{"id":80,"date":"2020-11-08T21:52:49","date_gmt":"2020-11-08T21:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transnationalhistory.net\/history\/?p=80"},"modified":"2020-11-08T21:52:49","modified_gmt":"2020-11-08T21:52:49","slug":"transnationalism-in-chinese-historiography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transnationalhistory.net\/history\/2020\/11\/08\/transnationalism-in-chinese-historiography\/","title":{"rendered":"Transnationalism in Chinese Historiography."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the twentieth century,\u00a0the study of history in\u00a0China began to move\u00a0in a new direction. This movement was seen by Chinese historian Liang Qichao, who\u00a0perceived\u00a0the\u00a0spatial change in the world, which was brought up by the arrival of Western powers and the rise of Japan1<\/a><\/sup>.\u00a0Liang began his change by attacking the traditional style\u00a0of Chinese historiography, not only because it was an ill-conceived\u00a0spatial\u00a0arrangement of the world, in which all continents in the world outside of\u00a0Asia were ignored, but also because it failed to\u00a0acknowledge the idea of anachronism \u2013 the concept of historical time that differentiated the past and the present, and therefore, the need to update one\u2019s knowledge of history2<\/a><\/sup>.\u00a0This post will discuss the idea of the Chinese nationalist historiography, that is, paradoxically, also transnational.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liang\u2019s new history would have to address the nationalist concerns of a trans-nationalist age.\u00a0Liang recognized that his country was, for lack of a better word, weak \u2013 or, just as likely, he perceived a weakness in his country in the modern age that needed\u00a0to be fixed3<\/a><\/sup>. While Liang was going to somewhat continue with the ways of traditional historiography, he also needed to update the formula, so to say. This update came in the form\u00a0of the inclusion of the \u201cother\u201d – that is, other countries that were not a part of Asia, such\u00a0as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and others3<\/a><\/sup>.\u00a0This also extended to Japan, which traditionally had been ignored Chinese historiography.\u00a0In other words, this new Chinese historiography would have to include ideas and concepts of transnationalism3<\/a><\/sup>.\u00a0This is\u00a0shown\u00a0in Liang\u2019s enthusiasm for Western and\u00a0Japanese historiographical work and techniques, which he\u00a0incorporated\u00a0into his own works, before passing those techniques down to his students3<\/a><\/sup>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like all forms of nationalist ideologies, Chinese nationalism\u00a0has some distinctive features\u00a0that they share with others, while also having some features that are unique to them alone4<\/a><\/sup>.\u00a0These features\u00a0arose due to Chinese national historiography rising at the same time as\u00a0global capitalism3<\/a><\/sup>. Chinese nationalist historiography is characterized by its intense radicalism. It is also colored by Liang\u2019s fondness for\u00a0Western and Japanese historiography, the techniques of which are spread throughout Liang\u2019s work.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The primary way in which this is shown is through Liang \u2013 and by extension\u00a0his students like Hu Shi\u00a0\u2013 is through his fascination with looking through Chinese\u00a0history and tradition for Western scientific practices5<\/a><\/sup>. This was\u00a0actually carried\u00a0out, mostly, by Hu Shi. Hu was\u00a0inspired\u00a0by Liang\u2019s work, and while he studied at Cornell, began to delve into furthering Liang\u2019s theories5<\/a><\/sup>. In Hu\u2019s early life, his education was populated by a study of the Classics, and it was\u00a0here that he looked for how his theory could be proven. Hu looked throughout\u00a0Chinese history\u00a0and tradition\u00a0for examples of the universality of the scientific method, as per Dewey\u2019s scientific\u00a0theory, which he believed was transnational6<\/a><\/sup>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Hu found was nothing short of a confirmation of his\u00a0beliefs. In 1921, Hu wrote on the evidential scholarship of\u00a0Qing\u00a0scholars whilst exposing his belief that\u00a0the scientific method was not confined to any one nation or region of the world7<\/a><\/sup>. His study confirmed this belief,\u00a0thus validating his and, by extension, Liang\u2019s work7<\/a><\/sup>. By proving that the scientific method was universal and thus, transcended nations, Hu was able to boost the national standing of China, bringing it onto a\u00a0similar\u00a0playing field as the West and Japan.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion, the\u00a0revision of Chinese historiography, an effort started by Liang Qichao and carried out by Hu Shi and others, was able to strengthen the national standing of China, as it showed that certain ideals held by civilized society were\u00a0transnational\u00a0ideas.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

  1. Wang, Edward Q., Inventing China Through History: The May Fourth Approach to Historiography<\/em>, (2001), p.51 [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  2. Wang, Inventing China<\/em>, pp.51-52 [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  3. Ibid<\/em>, pp.51-52. [↩<\/a>]<\/span> [↩<\/a>]<\/span> [↩<\/a>]<\/span> [↩<\/a>]<\/span> [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  4. Ibid<\/em>, pp.52-53. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  5. Ibid<\/em>, pp.52-54. [↩<\/a>]<\/span> [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  6. Ibid<\/em>, pp.54-55. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  7. Ibid<\/em>, pp.55-56. [↩<\/a>]<\/span> [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In the twentieth century,\u00a0the study of history in\u00a0China began to move\u00a0in a new direction. This movement was seen by Chinese historian Liang Qichao, who\u00a0perceived\u00a0the\u00a0spatial change in the world, which was brought up by the arrival of Western powers and the rise of Japan1.\u00a0Liang began his change by attacking the traditional style\u00a0of Chinese historiography, not only … Continue reading “Transnationalism in Chinese Historiography.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transnationalhistory.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transnationalhistory.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transnationalhistory.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transnationalhistory.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transnationalhistory.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transnationalhistory.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81,"href":"https:\/\/www.transnationalhistory.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions\/81"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transnationalhistory.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transnationalhistory.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transnationalhistory.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}