A Research On The History Textbooks Of The Republic Of China

During the reign of the Republic of China,the country was in a time of transition from a traditional society to a modern society,with significant changes in politics,ideology,and culture.As one of the products of these changes and developments in education and culture,history textbook in the modern sense reflected,to some extent,the track of the evolvement of modern social politics,ideology and culture.As the products of a cultural phenomenon,history textbooks were testimonies of the/a history education shaped by the social politics,values,ideologies and education system during the reign of the Republic of China.This paper intends to make a systematic study,from the perspective of culture,on both the history and the logic of the history textbooks of that period of time.As a result of the New Culture Movement which had made huge impacts on the Chinese politics,ideologies and culture of that age,a great variety of western social ideologies were introduced to China.During this period,the history textbooks,under the profound influence of Dewey's pedagogical theory of pragmatism,paid more attention to the development of children,civil aspects of the public,and the narratives of social and cultural life.Kid-friendly textbooks of history with suitable contents for children were edited.These books,with a large number of illustrations and graphs to enhance children's interest,encouraged children-centred teaching approaches,stressed the connection of knowledge and emphasized the development of children'cosmopolitan view.The history textbooks in this period also highlighted the social and cultural life,through the integration of social life knowledge into the history knowledge,the inclusion of details of common people's cultural life,and the presentation of social life.In fact,the contents of the history textbooks were the reflection of the authorities' ideologies and doctrines.The Kuomintang and the Communist Party propagated their political positions,political views and political doctrines through historical textbooks.As a result of the Nanjing National Government's implementation of KMT's party education policies,the "Three Principles of the People" was added to KMT's party programmes,the control over the ideologies in history textbooks was strengthened and the history education was appropriated as an important tool for the maintenance of the Kuomintang's rule.In revolutionary base areas,history textbooks were fully used as the tool for political education.Their contents,laying emphasis on political ideologies,the theory of class struggle,and the revolutionary historical view,gave a high praise for the peasants uprisings and people's revolutionary spirit in the modern age.The localization of history textbooks were thus gradually realized.In the process of knowledge production,it has always been an important issue to deal with the relationship between individuals' academic ideas and the will of the state and to deal with the relationship between science and thought.During the rein of the Republic of China,the will of the state was dominant.Individuals' academic ideas often gave way to the political orientation of the government.Nationalism ran through all the period of Chinese modern history and the compilation of history textbooks.The imperialist aggression against China was the most important source of modern nationalism.During Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression,history textbooks carried more national and state wills,bearing the inheritance and progress of culture.Nationalism had an important and far-reaching affect on the history textbooks of the Republic of China.The national concept and national thinking had been deeply imprinted on the history textbooks of this period.Stimulated by the sense of national honor and interest,countless historical scholars were actively engaged in the history education and the compilation of history textbooks on the occasion of the national crisis.In the period of the Republic of China,almost all of the history teaching activities were centered on history textbooks.In fact the situation of history teaching practice was not ideal.But the government and society attached more importance to the history education.Especially during Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression,the educational function of history textbooks was developed to a certain extent because of the research and endeavor of the people of insight.History textbooks and history education played a very important role in the cultivation of young people's healthy personality,historical quality,personal values,patriotic spirits,and national consciousness.The process of modernization of history education was also the process of the modernization of history textbooks.History textbooks of the Republic of China were greatly impacted by textbook compilers' personal values,beliefs,historical thought Many of them also promoted the continuous innovation of the contents and forms of modern history textbooks and made the history textbooks of the Republic of China develop in a direction conducive to the cause of education modernization,which had affected the trend of modern culture to a great extent.