On He Ziquan’ Historiography

He Ziquan, acontemporary well-known educator and historian,was born in Heze, Shandong province. He graduated from the History Department of Peking University, and he had studied from the great masters, such as Fu Sinian,Hu shi,Tao Xisheng,Qian mu and so on. He devotes his life to the study of ancient Chinese history,and achieves striking success in many fields of the history of Wei,Jin and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Chinese ancient social history, Chinese culture and institutional history, especially in the aspects of the social history. He opens up a new area of economic research in Buddhist temples, but also one of the pioneers of the history of military system of Wei Jin and the Southern and Northern Dynasties. In the long-term research of ancient Chinese social and economic, comparative study on the basis of Chinese and foreign ancient and medieval history, he advocates that the time of the Chinese ancient slave society into a feudal society is on the occasion of the Han and Wei,and become the representative figure of the historians for his’Han-Wei feudalism’.His Chinese Ancient Society published in1989can be regarded as the summary results of his long-term research.As a famous Chinese historian, his research has an obvious characteristic that is that he always places priority on the most important issues in his research areas. He Ziquan insists that contents of the study should be the social form, structure and pattern of development; that attention should be paid to the variance of social economy and the influence on people’s life; that dialectical materialism must be the guidance idea for studying Chinese social history;and that we must pay equal attention to theory and material, macro and micro.Since his first research paper,’Buddhist temples in the Chinese Middle Ages’, was publicated in1934. He Ziquan has a nearly80years research career. He experiencesthe20th century historical studies, especially the Social History of the development process.He sets an example in many aspects,and with his unique theory of vision and deep research into the profile generation historian for the recognized Masters. Comprehensive study of He Ziquan’viewpoint on Chinese social history, just as we look at a century of Chinese Social historical research provides an excellent perspective.On the basis of Combing existing research,this article fully explores and discusses his achievements and contribution in ancient Chinese social history, the Han-Tang Buddhist temple economy, and the military system history in many ways by the research for He Ziquan’s historical writings and related information. But also focuses on He Ziquan and the medieval social history to provide useful inspiration and reference for contemporary scholars. In addition to the introduction, the article was divided into four main parts:In the first part,summarizes his life, combes his succession relations between Tao Xisheng and Fu Sinian, and analyzes their impacts on his academic life,thus revealing He Ziquan in the Historiography origin of ancient Chinese society and his unique academic quality in this process. The second part focuseson his famous thesis,’Han-Wei feudalism’. The Han-Tang Buddhist temple economy and the military system history is the two wings of his study and especially take his Ancient Society of China for example, combing it in the medieval social historical researchand other areas of practice, and to analyzethe academic status and the historical value of these statements and writings. The third part focuses on his theory and methods of construction. The last part is the conclusion, which concludes this article and tries to make an objective evaluation in He Ziquan’s academic achievements in the field of social history.