A Review Of Gu Jiegang's National And Frontier Thoughts

Ku Chieh-kang(1893?1980),born in Suzhou City of Jiangsu Province,formerly known as Songkun,his courtesy name was Mingjian,also known as Jiegang,is a famous historian and expert on folklore who was elected as the first batch of the academician of "Academia Sinica" in 1948.In addition to the remarkable achievement in history and folklore,he was also very concerned about the issues of ethnic frontier because of the frontier ethnic crisis.Mr.Ku Chieh-kang had created academic association,compiled and printed publications,investigated the frontier personally or organizing others,contemplated writing a new history book,concerned and studied lots about the frontier ethnic issues,and is one of the most important scholars in this area.This paper base on the topic of "Frontier and Ethnic:The View of Mr.Ku Chieh-kang's Academic Ideology",comprehensively systemize his frontier ethnic ideology,evaluate his contribution to the study of frontier ethnic from the point of the history of academic,and showe the evolution of modern Chinese frontier ethnic ideology.The paper is divided into six chapters.Mr.Ku's brief biography and his transformation of academic ideology are introduced in chapter one,in order to make the reader more aware of him.In chapter two,I introduce Mr.Ku's opinion about the origin of Chinese Nationality.Influenced by the Evolution,the building of nation-state in modern times and the study of the Confucian classics in Qing Dynasty,Mr.Ku made the opinion of "four break" in 1923,proposed that the origin of Chinese nationality is multicomponent.By discussing Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors in 1930s,he considered that the imagination of"unitary in ethnic,unitary in geography" which was relevant to the people's psychology of "Grand Unification" produced in the Warring States period.On the issue of "Huangdi worship",Mr.Ku's point of view stressed more in academic,while he ignored the practical meaning.The third chapter focus on Mr.Ku's "National Blood Transfusion Theory".By the influence of the theory of the ideology of evolution,most people believed racially diverse,and believed that marrying with the master race(Caucasian)can improved inferior race,and Chinese nation had many shortcomings and in danger of extinction.Different from the idea of intermarriage with whites and improved race,Mr.Ku found Chinese minority's advantages,and hoped that intermarriage between Han people and other minorities in order to optimize the quality of Chinese nation,his "National Blood Transfusion Theory" including physical and cultural aspects.Although the goal and the process of argumentation of this theory are simple,but it firstly and fully affirm the role of the minority in Chinese history,and is an important part of transformation process from the traditional views of minorities and the Han people to the modern concept of national equality.The fourth chapter discusses Mr.Ku's concept of "The Chinese nation is a unity"which as his respond to the imperialism and ethnic seperationists' splitting China with the slogan of "Nationality Autonomy and Self-determination".He tried to rebuild the concept of "ethnic" and "race" by using "race" instead of "ethnic".I consider this replacement which was paid great attention and caused extensive discussions in academia has theoretical foundation,it based on the idiomatic expression using "race"represents the "ethnic" in the Republic of China era.I discuss Mr.Ku's contribution to the study of the history of Chinese frontier in chapter 5.One of important reasons for the rise of the frontier study in 20 century is to change people's concept of frontier,and frontier was no longer regarded as "exotic","distant land" or "useless land".Mr.Ku's His'tory of Chinese territory evolution which wrote in collaboration with Shi Nian-hai in 1930s is published in this condition.Ku Chieh-kang has a different opinion from other modern scholars about the issue of vassal state.I don't think his opinion is preposterous,it's based on the International Law's rules about territory,and is reasonable.I explore 3 issues in the sixth chapter.Firstly,according to introduce Mr.Ku's opinion of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Movement and its difference from the government's view,I discuss the complexity of frontier issues and dilemma of scholars'study.Secondly,analysis his education ideas about Gansu and Qinghai province,and compare it with contemporary other frontier education idea,in order to highlight Mr.Ku's great originality about education in Gansu and Qinghai province.Finally,taking"conservancy survey about Houtao" as an example,Yu Gong Academy's research methodology about frontier is analyzed,and I also evaluate its results and significance.