A brief discussion of China’s modern history?

Modern Chinese historiography

refers to the historiography of China during the semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. From the beginning of the Opium War in 1840 to the eve of the May Fourth Movement in 1919, it was the early stage of modern Chinese history; from the May Fourth Movement to the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, it was the later stage. The early stage is divided into three stages: the first stage, from the Opium War to before the rise of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The characteristic of historiography at this stage is that historians have a prominent contemporary sense of national crisis. Gong Zizhen and Wei Yuan, as historians, were the first to express this sense of the times. Gong Zizhen mainly focused on the corruption of domestic feudal rule, and his works violently criticized the evils of the feudal autocratic system. Wei Yuan went beyond that. He also focused on the seriousness of foreign aggression and wrote the "Hai Guo Tu Zhi", the only masterpiece of world history and geography in China and the East at that time, and proposed the idea of ??"learning from the foreigners and developing skills to control the foreigners". The second stage was from the rise of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to the Reform Movement of 1898. The characteristic of historiography at this stage is advocating reform and the idea that history must change. Wang Tao's "French Chronicles" and Huang Zunxian's "Japanese National Chronicles" advocated before, Kang Youwei's "A Study of Peter the Great in Russia", "A Study of Japan's Meiji Reform", "A Study of Confucius's Reform", "Spring and Autumn Dong's Studies" and Tan Sitong's "Renxue" was later spread and became the theoretical basis for the Reform Movement of 1898. The third stage is from the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898 to the eve of the May 4th Movement. The characteristic of historiography at this stage is its clear commitment to the propaganda of revolutionary ideas. Zou Rong's "Revolutionary Army", Chen Tianhua's "Turn Back" and "Warning Bell", Zhang Binglin's historical and political commentaries, and Li Dazhao's works published before the "May 4th" Movement are representative works in this area. In the later period, Chinese historiography showed a trend of modernization. Its main signs are: 1. The content of historical research has changed, that is, from focusing on the study of ruling class figures to focusing on studying social systems, social life and ideology; 2. Some traditional historical views have been criticized, The study of modern Chinese history has a preliminary connection with the study of world history and the history of international relations, which has expanded the horizons of history; 3. The field of use of historical materials has also been expanded, including ancient cultural relics, unearthed documents, Buddhism and Taoism Classics, archival materials, as well as foreign materials and language materials have greatly enriched the connotation of historical materials in history during this period; 4. The history of Chinese and foreign transportation, various specialized histories and specialized historical publications written in new and systematic forms have successively Appear. In the modernization process of Chinese historiography, Marxist historians have played a main role (see "Marxist Historiography of China"); and the new textual criticism school has also made considerable progress in historiography. Gu Jiegang, Hu Shi, Liang Qichao, Wang Guowei , Chen Yinke, and Chen Yuan are all famous figures of the generation, each with their own achievements.