"reborn" In Modern China

Philip Alden Kuhn (1933-), Francis Lee Higginson Professor of History, chair of Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University, was the director of the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research in 1980-1986.He is Regarded by the international academic community as the successor of John Fairbank and one of the leaders for the American Studies of Chinese Modern History after Fairbank. Above all he is the most outstanding representive of the China-Centered Approaches in the U.S. In his 40-year academic career so far, Kuhn has just published three works: Rebellion and Its Enemies in Late Imperial China: Militarization and its Social Structure, 1796-1864(Harvaid University Press, 1970), Soulstealers: The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768(Haxvard University Press, 1990), and Origins of the Modern Chinese State (Stanford University Press, 2002). These are all masterpieces, which made stirs in the academic communities and usually opened new approaches for the American Studies of Chinese Modern History. After the middle of 1990s Professor Kuhn has shifted his interests to the Studies of Overseas Chinese Emigration History. However, there is no systematic study of such a great historian at home and aboard, thus I would like to occupy this academic space through my doctoral dissertation.The current dissertation will follow the general principles and approaches of History and Historiography to explore Kuhn' s main works during different periods. The fundamental purpose of the case studies is to trace his basic thoughts, methodology, academic contributions and limitations, etc.. The dissertation consists of six chapters except the appendix.Chapter 1, the Introduction, is to explain the motives about why choose the specific topic for my dissertation. Chapter 2 focus on Rebellion and Its Enemies in Late Imperial China in order to analyze Kuhn's unique studies of the militarization in Late Imperial and its influence at the time and afterwards. Chapter 3 is mainly an analysis of his studies about the decline of Ch'ing dynasty and the Taiping Rebellions in the Cambridge Chinese History, Volume 10. Chapter 4 is an investigation for Kuhn's most fascinating book Soulstealers, and I try to explore his comprehensive contributions for both Historiography and the Chinese Studies. In Chapter 5 I will concentrate on his fresh book Origins of the Modern Chinese State, as well as his most present field of the History of Overseas Chinese Emigration. The last chapter is the conclusion for the dissertation, which express my overall ideas about Professor Kuhn's Chinese Studies, such as the achievements and shortcomings, as well as some illuminating remarks for our research.After ponder for 4 years since I started the work of dissertation, I finally come to find out it is the most key concern for Kuhn's Chinese Studies to trace the Transformation of Modern China (In Chinese, I would say "Tuo Tai Huan Gu De Jin Dai Zhong Guo"), which has linked all his researches (seem to be separately) during 40 years together. From this point of view I could divide his works into four stages which all surround the Transformation of Modern China. With a comprehensive study of each stage, I propose what is Kuhn's general view of Chinese Modern history, that is, "The character of China's modern state has been decisively by the flow of its internal history".The dissertation also tries to explain why professor Kuhn could obtain such a high reputation both at home and aboard, and why people could be aroused so many imagination and thoughts both for the realities and the studies of Chinese history by his profound analysis and fascinating historical narratives, especially in Soulstealers. I think there are at least four reasons to shape his research style. The first is Kuhn is so sensitive to questions that he blesses the ability of exploring fruitful significance from a minor affair recorded in archives and documents. And I contribute this special ability into the difference of Culture background and the effect of theoretical norms. The...