A Study Of Liu Danian's Historiography

In 1949, the old regime being replaced by the new one, the Marxism historical materialism finally took a lead position, and gained unprecedented development after going through a period of "opposition" during the democratic revolution. A group of splendid Marxist historians who had been very successful during the democratic revolution consisted of the first generation, which mainly represented by Guo Moruo and Fan Wenlan. People's attention was attracted not only by the first generation but also by the new group who have grown up rapidly under the guide of the first generation. The new group was represented by Liu Danian and Hu Sheng who were often named the second generation of Marxist historians. If we compare this generation of historians with the first one, we may safely find that they both take the academic research as a great career, their personal academic experience are related closely with the development of New China. If we take the fifty years of New China as an academic period, by studying its history of Marxism historical materialism, we can better understand that in the first seventeen years after the foundation of New China, the first generation of Marxist historians took lead in academic research but most of them died after The Cultural Revolution. After that, the second generation of Marxism historians represented by Liu Danian and Hu Sheng took over the "head" positions to continue the first generation's standpoint of historical materialism.Comparing the academic history between the first and the second generation of Marxism historians, the former experienced the pain and joy of making the theory of historical materialism the most important one in Chinese historical research, and the latter, besides sharing the achievement of being the official theory, faced with the gradual decline of historical materialism. Therefore, the latter's academic ecosystem was more complex. Their academic-oriented change was very significant not only because it belongs to the elapsed times, but also because it demonstrates the future development of direction of the historiography of Marxism in the 21st century. It is not enough for such an influential historian as Liu Danian to just memorize him. We should have a more comprehensive study by relating his historiography to the development of Chinese Marxist historians in the second half of the 20th century.We can not study nay historian neglecting the times he lived. Firstly, we analyze Li Danian from the flowing three interdependent elements:his era, his works and his academic communication. Liu Danian is not only a scholar but also a soldier. The revolutionary experiences of his early life determined the direction of his research of modern history. Liu Danian spent much time in Chinese history, and he achieved a lot in his life. At the same, Liu Danian was both a researcher and an officer. He has a strong political sensitivity and believes that the research of historians should serve the political need. Therefore, his writing often crossed between the politics and the academy, and sometimes even had a tight link with ideology. Liu Danian is a historian who has a wide range of academic exchanges. In this dissertation, we will examine his communication with other historians such as Mao Zedong, Guo Moruo, Fan Wenlan, Hu Sheng, Li Shu, and so on and so forth.Liu Danian's achievements in historical studies was great. The main is as follows: First, Liu Danian has created the study of the history of American invasion to China. Followed his book "A Brief History of American invasion to China", this topic soon became a very heated discussion in Chinese history studies. This book has established Liu Danian's important position in the research of Chinese modern history. During all his life, Liu Danian concentrates on the Chinese modern history research. He has made significant contributions in compiling the Chinese modern general history. His main works in this aspect deserved being mentioned. They are:the forth volume of The Manuscript of Chinese History and the whole three volumes of The Manuscript of Chinese Modern history. And this book gives him a very high reputation in historical research in modern China. If we say that Liu Danian has more dedicated research in modern Chinese history, that is, the topic of 1911 Revolution. He made the outstanding contributions and widespread influence in this question. He made a firm foundation for Chinese historians about how to study this kind of problem, for example, the process and the nature of this Revolution, the study of Sun Zhongshan, etc. the Fourth, he developed the studies of Chinese Anti-Japanese War. Chinese Anti-Japanese War was one of his main domains in his old age and he also made outstanding contributions. Finally, what is worth mentioning in the research of Liu Danian is that he made a great deal of research of traditional Jingxue.It is sure that the source of Liu Danian's theory is from and Marxism with Chinese characters, that is, the thinking of Mao Zedong. His most famous theory is the class struggle. He always believes that the history of all mankind is just the history of class struggles. Under this kind of belief, he uses this theory to guide all his research. He thinks that historians should study the class, the relationship among all classes and the class struggles to better understand the society of private ownership. Guided by the historical thinking of Mao Zedong, Liu Danian thinks that the direct force to push forward the history is the revolution and revolt of the working people with a very low social position. In fact, working people are both the masters of history and the creators of the history. Therefore, the theory of the working people as the historical subject is his firm belief and his main researching practice.Like most of the successful historians, Liu Danian has his creative researching method and theory. Guided by the theory of the class struggle, his researches embody Chinese traditional historical theory, that is, the revolutionary paradigm which has been built from the beginning of the democratic revolution. Liu Danian worked together with other historians to build and to improve this researching paradigm. Until the end of The Cultural Revolution, the revolutionary paradigm was still the most important one in the history research in China. This paradigm takes the revolutions as the highest value of history. It is admitted that two paradigms are valid paths and models to explain modern Chinese history. Because of methodological limitations, both paradigms have their own shortcomings in historical research. Only many kinds of models can supplement each other and give us an all-side view of the historical research.In collusion, Liu Danian's historical research has a close relation with the politics, putting much emphasis on the class struggle, ideology. This revolutionary ideology is a combination of his academic research and the politics in the times he lived. For a long time, it was thought that if political ideology interferes with the academic research, it will do harm to the latter. From the perspective of academic practice of Liu Danian during all his life, however, it may not always be the case. If we correctly grasp the relationship between them, the political ideology has a very positive value to the academic construction. Of course, when the political ideology totally controls the academic research, it will result in negative effects. Liu Danian has made great achievements in his historical research and, this, to a certain degree, has proved what we have concluded above to prove to be true.