The Theories And Practices On The Research Of Cultural History (1900-1949)

The aim of this dissertation is to give a historical review and a close examination of the theories and practices on the research of cultural history by the Chinese scholars from 1900 to 1949, especially those theories from the West. By summarizing the achievements and the losses of the research in this period of history, it reveals the features of Chinese Historiography on its way to modernization.As the basic research method, the article puts the research on the cultural history under the background of the social changes and the collisions in the communication between the Chinese and the Western cultures in the early 20th century, trying to achieve a unity of history and logic. Through a systematic review of the theories and practices on the research of cultural history popular during this period of history, the basic tendency and the characteristics of the formation and the development of this branch of historiography are discussed in the article, so that some ideas significant for the research on cultural history and the cultural construction of today could be uncovered.The article consists of four chapters with an introduction and a conclusion before and after them respectively.Chapter One deals with "the new view of historiography in the light of the civilization history (1900-1915)", discussing mainly the introduction and its impact of foreign ideas and theories of civilization history on Chinese academia of historiography in late Qing dynasty. As a first step, the introduction of the theories on the research of civilization history by Henry Thomas Buckle of England and Fukuzawa Yukichi of Japan is discussed, including the contents, research methods, differences and significance of the two theories. Then, the article turns to such Chinese scholars as Liang Qichao, Zhang taiyan, and Chen Fuchen for their understanding and explanation of the theories on the research of civilization history, and makes some comments on some works of historiography by Liang Qichao, Liu Shipei, Cai Yuanpei and Zhang Liangcai.Chapter Two is concerned with "the New Culture Movement and the research of cultural history (1915-1927)". It mainly explains the reasons why the research on cultural history became popular in china during the "May 4th" movement and gives an analysis of the practices in the research of cultural history by such Chinese scholars as Liang Qichao, Liu Yizheng, Chen Dengyuan, Zhu Qianzhi and Zhu Dongsun at a time when various Western theories on cultural history were introduced in China. A major point of the chapter on the subject is that the introduction of Western theories on the research was grand and wide, not only closely following the research of the international academia of history, but also creating a tendency of free academic contention of different schools of thoughts, among which the most representative are New Historiography, New Humanism, New Vitalism, Historical Materialism and the Three Principles of People raised by Sun Yat-Sen. A brief introduction at the end of this chapter is given about the contents, the representative theorists and the social influence of all theses schools mentioned above.Chapter Three is about the "the research of cultural history in the movement to save thenation from extinction"(1927-1937)". It is held in this chapter that the debate on the nature and history of society, the discussion on the building of culture, the introduction of the works of Western cultural history, and the establishment of the science of culture as an academic study all promoted the prosperity of the research of cultural history in every aspect during this period of time. Among the popular theories on culture, social sciences were noted for their concern for social life, especially for the life at the lower level of the society, with analytics as its approach of research, while cultural anthropology were mostly concerned about the spreading of foreign cultures, using comparison as its method of research. The two native-born ideas on the research of cultural history are the Three Princip...