The Relationship between Liu Danian and Chen Yinke: On the Construction of Modern Chinese Historiography

The Relationship between Liu Danian and Chen Yinke: On the Construction of Modern Chinese HistoriographyAbstract: In the 50s of the 20th century, Liu Danian was specifically responsible for the connection between the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the journal "Historical Research" and Chen Yinke; After the reform and opening up, Liu Danian promoted the academic research on Chen Yinke's academic thoughts. Both Liu Danian and Chen Yinke are passionate about traditional Chinese culture and advocate independent thinking. Chen Yinke combined traditional Chinese academic thought with Western bourgeois historical theory and philosophical thought, while Liu Danian combined traditional Chinese culture with Marxism. Both Liu Danian and Chen Yinke have maintained a certain degree of openness in their historical research. Chen Yinke does not reject historical materialism, and there are obvious similarities between his historiographical thought and historical materialism. Liu Danian advocated that the construction of China's historical theory should take the initiative to absorb the outstanding historical achievements of ancient and modern China and foreign countries on the basis of adhering to historical materialism. An in-depth study of their academic ideas will help to advance the study of the construction process of modern Chinese historiography.

Keywords: Liu Danian, Chen Yinke, Chinese historiography

Chen Yinke combined traditional Chinese academic thought with Western bourgeois historical theory and philosophical thought, while Liu Danian combined traditional Chinese culture with Marxism. What is the connection between the two? What are the implications of their historiographical research for the current construction of Chinese style historiography?

1. The relationship between Liu Danian and Chen Yinke in the fifties and sixties of the 20th century

Liu Danian and Chen Yinke are both famous historians who came from private schools. Chen Yinke studied in Japan, Europe and the United States when he was young, while Liu Danian directly switched from Chinese studies to accepting Marxism, and went to the anti-Japanese front after graduating from the Chinese Anti-Japanese Military and Political University. Both men made a name for themselves in their thirties and have been leading academic trends for a long time.

Liu Danian and Chen Yinke both love poetry, and both have poems circulating. Liu Danian's earliest indirect contact with Chen Yinke was when he learned ancient style poetry from He Mian, a well-known figure in Huarong, Hunan. In his later years, he recalled visiting He Mian and said: "The first time we met, I saw that among the calligraphy hanging in his living room, there was a sign 'Sanyuan', which was a five-character poem. We don't know who San Yuan is, but when asked later, he said that San Yuan was Chen Sanli, who was known as the representative of the Song poetry school at that time, that is, the father of Chen Yinke, who is now respected by the academic community. That poem was written to him by them and Zhongchen. After the indiscriminate use of vernacular poetry, neither Chen nor Liu left any vernacular poetry, and both of them preferred ancient style poetry and near-style poetry all their lives. Although their poems have such and such differences in the selection of materials, ideas and patterns, they all face reality, have a distinct national spirit, and pay attention to rhyme, and like to use classics.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the relationship between Liu Danian and Chen Yinke was disclosed in Liu Danian's "Six Letters from Guo Moruo on 'Historical Research'" and Liu Lu's "Liu Danian Remembers Guo Moruo". In a nutshell, there is some information: On September 21, 1953, at the first meeting of the Central Committee for the Study of Chinese History, Chen Boda announced that Chen Yinke would be invited to serve as the second director of the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. After that, Liu Danian, who participated in this meeting, was responsible for the specific operation of hiring Chen Yinke. Assisting in the matter was Wang Zhu, a professor of history at Peking University. Chen Yinke "was too weak to come to Beijing to live in Beijing and did not take office." Liu Danian expressed regret. Chen Yinke and Liu Danian were both members of the first editorial board of Historical Research, and Liu Danian was brought back by Wang Zhen, deputy editor-in-chief of Historical Research, and Chen Yinke's two articles were soon published in Historical Research. After Chen Yinke "agreed to serve as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Department of Social Sciences," Liu Danian drafted a letter from Guo Moruo to Chen Yinke.

Liu Danian expressed regret that Chen Yinke could not come to Beijing to take up his post. When planning the three historical research institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Liu Danian was also specifically responsible for the transfer of scholars such as Hou Wailu, Gu Jiegang, and Luo Ergang to Beijing. Before the "Cultural Revolution", Liu Danian took the initiative to get involved in the "Li Xiucheng evaluation issue" in order to protect Luo Ergang, and was persecuted in the "Cultural Revolution" because of it. In Liu Danian's view, if Chen Yinke takes up his post in Beijing, he will make more achievements in personal academic research, international academic exchanges, and academic echelon construction, such as giving full play to his strengths in research and continuing his research on political history. Although the Chinese Academy of Sciences is a government department under the Government Affairs Yuan, the pressure on its "ideological transformation" is not as great as that of universities, and when Liu Danian was specifically in charge of the ideological transformation movement of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, many scientists were protected and passed, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences was called "air-raid shelter" and "safe haven" by many people in colleges and universities.

In June 1955, the Chinese Academy of Sciences formally established the Faculty of Sciences, and Liu Danian and Chen Yinke became members of the Philosophy and Social Sciences Division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences at the same time. In January 1956, Chen Yinke was co-opted by the Second Session of the Second National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) as a specially invited member of the Second National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. According to the record of "Guo Moruo's Historiographical Career", on February 8, 1956, Guo Moruo was responsible for formulating the "Plan for Compiling Chinese History Textbooks" (draft), which included the idea that "the editorial and review team of the Chinese History Textbook Editorial Committee composed of seven people, including Guo Moruo, Chen Yinke, Chen Yuan, Fan Wenlan, Jian Bozan, Yin Da, and Liu Danian, is responsible for organizing the writing and review work, and is presided over by Guo Moruo". The proposed seven-member editorial team has also been finalized.

In 1958, Chen Yinke was criticized. When Liu Danian went out to investigate, there were several references to Chen Yinke in his work diary: "Cultural Race, Chen Yinke, Tang Changru" (Northwest University Symposium, November 26); "Chen Yinke and Xu Zhongshu are highly respected, and the history of emperors and generals is supported" (Southwest Normal University Symposium, December 7); "On the question of nationality, the struggle between Tuoba culture and Han culture runs through the article on the issue of Tuoba (History Teaching, No. 2, 1956), which is actually Chen Yinke's view of cultural history, and even more prominent" (Symposium of the Department of History, Wuhan University, December 12); "Organize discussions, there are a variety of discussions that can take place. For example, the current situation of Chen Yinke's criticism can be discussed. Find someone who has studied Chen and has studied critical articles, and then you can hold a meeting to discuss" "Orthodox Examination School: Chen Yinke et al." (time unknown).

Among the four diaries, the first three are to record the situation of the symposium, and the fourth is Liu Danian's own thoughts. It can be seen that Liu Danian's positioning of Chen Yinke is significantly different from the views of others he knows. Therefore, he argues that academic criticism should be based on professional research.

Although Liu Danian paid close attention to Chen Yinke's academic activities, he did not publish articles commenting on Chen Yinke's academic thought in the fifties and sixties. He was dissatisfied with the "historiographical revolution" that began in 1958. In 1961, he published an article entitled "On Kangxi" in the third issue of Historical Research, which was an academic criticism of "breaking the dynastic system" and "overthrowing the emperors and generals". Soon after its publication, "On Kangxi" aroused strong repercussions at home and abroad, and played a positive role in correcting the "leftist" trend of thought in academic circles. Of course, the academic community also has different views on "On Kangxi". After the "Cultural Revolution" began, "On Kangxi" was said to be a major crime of Liu Danian, and the "People's Daily" criticized it as "a typical example of praising feudal emperors by satirizing the past and the present", saying that "Liu Danian trampled on historical materialism to the extent of no return." During the "Cultural Revolution", Liu Danian, like Chen Yinke, was raided, and many important documents and materials were missing.

There were signs of Chen Yinke's fever on the eve of the "Cultural Revolution". According to Liu Danian's diary on February 28, 1966, at the "Academic Office Meeting of the Propaganda Department", Hu Cheng mentioned in his speech that "some people create myths, such as how Chen Yinke is." It can be seen that on the eve of the Cultural Revolution, there were many voices in the academic community on how to construct modern Chinese historiography, and respecting traditional historiography research methods was one of them. These voices are undoubtedly the precursors of the further development and prosperity of Chinese historiography after the reform and opening up.

2. After the reform and opening up, Liu Danian's promotion of inheriting Chen Yinke's academic thoughts

Liu Danian's earliest public evaluation of Chen Yinke was when he lectured in Japan from October 1979 to January 1980. He said: "Our founding generation is full of talented people in terms of academic culture...... The older generation of Marxist historians Guo Moruo, Fan Wenlan, and Jian Bozan, as well as Chen Yinke and Chen Yuan, who are famous for their use of traditional Chinese methods to study history, have all passed away in the last 10 years. Their deaths, either at one point or at that point, left a blank. Comparing Chen Yinke and Chen Yuan with Guo, Fan, and Jian shows that Liu Danian attaches great importance to the study of history using traditional Chinese methods.

During his lecture in Japan, Liu Danian also specially visited the relics of Sun Yat-sen in Yokohama, Kamakura, Tokyo and other places, conducted on-the-spot investigations of relevant historical facts, made detailed research on the time and place of Sun Yat-sen's marriage to Soong Ching-ling, and published an illustrated interview account in the magazine "Cultural Relics" after returning to China. This is his first published article on the theme of research.

After returning from Japan, Liu Danian participated in and was responsible for the restoration of the Chinese Historical Society. On July 1, 1980, he published in Guangming Daily "Inheriting the Past and Connecting the Future, It is Our Duty ———to Wish the Reconstruction of the Chinese Historical Society", saying: "Traditional Chinese historiography has left a rich legacy, and no one disagrees. In contemporary times, such as Chen Yinke and Chen Yuan, they have made great achievements in studying history in traditional methods. "The older generation of Marxist historians were able to make creations, not because they left the road of the development of Chinese civilization, but on the contrary, because they were familiar with Chinese traditions to varying degrees, and they were critical of our nation's heritage, and they inherited it...... Therefore, Marxist historiography and Chinese tradition are not two parallel or opposite things. Talking about the inheritance of Marxist history, it contains the essence of absorbing the heritage. "Clearly affirm the inheritance of Marxist historiography to the Chinese tradition.

In terms of inheriting Chinese traditions, Liu Danian explicitly opposed "returning to Qianjia". The first time he commented in detail on the discussion of "returning to Qianjia" was at the first annual academic meeting of the Chinese Historical Society and the third congress of Chinese historians that he presided over in April 1983. He submitted a long paper entitled "Chinese Marxist Historiography and Chinese Socialism" to the conference, part of which was published in the fourth issue of World History in 1983 under the title of "On the Guiding Ideology of Historical Research ——— on the "Obsolescence" of Marxism", and part of the content was published in the third issue of Modern History Research in 1983 under the title of "The Mission of the Times in Current Historical Research". "On the Guiding Ideology of Historical Research" says: "Some researchers only focus on making up their minds on historical materials, and discuss whether they should 'return to Qianjia'; In other words, following the path of the kingdom, 'it can exist for hundreds of years'. "The Mission of the Times in Current Historical Research" says: "Whether or not we attach importance to theoretical thinking and pay attention to overcoming the cumbersome style of study is the decisive key to whether or not history can realize its mission of the times." For example, the discussion of 'returning to Qianjia' and so on shows that some comrades do not have a sufficient understanding of this point. Liu Danian's opposition to "returning to Qianjia" was precisely when he focused on thinking about how to strengthen theoretical thinking in order to construct a theoretical system of Chinese historiography.

In 1987, when "The Mission of the Times in Current Historical Research" was included in the "Selected Essays on Liu Danian's History", a commentary on Chen Yinke was added under the title of "Attaching Importance to Theoretical Thinking and Overcoming Cumbersome Academic Style". Liu Danian pointed out: "For example, Chen Yinke is a patriot we respect, a senior in the academic world. On the one hand, he has done valuable research on the history of the Sui and Tang dynasties, and on the other hand, he has expressed considerable cumbersome philosophies in works such as "Liu Ru is Farewell Biography". ...... cumbersomeness of "The Legend of Liu", the author himself admits it. There are more than 900 words of commentary on Chen Yinke's content, of which 650 words directly criticize the "cumbersome philosophy" of "Liu Ru is Farewell", indicating that Liu Danian felt it necessary to think objectively and calmly about how to inherit Chen Yinke's historiographical thoughts.

Liu Danian supported and participated in the "International Symposium in Memory of Professor Chen Yinke" hosted by Sun Yat-sen University. On July 18, 1987, Ji Xianlin wrote to him: "With the approval of the State Education Commission, Sun Yat-sen University is preparing to hold a commemorative event (international symposium) for Mr. Chen Yinke. …… I also wondered, can we apply for some financial assistance from the Academy of Social Sciences or other relevant institutions through the Chinese Historical Society?" On October 29, another letter was written: "What is the result of your talks with the Academy of Social Sciences? It would be advisable to fund it in the name of the Chinese Historical Society. Now that the term is approaching, can the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences allocate a little money this year?" On January 16 of the following year, another letter was sent saying: "The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has agreed to the money that the Chinese Historical Society is going to subsidize last year...... I would like to ask you to contact the leading comrades of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, including Comrade Hu Cheng, and appoint Hu Shou as vice president of the office of the president of Sun Yat-sen University as soon as possible. ”

On May 26-28, 1988, Liu Danian attended the "International Symposium in Memory of Professor Chen Yinke" hosted by Sun Yat-sen University and delivered a speech at the meeting. Analyzing Chen Yinke's academic thoughts, he said: "His writings and thoughts inherited the old Chinese tradition, and also expressed the style of his own times, which is not limited to simple inheritance. Because he inherited many forms and contents of China's feudal cultural traditions, he also had a clear tendency towards Western capitalist liberalism. "Among them, there is a Chinese tradition of 'seeking truth from facts' that has been taught for 2,000 years, and it is not excluded that it has been influenced by Western historical theories. …… His method is based on traditional Chinese and modern Western criticism, and his ideological principles are rationalistic. "In his mind, one of the functions of history should be to awaken people's strong interest in the rise and fall of the country and to invigorate the national spirit." These three points are summarized as the dominant ideological tendencies of Chen Yinke's writings——— "free thought or liberalism in parallel with traditional culture; rational objectivity or objectivism; National Thought or Patriotism", he believes that "the above-mentioned dominant ideological tendencies, coupled with his unique style, have made Mr. Chen Yinke an important representative of modern Chinese history", and also specifically explains that Chen Yinke's change from ignorance of socialism to resolute acceptance of socialism is "the result of the combination of the non-stop evolution of social life and his active subjective initiative". Liu Danian emphasized: "The experience and examples provided by Chen on how to further solve the relationship between Chinese tradition and Western culture are very worthy of attention, and some other things seem to be relics of the old era." Mr. Chen Yinke spoke earnestly and called on historical researchers to obey the truth. Isn't analyzing and differentiating the rich legacy he left behind exactly what this academic veteran expects us to and nods his head in approval?" After the meeting, he also wrote an inscription: "The master is respected by the world".

Since then, Liu Danian has continued to pay attention to the situation of Chen Yinke. In his later years, he edited "The Pivot of China's Rejuvenation——— Eight Years of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression", which he said: "In the study of traditional history or intellectual history, Xiong Shili, Chen Yinke, and Chen Yuan are the most predecessors. …… Chen Yinke firmly believes that 'the country can perish but history cannot be destroyed', and he lamented that although the state of modern China has survived, the national history has lost its 'orthodoxy'. He was once trapped in Japanese-occupied Hong Kong, and repeatedly read the "Chronicles of the Years since the Founding of the Yan Dynasty" compiled by the Southern Song Dynasty, because it recorded the struggle of the Southern Song Dynasty's partial security regime to surrender and resist the outside world. In his mind, one of the functions of history should be to awaken people's strong concern for the rise and fall of the country and to invigorate the national spirit. It is not difficult to imagine the melancholy feelings of Chinese historians during the Anti-Japanese War. ”

3. Chen Yinke, Liu Danian and the Construction of Modern Chinese Historiography

Liu Danian focuses on modern Chinese history and has not studied much ancient Chinese history. Chen Yinke focuses on ancient Chinese history and does not study much modern Chinese history. Although they have different fields of focus, different self-study experiences, and different understandings of how to construct modern Chinese historiography, they have many commonalities in inheriting the excellent tradition of Chinese historiography.

Liu Danian and Chen Yinke were both deeply impressed by Lu You's poem "A Small Boat Travels Near the Village House". Jiang Tao pointed out: "Due to the relationship between age and experience, the elder master often resonates with some of the poems of the Southern Song Dynasty patriotic poet Lu You in his later years. For example, a quatrain by Lu You: Xieyang Guliu Zhaojiazhuang, the blind man of the negative drum is making a scene. Who cares about right and wrong after death? Mancun heard about Cai Zhonglang. The elder teacher often mentions it. Mr. Chen Yinke once mentioned the prophecy of the 'blind man with negative drums' in the article "On the Origin of Rebirth", and the old master pointed out the original source of this canon when he made his criticism. Comrade Zhang Youkun compiled a collection of pictures and texts of "Zhang Xueliang's Century Style", and asked the senior teacher to write a preface. He readily agreed, but because he was busy with the preface of the "Commentary on Modern Classics", he dragged it out, and soon became hospitalized with a high fever that did not go away. In a semi-comatose state, he dictated the preface intermittently, quoting the poem in its entirety. He also made a footnote on Liu Danian's "criticism": Mr. Chen Yinke once described his experience at the beginning of his blindness in his article "On the Origin of Rebirth": "I have sought medical treatment for thousands of miles, and I have begged for food. Looking at Zhao Zhuang's words, it turned out that 'fleas are today'. "The Great Nian Master annotated on the lintel of this page: "Press: Lu You (Wuguan) The poem has: 'Xieyang Guliu Zhaojiazhuang, the blind man with a negative drum is making a scene.'" See his collection of Chen's book On the Origin of Rebirth (mimeographed version), p. 38b. Liu Danian never forgot Lu You's poem, and focused on the question of how to objectively evaluate historical figures. In the preface to 'Zhang Xueliang's Century Style,' he said: "As long as we who talk about history are not blind people, it is very easy for us to make judgments on Zhang Xueliang's merits and demerits." Chen Yinke not only lamented that "he was sick and displaced, writing articles and teaching, although he was the same as the blind man who lost the drum in Zhao Zhuang, but he was equal to the blind girl who played the strings in Guangzhou", and he also emphasized the objective and fair aspiration pursued in traditional Chinese historiography. They are unanimous in how they view the objectivity of historical research.

Both Chen Yinke and Liu Danian admired Wang Guowei, but their comments differed. Chen Yinke once wrote "Elegy for Mr. Wang Guantang" and "Monument to Mr. Wang Jing'an", and said in "Monument to Mr. Wang Jing'an": "The scholar who reads and studies will know the truth from the shackles of the common truth, and because he can carry forward his thoughts, he would rather die than be free...... Mr. sees his independent and free will with a death, not a grievance of one person, and the rise and fall of a surname. …… Mr.'s writings may sometimes be informative, and Mr.'s doctrines may sometimes be negotiable, but this spirit of independence, the thought of freedom, has been worshiped for thousands of years, and has been with the world for a long time, a total of three lights and eternal light. Liu Danian also commented on Wang Guowei many times, the most concentrated in "Guo Moruo and Philosophy". On the one hand, he affirmed Wang Guowei: "Wang Guowei has made major discoveries about the history of the Yin Dynasty, and Guo Lao fairly evaluates the knowledge he left behind, like a pavilion of Cui Wei." "The profundity and uniqueness of the Kingdom's history and art writings have their own merits, and they cannot be denied by two materials." "His research and writing, to be untiring, is very different from cumbersomeness, different from pointless flaunting erudition." On the other hand, he also pointed out its shortcomings: "However, Wang Guowei believed in the idealistic Schopenhauer philosophy and refused to accept historical materialism, and in vain lost the true glory of science that could have been canonized." "The study of oracle bones and golden inscriptions is undoubtedly one of the most powerful parts of Wang Guowei's entire scholarship. …… In this regard, Wang Guowei argued that what was invented was the shape of the word, the meaning of the word, the name of the person, the name of the place, the time of something and something, and a number of specific systems such as the 'special sacrifice of the ancestors'. "Wang Guowei has done a lot of creative research, and his scientific understanding of ancient Chinese society seems to be separated by a layer of paper, but in fact it is separated by a wall that he can no longer be able to chisel through." "Some people say that Wang Guowei can exist for 300 years, but that is only from the perspective of historical materials, not from the requirements of real scientific achievements." Unlike Chen Yinke, who focused on Wang Guowei's personality, Liu Danian focused on Wang Guowei's academic achievements.

"The spirit of independence and the idea of freedom" are the inevitable requirements of scholars, and well-known scholars in ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad, have worked hard to practice this basic requirement. Sima Qian's "Words of Becoming a Family" emphasizes that historical research must be based on independent thinking. Regardless of whether we uphold the materialist view of history or the idealistic view of history, once we leave the "spirit of independence and the idea of freedom", even if we have the opportunity to get close to the real history, we will not be able to draw objective and innovative conclusions.

To judge whether a scholar has an "independent spirit and free thought", one should look for evidence from his specific works to find what is unique or innovative from his predecessors and contemporaries. Some works about Chen Yinke exaggerate the contradictions between Chen Yinke and the Communist Party of China from the perspective of academic research, so that readers cannot get a glimpse of the true expression of Chen Yinke's academic independence and freedom. In fact, at any time, the independence and freedom of academic research are relative, and it is impossible for anyone to completely transcend their specific cultural traditions, social backgrounds, and experiences and environments of living, learning, and working. Chen Yinke's reluctance to go to Beijing to take up the post of director of the second institute of history of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was due not only to his ignorance of the Communist Party, but also to his physical reasons. Wang Rongzu believes that Chen Yinke's "blind decay has no spare strength to say anything about relocation" should be a better explanation for Chen Yinke's reluctance to go to Beijing to take up a job. On July 10, 1954, Chen Yinke wrote to Yang Shuda: "If the Academy of Sciences can publish all the works of his life, it will be a major event for the country. The younger brother is afraid of people and cold, so he does not go north. There is a short poem in the winter, attached to it to make a smile. The attached poem is "Answer to the North Guest": "Thank you for knowing each other, but there is no crab and there is a prison state." The Liu family is both negative and foot, and if you don't pick apple blossoms, you are free. In addition to clarifying the special reason for his "not going north", he also agreed with Yang Shuda's letter to Guo Moruo for the publication of his works in the Chinese Academy of Sciences. As for Chen Yinke's 1957 Spring Festival couplet, "Ten Thousand Bamboos Compete to Remove the Old Year, Let Flowers Bloom and Listen to the New Warbler" and 1959 National Day Gate Couplet, "600 million people leap forward together for ten years, and the National Day is jubilant", although these expressions are not directly related to Chen Yinke's academic research, they cannot be completely said to be works that follow the customs, but can only show that Chen Yinke pays attention to social changes, likes to see "a hundred schools of thought contend", and yearns for a strong country. Paying attention to reality, pursuing innovation, and loving the motherland are precisely the fine traditions of Chinese intellectuals. The commendability of Chen Yinke is that he overcame all kinds of difficulties according to his actual situation and independent judgment of reality, never gave up the pursuit of academic truth, and made contributions to the inheritance of Chinese academic tradition and the exploration and construction of China's own academic style. This is actually a common denominator among accomplished scholars.

To be academically independent, first of all, it is necessary to correctly handle the relationship between academia and politics and between history and reality. Chen Yinke combined some viewpoints of Western bourgeois historiographical theories and philosophical ideas to improve the historiographical tradition of Chinese feudal society and formed his own unique style. Of course, his historiographical works also reflect the characteristics of the times he experienced, but more importantly, he adheres to the self-set academic bottom line and the academic laws that he identifies himself, and is not bound by political changes, let alone attached to reality. His independence and freedom are also manifested in his "profound knowledge, integrity, lofty patriotic spirit and national integrity, and always maintaining the sentiment of an intellectual who does not follow the times, does not seek for himself, is open-minded, and is open-minded and open-minded." His independence and freedom also show the similarities between his research methods and historical materialism. Chen Yinke read the German edition of Capital in 1911 when he was a student at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. In 1986, when Chen's student Wan Shennan was sorting out his notes on the history of the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties at the Institute of History of Tsinghua University from 1947 to 1948, he said: "When I sorted out the lecture notes on the history of the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties, I was surprised to find that the views and methods of class analysis and group analysis (in fact, class analysis) ran through all of Mr. Chen's lectures. The first is "The Social Class of the Rulers of the Wei and Jin Dynasties". This can show what kind of height Mr. Chen has reached in terms of methodology in his research on history. It can be said that Mr. Chen is not only the pioneer and founder of modern bourgeois historiography in the mainland, but also the bridge from bourgeois historiography to Marxist historiography. I don't think it's an exaggeration. Zhu Dawei also believed: "Taking the famous historians of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties on the mainland over the past 80 years or so as an example, most of those who have made great achievements have adhered to historical materialism. Mr. Chen Yinke has made the most outstanding contributions to the history of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang dynasties, and has influenced several generations of future students. I agree with his disciple Mr. Wan Shennan's evaluation of Mr. Chen's theory of respecting teachers when he was compiling his lectures. He believes that Chen is the first person in modern China to change from an idealistic view of history to a materialist view of history. ”

On April 6, 1987, Liu Danian wrote a "preface" for the forthcoming "Selected Essays on Liu Danian's History", saying: "Some of the manuscripts written after 1979 have two completely different evaluations. One thinks that it represents a certain tendency, and that it is a 'powerful representative', and it is meant to be a prize. One thinks that it is difficult to accept the box, set the tone, and accept it. This shows that our academic community is full of ideas and ideas. As for myself, I'm just speaking according to what I know. Don't ask for a high voice, don't ask about fashion, don't make a judgment against your will, and martyr yourself in vain. …… To narrate history, we must use direct words as the rope and ink, and we must speak the truth. I didn't think I was doing a good job, but I was always trying to do it. …… In the study of linguistics, on the history of history. Not daring to avoid the suspicion of 'taking it as a matter of course' has nothing to do with the current political evaluation of certain figures. He did not explicitly say that he pursued "the spirit of independence, the idea of freedom," but he clearly expressed such ideas. His "spirit of independence" is manifested in his insistence on combining traditional Chinese culture with Marxism, while his practice of "freedom of thought" focuses on not being disturbed by political changes and returning history to its true face. Comparing Liu Danian's historiographical works with those of his contemporaries, it can be found that his understanding of historical theories and methods is not only different from that of historians such as Chen Yinke, but also from that of historians such as Guo Moruo, Fan Wenlan, Jian Bozan, Li Shu, and Hu Cheng, reflecting the style of "becoming a family". After the reform and opening up, in the academic environment where historical materialism gradually became cold, Liu Danian insisted on using historical materialism to summarize historical theories, and his articles on historical theory were placed at the front of the Selected Essays on Liu Danian's History, showing the innovative courage of independent thinking and attaching importance to theoretical thinking. He insisted on taking Marxism as the guide to conduct historical research, and clearly pointed out that Marxism and historical materialism cannot replace historical theory. He repeatedly stressed that history should not be used as a tool to explain politics, and explicitly opposed insinuation historiography, advocating that history should become a science and that history should have its own theory. In terms of how to summarize the theory of Chinese history, he emphasized that it is necessary to base ourselves on the practice of Chinese historical research and to absorb the practice of foreign historical research. In terms of exploring traditional culture and the construction of modern Chinese historiography, as a later generation of scholars, Liu Danian in his later years had a broader vision than Chen Yinke in his later years. However, judging from the many years of history discussion in the academic circles, Western bourgeois historiography has been admired, the materialist view of history has been questioned, the academic independence of scholars who use the materialist view of history to study history has not received enough attention, and the inheritance of Chinese historiography after the founding of the People's Republic of China has been selectively ignored. If this phenomenon is not fundamentally changed, it will inevitably affect the major theoretical and practical problems of traditional culture and the construction of modern Chinese historiography that urgently need to be solved.

There are many naïve materialist dialectical ideas in traditional Chinese culture, and some of them have become Chinese characters and have been integrated into the blood of Chinese scholars throughout the ages. "Zhou Yi · Dictionaries" has the phrase "explore the hidden and the hook is deep and far-reaching", and "The Mean" has the saying "to the vast and subtle", the meaning is generally the same, both involve the dialectical relationship between macro research and micro research, and also involve the issues of "studying heaven and man" and "changes through the past and the present". It should be said that both Chen Yinke and Liu Danian were influenced and developed by these traditional thoughts, and both attached importance to correctly handling the relationship between macro and micro studies, and both left behind historical works that could better handle the relationship between the two, but in their specific research, they showed the characteristics of emphasizing due to the different environments in which they lived. Chen Yinke is a typical scholar, mainly relying on his extensive knowledge and single-handedly cultivating in the field of historical research. Chen Yinke's 823,000-word "Farewell Biography of Liu Ru", which was completed in 1964, brought the "subtlety" to the extreme. At the end of the book it says, "Blind and barefoot, not yet deaf and dumb." It is a matter of heaven that this book was written. Lying on the couch and pondering, then the fat is written. Weep bitterly over the ancients, leave for those who come. It shows that the book also contains the meaning of "hooking deep and far-reaching". He Lingxiu commented: "When I read Mr. Chen Yinke's "Farewell Biography of Liu Rushi", I was deeply shocked to see how deep he excavated historical facts, revealing the surging large-scale underground anti-Qing movement that existed in the early Qing Dynasty, as well as the historical materials that were taken everywhere and mastered with ease. The revelation of the 'Restoration of Sight Movement' is of great scientific significance, helping to restore the comprehensiveness, complexity, authenticity, and richness of the history of the early Qing Dynasty, ...... Liu Danian does not belong to the "previous scholar-type scholars", he has long been engaged in the academic organization and management of philosophy and social sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and this special job requires him to have the ability to control the overall situation, and must be familiar with the research status of philosophy and social sciences, especially history, so his historical research is more focused on "reaching the broad". After the reform and opening up, Liu Danian paid more attention to micro research, and repeatedly called for the combination of dialectical logical analysis and fine historical analysis, and paid attention to both the collection and verification of historical materials and theoretical thinking. He proposed that the object of historical research is "the social relations, social relations and their movements and changes centered on the relations of production that are linked to a certain productive force", which is to summarize the conclusions reached by the research practice of Chinese and foreign historiography using historical materialism, which has played a positive role in promoting the study of cultural history and social history and its interaction with political history. In his later years, he devoted his whole life to writing "Commenting on Modern Classics", which was to think about the development and evolution of traditional Chinese culture from a broad and long-term perspective. In the "Introduction" to "Commenting on Modern Classics," he said: "Generally speaking, every nation cannot get rid of the foundation of traditional culture when it moves toward modernization. In the same way, without thoroughly cleaning up and criticizing the ancient, mainly reflective traditions of stagnant social life, there can be no development and innovation, let alone modernization. Today's modernization of China is not carried out in a state of isolation from traditional culture and surrounding environmental conditions, it will inevitably encounter the problem of identifying the foundation of traditional culture and thoroughly cleaning up and criticizing the waste that hinders development and renewal. "The subtle meaning of "Commenting on Modern Classics" is precisely how to develop and innovate in inheritance.

In the 20th century, academic research in Chinese historiography was greatly influenced by political movements, and there were different manifestations in different time periods, but the foundation of traditional Chinese scholarship has never been interrupted, whether it was in the war-torn era or in the special period of the "Cultural Revolution", traditional culture has always survived and developed tenaciously in one form or another. Some outstanding figures in the field of historiography include those who have studied both China and the West in the first half of the 20 th century or who have actively devoted themselves to the cause of national liberation, and those who have only received university education in the second half of the 20 th century, temporarily emerged, and rose strongly after the reform and opening up. Chen Yinke and Liu Danian are prominent representatives of many historians, both of whom are deeply influenced by traditional Chinese culture and have absorbed different methodologies of the 20th century, which is one of the important reasons for their remarkable academic achievements in their respective fields. An in-depth study of their inheritance and innovation of traditional Chinese scholarship will undoubtedly be of great benefit to the development of Chinese-style historiography in the new era of scientific and democratic development of historical research.

Transferred from "Nanjing Social Sciences" 2018 Issue 06, author: Huang Renguo