On Shao Xunzheng's Research On Modern Chinese History

Shao Xunzheng was a famous expert on modern Chinese history in the 20 th century.In his early years,he was engaged in the study of the relations between China and France in modern times and wrote the book called "The Beginning and End of China-France-Vietnam Relations".In this book,from the perspective of historical methods,he used the method of historical data research and the combination of history and politics to discuss related historical events in the research field of Sino-French relations.He even introduced "international law" in the process of studying Sino-French relations.In terms of character evaluation,he could firmly uphold the principle of historicism and evaluate historical figures objectively and truthfully.With regard to the usage of historical materials,he selected rich,authentic,novel,and high-quality data.Based on this,the book "the beginning and end of china-france-vietnam relations" was highly appraised by the academic researchers in historical circle,which also established Shao’s academic status in the field of Sino-French relations research in modern times,thus Shao was honored as the pioneer and founder of the Sino-French relations research in modern China.After the founding of new China in 1949,Shao took the initiative to learn historical materialism.Under the guidance of marxist historical materialism,he has made gratifying achievements in the study of history of Sino-Foreign relations,history of imperialist aggression against China,modern history of the Chinese farmers wars and the development of Chinese bourgeoisie.He also focused on the collation of materials of modern history and actively participated in the construction of modern history discipline.Under the influence of historical materialism,he made a deeper and more comprehensive study of modern Chinese history,and put forward the development clue and research outline of modern Chinese political history.In addition,in the process of his research,he put the method of detailed character examination in the first place,and regarded the spirit of truth-seeking as the basic requirement of his research.As a historian,Shao Xunzheng is not this kind of pure scholar.He possessed both humanistic pragmatism spirit of traditional scholars and active participation sense of modern intellectuals,so he played the role of a bridge which linked the past history and present reality.