relief and welfare undertakings; Song had been on the international stage as a leader of the Movement for

200  ZHENG Yongfu and LV Meiyi Universal Peace.92 Some scholars studied a series of specific issues concerning Song Qingling’s life, such as her ancestral home, birthplace, study in the United States, marriage to Sun Yat-​sen, launching the Industrial Cooperative Movement and her relationship with Christianity. However, there are still differences in the understanding of some of these issues. Song Qingling’s great transformation from a patriotic and democratic fighter to an internationalist and communist fighter has always been the focus of research. Scholars generally believe that several works published by Song Qingling in the early 1930s, especially the “China’s Freedom and Anti-​War Struggle” published in September 1933, marked her transformation to being a communist.93 As a glorious banner of women’s liberation in China, Song Qingling’s theory and practice of women’s liberation has increasingly entered researchers’ fields of vision. Sheng Yonghua’s “Song Qingling and Chinese Women’s Liberation Movements” (Research on Song Qingling, Guangdong People’s Publishing House, 1993)  and Cheng Shaozhen’s “Song Qingling’s Thought on Women’s Liberation in the Democratic Revolution” (Journal of Zhengzhou University, Issue 5, 1991) mainly discussed Song Qingling’s theoretical system of women’s liberation, holding that it was Song Qingling’s essential leap in women’s theory and the most important element of her theory on women’s liberation was to link women’s liberation with the overthrow of the exploitation system and regard China’s women’s liberation movement as a part of China’s national democratic revolution and the liberation of the proletariat in the world. Another important content of Song Qingling’s theory of women’s liberation was to rely closely on the CPC and adhere to the ideology and strategy of the united front of the women’s movement. Emphasizing that women all over the world need liberation and peace, and women are the great motive force for the human liberation movement and the cause of peace was also an indispensable part of Song Qingling’s theory on women’s liberation. Some scholars also proposed that Song Qingling had already pointed out in the 1920s that women’s status should be a measure of national development, which showed that compared with her contemporaries, Song Qingling’s understanding of women’s issues had a much higher starting point. Wu Shuzhen et al. discussed Song Qingling’s practice in the women’s liberation movement at all historical stages, holding that Song Qingling’s thought of women’s liberation originated in the period when she studied in the United States, and her participation in the women’s liberation movement dated from 1921 when she established “Women’s Society for Consoling Soldiers Going out to Battles” and other organizations to support the Government of the Constitution-​Protecting Army; after the Second National Congress of the KMT, Song directly led women’s movements as the Minister for Women’s Department of the Central Committee; during the Anti-​Japanese War, with her high prestige and positive actions, she promoted the establishment of the women’s united front and pushed the Song sisters to reconcile their political differences and jointly promoted the new situation of women’s fight for the survival and salvation of the nation. They pointed out that Song Qingling

Women’s history  201 had always held high the banner of women’s liberation during the whole stage of the democratic revolution, whether in favorable or adverse circumstances. From the very beginning, Song Qingling had shown different characteristics from the bourgeois leaders of the feminist movement.94 Shang Mingxuan et al. undertook monographic research on Song Qingling’s special contribution to women’s movements during the Anti-​Japanese War, highlighting the following two points: first, Song Qingling had made efforts to gain sympathy and support from international women’s circles for China’s Anti-​Japanese War; second, during her stay in Hong Kong, Song had directly led women in Hong Kong, Macau and the vast number of overseas Chinese women to support the mainland’s Anti-​Japanese War. The authors held that Song Qingling’s role in these areas is irreplaceable.95 In recent years, the scope of research on female figures in modern times has been expanded greatly. Biographies of important women published successively include Critical Biographies of Tang Qunying (Hu’nan Publishing House, 1995), The Heroine from a Rich and Powerful Family:  Liu Qingxia (Henan Literature and Art Publishing House, 2005), A Model for Women—​ Wu Yifang, President of Jinling Women’s University (Shandong Education Publishing House, 2004)  and Heroines of China (Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1988)  and other commemorative biographies. Although these works are of different academic levels, they all play a positive role in promoting the monographic study on female figures. Other papers generally focus on specific incidents of the women involved, for example, Xia Xiaohong probed into the sharp contradiction between new education and old morality during the period of social transition through the incident in which Du Chengshu, a female student in the late Qing Dynasty, publicly refused the courtship of Qu Jiang, a male student of the Translation Bureau, in the newspapers; Xiao also looked into the difficulties of running a girls’ school and revealed the interference of complex social contradictions to the growth of new things through Huixing’s suicide for the school.96 Taking the case of Hu Panglan, who was forced to commit suicide by her parents-​in-​law just because she stopped binding her feet, some researchers analyzed the attitudes of the people, public opinion, the government and women’s groups to this case, and explored the interaction between women and various social forces in the process of women’s striving for their rights; some other researchers analyzed the evolution of this case from a news story to a novel and discussed the degree of public opinion’s influence on the process of women’s liberation. Hou Jie, Qin Fang and Li Dezhu took “new women” such as Zhang Siqing, Lv Bicheng, Liu Qingyang and Guo Longzhen as their research objects and revealed the various contradictions the new women encountered under patriarchal society and the patriarchal order.97

6.4  Several problems existing in the studies Over the past 60 years, the study of modern women’s history has gone through a tortuous road. Thirty years ago, women’s history entered the second peak

202  ZHENG Yongfu and LV Meiyi of development. It can be said that women’s history has made outstanding progress in terms of research objects, approaches, scope and analytical categories. However, due to the late start, there are still many problems to be considered in the study of modern women’s history. 6.4.1  On the theories of research on women’s history Today’s women’s history has already had the characteristics of specialized history and revealed its dual identity: it is not only a branch of history, but also a branch of women’s studies. As the former, it must follow the basic theories and methods of historiography, and constantly absorb the fruits of the renewal of theories and methods in historiography; as the latter, it would inevitably accept feminist theory and be deeply influenced by the development of this theory. In the first 30  years after the founding of the PRC, modern women’s history, as a part of the historical research, adopted the research method guided by the Marxist view of history and the positivistic approach. Because of its weak research foundation, it had never been able to develop into an independent discipline, nor had it been able to get rid of the marginalized academic position. Since the reform and opening up, the study of women’s history has been mainly promoted by two aspects:  one is the rise of new social history and the emergence of cultural history studies fever within historical research; the other is the rapid development of Western feminism driven by the wave of modernization and the contemporary women’s movements. Modern women’s history has gradually evolved from a purely historical branch to the study of women or gender. It has begun to cast aside its embarrassing position as a political vassal, a historical embellishment and a commercial selling point for some time, and has entered a stage of independent development and growth.98 The biggest breakthrough in the study of modern women’s history is to absorb and adopt one of the core contents of Western feminist theories—​ Gender Theory, and carry out reform to localize it. Feminism, as a product of the Western women’s movement, conceived Gender Theory in the 1970s. In Western women’s academia, Gender Theory, as a basic category of social system analysis like class and race, has been widely used. In the early 1990s, Gender Theory was introduced into China and widely valued by scholars of Chinese women’s studies and women’s history. Many scholars began to try to introduce this theory into women’s history studies and published a series of research results. For example, Huang Yufu’s Wooden Small Feet Used in the Beijing Opera and Gender Relations in China (1902–​1937) (SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1998) is a representative work in this field. This book studied the “Qiao,” a kind of small wooden shoe used as stage prop to imitate women’s bound feet in the Beijing Opera, from a unique perspective. Through the rise and fall of this stage prop in Chinese Peking Opera in the early decades of the twentieth century, this paper revealed the changes in gender relations in Chinese society at that time and the profound connotation

Women’s history  203 of this artistic phenomenon in gender relations. Xia Xiaohong’s Women in the Late Qing Dynasty and Modern China (Peking University Press, 2004) is also a refreshing monograph with the characteristic of adopting the perspective of gender throughout the whole book. This book not only re-​examined some obedient female characters and their related events in the late Qing Dynasty, but was also full of new ideas through careful text analysis and the effective application of Gender Theory. It should be said that the application of Gender Theory in the study of women’s history embodied an academic consciousness, which laid a theoretical foundation for the fundamental development of women’s history studies into an academic paradigm. Some scholars have also made meaningful attempts to establish the system of women’s history by means of adopting Gender Theory, trying to make modern women’s history get out of the framework of revolutionary history. They tried to start with the “gender system” and establish the social mechanism of a society’s gender order and structure at the institutional level, and explore the internal structure of the system—​the crisscross normative network, as well as its own operating mechanism.99 They hope to reconstruct the system and framework of women’s history from the perspective of the construction and transformation of gender system. However, in the study of modern women’s history, the lack of theories is still a problem that deserves attention, which is also an important factor restricting the level of research. The localization of the Gender Theory is the crux of this problem. At present, some studies on women’s history do not move from the declaration of the identity of Gender Theory, while others stay with simple imitation and analogy, lacking in-​depth understanding and effective application of this theory. Only by using Gender Theory for reference can we practically embody the theoretical innovation of women’s history studies. 6.4.2  On the research methods of women’s history Breakthroughs in the methodology of women’s history are mainly reflected in aspects such as the application of interdisciplinary research methods and oral history methods. New research methods have enabled the research on women’s history to make substantial progress toward a multi-​perspective, interdisciplinary and comprehensive women’s history/​gender history. The research on women’s history has gradually broken the boundaries of traditional disciplines in its development, and has drawn on theories and methods from a variety of disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, feminism, ethnology, raciology, demography, folklore studies, religious studies, journalism, statistics and other related disciplines. A  variety of research methods and means brought about by multiple disciplines have remedied the awkward situation in the expansion of the research scope of women’s history at a certain period of time, and opened a new way to solve the problem of insufficient sources of data on women’s history.

204  ZHENG Yongfu and LV Meiyi Among these disciplines, sociology has exerted the greatest influence on women’s history. In the late 1970s, under the influence of the French Annales School, the study of new social history reached its climax in China. It had become a consensus among scholars to include women as a gender group in the study of modern social history. Some works on social history had made useful attempts in this field. People’s Social Life in the Qing Dynasty, Social History of Modern China, A History of Change in Chinese Social Life in the Twentieth Century and other monographs on modern social history had all discussed the various aspects of women’s lives at great length. In the study of modern women’s history in the new era, the earliest new research methods were borrowed from sociology and social history. For example, Luo Suwen’s Women and Modern Chinese Society (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1996), Zheng Yongfu’s Women’s Lives in Modern China (Henan People’s Publishing House, 1993), Jiang Meihua’s Changes in Chinese Women’s Role in the 20th Century (Tianjin People’s Publishing House, 2009)  and other works all drew lessons from the theory and framework of social history and adopted its research methods like stratification studies, group studies and role studies. Some papers also cited a large amount of survey data published by journals such as Journal of Sociology, Journal of Social Studies, Social Issues and Collected Papers on Social Surveys in the 1920s and 1930s, showing innovation in research methods. Of course, the study of modern social history cannot replace the study of modern women’s history, but it has given much inspiration to the study of women’s history in expanding its horizons and enriching its research methods. Though oral history was not the original creation of women studies, it has been a natural ally of women’s history. After it was introduced into China, oral history was first applied to the study of women’s history and became another breakthrough in the methodology of women’s history. Oral history is a pioneering attempt in the history of Chinese historiography, which breaks the traditional historical norm which only took literature as data and historians as spokesmen, integrates life experience into historiography, and introduces modern techniques such as video recording and audio recording into the study of history. Since 1992, Li Xiaojiang has started a large-​scale project on women’s oral history entitled “Oral History of Chinese Women in the 20th Century,” which has lasted for more than ten years and involved nearly 1,000 participants. In 2003, this project published a series of women’s oral history entitled “Let Women Speak for Themselves” (SDX Joint Publishing Company). This series is composed of four sections: “Independent Course,” “War Experience,” “Cultural Pursuit” and “National Narration,” demonstrating the historical fates and unique styles of modern women in an all-​round way. It provides rich data for the study of women’s history, and the series itself is also a special women’s history. Many scholars have used the methods of oral history in the study of modern women’s history, and achieved a batch of results quickly, for example Ding Yizhuang’s The Last Memory:  Sixteen Bannerwomen’s Oral History (China Radio and TV Publishing House, 1999), the Southwest Volume and North China Volume

Women’s history  205 of Daughter of the Great Mountains edited by Zhong Hua and Du Fangqin (Guizhou Ethnic Publishing House, 1998), and Zhang Xiao’s Research on the Oral History of Xijiang Miao Women (Guizhou People’s Publishing House, 1997). It can be predicted that women’s oral history will have a more positive impact on the study of modern women’s history and even the whole modern history. Of course, because the number of researchers in the circles of women’s history who are familiar with the operation methods of oral history is small, the startup of oral history needs certain financial and human conditions, and some oral data which need to be rescued may disappear at any time, how to continue to adhere to and further promote this research method is an issue to which special attention must be paid. There is another method in the study of women’s history which is being tried and applied by some scholars, that is, the method of textual analysis. The awareness of text has urged the researchers of gender history to constantly explore appropriate texts and expand the scope of information. Besides the official books, archives, local chronicles, and so on, which have been commonly used in historical research, other materials such as inscriptions, epitaphs, poems, couplets, elegies, legends, stories, folk songs, operas, lyrics, pictures, statues, religious classics and publicity materials are all included in the scope of the texts, which greatly compensate for the shortage of women’s historical data. In addition, the entry point and perspective of textual analysis, especially the interpretation method, are more suitable for the application of Gender Theory. Hou Jie pointed out that “interpretation is not a passive acceptance of the meaning of the texts, but an integration of understanding and subjective imagination of the readers.” Therefore, much room has been left for researchers’ interpretation and analyses from multiple perspectives. The significance of textual analysis in the study of women’s history lies in that it reveals more profound connotations by “giving proper definitions and interpretations to the texts so as to enrich the reproduction of modern Chinese gender history.”100 The study of women’s history may therefore be able to get out of the predicament of being liable to become superficial. Scholars such as Xia Xiaohong and Hou Jie have made successful attempts to use textual analysis in their own works. It can be seen that textual analysis is also a research method with popularization value and development prospect. At present, many researchers of women’s history attach more importance to the theories than to the methods. They are accustomed to using the traditional historical research methods and seldom try new methods, but rarely realize that Gender Theory and its methods are a whole, and it will be difficult to make theoretical breakthroughs without renewing methods. 6.4.3  Several issues worthy of attention in the study of women’s history Compared with the whole study of Chinese history, the study of modern women’s history is still in its primary stage of development, and there are many problems to be solved in terms of its level and maturity.

206  ZHENG Yongfu and LV Meiyi First, there is a lack of research models and the low-​level duplication has appeared from time to time. The research model refers to the research result recognized by academia as a landmark, which is one of the indicators for measuring the level of academic research in a certain academic field. For women’s history, the emergence of a large number of research models is also an indispensable condition for its development into a specialized history and into an independent discipline. The failure of modern women’s history studies to produce a large number of academic achievements within a certain period of time is caused by many factors. In addition to the late start and the lack of innovation in research theories and methods, there still exist some misunderstandings, for the phenomena of replacing women’s history with revolutionary history, replacing mass women’s history with elite women’s history, and replacing women’s social history with conceptual history are widespread, which not only lead to inaccurate positioning of women’s history, but also cause the narrow vision of research and the failure in fully displaying the colorful aspects and fashionable styles of modern women’s lives. Another influencing factor is that some studies are not based on sufficient historical data, and there always appear inconsistencies between arguments and conclusions. As Sang Bing said, “it is impossible to get a true historical image from fragmentary and one-​sided data, but the loss of the complexity of history itself will inevitably lead to the decline of academic value.” Moreover, the tendency of simplification in the study has also led to the neglect of some aspects and the difficulty in understanding all the information about women’s history, for example the differences between today’s and yesterday’s views on women, men’s and women’s views on women, upper-​class and lower-​class views on women, native and foreign views on women were not explored. As a result, it is difficult to avoid subjectivity and unilateralism in the study.101 Second, the vision of research is not broad enough. The research field of women’s history is of the open type and has been in constant expansion. If the researcher’s thinking is too simplified to catch up with the pace of modern history studies, it will affect the vision of the study. At present, the field expansion of modern women’s history studies is relatively slow. There are still many weak links and gaps to be filled. As a result of China’s vast territory and numerous nationalities, the social and family status and living customs of women of all nationalities in different regions are quite different, or even totally different; the spread of new modern thought and concepts from coastal or central cities to the inland and rural areas is unbalanced, and their influence on women of different classes and regions is widely different. However, researchers of women’s history did not give these factors enough consideration and paid more attention to the similarities but overlooked these differences. Therefore, a concrete analysis of women in different times, regions, nationalities and strata to highlight the imbalance and difference is one of the important links to improve the level of modern women’s history studies, and also an important trend in the development of Gender Theory—​for example, to explore the similarities and differences of the KMT and CPC’s roles and influence on women’s movements in the comparative study of their principles

Women’s history  207 and policies on women’s movements, and to fathom mutual relations between Chinese women’s movements and the international women’s movements and their influence on each other in the comparative study of them. Third, the discovery, collection and collation of women’s historical materials lags behind the development of research, which has become an obstacle to improving the level of research. The published historical material such as Selected Works on Women’s Issues during the May 4th Period (SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1981)  and Historical Materials of Chinese Women’s Movements (China Women’s Publishing House, 1991)  edited by the Research Office for Women’s Movements of All-​China Women’s Federation, Selected Works of Cai Chang, Deng Yingchao and Kang Keqing on the Liberation of Women (People’s Publishing House, 1983) edited by the All-​China Women’s Federation, and a number of historical materials on women’s movements published by Jiangxi, Guangdong and other provinces and cities are only a drop in the ocean in the vast history of modern history, which cannot meet the needs of research. Materials on women’s history are few and scattered, which makes it very difficult to collect and categorize them. It would be a great advantage for women’s history if we could classify, collect, compile and publish materials on modern women’s history in a short period of time by integrating manpower and material resources, which is also a necessary condition for the study of modern women’s history to advance to a higher level.

Notes 1 Liu Jucai. (1994). Several Points on Chinese Women’s Movements. Collection of Women’s Studies (1). 2 Lv Meiyi and Zheng Yongfu. (1990). Chinese Women’s Movements (1840–​1921). Henan People’s Publishing House, 12. 3 Rong Tiesheng. (1983). Chinese Women’s Movements before and after the 1911 Revolution. In:  Collected Papers of the Symposium on Commemorating the Seventieth Anniversary of the 1911 Revolution (Vol. 1). Zhonghua Book Company, 650. 4 Li Jingzhi. (1992). The Great Seventy Years. CPC History Publishing House, 174. 5 Liu Jucai. (1994). Several Points on Chinese Women’s Movements. Collection of Women’s Studies (1). 6 Zheng Yongfu. (1990). Chinese Women’s Movements (1840–​1921). Henan People’s Publishing House, 12–​15. 7 Li Guihai. (2003). Characteristics of Modern Chinese Women’s Liberation Movements. Chuanshan Journal (2). 8 Sang Bing. (1996). Discussions on the Study of Modern Chinese Women’s History. Modern Chinese History Studies (3). 9 Wang Xiaodan and Cheng Li. (2002). On the Defeminization Feature of Modern Chinese Women’s Movements. Journal of China Women’s College (4). 10 Li Jingzhi, et al. (1992). The Marxist View on Women. China Renmin University Press. 11 Lv Meiyi. (1999). On the Promotional Function of Modern Chinese Women’s Movements to the Social Changes. Journal of Zhengzhou University (4).

208  ZHENG Yongfu and LV Meiyi 12 Li Guotong. (1994). The Seeds of Thought on Women’s Liberation on the Eve of Modern Times and their Influences. In: Center for Chinese and Foreign Women’s Research of Peking University (Ed.) Collected Papers of the 3rd International Symposium of Peking University on Women’s Issues. 13 Meng Xin’an. (1994). Discussion on the Thought of Equality of Men and Women in Modern China. Jianghan Forum (12). 14 He Liping. (1997). On the Formation of the Feminist Thought in Modern China. Journal of China Renmin University (3). 15 Xiong Yuezhi. (2003). Theory and Practice of Feminism of Shanghai in the Late Qing Dynasty. Academic Monthly (11). 16 Wang Meixiu. (1995). Modern Chinese Women’s Movements under the Influence of the Eastward Transmission of Western Learning. Journal of Peking University (4). 17 Xia Xiaohong. (1995). From the Equality of Men and Women to the Feminist Consciousness. Journal of Peking University (4). 18 Wu Yannan, et  al. (Eds.) (1998). Social Thought in Modern China. Hu’nan Education Press. 19 Wang Ruqing. (2000). Class Liberation and Individual Awakening—​A Preliminary Study of the Intellectuals’ Two Kinds of Views on Women’s Liberation during the May Fourth Movement. Journal of Hebei University (5). 20 Shi Qiaolan and Li Xingzhi. (1992). The Early Propagation of the Marxist View on Women in China and Its Sinicization. Collection of Women’s Studies (1). 21 Liu Jucai. (1992). On the New Democratic Theory of Women’s Liberation. Collection of Women’s Studies (1). 22 Li Fengfei and Bao Hongchang. (1997). Historical Investigation into Chinese Women’s Foot-​Binding and Anti-​Foot-​Binding. Study and Exploration (3). 23 Liang Jingshi. (1995). History of the Anti-​Foot-​Binding Movement in Modern China. Journal of Shanxi Normal University (1). 24 Yang Xingmei. (2000). Concept and Society: The Beauty and Ugliness of Women’s Small Feet and the Two Worlds of Modern China. Modern Chinese History Studies (4); Yang Nianqun. (2001). From Scientific Discourse to State Control—​ Multivariate Analysis of the Changing Course of Women’s Foot-​Binding from Beauty to Ugliness. Beijing Archives Series (4). 25 Liang Jinghe. (1993). Historical Investigation into the Women’s Education in Modern China. Journal of Liaoning Normal University (6). 26 Cui Yunwu. (1988). A  Brief Analysis of Missionary Education for Women in Modern China. Journal of Historical Science (2). 27 Wang Qisheng. (1996). Historical Evolution of Missionary Higher Education for Women. Journal of Central China Normal University (2). 28 Qiao Suling. (2001). Japan and Schools for Women in Modern China. Social Sciences in Guangdong (1). 29 Cai Feng. (1991). Analysis of Women’s Studying Abroad in Modern China. Journal of Historical Science (3); Cai Feng. (2003). Channels of Women’s Studying abroad and the Majors They Chose during the Republican Period. Journal of China Women’s College (1). 30 Song Ruizhi. (1995). The Rise of Women’s Education and Women’s Awakening in Modern China. Hebei Academic Journal (5). 31 He Liping. (2000). The Evolution of Women’s Education Equality in Modern China. Social Science Journal (6).

Women’s history  209 32 Issue 3 and Issue 4 of the Library published in 1964. 33 Zhang Libo. (1991). Women’s Organizations in the Early 20th Century. Journal of Historical Science (2). 34 Luo Yijun. (1987). He Xiangning and “Chinese Women’s Association for Supporting the Anti-​Japanese War.” History Teaching (9); Ding Weiping. (1994). Nanjing Women’s Association for National Salvation. Changbai Journal (5). 35 Liu Jinghui. (2003). “A Supporting Group” to the Japanese Guandong Army—​A Preliminary Analysis of the “The Joint Association of Women’s Associations in Manchuria.” Journal of Liaoning Normal University (6). 36 Li Xizhu. (2005). On the Relationship between Gender and Power in the National Consciousness during the Late Qing Period—​A Historical Investigation Centering on Women’s Political Participation. Collection of Women’s Studies (2). 37 Yan Changhong. (1998). Tang Qunying and the Movement for Women’s Political Participation during the Early Period of the Republic of China. Social Sciences in Guizhou (4). 38 Jiang Tingwei. (2001). Movements for Women’s Political Participation during the Early Period of the Republic of China. Jianghai Academic Journal (4). 39 Wu Shuzhen. (1990). Historical Investigation into Women’s Political Participation. Journal of Sun Yat-​sen University (2). 40 Ibid. 41 Ibid. 42 Zhou Yaping. (1993). The Historical Process of Chinese Women’s Participation in Politics. Journal of Jishou University (1). 43 Zhang Yongying. (2001). Theoretical Understanding and Practical Experiences of Women’s Political Participation after the Founding of the CPC. Collection of Women’s Studies (Supplementary Issue). 44 Chang Yinting. (1992). On the CPC’s Leadership of the Women’s Movements in the Early Days of Its Founding. Journal of Qinghai Normal University (1). 45 Ye Mengkui. (1997). The CPC’s Earliest Documents on the Women’s Movement. Beijing Dang Shi (1). 46 Dong Miaoling. (1995). Characteristics and Function of Chinese women’s Anti-​ Japanese United Front. Academic Journal of Zhongzhou (5); Yang Hui. (2001). On the Women’s United Front for Opposing Japan and National Salvation in the KMY-​Ruled Area. Journal of Southeast University (2). 47 Li Yuan. (1988). Deng Yingchao and Women’s Movements in the Anti-​Japan War and National Unity. Journal of Chinese Communist Party History Studies (3). 48 Luo Suwen. (1996). Women and Modern Chinese Society. Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 286–​316. 49 Li Nianzhong. (2002). Research on the Issue of Female Workers in 1920s. Shandong Social Sciences (1). 50 He Liping. (1998). On Women’s Struggle for Work and Equal Working Right in Modern China. Modern Chinese History Studies (2). 51 Lv Meiyi and Zheng Yongfu. (2002). A Brief Discussion on Women’s Jobs in the 1920s and 1930s: A Case Study on Shanghai Women’s Commercial Bank. Journal of Zhengzhou University (6). 52 He Liping. (2003). Investigation into the State of Women’s Employment during the War of Liberation. Journal of Historical Science (1). 53 Xia Rong. (2004). Debates on “Women’s Returning Home” and “Virtuous Wife and Good Mother.” Journal of South China Normal University (6).

210  ZHENG Yongfu and LV Meiyi 54 Li Zhuo. (2002). Comparison between the Chinese and Japanese Concept of the Virtuous Wife and Good Mother. Tianjin Social Sciences (3). 55 Huang Xinxian. (1990). The Rise of Progressive and Intellectual Women Groups and Modern Social Transformation. Fujian Forum (6). 56 Wang Simei. (2001). On the CPC’s Theory and Practice of Promoting Rural Women’s Liberation. Collection of Women’s Studies (4); Huang Zhenglin. (2004). Rural Women in the Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia Border Regions during the War of Resistance Against Japan. Journal of Studies of China’s Resistance War Against Japan (2). 57 Zhu Xiaotian. (2001). Modern Changes of Rural Women’s Occupational Structure South of the Yangtze River. Historical Archives (3). 58 Xin Ping. (1998). The Causes for and Characteristics of the Prosperity of Prostitution in Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s. Journal of Historical Science (1); Jiang Pei. (2003). On the Structure of Prostitution in Tianjin in the First Half of the 20th Century. Modern Chinese History Studies (2). 59 Zhang Baiping. (1999). Prostitution in the Early Modernization of Chinese Cities. Journal of Historical Science (1). 60 Lin Hong. (1997). Historical Reflection on Abolishing Prostitution and Women’s Emancipation. Collection of Women’s Studies (2). 61 Chen Zhenjiang. (1997). The Trend of Marriage and Family Reform in the Late Qing Dynasty and Early Republic of China. Journal of Nankai University (4). 62 Xu Jiansheng. (1991). On the Trend of Marriage and Family Reform in Modern China. Modern Chinese History Studies (3). 63 Chen Yunxi and Ye Qing. (1998). Changes in Urban Marriage during the Republican Period. Modern Chinese History Studies (6). 64 Zhang Shudong and Li Xiuling. (1990). The Evolution of Marriage and Family in China. Zhejiang People’s Publishing House, 246. 65 Tan Zhiyun. (2007). Women’s Divorce during the Nanjing Government Period: Taking the Civil Cases of the Jiangsu Provincial High Court from 1927 to 1936 as an Example. Collection of Women’s Studies (4). 66 Yue Long and Qin Fang. (2004). On the Reform of Marriage Custom and the Change of Women’s Status in Shanxi-​Gansu-​Ningxia Border Region. Journal of Northwest University (1). 67 Yan Changhong. (2003). The Question of Women’s Status Reflected by Old Weddings. Journal of South-​ Central University for Nationalities (1); Yan Changhong. (1991). The Spreading of Western Custom to the East:  Changes in Modern Chinese Social Custom. Hu’nan Publishing House, 220–​228. 68 Zhang Shudong, et al. (1990). The Evolution of Marriage and Families in China. Zhejiang People’s Publishing House, 239–​242; Zheng Yongfu et al. (1993). Women’s Lives in Modern China. Henan People’s Publishing House, 146–​179; Luo Suwen. (1996). Women and Modern Chinese Society. Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 229–​236. 69 Wang Li. (2001). Women’s Spinsterhood in Modern Guangdong: The Phenomenon of Women’s Self-​Combing and Not Staying at their Husbands’ Home, Journal of Guangxi University for Nationalities (3). Ye Chunsheng. (2001). “Self-​Combing Women” in the Pearl River Delta Region. Women’s Studies (3). 70 Liu Zhenggang and Qiao Suling. (2001). Modern Chinese Women’s Celibacy. Journal of Historical Science (3).

Women’s history  211 71 He Zhonghua. (1994). Re-​ Examination of Mosuo People’s Maternal Family. In: Li Xiaojiang, Zhu Hong and Dong Xiuyu (eds.). Gender and China. SDX Joint Publishing Company, 470. 72 Yi Shaoyin. (2000). Christianity and Modern Chinese Women’s Movements. Journal of Shanghai Normal University (4); Zheng Yongfu. (1994). The Spread and Influence of Christianity among Modern Chinese Women. SDX Joint Publishing Company, 236–​249. 73 Niu Shengni. (2006). Another Women’s Movement: Taking the Agricultural and Industrial Undertakings of China’s Young Women’s Christian Association as an Example (1904–​1933). In: Tao Feiya (Ed.) Gender and History: Modern Chinese Women and Christianity. Shanghai People’s Publishing House. 74 Wang Li. (2008). China’s Young Women’s Christian Association:  Finding Another Way to Achieve Equality between Men and Women. Guangming Daily, November 28. 75 Zheng Yongfu. (2006). Buddhism and Modern Chinese Women. In:  Tao Feiya (Ed.) Gender and History:  Modern Chinese Women and Christianity. Shanghai People’s Publishing House; Lv Meiyi. (1996). Comparison of the Influence of Buddhism and Christianity on Modern Chinese Women. Buddhist Studies (5). 76 He Jianming. (1997). On Chinese Buddhist Women in Late Qing and Early Republic China—​Also Discussion with Zheng Yongfu and Lv Meiyi. Buddhist Studies (6); He Jianming. (1998). View of Women of Modern Chinese Buddhism. Buddhist Studies (7); He Jianming. (1999). The Education of Buddhist Women in Modern China. Buddhist Culture (6). 77 Shui Jingjun and Maria Jaschok (Britain). (2002). Women’s Mosques in China. SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1, 124 and 127. 78 Xu Yongzhi. (1992). Analysis of the Prevalence of the Corrupt Customs of Drowning Newborn Girls in Modern Times. Modern Chinese History Studies (5). 79 Guan Wei. (2006). Zhang Jingsheng’s Thoughts on Women’s Issues during the May 4th Movement. Journal of China Women’s College (3). 80 Luo Suwen. (1996). Women and Modern Chinese Society. Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 168. 81 Luo Suwen. (1999). On the Dress Fashion and Social Changes of Shanghai in the Late Qing Dynasty. Historical Review (1). 82 Zheng Yongfu and Lv Meiyi. (2007). On the Factors Affecting the Evolution of Women’s Clothing in the Period of the Republic of China. Academic Journal of Zhongzhou (5). 83 Chen Qing. (1999). Modern Chinese Women’s Sports and Women’s Liberation, Journal of Wuhan Institute of Physical Education (4); Zheng Zhilin. (1994). On the Rise of Modern Chinese Women’s Sports. Sports Culture Guide (3); Shao Xiaofu and Chi Zihua. (2006). Interpretation of Shanghai Women’s Suicide in the 1920s and 1930s. Journal of Xuzhou Normal University (2); Qiao Suling. (2002). Farewell to Pain: Investigation into Guangzhou Citizens’ Suicide in 1920. Guangdong Historical Records (3); Zhao Xiaohua. (2008). Women’s Disaster Relief Practice and Role Change in Late Qing and Early Republican China. Collection of Women’s Studies (3); He Liping. (1998). Chinese Women’s Struggle for Property and Inheritance. Beijing Social Sciences (4); Zhang Peiguo. (2002). Rural Women’s “Property Rights” in Modern Jiangnan. Journal of Historical Science (1).

212  ZHENG Yongfu and LV Meiyi 84 Li Jinquan. (1999). On the Reform Movement of 1898 and the Empress Dowager Cixi in the New Deal in the Late Qing Dynasty. Journal of Literature, History and Philosophy (1); Su Quanyou. (2000). Why Did Cixi Become Kang Youwei’s Successor. Journal of Henan Normal University (1). 85 Guo Yanli. (1981). About Qiu Jin’s Life, Year of Death and Birthplace. Journal of East China Normal University (3); Guo Yanli. (1983). Re-​Discussion on Qiu Jin’s Year of Birth. Zhejiang Academic Journal (2); Yu Guantao. (1983). Qiu Jin was Born in 1878. Zhejiang Academic Journal (2); Shen Zu’an. (1982). Several Issues Concerning Qiu Jin Research. Jianghuai Forum (6). 86 Zhang Yufen. (1981). A Brief Discussion on Qiu Jin. Journal of Liaoning Normal University (5). 87 Xia Xiaohong. (2000). Study of Qiu Jin’s Thought during the Beijing Period. Zhejiang Social Sciences (1). 88 Shen Qian. (2001). Qiu Jin: The Life Choice of Transforming from Dependence to Independence. Nanjing Social Sciences (2). 89 Liu Huaqing. (1997). On the System of Xiang Jingyu’s Thought on Women’s Liberation. Journal of China Women’s College (1). 90 Li Weiping. (1985). Xiang Jingyu’s Thought on the United Front of Women’s Movements. Seeker (5). 91 The Red Flag (9), 1984; Jiang Huaxuan. (1983). Had Xiang Jingyu Served as a Member of the Central Committee and the Minister of Women? Collection of Studies on the History of the CPC (3). 92 Han Xinlu. (1999). Song Qingling and the Anti-​Japanese National United Front. Journal of China Women’s College (4); Han Xinlu. (1998). Analysis of Song Qingling’s Noble Spirit. Journal of China Women’s College (4); Fu Shaochang. (2001). Song Qingling and the Songhu Anti-​Japanese War. Academy Monthly (3). 93 Zhu Minyan. (1992). A Review of Song Qingling Research in Recent Years. CPC History Studies and Teaching (6); Xu Yeli. (1993). A  Review of Song Qingling Research in Recent Years. In:  Collected Works in Memory of Song Qingling. Shanghai People’s Publishing House. 94 Wu Shuzhen, et al. (1994). Song Qingling and the Chinese Women’s Liberation Movement. In:  Proceedings of the Symposium on Song Qingling. China Peace Press; Wu Shuzhen et al. (1993). Song Qingling; the Pioneer of China’s Women’s Liberation Movement. In: Collected Works in Memory of Song Qingling. Shanghai People’s Publishing House. 95 Shang Mingxuan, et al. (1995). Song Qingling and the Women’s Movement during the Anti-​Japanese War. Journal of Studies of China’s Resistance War Against Japan (4). 96 Xia Xiaohong (Ed.) (2004). Women in the Late Qing Dynasty and Modern China. Peking University Press, 38–​56 and 223–​257. 97 Ju Ping. (2007). Looking at Women’s Foot-​Releasing Movement and Movement for Women’s Education in the Late Qing Dynasty from the Perspective of Hu Panglan’s Case. Journal of Postgraduate Students of Central China Normal University (3); Xia Xiaohong (Ed.) (2004). Women in the Late Qing Dynasty and Modern China. Peking University Press, 257–​282. 98 Du Fangqin. (2002). Localized Exploration into Women’s Studies and Women’s History. Tianjin People’s Publishing House, 231.

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7  History of youth movements LI Yuqi

The history of China’s youth movements is a research area demanding deep exploration and perfection in the historical studies of modern China. Although since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, some researchers have set foot in this area and some achievements have been made along with the development and improvement of Chinese society, it is still far behind the other areas of historical studies of modern China, which is need of the attention, support and help from academia. This research area remains to be developed academically through further strengthening the collection and compilation of data and carrying out extensive academic research activities.

7.1  Three stages of development Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, with the development of its social science research, the study of the history of youth movements has gradually developed from meeting the various needs of the China Communist Youth League (CCYL) to establishing an independent discipline. Greater advancement has been made especially after the reform and opening up. Looking back over the development process of youth movement research, we can see that it can be divided into the following three stages. 7.1.1  The stage of research to meet the needs of CCYL After the founding of the PRC in 1949, starting from the tasks assigned to the New Democratic Youth League, research on youth movements was put on the agenda in order to meet the needs of league cadre training. At this stage, the main forces conducting research on the history of youth movements were the  teaching staff of CCYL, whose research mainly focused on the experience and lessons of youth work carried out by the Communist Party of China (CPC) during the period of democratic revolution, the history of the Youth League’s development and the history of China’s student movements. During this stage, some historians had studied the history of student movements from the perspective of revolutionary history, and published some pamphlets to record important student movements during the democratic revolution in the

History of youth movements  215 1950s. The research on the history of youth movements at that time mainly revolved around the practical needs of CCYL and the political movements. “History of China’s Youth Movements,” as a course, was first set up in the Central School of CCYL. Later, with the establishment of local schools of CCYL in succession, some of these schools also set up the course named “History of China’s Youth Movements.” At first, this course was taught by the central leaders and people who used to be engaged in the CPC’s youth work during the democratic revolution. Feng Wenbin, who was then the General Secretary of the Central Committee of CCYL (CCCCYL), once taught the brief history of youth movements in the Central School of CCYL. In his course, Feng touched upon the struggles and major historical events of Chinese youth and CCYL members, and achievements and mistakes of youth work during the democratic revolution and analyzed the historical lessons of youth movements during the democratic revolution in particular. Feng Wenbin’s course had laid a foundation for the systematic teaching and research of youth movements in the schools of CCYL. Since the mid-​1950s, the teaching and research work of youth movement history in the Central School of CCYL started gradually. The Teaching and Research Office of the Central School of CCYL compiled A Brief History of Youth Movements in Modern China in June 1956 and composed A Brief History of China’s Modern Revolutionary Youth Movements in January 1957, which was revised slightly and renamed A Brief History of China’s Youth Movements since the May Fourth Movement in June. These lecture notes of about 100,000 words were the most systematic account of China’s youth movement history at that time. It was also the initial achievement of the comprehensive and systematic study of the history of the youth movement. Besides, since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, foreign communication activities of youth organizations have become increasingly frequent. In 1956, in order to introduce the Chinese youth movement history to foreign countries, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CCCPC) examined and approved On the Situation, Experience and Lessons of China’s Youth Movements (Outline) drafted by the CCCCYL. Breaking the old conventions in recording the Chinese history of youth movements and ignoring the periodization of the history of the CPC, this outline gave a historical account of youth movements according to the three development periods of the CCYL (the period from the Socialist Youth League to the Communist Youth League, the period of the Anti-​Japanese War and the Youth Association to Resist Japan and Save China, and the period of the New Democratic Youth League), systematically expounded the major events and main achievements of youth movements in different historical periods, and analyzed and summarized their shortcomings, mistakes, causes, experience and lessons as well. On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the founding of the PRC, because of the need to carry out foreign activities, the CCCCYL reorganized the compilation of Introductory Outline of the Situations and Experience of China’s Youth Movements. This Outline summarized China’s youth movements during

216  LI Yuqi the periods of revolution and construction from 1919 to 1959, focusing on the historical experience of China’s youth movements in the past 40  years. Its main content included five aspects:  the direction of youth movements, the position and roles of youth movements, the core organizations of youth movements, the ideological education of the youth in the past, and the leadership of the CPC. In 1961, in order to meet the needs of the league’s cadres training, the CCCCYL organized the teaching staff of the Central School of CCYL to compile Lecture Notes on China’s Youth Movements. During the compilation of these notes, Hu Yaobang, the First Secretary of the Secretariat of CCCCYL at that time, put forward a number of valuable suggestions on the compilation. Lecture Notes on China’s Youth Movement were divided into two parts. The first part was on the several issues of youth movements during the period of the Chinese democratic revolution. The second part was on the youth movements during the period of socialist revolution and socialist construction. The second part was relatively simple, which only introduced the situation of Chinese youth in safeguarding the peace of China and the world, supporting the just struggles of youth in other countries, strengthening friendship and solidarity with the youth of other countries, and so on, and the important deeds of youth’s participation in China’s socialist revolution and construction. The first part was the main body of the lecture notes, which systematically summarized the experience of youth movements during the democratic revolution and was more theoretical. The content of these notes mainly revolved around the six fundamental issues of youth movements, to wit:  the tasks of youth movements, the organization of youth movements, the united front in youth movements, the student movements, the struggle strategies of youth movements and CPC’s leadership in youth movements. The compilation of these lecture notes had laid a certain foundation for subsequent research on the history of youth movements. During this stage, the work to collect and collate data on China’s youth movements had begun. From 1957 to 1961, the CCCCYL organized the compilation of the ten-​volume Historical Data on China’s Youth Movements which collected important domestic and foreign data, documents and papers published in newspapers and periodicals on China’s youth movements from 1915 to the end of May 1932, and also other materials like the investigation reports about youth’s living and ideological conditions.1 The publication of this set of data had promoted the research on the history of youth movements and also laid a foundation for the in-​depth development of the research on the history of youth movements. 7.1.2  The stage of organized research during the period of “restoring things to order” and the reform and opening up After 1976, accompanied with the convening of the Tenth National Congress of the CCYL, research on the history of youth movements began to recover.

History of youth movements  217 In December 1978, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh CCCPC was convened, which marked a great turning point in the history of the CPC since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. In December 1979, the Research Office of the CCCCYL, the Central School of CCYL and the China Youth Press jointly organized a seminar on the history of China’s youth movements in Beijing. The participants in this seminar elaborated views on the history, experience and lessons of youth movements, research methods of youth movement history and other issues. This seminar played a positive role in promoting and strengthening the research on youth movement history. At the beginning of 1980, shortly after this seminar ended, the CCCCYL decided to set up the Editorial Committee on Youth Movement History, which had the Research Office for Youth Movement History of CCCCYL under it and founded Research Materials on the Youth Movement History which was renamed Research on the Youth Movement History in January 1981. During this period of time, the historical study of youth movements experienced a relatively prosperous stage of development. During this stage, a prominent feature of the research on youth movement history was that the CCYL actively led CCYL organizations at all levels to carry out research on the history of youth movements. Since the convening of the first national seminar on the study of youth movement history, a group of non-​standing research institutions for youth movement history had been founded in succession across the country and research on the history of local youth movements had been started. China Youth Press published the special memoir series on youth movement history named “Series on the Glorious Tradition of Chinese Youth,” including The Footsteps of the Youth (1980), On the Second Front (1980), The Rapids (1980), Why Is the Flag of CCYL So Red? (1979), The Cradle of Spring (1981) and so on. It also published several informative books related to the research on youth movement history, such as Private Letters of Revolutionary Martyrs (1979) and Sequel to Private Letters of Revolutionary Martyrs (1983). Some local research institutions for youth movement history also published a special memoir series on youth movements. During this period, the Research Office for Youth Movement History of CCCCYL actively organized experts to compile important materials like “Memorabilia of China’s Youth Movements during the New Democratic Revolution” (Research on the Youth Movement History, Issue 4–​8, 1981). After the establishment of the Research Office for Youth Movement History of CCCCYL in 1983, some provincial committees of CCYL also founded institutions for the history of youth movements. The Research Office for Youth Movement History of CCCCYL successively organized working conferences or symposia on youth movement history to promote the work of all localities. Since the beginning of the 1980s, the Research Office for Youth Movement History of CCCCYL had organized seven national symposia on youth movement history, including “Symposium on the Founding of CSYL,” “Symposium on CCYL during the First Cooperation between the Kuomintang (the KMT) and the CPC,” “Symposium on the Movement to Study in France

218  LI Yuqi on a Work-​Study Basis and the Founding of the Communist Youth League in Europe,” “Symposium on the Communist Youth League in the Soviet Areas during the Second Revolutionary Civil War of China,” “Symposium on Youth Movements during the Anti-​Japanese War,” “Symposium on the Student Movements during the War of Liberation” and “Symposium on China’s Youth Movements for Fighting against Japan and National Salvation from the ‘Incident of September 18’ to the ‘Incident of July 7’.” History of China’s Youth Movements (China Youth Press, 1984), compiled by the Research Office for Youth Movement History of CCCCYL, was the first official monograph on the history of China’s youth movements since the founding of the PRC. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and the CCCCYL jointly established China Youth and Children’s Research Institute, which specially set up the Research Office for Youth Movement History to collect and study the data on the history of youth movements. This institute also compiled “Research and Data Series on the History of Youth Movements,” and four series had been published by 1987 when it was merged into the Institute of Sociology of CASS. Since both the central and local governments had set up institutions for youth movement history and promoted the research systematically through the organizations of CCYL, the research on this period of the history of youth movements was quite active and fruitful. First of all, symposia for the old comrades (to wit:  the former leaders of the state and the CPC) were widely held to rescue the “live data” as quickly as possible. From 1983 to 1987, researchers on the history of youth movements from the CCCCYL and local institutions held many symposia for the comrades in succession, including “Symposium on the Youth Training Program in Anwu,” “Symposium on the Youth Movements in Jinsui,” “Symposium on the Northwest Democratic Youth League,” “Symposium on the Youth Movements in Shaanxi before and after the Xi’an Incident,” “Symposium on the Youth Movements in the Three Provinces of Northeast China during the War of Liberation,” “Symposium on the Student Movements in Hangzhou during the War of Liberation,” “Symposium on the Youth Movements in Shandong during the Anti-​Japanese War,” “Symposium on the Shanghai Communist Youth League in the 1930s,” “Symposium on the National Federation of Students during the Period of the War of Liberation,” “Symposium on Zhejiang Yingshi University,” “Symposium on the Southward Service Corps from East China,” “Symposium on the Southwest Service Corps,” “Symposium on the Student Movements in Shanghai during the Anti-​Japanese War and the War of Liberation” and other symposia like “Symposium on the Collection of Data on Youth Movements in Jiangxi during the Anti-​Japanese War” and “Symposium on the Collection of Data on the Student Movement of Sun Yat-​sen University (Pingshi Period) and Hong Kong Students’ Association to Relieve the Mainland,” which collected a number of important historical data on the history of youth movements. At the same time, many local institutions also established contacts with a group

History of youth movements  219 of veteran comrades related to the history of youth movements through visits, letters and other means, providing convenient conditions for the collection, compilation and collation of historical data. Second, local researchers on the history of youth movements also vigorously carried out the collection and collation work of literature, archives and other textual data. Some provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities had almost completed the collection and collation work of documents, archives, newspapers, periodicals, and books on the history of youth movements during the period of democratic revolution, and had classified, archived and catalogued them carefully as well. At the same time, a number of photos and artifacts of historical value were also collected by the local institutions. In addition, more than 20 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities had compiled chronicles of events of youth movements, and some regions had preliminarily completed the compilation of the evolutionary history of youth organizations and a list of the names of youth movement leaders. Besides, local researchers on the history of youth movements compiled and published historical data on the history of youth movements, such as Selected Documents of the CCCPC on Youth Movements (1921–​1949) (China Youth Press, 1988), Youth Communist International and China’s Youth Movements (China Youth Press, 1985), Bells from the Old Castle of Anwu Village—​Historical Documents on the Anwu Youth Training Program (CPC History Publishing House, 1987), Compilation of Documents on Youth Movements in Guangdong,2 Youth Movements in the KMT-​Controlled Area of Shaanxi before and after the Xi’an Incident and in the Early Period of the Anti-​Japanese War (Shaanxi People’s Publishing House, 1989), Northwest Democratic Youth League and Student Movements in the KMT-​Controlled Area of Shaanxi (Shaanxi People’s Publishing House, 1989), Historical Data on Youth Movements in Shanxi, Selected Historical Data on Youth Movements in Sichuan, Selected Data on Youth Movements in the Sichuan-​Shaanxi Revolutionary Base Area, Selected Archival Data on Youth Movements in Shandong, Historical Data on the New Students League, Youth Movements in Guangdong during the Anti-​Japanese War, Selected Data on Guangdong Youth Anti-​Japanese Vanguard, Selected Historical Data on Student Movements in Guangdong, Selected Historical Data on the May 4th Movement in Guangzhou, Selected Archives on Jiangsu Youth Movement History, A Commemorative Special Collection on the Xin’an Touring Troupe, Thirty Years of Youth Movements in Nanchang, The December 9th Movement in Henan Province (Henan People’s Publishing House, 1986), Youth Movements in the Rear Area:  Selected Papers from Xinhua Daily (Chongqing Press, 1984), and Reference Data on Youth Movements in the Rear Area (Chongqing Press, 1984). In addition, according to incomplete statistics, 17 provincial committees of the CCYL of different provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, and 11 local committees of the CCYL in different cities and regions had published academic journals on the history of youth movements during this period, such as Data on Shanghai Youth Movement History, Data on Guangdong Youth Movement History, Data on Hu’nan Youth

220  LI Yuqi Movement History, Data on Jiangsu Youth Movement History, Reference Data on Zhejiang Youth Movement History and Data on Guangzhou Youth Movement History. Although these publications had been published for a long or a short time, they all had promoted the research on the history of youth movements to varying degrees and provided a batch of research data on the history of youth movements for the society. Finally, a number of monographs, biographies and popular works on the history of youth movements had been published, of which the major ones included Young Martyrs during the First and Second Revolutionary War and the Liberation War (1986, 1991)  and The Preliminary Construction of the Youth League (1987) edited by China Youth Publishing House, A Brief History of Youth Movements in Beijing (1919–​1949) edited by the Beijing Municipal Committee of CCYL, The Song of Pursuit—​ Sichuan Youth Movements (Chengdu University of Science and Technology Press, 1986) and Thirty Years of Student Movements in North Sichuan edited by the Research Office for Youth Movement History of the Sichuan Provincial Committee of the CCYL, The Anti-​Scrutiny Movement in Qingdao, When I  Was 20 Years Old and Historical Figures in the Youth Movement History of Shandong edited by the Research Office of the Shandong Provincial Committee of CCYL, Trials and Hardships of Jinling (China Youth Press, 1983) edited by the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of CCYL, Songs of Youth Pioneers edited by the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of CCYL, Real Warriors edited by the Jiangxi Provincial Committee of CCYL, History of Youth Movements in Hangzhou co-​edited by the Office of Youth Movement History of Jiangxi Provincial Committee of CCYL and the Teaching and Research Office of the Hangzhou School of CCYL, A Brief Biography of Revolutionary Martyr Liang Shiying edited by the Committee on Youth Movement History of Fuyu County of Jilin Province, History of Youth Movements in Nantong, History of Youth Movements in Lianyungang and so on. Besides, a number of scholars in the social science community who devoted themselves to the study of student movement history and youth movement history also published some monographs such as A Brief History of China’s Student Movements (Hebei People’s Publishing House, 1985). 7.1.3  The natural development stage under the situation of economic transformation and social development Since the 1990s, China’s reform and opening up has been further deepened. This new situation has brought profound influence on the development of youth movement history studies, demanding that the research must adapt to the trend of social development, change the practice of carrying out research through administrative organizations so that it can be conducted according to the socialized operational mechanism. According to the requirements of this situation, the Secretariat of the CCCCYL decided to revoke the Research Office for Youth Movement History of CCCCYL and set up the Steering

History of youth movements  221 Committee of the CCCCYL on Youth Movement History and the China Youth and Children’s Research Center in September 1991, trying to provide a new mechanism to broaden the research field of youth movement history, absorb social forces and resources and promote the in-​depth development of the research on youth movement history. In this way, organized research activities on youth movement history have been reduced gradually since the 1990s, and related research work has been carried out steadily in line with social need. Since the 1990s, research topics have been chosen based on the needs of society and the times, and researchers from the CCYL system have also participated in research on the history of youth movements. Moreover, researchers’ expertise and professional interests have been brought into full play. Therefore, from the late 1980s, a batch of monographs of higher academic level and value on the history of student and youth movements represented by Sixty Years of China’s Youth Movements (China Youth Press, 1990)  have been published in succession, the major ones of which include Collection of Data on the Student Movement History of Modern China (Northeast Normal University Press, 1988), History of China’s Student Movements (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1992), The Glorious History of Chinese Students: A Brief History of China’s Student Movements in Modern Times (People’s Education Press, 1989), History of Modern China’s Student Movements (Henan People’s Publishing House, 1992), History of the Student Movements in Beijing during the Liberation War (Beijing Publishing House 1995), History of CCYL (China Youth Publishing House, 1992), A Brief History of CCYL (Central China Normal University Press, 1992), A Compendium of Chinese CCYL History (China Youth Publishing House, 1997), The Theme Song of China’s Youth Movements—​History of CCYL in the 20th Century (Wenjin Press, 1999), History of Youth in Modern China (Red Flag Publishing House, 2004), History of Wenzhou’s Second Front (Contemporary China Publishing House, 2005) and so on. During this period, a number of monographs on the history of local youth movements have been published, such as History of Youth Movements in Beijing (Beijing Publishing House, 1989), History of Youth Movements in Guangdong (Guangdong Higher Education Press, 1994), History of Youth Movements in Sichuan (Sichuan People’s Publishing House, 1990), History of Youth Movements in Zhejiang (China Culture and History Press, 1990), History of Youth Movements in Heilongjiang (Heilongjiang People’s Publishing House, 1990), A Brief History of Youth Movements in Shandong, History of Youth Movements in Fujian (Fujian People’s Publishing House, 1992), and History of Youth Movements in Guizhou (Guizhou People’s Publishing House, 1999). In addition, a number of monographic works have been published as well, such as Records of the Ups and Downs: China’s Youth Movements and Young Christians’ Association (Tongji University Press, 1989)  and History of the Relationship between the Youth Communist International and China’s Youth Movements (Jilin People’s Publishing House, 1990).

222  LI Yuqi Besides, since the 1990s, researchers on the history of youth movements in all regions have edited and published the historical data on youth movements accumulated in the 1980s. So from the turn of the twenty-​ first century, Beijing, Guangdong, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Jiangxi, Shanxi, Fujian, Shandong, Tianjin, Henan, Hebei and other provinces and municipalities all edited and published data series or data collections, and collections of memoirs and essays on the history of youth movements, the important ones of which were the six volumes of Historical Data on China’s Youth Movements (Vol. 14–​19) published by China Youth Press in 2002, the publication of which marked the compilation of collections of historical data on the history of youth movements during the democratic revolution. In addition, China Youth Publishing House published the first and second volume of Children of the Red Rock in December 2005, bringing together the data on youth movements in the KMT-​controlled area from 1939 to 1949. These two volumes are all edited by the witnesses of this period of history, which could better prove the historical value of these two books. History of Youth Movements in the Central Soviet Area published by the CPC History Publishing House in April 2009 is the first work on the history of youth movements in the central Soviet area. This book integrated historical reviews with historical data, and added photos to it to enhance its informative value. During this period, under the leadership of local governments, chronicles of local youth movements have also been compiled and published, assembling a large number of research results on the history of youth movements. In addition, a number of biographies or commemorative collections of early youth movement leaders were published in commemoration of the births of revolutionary heroes, which also collected some historical data on the history of youth movements, such as Biography of Hua Gang (Zhejiang People’s Publishing House, 1993), Biography of Yun Daiying (China Youth Publishing House, 1995), Commemorative Anthology of Yu XiuSong (Contemporary China Publishing House, 1999), Anthology of Li Qiushi (Chinese Literature and History Press, 1991), Special Collection of Works Commemorating the Centennial Anniversary of Shi Fuliang’s Birthday, and Selected Historical Data on Zhang Tailei’s Research (Central Party Literature Press, 2007). In short, since the 1990s, important changes have taken place in the study of youth movement history with the in-​depth development of China’s reform and opening up, and the research has gradually developed in the academic direction. As a new subject of historiography, research of the history of the youth movements has begun to enter a new stage of development.

7.2  A summary of research results Through 50-​odd years of exploration and development, research on the history of youth movements has preliminarily formed its own disciplinary system. Though it is still imperfect, it has already had a good foundation. The main research results will be summarized as follows:

History of youth movements  223 7.2.1  The establishment of China Socialist Youth League The establishment of China Socialist Youth League (CSYL) had gone through a process from the early organization to the formal establishment, so there was a saying that “CSYL was founded before the CPC.”3 Researchers had reached a consensus on this saying, holding that some early members of the CSYL may have joined the CSYL before the CPC was formally established in 1921, so from the perspective of their personal experiences, it seemed that the “CSYL was founded before the CPC,” but as a matter of fact, the formal founding of CSYL was after the CPC’s founding. The reason was that like the CPC, the CSYL also had gone through a stage of establishing the early organization, which was established under the help and guidance of the CPC’s early organization. The final establishment of its formal organization was not completed till the First Congress of the CSYL held in May 1922, which was also under the help and guidance of the CPC.4 Therefore, the statement that the “CSYL was formed before the CPC” is not accurate. China’s Youth League was formally founded in May 1922. This point of view could not only objectively reflect the history, but also accurately reveal the relationship between the CPC and CCYL. At the same time, researchers have examined and corrected the time when the early organizations of some local youth leagues were founded. In the past, people only knew that the Shanghai CSYL was established in August 1920, but did not know the specific date. According to the examination, now we know that the first youth league organization of China was founded in Shanghai on August 22, 1920.5 In addition, after the founding of the CPC, youth organizations were established in some places in succession. For example, the local league of Tianjin, according to a letter from “S.Y. of Tianjin” to Shi Cuntong on March 16, 1922, “was officially founded” and “the date of founding was February 12, 1922”; the local league of Baoding, according to Zhang Zhongyi’s letter to Shi Cuntong on March 27, 1922, “was founded on February 10, 1922”; the local league of Tangshan, according to the letter from Shu Yi to Shanghai on March 27, 1922, was founded on July 6, 1921; the local league of Ji’nan, according to Wang Fuyuan’s letter to Shi Cuntong on December 10, 1922, was founded on September 16, 1922. In addition, the convening time of the First Congress of CSYL, the process of its changing places, the number of its delegates, the local leagues it represented and the agenda were all made clear. It was also verified that Chen Duxiu attended and made a speech at the opening ceremony of the First Congress of CSYL, and this conference did make the decision to apply to join the Youth Communist International.6 After entering the twenty-​first century, with the publication of the data on the Communist International preserved in the Soviet Union, some details concerning the founding of CSYL were gradually clarified, and the inaccurate and incorrect expressions in previous works on the history of CSYL or the history of youth movements were corrected.

224  LI Yuqi 7.2.2  The movement to study in France on a work-​study basis and the founding of the Communist Youth League in Europe The CCYL in Europe was originally known as the “Juvenile Communist Party” and people’s opinions differed on its nature. However, most people held that it was a youth league rather than an organization of the CPC, and the main arguments were as follows: first, Zhao Shiyan’s letter to Wu Ming (i.e. Chen Gongpei) on April 26, 1922, that is, more than a month before the formal founding of the Juvenile Communist Party in Europe, said that “the European side decided to set up a ‘youth league’, and we maintain that the ‘youth league’ is in fact the ‘Juvenile Communist Party’.”7 Second, Zhou Enlai’s report to the Central Committee of CSYL on March 13, 1923 also mentioned that “after we received this letter in January of this year, we believed more and more that it was necessary to change the name of our group, and most our comrades proposed that reorganization should be carried out to incorporate our group into the CSYL immediately when we received the letter from China, so that the original intention of organizing the CCYL in Europe at the meeting of June last year could be declared.”8 Third, Li Weihan, who was involved, also explained that the Juvenile Communist Party in Europe was a youth league rather than the Communist Party by recalling his own experience of joining the CPC.9 In the study of the Communist Youth League in Europe, some scholars held that among all the early organizations of Communist Youth League, the work done by the Communist Youth League in Europe was distinctive, which was manifested in the following four aspects: first, it took the lead in raising the banner of communism and stressed that league members must have faith in communism; second, it undertook regular activities rigidly and paid attention to continuously improving the political quality of its members; third, it could carry out positive ideological struggles to resist the erosion of various erroneous ideas bravely and propagate Marxism actively; fourth, it paid attention to the extensive unity of Chinese in France and formed the revolutionary united front in order to strengthen the revolutionary forces.10 Some scholars held that there were profound reasons for these distinctive features demonstrated by the Communist Youth League in France and the fact that a large number of pillars of the Chinese revolution grew up among the students studying in France on a work-​study basis. First, during their stay in France, they could study Marxism carefully and became one with the French working class. They worked hard and developed the habit of working, strengthened their feelings toward the working class through joint work, and took the road of combining with workers. In addition, living in developed capitalist countries at that time also enabled them to broaden their horizons and learn some advanced cultures, scientific and technical knowledge, which had laid a good foundation for their future development. Second, living in Europe enabled them to truly see and feel the various contradictions and drawbacks within capitalist society. The harsh reality of the economic crisis

History of youth movements  225 also prompted them to abandon the ideal of establishing a bourgeois republic in China and seriously see new ideological weapons from the struggles of the European workers’ movement and explore the road to save China. Third, they actively participated in revolutionary struggles, studied revolutionary theories in combination with the struggles, adhered to the truth and corrected errors, which were also the important reasons for their healthy growth. For example, the three struggles carried out by students studying in Europe played an important role in promoting many of them to realize a rapid change of thinking.11 In addition, many researchers held that a realistic evaluation of the characters and events in the history of Chinese students studying in France on a work-​study basis must be based on the principles of historical materialism. For one example, we should give full attention and affirmation to Cai Hesen’s contribution to the movement to study in France on a work-​study basis, especially his role in the preparatory stage of the founding of the Party and the League. As another example, we should also give necessary affirmation to Xiao Zisheng’s role in the movement to study in France on a work-​study basis of Hu’nan. Our evaluation of the “International Society for Students Studying on a Work-​Study Basis” and the so-​called “School of Students Studying on a Work-​Study Basis” also had some problems which remained to be addressed through further research. Besides, we should further strengthen research on the history in which some students studying in France on a work-​study basis adhered to the road of saving the country by education and industry, studied hard during their time in France to master the advanced culture, science and technology, and served their country after returning to China, and the research on these students’ contributions to China’s scientific and cultural development.12 7.2.3  The CCYL issue during the First Revolutionary Civil War Scholars’ important research questions include the organizational status, main activities and historical roles of the CCYL during the First Revolutionary Civil War. It has been widely agreed that, as an assistant to the CPC, the CCYL had played a very important role during this period, which was mainly shown in the following aspects: (1) The CCYL had actively assisted the CPC in the establishment and development of the revolutionary united front and played an important role in helping the KMT to reorganize and establish local organizations. (2) It had played a positive role in cultivating the backbones of the military and mass movements for national revolution. (3) The CCYL had led its members to set off the culmination of the anti-​ imperialist patriotic movement and played the role of a pioneer and a bridge in promoting the in-​depth development of the national revolutionary movement.

226  LI Yuqi (4) China Youth, the institutional publication of the CCCCYL, had played a particularly important role in maintaining the proletariat’s leadership in the revolution and struggling determinedly against various reactionary theories. (5) As a very important force, the CCYL had led its members to actively join the Northern Expedition against the feudal warlords and the mass movements of workers and peasants. (6) It had maintained the CPC’s correct propositions and had made outstanding achievements in the struggles against right-​wing capitulationism.13 Most researchers believed that the activities of the CCYL during this period were enlightening to its future work, which indicated three principles that must be followed in its work: first, the CCYL should firmly uphold and obey the leadership of the CPC, which was the fundamental guarantee that the CCYL would play its role as an assistant and a reserve force; second, the CCYL should always adhere to the close combination of youth movements and the mass revolutionary movements and give full play to its own role of as a pioneer and a bridge in the course of promoting the mass revolutionary movements; third, in order to play the core role in youth movements, the CCYL should pay attention to educating young people with Marxism-​Leninism, actively struggling against the various wrong ideas and ideological trends, and constantly improving the political consciousness of youth in practice.14 In addition, researchers have also raised some questions that need to be discussed in depth, mainly including the following:  the main behavior and experience of the CCYL in remaining the proletariat’s leadership in the revolution; the CCYL’s history of exploration and its main experience in strengthening its construction and reflecting the characteristics of youth organization; the CCYL’s history and its main experience in ideological and theoretical struggles and conducting mass work; the CCYL’s historical experience of establishing and developing the united front of youth, and so on. In addition, the lives of some historical figures in youth movements also need to be studied and there still exist research gaps in the history of the CCYL’s organizations, for example, the members of the Central Committee elected by the Fourth Congress of CCYL have still not been clarified. 7.2.4  The CCYL issue during the Second Revolutionary Civil War The Second Revolutionary Civil War is an important period when the CPC led the Chinese revolution and explored the path for it independently. At that time, the domestic and foreign situations of China were complex and changeable, and the revolutionary process was also full of ups and downs and twists and hardships. Therefore, the history of youth movements during this period was full of ups and downs too, which is worthy of careful study and discussion. However, the existing related studies are relatively weak and many problems remain to be explored.

History of youth movements  227 The research on the history of the CCYL in the revolutionary base areas is more fruitful. Some scholars pointed out that all the revolutionary base areas faced three major tasks: the first was to carry out the Agrarian Revolution and establish the revolutionary armed forces and revolutionary regime; the second was to fight against the military “encirclement and suppression” of the KMT authorities and break the economic blockade to defend the revolutionary bases; the third was to actively promote the political, economic and cultural construction of the revolutionary bases under the premise of obeying the revolutionary war. The work of the CCYL had been carried out closely around these tasks, whose historical role could be manifested specifically in the following aspects: first, it led its members to join in the Agrarian Revolution, maintain social order and arrest counter-​revolutionaries, which had defended the fruits of victory made by the Agrarian Revolution and ensured the smooth progress of the Agrarian Revolution; second, it cooperated with the organizations of the CPC and the government to expand the Red Army, mobilized the league members to join the army and devote themselves to the armed struggle for defending the revolutionary base area; third, in response to the call of the party and government organizations, it stepped up production to ensure supply to the Red Army and the day-​to-​day needs of people in the base areas, and carried out activities to support the army and the front line and gave preferential treatment to military families; fourth, under the unified leadership of the party and government organizations, it carried out cultural and educational activities with teenagers and developed cultural and educational undertakings in the base areas; fifth, it strengthened the construction of the CCYL itself and the construction of other youth organizations to send fresh blood and reserve strength to party and government organizations. The main questions to be further studied in the study of the history of youth movements during this period include the gaps in the organizational history of the CCYL, the situation of youth work and the work of the CCYL in the KMT-​controlled area, the roots, effects, harms and historic lessons of the “leftist” errors in youth work, youth culture, youth’s social problems at the time, and so on. 7.2.5  The youth movements to resist Japan and save China In 1931, Japan staged the Mukden Incident, after which Chinese people’s movements to resist Japan and save China with youth as the pioneers reached their zenith. The study of youth movement history during this period mainly focused on the following issues: (1) The youth movements to resist Japan and save China at the time of the Mukden Incident Some scholars held that the evaluation of the youth movements during this period should be understood and analyzed in accordance with the principle

228  LI Yuqi of seeking truth. The focus of this issue was that whether admit the influence of Wang Ming’s “leftist” line should be admitted or not and how to estimate this influence realistically. Most scholars believed that the youth movements whose purpose was to resist Japan and save China during that period were influenced by “leftists.” First of all, the leaders who followed Wang Ming’s “leftist” errors incorrectly estimated the situations, so they put forward wrong slogans and implemented them into the movements, which isolated some activists from the masses; second, in terms of strategy, they did not pay attention to the broad unity of the masses and adopted a policy of overthrowing everything, resulting in their self-​isolation; third, they practiced sectarianism and closed-​doorism in the organizations, and paid no attention to uniting all those who could be united; finally, they practiced putschism in their actions and did not know how to use legal means of struggle. They organized public demonstrations or “flying rallies” (people gathered and made public speeches and then dispersed quickly so that they would not be arrested) regardless of the subjective and objective conditions, leading to the arrest of progressive youth and party members. Therefore, some old comrades said that the youth movements to resist Japan and save China during that period only blossomed but did not bear any fruit. However, there are still some different views on this issue. (2) On the “December 9th Movement” Discussions on the “December 9th Movement” mainly focused on whether this movement was spontaneous or led by the CPC. Many people involved in this movement wrote persuasive articles on this issue, making it clear that the “December 9th Movement” was led by the CPC. But some scholars put forward two questions: one was that who on earth was the leading nucleus of the “December 9th Movement”; the second was that whether it was possible or not for the CPC to lead this movement because its power in Beijing was so weak at that time. After discussion, the issue concerning the leading nucleus of the “December 9th Movement” had been clarified further:  after the second destruction of the CPC’s Beijing Municipal Committee in 1934, Li Changqing, the commissioner of the CPC’s Hebei Provincial Committee, came to Peking and established the CPC’s Beijing Working Committee at the turn of spring and summer in 1935. In November, the CPC’s Hebei Provincial Committee decided to revoke the Beijing Working Committee and set up the CPC’s Beijing Provisional Working Committee under the direct leadership of Li Changqing. The Beijing Student Union was also established under the direct leadership of this provisional committee. The “December 9th Movement” was organized and launched by the Beijing Student Union under the leadership of the CPC’s Beijing Provisional Working Committee. In fact, the core of this issue was about how to look at the party’s leadership. Why could the CPC lead this huge movement when its power was still so weak? It was because some slogans and demands of this movement were put forward

History of youth movements  229 in accordance with the spirit of the CPC’s August 1st Declaration. The slogans and programs proposed by the CPC represented the will of the whole country, including the youth, to resist Japan and save China, and the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation, so that they were bound to get the support and response of the whole country. So, the CPC could mobilize and organize the masses and unite them under the banner of the anti-​Japanese national united front advocated by it and lead the masses to carry out anti-​Japanese and national salvation struggles.15 (3) On the CCCPC’s decision on transforming the CCYL The CCCPC’s decision on transforming the CCYL was an important issue in the youth movement history of that period, but many issues concerning it had not been clarified for a long time. In the 1980s, the problem had been basically solved despite many efforts. First, as for the time when the CCCPC decided to transform the CCYL, there once existed two opinions: one holding that it was on November 1, 1935 whereas the other holding that it was on November 1, 1936. Through the verification of archives, memoires, and so on, we could be sure that the CCCPC issued Decisions on Youth Work on November 1, 1936. However, this brought the second question: if the CCCPC did not make the decision to transform the CCYL until 1936, then why did the CCCCYL propose that it would set up the Anti-​Japanese Youth League for National Salvation in the Declaration to All Chinese Students and Young People from All Walks of Life on Resisting Japan and Saving China issued on December 20, 1935? It was verified that like the CPC’s August 1st Declaration, this declaration of the CCCCYL was also drafted and issued by the CPC’s Delegation to the Communist International. It was first published in Jiu Guo Shi Bao, a publication in Paris, on January 14, 1936, and then this declaration, together with the speech made by the Northeast delegate of the CCYL on the Sixth Congress of the Youth Communist International, was sent to the Shanghai Central Bureau by the CPC’s representative to the Communist International. In addition, studies have shown that in fact the transformation of the CCYL started before the CCCPC made this decision. The establishment of the Vanguard of China’s National Liberation by students in Beijing and Tianjin in February 1936 based on the Southward Publicity Troupe was a trial. After receiving the directions of the Seventh Congress of the Communist International successively in the spring and summer of 1936, the CCCPC sent two letters of instruction to the North Bureau of the CPC and the Hebei Provincial Committee of the CCCPC in August 1936, asking them to transform the CCYL into a mass youth organization. Based on these instructions, the North Bureau of the CPC issued the Decisions on the Youth League on September 20, and put forward the task of reforming the CCYL. Since then, the youth league led by the North Bureau had been reformed. Northeast China received the relevant instructions from the Communist International earlier, so they started the transformation work earlier. By the summer of

230  LI Yuqi 1936, the CCYL did not exist any longer. After the First Conference of the Northwest Youth on National Salvation was held in April 1937, the CCYL was formally revoked and replaced by the Youth Association for National Salvation. However, due to the tight control of the KMT authorities, the transformation work of the CCYL in South China and other regions was not completed until early 1938.16 7.2.6  The issue of youth movements during the Anti-​Japanese War In the historical study of youth movements during the Anti-​Japanese War, it is widely believed that the Anti-​Japanese War was the period when the CPC moved toward maturity and Mao Zedong’s Thought was formalized. During this period, the CPC combined the universal principles of Marxism-​ Leninism with China’s youth movements and developed a series of correct lines, principles, policies and guide lines for China’s youth movements, which enabled the youth movements of this period to overcome various difficulties and develop vigorously. The correct lines, principles, policies and guiding principles of the CPC on youth movements during this period are an important part of Mao Zedong’s thought and a great spiritual wealth for youth work. Many researchers pointed out that during the Anti-​Japanese War, in order to fight against Japan’s imperialist aggression and support the global war against Fascism, Chinese youth had showed a lofty spirit of patriotism and internationalism, made enormous sacrifices and prominent contributions; China’s youth movements had achieved unprecedented development and accumulated rich experience under the banner of the anti-​Japanese national united front advocated by the CPC; in order to meet the needs of establishing the anti-​Japanese national united front, the CCYL underwent fundamental transformation. It established the Youth Association to Resist Japan and Save China and other anti-​Japanese organizations, changed the working methods of taking the Youth League as the second party, which achieved good results in practical work and provided important practical and theoretical basis for the construction and development of youth organizations; a large number of young cadres growing up in the Anti-​Japanese War later became the pillars and backbone of the party and the PRC. It would be of important practical significance for youth work and youth education to study and summarize their training and developing courses on the Anti-​Japanese War. Since the reform and opening up, the research on youth movements during the Anti-​Japanese War has made great progress, which is mainly manifested in the broadening of the scope of research and the deepening of research questions. Instead of focusing solely on the study of anti-​Japanese bases and the progressive youth movements, researchers have also touched upon the situation of youth in the KMT-​controlled areas and the Japanese-​occupied areas. Besides, works on the Three People’s Principles Youth League had also been published. But on the whole, we can only say that the historical study of youth movements during the Anti-​Japanese War has made a good start, and

History of youth movements  231 there are still many topics to be studied, such as the situation of youth in the KMT-​controlled area and the Japanese-​occupied areas, the basic experience and lessons of youth movements during the Anti-​Japanese War, the historical roles and limitations of the Youth Association to Resist Japan and Save China, the characteristics and historical roles of youth’s anti-​Japanese literature and artistic activities, the influence of the different anti-​Japanese lines of the KMT and the CPC in youth movements and the struggles between them, the history of the youth organizations not led by the CPC during the Anti-​ Japanese War, and the influence of the Youth Communist International on the movements at that time.17 7.2.7  The issue of youth movements during the War of Liberation The focus of the research on youth movement history during the War of Liberation is the reconstruction of the CCYL and the student movements in the KMT-​controlled area. Historical data on the reconstruction of the CCYL are relatively rich. Along with the publication of a batch of historical data like The Reconstruction of CCYL, Selected Data on the Reconstruction of CCYL and The League Flag Was Raised Here Again, the historical process of the reconstruction of CCYL is basically clear. Although the history of the construction of local CCYL remains to be further explored, its overall framework and context is clear. As for the student movements in the KMT-​controlled area, researchers mainly explored their historical roles and major experience. On the role of the student movements, researchers generally agreed with Mao Zedong’s generalization that the student movements are the “second front of the People’s War of Liberation,” holding that this generalization fully reflects the nature, characteristics and role of the student movements during the War of Liberation. But there were different views on issues like the connotation of the “second front,” its starting point, signs of formation and development. As for the “starting point” of the “second front,” some scholars held that the “December 1st Movement” should be regarded as the starting point, but most scholars thought that it should be the Protest Campaign Against American Atrocities, whose major argument was that the People’s Liberation War had not been fully launched and the “first front” had still not been established during the “December 1st Movement,” so there was no “second front” at all at that time. They also pointed out that not regarding the “December 1st Movement” as the starting point of the second front did not mean to deny the role of the “December 1st Movement” in the War of Liberation. Researchers generally agreed that the “December 1st Movement” broke through the KMT’s reactionary rule and set off the first upsurge of the people’s struggle for peace and democracy in the KMT-​controlled area after the victory of the Anti-​Japanese War, so it was the prelude to the patriotic democratic movement in the KMT-​controlled area during the War of Liberation. There were three kinds of views on the connotation of the

232  LI Yuqi “second front”: the first was that the “second front” specifically referred to the student movements; the second was that it referred to people’s revolutionary movements in the entire ruling area of the KMT; the third was that it referred to people’s anti-​American and anti-​Jiang patriotic democratic movements in the KMT-​controlled area, which took the student movements as the vanguard. The third view was accepted by most people.18 On the question of how to evaluate the historical status and role of the student movements in a realistic way, some researchers thought that it was necessary to emphasize the following three points: first, when estimating and exploring the role and significance of a student movement and a regional struggle, we should have a general review of the situation, put this struggle in the overall observation, and analyze it from a macro perspective. Otherwise, we would be prone to one-​sidedness. Second, it should be noted that the reason that the student movements in the KMT-​controlled area under the leadership of the CPC could play an important role was inseparable from the support, cooperation and protection of many organizations led by the CPC (the secret service, the intelligence, communication, the united front, the Culture Committee, staff and women). Without the coordination and cooperation of these organizations, the student movements were not able to last long. Finally, the biggest difference between the student movements during the War of Liberation and the student movements in history was that the former had the support of the vast liberated areas and reliable rear bases. The liberated areas played a supportive, caring and protective role for the student movements, which was a unique condition for the vigorous development of the student movements of that time. In short, when studying the historical role of the student movements during this period, we must put the above-​ mentioned factors into consideration and then make proper evaluations. It was difficult to come to a realistic conclusion if the student movements were evaluated in isolation.19 It has been generally believed that four pieces of basic experience could be gained from the student movements during the War of Liberation: first, the student movements would have profound content, strong vitality and great historical significance only when they could reflect the requirements of historical progress and the aspirations of the people, match the whole revolutionary struggle and shoulder the mission of the times. Second, only under the leadership of the CPC, could the student movements carry out an organized and conscious struggle to grasp the right direction and move toward victory. Third, the victory of students’ struggle would require not only revolutionary enthusiasm but also skillful fighting art, that is, the combination of firmness of principle and flexibility of strategy. Fourth, it was the common path for the advanced members of young student organizations at that time to gradually transform themselves from democrats to communists by studying Marxism and combining themselves with the workers and peasants in the practice of participating in student movements.20

History of youth movements  233

7.3  Future directions After more than half a century of research and exploration, the historical study of youth movements, as a branch of modern Chinese history, is developing and growing in the field of Chinese historiography. It provides new information for people from all walks of life, especially the young people, with its unique knowledge and methods in a unique field, and thus broadens people’s vision; it builds its own historiographic framework with its unique research objects, tasks and content, and enriches the research field of Chinese historiography. However, while seeing these achievements, we should also realize clearly that the history of youth movements, after all, is a new branch of historiography, which requires our further efforts to establish it well and develop it vigorously. Seen from the research status and the research results, the historical study of youth movements has not yet come out of the development stage of laying the foundation of the discipline. Therefore, it is an important task for the further development of the historical study of youth movements to make it more academic, establish its theoretical system, and further improve the collection, collation and textual research of historical data, which is also an important topic for the historical study of youth movements in the twenty-​first century. 7.3.1  On the academization of the historical study of the youth movements This issue was raised in the late 1980s, but because of many factors, the academization of the historical study of the youth movements is still an urgent issue to be settled. The establishment of any discipline is not easy, and it must go through the process of academization which is an important prerequisite to ensure the survival of a discipline and its development in depth and breadth. As a social group, youth had not got considerable attention nor displayed their elegant demeanor on the stage of history until China entered modern society. Therefore, the history reflecting the social activities of youth had to be separated from modern Chinese history and developed into an independent subject gradually, determining that this discipline must be a new discipline in the field of Chinese historiography. The development history of historiography has shown that the development of its many branches all had to go through the stages from data collection, data collation to rational understanding, which is also a process moving toward academization. In terms of the history of youth movements, although great achievements have been made through years of research and accumulation, there is still a long way to go to achieve the goal of academization. For example, many basic theoretical issues like the research object, research content and periodization of youth movement history have not been studied thoroughly, and the theoretical framework of this subject has not yet been formed; its research field has not been fully opened up, and many research topics that should

234  LI Yuqi be studied have still not been studied. Most of the research results are just narration of data and processes, most of which are not analytical and thus lack theoretical generalization. The research methods are relatively simple. They are mainly single-​line and two-​dimensional studies but lack cross-​over studies, three-​dimensional studies, and so on. All these situations show that the research on the history of youth movements must speed up its scientific development process and strengthen its theoretical awareness so as to step across the threshold of science as soon as possible and truly become a “science of human sciences.” Seen from the present situation of the research on the history of youth movements, in order to academize the research on the history of youth movements, we must pay attention to solving the following three problems: The first is to lay the theoretical foundation of Marxism, absorb and apply theories and methods of new disciplines. Marxism is the guiding ideology and theoretical basis of the study of youth movement history. In the actual research, we must scientifically fathom the principles of Marxism, master its scientific methods, and should never regard Marxism as dogma and vulgarize rich and profound Marxism. In addition, it must be made clear that Marxism is the guide to the study of youth movement history, but it cannot replace the study of youth movement history. The study of youth movement history has its own content and laws. As a new discipline under construction, we should absorb, transplant and integrate theories and methods of other related disciplines, bring in new scientific concepts and expand the field of research on the basis of giving full play to the guiding role of Marxist theory. The current trend of scientific development shows that any discipline is not an isolated and closed system, but is in the overall movement in which all the disciplines interact with each other. Therefore, the task to academize the study of youth movement history itself has already shown that we must be good at acquiring the knowledge of various new disciplines, that is, we should not only learn new theories and methods of historiography, but also absorb the research results and research methods of youth studies, sociology, anthropology and other social sciences. Meanwhile, we should also learn from the research methods and techniques of natural science. Only if we touch upon and learn from other disciplines widely and make good use of their merits, can the goal of academizing the study of youth movement history be achieved. The second is to strengthen the basic theoretical research and construct the scientific system. The process of scientization of any new discipline must have and face the problem of system construction, and this includes the study of youth movement history. It is self-​evident that we should strengthen the basic theory in order to ensure the scientificity of the constructed disciplinary system. In the past studies of youth movement history, many basic theoretical questions have been raised, but they have not been satisfactorily resolved due to various limitations. The major questions are as follows:

History of youth movements  235 (1) The research object of the study of youth movement history Generally speaking, this does not seem to be a question because its research object should be the process and laws of the occurrence and development of China’s youth movements. But the meaning of youth movements is not so clear. During a long period of time, researchers have regarded political youth movements under the leadership of the CPC and the history of CCYL as the research object, and put forward the view that “in different stages of youth movement history, the research object and basic content would vary to some extent due to the different nature and tasks of revolutions.” In response to this mainstream view, some scholars have pointed out that this way of defining the research object is not comprehensive and the historical study of youth movements should study the “youth movements launched by our enemies, friends and ourselves,” and advocated studying the cultural history, the intellectual history of youth, and so on. In terms of academic research, we should give youth movements a new meaning and never understand them from a political perspective. We should regard the interaction between youth and society, namely the interactive state that the society exerts an impact on youth and the youth exert their influences on the social progress and development through participating in social activities, such as youth movements. The reason why the meaning of youth movements should be explained in this way is that political youth movements are only a part of the youth’s social activities, and a large number of young people’s social activities are non-​political and even a large part of the activities are part of social life. Moreover, the occurrence of youth’s political activities is also directly related to other daily social conditions and social environments. Therefore, if the research perspective is limited to political activities only, it cannot reflect the whole picture of youth movements. The interactive understanding of youth movements can reveal youth’s social life state more accurately. Certainly, this interpretation is only a kind of hypothesis, which is yet to be further perfected and enriched, and remains to be recognized by academia. In short, the problems concerning the research object and basic content of youth movement history remain to be explored and studied further. (2) The upper limit of the youth movement history In the published works on youth movement history, scholars generally regarded the May 4th Movement as the beginning of China’s new democratic youth movements, but they did not make it clear that the May 4th Movement was the beginning of China’s youth movements. However, there are different views on this issue in the papers on youth movement history. Some scholars thought that the patriotic struggles of Chinese students in Japan and Chinese students’ anti-​feudal struggles in 1902 should be regarded as the beginning of the history of youth movements; some held that Sun Yat-​sen’s establishment of the Chinese Revolutionary League should be regarded as the beginning

236  LI Yuqi of the history of youth movements; some scholars also put forward the concept of the early youth movements and regarded the patriotic struggles of the modern students before the May 4th Movement as early youth movements, and regarded the May 4th Movement as the beginning of youth movements. (3) Was the main body of China’s youth movements the young workers and peasants or the young intellectuals? Some scholars thought that the main body was the young workers and peasants, some thought that it was the young intellectuals, and some even held that the youth movements were actually student movements. Up to now, no consensus has been reached, and the debate still continues. The above three questions have shown that there still exist many basic theoretical issues in the study of youth movement history. Conducting studies on such basic theoretical issues is an important step to promote the in-​depth development of the historical study of youth movements and the construction of this subject. The third is to strengthen data collation and monographic studies to build a solid foundation for this subject. In the study of youth movement history, adhering to the principle of seeking truth from facts is the basis for scientific research, and data collation and monographic studies are the important guarantee of adhering to the principle of seeking truth from facts. The mastery of detailed and reliable data and conducting in-​depth and detailed monographic studies are prerequisites for accurate arguments and objective and fair narration. Without this premise, the scientification of historical research will be impossible. Determined by the research object and content of youth movement history, the collection and collation of data or textual materials of youth movement history is quite difficult, which is a laborious, time-​consuming and inefficient task. The social life of youth and social activities are part of the public’s social life and social activities, so there is little readily available data for research. Except for a small number of historical archives available for research, a large number of materials are scattered in a variety of newspapers and periodicals. These kinds of written data are voluminous, and many important data need to be carefully searched and captured by researchers or data processors. Limited by manpower, financial resources and other factors, though previous studies on youth movement history have made some achievements, they still cannot meet the requirements of the development of youth movement history studies. The collection, collation and compilation of data on youth movement history is still a big problem that restricts the development of youth movement history studies. Under the complicated social and historical conditions and the background of complicated political struggles at home and abroad, inside and outside the Party and the League, there was much forged, distorted and inaccurate content in the large amount of historical data retained, requiring researchers of youth movement history to

History of youth movements  237 take the correct point of view and scientific method to undertake textual research on them, identify and proofread them to extract the essence from the raw material and to preserve the true from the false, so as to ensure the authenticity and reliability of historical materials. In addition, previous researchers on historical studies of youth movements only carried out preliminary studies on part of the special topics. There still exist many gaps to be filled and many fields to be entered. We should realize that the scope of previous monographic studies is relatively narrow and ought to be broadened in the future. In terms of time, we should study not only youth movement history in the first half of the twentieth century, but also the history of the latter half. In terms of the practical significance of historical research, it may be more important to study youth movement history in the latter half and its demand for more research is also more urgent. In terms of the research content of these monographic studies, besides the topics on political and military struggles, we also need to study other topics like the economy, ideology, culture, organizations, lives, and so on. In short, the monographic study of youth movement history should be carried out from various aspects, angles and levels in order to effectively promote the scientization process of the research on youth movement history. 7.3.2  On improving the research methods of youth movement history and renewing the concept of historical work Judging from the results of the research on youth movement history in the past 60 years, there still exist some problems that need to be improved and updated in the methods and research concepts of youth movement history studies. This is mainly reflected in the single research method used by these studies, most of which are simple narrative, textual research and summaries of experience and lessons, and researchers getting used to the administrative working methods in terms of concept. With the progress of Chinese society and the gradual establishment of the socialist market economy, if we stick to such research methods and concepts, it will have a negative impact on the development of research on the history of youth movements. First of all, past research methods tended to make researchers focus only on the historical process, ignoring the in-​depth analysis of historical issues and revealing the content with regularity. Even when we just summed up experience and lessons, we were prone to confine ourselves merely to facts as they are and remained superficial. Second, past research methods easily restricted the researchers’ horizons, resulting in limiting themselves only to the youth movement itself and ignoring the connection between the youth movement and the social, political and economic development of China as a whole and the influence of major international historical events on the youth movement of China, which would hinder further research. Third, simply describing the development process of history would easily lead to boring and unreadable research results, which would not only affect the social and economic benefits

238  LI Yuqi of research results, but also restrict the full play of historical functions of the youth movements. Finally, if we only carry out research on the basis of past research methods and concepts without considering the needs of the society, our research will be disconnected from the practical work and the needs of youth, and much of our research results will be shelved and neglected. This kind of research on the history of youth movements cannot be sustained under the market economy and must be changed. 7.3.3  On the team building of youth movement history studies In the long-​term historical studies of youth movements, the research or teaching staff in the system of the CCYL have always been the main force for research, especially in the 1980s. However, with the progress and development of Chinese society, this situation will surely change, and the study of the history of youth movements must take a socialized development path. Owing to the characteristics of historical studies, the research on the history of youth movements can only develop steadily and gradually, without forming a certain upsurge, even within the CCYL. It is difficult to change the situation that the personnel engaged in this research are relatively weak, which will certainly restrict the development of the research and the improvement of the research level. Under such circumstances, it is easy for people to consider problems in the traditional way, hoping to solve the problem of team building of youth movement history studies by administrative means. However, it is not difficult to foresee that this road will not work. The development of the research on the history of youth movements in the future can only be carried out by absorbing a wide range of social forces. The youth movements and social development are closely linked. With the progress and development of society, the social role of youth will be expanded increasingly and will attract more and more attention from society. Therefore, many studies related to the social activities of youth have focused on youth, and many new disciplines such as youth studies, youth sociology, youth psychology, youth ethics and youth aesthetics have emerged in the past 20 years, which provide reliable social forces for the research on the history of youth movements to draw on. With the progress of society, it is impossible for any subject to follow a closed development path. Compatibility, mutual promotion and mutual improvement will be the inevitable trends in the in-​depth development of social science research.

Notes 1 This set of data has been compiled continuously by the Research Office for Youth Movement History of CCCCYL and the China Youth and Children Research Center since 1988. Volumes 11 to 19 have already been edited and published, which collected data on the youth movement history from June 1932 to the end of

History of youth movements  239 September 1949. Up to now, all the data on youth movement history during the democratic revolution have been compiled and published. 2 All books without named publishing houses are informal in-​house publications. 3 Ren Bishi. (1987). Political Report at the First Congress of China’s New Democratic Youth League. In: Selected Works of Ren Bishi. People’s Publishing House, 489. 4 Zheng Guang and Luo Chengquan. (1990). 60 Years of China’s Youth Movements. China Youth Publishing House, 69. 5 Zheng Guang and Luo Chengquan. (1984). An Overview of CSYL’s Founding. In: Collected Papers on Issues Concerning the Founding of CSYL, 12. 6 Zhao Pu. (1984). Several Issues before and after the First National Congress of CSYL. In: Collected Papers on Issues Concerning the Founding of CSYL, 26. 7 Research Office for Youth Movement History of China Youth and Children’s Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Social Science (eds.). (1982). Data and Research on the Youth Movement History (Vol. 1), 110. 8 Ibid.,  98–​99. 9 China Revolution Museum and Hu’nan Provincial Museum (eds.). (1980). Data on the Society of the New Masses. People’s Publishing House, 487. 10 Zheng Guang. (1986). Review of the Research on the Movement to Study in France on a Work-​Study Basis and the Founding of the Communist Youth League in Europe. In: Research Office for Youth Movement History of CCCCYL (eds.). Collected Papers on the Movement to Study in France on a Work-​Study Basis and the Founding of the Communist Youth League in Europe, 1. 11 Zeng Zhaoshun. (1986). Studying in France on a Work-​Study Basis and Its Position in the History of the Chinese Revolution. In: Research Office for Youth Movement History of CCCCYL (eds.). Collected Papers on the Movement to Study in France on a Work-​Study Basis and the Founding of the Communist Youth League in Europe, 39. 12 Zheng Guang. (1986). Review of the Research on the Movement to Study in France on a Work-​Study Basis and the Founding of the Communist Youth League in Europe. In: Research Office for Youth Movement History of CCCCYL (eds.). Collected Papers on the Movement to Study in France on a Work-​Study Basis and the Founding of the Communist Youth League in Europe, 1. 13 Zheng Guang. (1985). Useful Discussions. In:  Research Office for Youth Movement History of CCCCYL (eds.). Collected Papers on CCYL during the First Cooperation between the KMT and the CPC, 1. 14 Ibid., 1. 15 Zheng Guang. (1992). Achievements and Revelations. In:  Collected Papers on Chia’s Youth Movements to Resist Japan and Save China. Guangdong People’s Publishing House, 1. 16 Huang Qijun. (1985). Several Issues on the Transformation of the CCYL. Research on the Youth Movement History (3). 17 Zheng Guang. (1989). Review of the Monographic Studies on the History of the Youth Movements during the Democratic Revolution. Youth Movements in China (6). 18 Chen Xiuliang. (1988). The “May 20th Student Movement” and the Opening Up of the Second Front. In: Student Movements during the War of Liberation. Tongji University Press, 47.

240  LI Yuqi 19 Zheng Guang. (1988). Several Problems in the Research on Student Movements in the KMT-​Controlled Area during the War of Liberation. In: Student Movements during the War of Liberation, Tongji University Press, 115. 20 Sha Jiansun. (1988). On the Student Movements during the War of Liberation—​ In Lieu of a Preface. In: Student Movements during the War of Liberation. Tongji University Press, 1.

Index

abrogation of treaties 47, 58 academic contention 7 Acheson, Dean 67 All-​China Federation of Trade Unions 144, 147, 164, 174‒5 All-​China Women’s Federation 178, 207 anthropological methods 90 appeasement 64 Bai Shouyi 2, 11, 15 Bao Hongchang 183 Bao Zhenggu 41 Beijing 112, 114, 118 Beiyang New Deal 113 Bessac, Frank 67 biographies of historians 7 bourgeois thinking 12‒13 Boxer Indemnity 56‒7 Boxer Uprising 50‒4 Buddhism 196 Cai Feng 184 Cao Hongtao 115 Cao Shuji 94 Cao Xizhen 41 Cao Yanping 166 capitalism 128 centralized workers 152 Chang Yinting 188 Chang Zonghu 111 chastity and chastity testing 193‒4 Chen Boda 152 Chen Duxiu 156‒7, 223 Chen Feng 28 Chen Fuchen 24 Cheng Yu 191, 194 Chen Lianfang 41 Chen Qitai 5, 13‒14, 19, 24, 27 Chen Weimin 161‒2

Chen Wenbin 117‒18 Chen Xingcan 5 Chen Xiqi 41 Chen Xulu 88‒9 Chen Yuan 24, 161 Chen Yunxi 193 Chen Zhenjiang 192 Chen Zhujun 169 Chiang Kai-​shek  59‒66 China Aid Act (US, 1948) 67 China Communist Youth League (CCYL) 214‒31, 238 China Socialist Youth League 223 Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) 86 Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI) 110 Chi Zihua 190 Chongqing 128 Christianity 52, 195‒6 cities: aggregation effects 133; connections between 114; decline of 116‒17; holistic research on 114‒16; individuality of 138; studies of single places 110‒11; typology of 115 city groups and city systems 114, 131 civil society 101 Cixi 198 Clarifying Ancient Chinese History 23 class divisions 151‒2; definition of 145 “class struggle history” 100 Cold War 40 colonialist aggression 123‒125 commercialization 126 Communist Party of China (CPC) 47, 146, 150‒7, 161‒71, 174, 180, 188‒9, 193‒4, 214‒15, 226‒32; National Congress of 182 concessions 109, 114, 124

242 Index Confucianism 18, 26, 30, 32 Constructivism 31 contentious academic issues 151‒7 Cui Yunwu 184 cultural identity 25 Dai Wenxian 166 Dai Yi 19 Daoguang, Emperor 48 December 9th Movement 228 Deng Yingchao 189 Deng Zhongxia 154 Ding Yizhuang 99 diplomacy: anti-​Japanese 63‒6; in early Republican China 54‒60; popular 58; positive form of 56; for purposes of treaty revision 58‒61; “revolutionary” 61; theory and systems of 44‒5 division of labor, social 128‒9 divorce 193‒4 Dong Miaoling 189 driving forces 30, 125‒7 drowning newborn girls 197 Du Jikun 185 Du Lihong 118 Dunhuang documents 5 Du Yuesheng 161 dynasties 134 Eastern Railway, Chinese 59, 61 economic centers 132‒3 education 180, 183‒5 Elliot, Charles 46, 49 Elman, Benjamin 101 environmental social history 105 equality between men and women 180‒1, 190 evolutionary history 12 external forces affecting urban development 116, 125‒6 extraterritoriality 57 Factory Law (1929) 170‒1 Fairbank, John King 44 family relationships 192‒4 Fang Hanqi 185 Fan Xin 183 fascism 8 Fei Chengkang 68 female figures 198‒201 feminism 181, 185‒7, 202 Feng Erkang 84 feudalism 8, 12

First World War 56 foot-​binding 99‒100, 183 foreign relations, Chinese 40‒72 “fragmentation” 33 France 49 Fu Sinian 28 Gai Jun 150 Gao Aidi 166‒7, 173 Gao Weinong 45 Geertz, Clifford 101 gender history 99 gender theory 202‒6 Geng Qingheng 10 “gentry society” 101 Ge Zhaoguang 23, 32 Goff, Jacques Le 90 Gong Shuduo 88 Gong Yun 25 Gong Zizhen 17, 27, 85 Guan Jie 51 Guan Xiaohong 96 Gu Changsheng 70 Gu Chaolin 115 guilds 173‒75 Gui Zunyi 2, 6 Gu Jiegang 22‒3, 28 Gulangyu Island 116 Gu Mingyi 42 “gunboat diplomacy” 59 Guo Changying 184 Guo Liping 24 Guo Moruo 8‒10, 22‒3 Guo Songtao 24 Gu Weimin 70 Hart, Robert 69 Hebei 114 He Gang 166 He Liping 181, 190‒1 “heritage” 23, 28 He Ruzhang 47 He Yimin 117, 125 He Zan 167 hinterlands 139‒40 Hi Shi 30 historical anthropology 90 historical data 16, 164‒5 historical events 102, 140 historical materialism 23‒4, 31 historical viewpoint on modern times 104‒5 “historiographical crisis” 82‒4

Index  243 historiography: applied 82; documentation for 1‒5, 20; four stages in 12‒13; function of 17; history of 1‒4; modern Chinese version of 10‒17, 29‒33; old and new approaches to 8; social 82‒5; status of 81‒2; terms used in 101; traditional 13‒17, 24, 102‒3; two schools of 17‒18; urban 109, 140; Western 14‒15 Hitler, Adolf 8 Hong Kong 68, 154‒5 Hong Renqing 23‒4 Hoover Institute, Stanford University 65 Hou Jie 204‒5 Hou Wailu 4 Hou Yunhao 16 Huang Daoxuan 95‒6 Huang Fengzhi 43 Huang Hongzhao 43 Huang Meizhen 163 Huang Meizhu 161 Huang Minlan 5 Huang Yufu 202‒3 Huang Zhenglin 98‒9, 191 Huang Zongzhi 101 Huang Zunxian 12 Hu Bin 41 Hu Chen 96 Hu Fengxiang 4, 12, 15, 24‒5, 30, 32 humanism 181 human rights 181 Huo Xinbin 172 Hu Sheng 40 Hu Shi 22 imperialism 40‒1, 52, 70 industrialization 126‒7, 133, 138; of rural areas 98 intellectuals 145‒6, 151‒2 interdisciplinary research 25 international environment’s relevance to urban modernization 139 international law 44, 51 International Red Labor Union 151 Islam 196 Japan 184‒91; invasion of China by 50‒2; resistance towards 64, 227‒31 Jaschok, Maria 196 Jiang Dachun 2, 19 Jiang Jieshi 161, 189 Jiang Jun 12‒13 Jiang Mengyin 41

Jiang Pei 192 Jiang Tingwei 187 Jiang Yihua 18 Jia Yijun 41 Jin Bingliang 197 Jin Jingfang 9 Jin Tianhe 181 Jin Yufu 24 Jiujiang 116 John Napier Event (1834) 49 Kang Youwei 26 Karakhan, Leo 58 Kim Ok-​Gyun  51 Kivy, Peter 29 Korea 44‒5, 51 labor disputes 167, 171‒3 labor policies 169 “leftist” mistakes 155‒6 Lenin, V. I. 72 Le Zheng 126 Liang Cheng 54 Liang Jinghe 184 Liang Qichao 8‒9, 12, 14, 17, 21, 26 Li Boqiang 99 Li Chunlei 25 Li Dazhao 24 Li Deying 95 Li Feng 24 Li Fengfei 183 Li Guihai 180 Li Guotong 181 Li Hongzhang 51 Li Huaiqing 97 Li Huaiyin 97 Li Jingzhi 179 Li Jinzheng 98 Li Lisan 166‒7 Lin Ganquan 24 Lin Hong 185, 192 Lin Jiaping 5 Lin Weimin 154 Lin Zexu 72 Li Runcang 11 Li Shiyue 41‒2 Li Shuchang 51 Liu Danian 41 Liu Gongsheng 166 Liu Jing 186 Liu Jingfang 150 Liu Jucai 178‒9, 182, 185 Liu Kexiang 95

244 Index Liu Lanxiao 25 Liu Likai 144 Liu Lina 22‒23, 28‒30 Liu Maolin 18 Liu Mingkui 164‒5 Liu Peihua 42 Liu Shaoqi 151, 155, 166, 169‒70 Liu Tinghua 61‒2 Liu Yizheng 24 Li Weihan 224 Li Wenhai 93 Li Xiaojiang 204 Li Xingzhi 182 Li Xiuling 193‒4 Li Xizhu 99, 187 Li Yashang 105 Li Yuan 189 Li Yumin 47 Li Yunhua 126 Li Zhuo 191 Luo Suwen 190‒1, 197 Luo Zhitian 22, 27‒8 Lu Pingxin 24 Lushan Conversation 189 Lu Yi 23 Lv Meiyi 191, 197 Lv Zhenyu 24 Macau 68‒9 Mackiernan, Douglas 67 macroscopic theories and methods 135‒7 male thinkers and leaders 180 Mao Zedong 152, 159, 166, 168‒9, 230‒1 maps, use of 140 marriage and marriage customs 192‒4 Marshall, George 66‒7 Marxism 6, 18‒20, 23, 82, 145‒6, 174, 180, 182, 202, 234 Marx, Karl 150 Materialist School of historiography 17‒19 May 4th Movement 12‒13, 22‒3, 145‒6, 235 medical history 105‒6 Meng Xin’an 181 Miao Fenglin 24 microscopic studies 136 Mikoyan, A. I. 67 missionary activity 70, 184 modernization of thought 11‒14, 138 modernization, urban 122‒9, 136‒9; holistic and systematic nature of 138;

linked with opening up to the outside world 139; stages of 138 motherhood 180, 191 Mukden Incident 61‒2 municipal construction 117 National Essence School 7‒8, 27 nationalism 25‒6 National Social Science Fund 109 “Neo-​Historiography” 8, 12, 14, 21‒2, 26, 31 New Culture Movement 183 New People Theory 21 newspapers 185‒6 nodes of urban development 138 North China 92 open-​door policy  53‒4 Opium Wars 41, 45, 48‒9 oral history 204‒5 ordinary people, history of 102 Outer Mongolia 55 over-​density, economic  101 Pan Tianzhen 185 Pan Xingming 43‒4 peasant communities 102 Pei Yu 14 Peng Ming 41 Peng Nansheng 170 periodization 11‒13 pictures, use of 140 political history 102 political systems 132 port cities 112, 116, 126‒7 positivism 18 postmodernism 33 Prasenjit Duara 101 professional women 190‒1 proletariat, the 152‒3, 167 prostitution 192 public opinion 56 public space 118‒19 public utilities 117‒18 Qian Shifu 45 Qiao Suling 184 Qiao Zhiqiang 88 Qi Chu 193 Qing Ruji 41 Qin Yan 196 Qi Qizhang 41 Qiu Guosheng 117‒18

Index  245 Qiu Jie 97 Qiu Jin 198‒9 Qu Guiping 97 Qu Lindobg 17, 32‒3 Ranke, Leopold von 14, 28 Rao Jingying 161‒4 Rao Shuili 170 regional cities 135 regional urban history 91‒4, 103‒4, 129‒31, 135; definition of 130; scope of 131 regions, division of 130 rejuvenation of the Chinese nation 140 religion 195‒6 Ren Xinfang 21 research: expansion of the field of 5, 8, 25‒7; models and methods of 100‒1; new trend in 27‒9 Research Society of Chinese Workers Past and Present 175 “retrospective” research 20 “revolutionary” history 100, 102 rights of women 179‒82, 185‒6 Rong Tiesheng 179 Roosevelt, Franklin D. 66 Rowe, William T. 101 rural issues 94‒9, 104, 191; see also urban-​rural relations Ryukyu 50 Sa Benren 43‒4 Sang Bing 4, 23, 25, 28, 31, 180, 206 “science”, understanding of 22 scientization 237 secret societies 87‒8, 161‒2 semi-​colonies  123‒5 Shandong Issue 57 Shanghai 117‒18, 125, 128, 163 Shanghai Communist Group 146‒7 Shanghai Postmen’s Union 162‒3 Shao Hua 24 Shao Yong 161 Sheng Banghe 5, 30 Shen Yao 24 Shen Yi 114 Shen Zhihua 43 She Su 55 Shi Cuntong 223 Shi Qiaolan 182 Shi Yuanhua 43 Shui Jingjun 196 Shu Yi 223

Skinner, William 101, 129‒31 social change 180‒1 social history 33, 81‒106; borrowings from other specialisms 101; disciplinary system of 89, 100‒3; problems with the study of 104, 204; rise of 101 social history research 84, 88‒9; new directions for 90‒106; three stages in 85‒90 social life 186 social sciences 101, 103 social studies 135 “sociologicalization” 101 sociology 101, 204; historical 103 Song Meiling 186, 189 Song Qingling 199‒201 Song Ruizhi 185 Song Ziwen 65 “Southeast Coastal Cities” research 112 Stalin, Joseph 67‒8 statecraft 26‒7 Stilwell, Joseph 65 strike action 154‒6 Sui Shufen 24 Sun Kefu 51 Sun Yat-​sen 55, 154, 235‒6 Su Xiaohuan 184 Su Zhaozheng 154 sustainable development 20‒9 symposia on Chinese social historiography 85, 90 Tang Lixing 93 Taiping Heavenly Kingdom 192 Taiwan 50 Tanaka Memorial issue 60 Tang Peiji 43 Tang Yuliang 151, 164 Tan Zhiyun 194 Tao Feiya 195 Tao Wenzhao 43 Tao Yanwu 170 textual analysis 204 Textual Research School of historiography 17‒18 Thailand 44 “thee-​plate structure”  103 Tian Baoguo 43 Tianjin 16 Tian Jujian 83 Tian Liang 24‒5 Tian Yuan 24

246 Index trade 139 trade unions 162‒3, 167; relationship with guilds 173‒5 traditional research methods 135; see also historiography transport systems 117, 133 treaties, vague understanding of 46; see also unequal treaties tributary system 44 truth of history 16 “turn” from historical events to social issues 102 unequal treaties 44‒50, 58‒61, 68 United States policy towards China 55‒6, 66‒7 university research 2, 86 urban development 130‒4; cyclical nature of 133‒4; laws of 131‒4, 137; problems and prospects with 134‒40; and the urban economy 116, 132 urban history research 109‒40: combined with modern urban development research 137; deepening of 140; “impossibility” of 109; progress made with 110, 118‒19, 135‒8; regional 111‒15; theoretical framework for 134; typological 115 urbanization 122‒30, 138‒9 urban-​rural relations 127‒30, 134‒5 urban studies 120‒2, 127, 137 values, modernization of 13 Wang Chaoguang 118 Wang Di 91 Wang Erxi 167 Wang Fuyuan 223 Wang Hua 169 Wang Jiafan 84 Wang Jianlang 47 Wang Jilu 24 Wang Jingwei 156, 164 Wang Licheng 45 Wang Ling 111 Wang Lixin 70 Wang Meixiu 181 Wang Ming 228 Wang Qiang 168 Wang Qishjeng 172 Wang Renzhi 7 Wang Ruqing 182 Wang Shoafang 42 Wang Simei 191

Wang Tieya 45‒46 Wang Weimin 44 Wang Xianming 94, 96‒7 Wang Xiaodan 180 Wang Xiaoming 167 Wang Xuedian 17 Wang Yang 150 Wang Yangqing 164 Wang Yinhuan 117 Wei Jianyou 41 Wei Yingtao 7, 115 Wei Yuan 17, 27 Wen Feng 150 Wen Rui 97 Western-​centered research  138 Westernization 12 women: characteristics of 180; employment of 190; political participation by 187‒8; status of 180‒1, 194 women’s dress 197‒8 women’s history 178‒207; stages in 178; study of 202‒7 women’s liberation 181‒5, 188 women’s lives 189‒98; at different levels 190‒2 women’s movements 178; conditions for the emergence of 179; leadership of 180; origins of 179; periodization and characteristics of 179‒81; upsurges of 179‒80 women’s organizations, types of 186 workers’ movements 143‒75; CPC theories of and strategies for 166‒9; documents on 143‒51, 157‒9, 163‒4; during war against Japan 163‒4; the “golden age” of research on 147; initial prosperity followed by serious setbacks 143; long-​term problems of 173‒5; scientific system for study of 175; three opinions on 145 working class transformation 145‒7 working class united front 150 world order, principles of 44 Wu Dongzhi 43 Wu Guoyi 26 Wuhan government 155‒6 Wu Haquan 24 Wu Hongqi 93 Wu Hsu Reform 52 Wu Huaiqi 15 Wu Jingping 44 Wu Jinlian 186, 189 Wu Ming 224

Index  247 Wu Shuzhen 187, 200 Wu Ze 1‒2, 12 Wu Zetian 9 Xia Cengyou 26 Xia Chuntao 99 Xiamen 117 Xiangdi systen 97 Xiang Jingyu 199 Xiang Liling 43 Xiang Qing 43 Xiao Gongquan 101 Xiao Tongshui 163 Xiao Yishan 24 Xia Rong 191 Xia Xiaohong 181‒2, 201‒5 Xie Baocheng 31 Xie Changfa 184 Xing Long 193 Xin Ping 192 Xiong Zhiyong 43 Xu Chang 96 Xueheng School 8 Xue Xiantian 43 Xu Guoli 93 Xu Jiansheng 192 Xu Jishe 72 Xu Maoming 96‒7 Xu Xiaoqing 22 Xu Yongzhi 197 Yan Changhong 187 Yang Gongsu 42 Yang Nianqun 93, 183 Yangtze River Basin 113 Yang Xingmei 99, 183 Yan Huiqing 45 Yan Wenfen 184 Yao Xueyin 9 Ye Guisheng 11, 18 Ye Mengkui 188 Ye Qing 193 Yin Da 2, 9, 12 Yi Xianshi 61 Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) 195‒6 youth movements 214‒38; academizing the study of 233‒7; future directions for 233; methods of research on 237‒8; resisting Japan 227‒31 Yuan Shikai 55, 99 Yuan Yingguang 2 Yu Danchu 2‒3, 15 Yue Long 194, 196

Yu Xinzhong 105 Yu Yingshi 10 Zang Jian 191 Zhai Qingfu 10 Zhang Baiqing 192 Zhang Guangzhi 14 Zhang Haipeng 25 Zhang Jun 161 Zhang Lianbo 186, 188 Zhang Limin 93 Zhang Min 197 Zhang Peiguo 101 Zhang Qi 7 Zhang Shudong 193‒4 Zhang Shuxue 15 Zhang Si 98 Zhang Tailei 188 Zhang Taiyan 23, 26 Zhang Wenjian 15 Zhang Xiaoli 185 Zhang Xipo 159‒60 Zhang Xueliang 61 Zhang Yongying 188 Zhang Yue 23, 31 Zhang Zhenkun 43 Zhang Zhilian 82 Zhang Zhongli 112, 125, 223 Zhao Jiaying 42‒3 Zhao Qingyun 24 Zhao Shiyan 224 Zheng Qinsheng 162 Zheng Shiqu 8 Zheng Yongfu 191 Zhou Enlai 224 Zhou Liangshu 169 Zhou Mingqi 41‒2 Zhou Shaochuan 24 Zhou Weizhou 55 Zhou Wenjiu 24 Zhou Xirui 101 Zhou Yaping 188 Zhou Yichuan 184 Zhou Yongxiang 162 Zhou Zhaoyu 185 Zhou Zifeng 117 Zhu Xiaotian 191‒2 Zhu Xizu 24 Zhu Zhengye 171 Zhu Zirong 55 Zong Chengkang 43 zou hun 195 Zuo Shuangwen 25 Zou Xiaomeng 150