Destruction And Construction

A structural transformation has happened in Ancient China Study during modern times.It started from breaking the main structure of traditional Ancient China Study,and then gradually turned from destruction to construction.Gu Jiegang was an quit important scholar in the transformtion.However,there are quite controversial issues about Gu Jiegang's ancient China study and its academic evaluation,even no basic consensus in the academia until now.It is generally believed that Gu Jiegang paid more attention to destructions but not constructions.According to historic facts,"destruction"is just one aspect of Gu Jiegang's ancient history,and the other is "construction".Therefore,my research constructed a "four-in-one" ancient history study system of Gu Jiegang,ancient history study,ancient book research,ancient ethnic research and ancient territory research are included;then do empirical analysis and investigation on the two aspects based on the approaches of academic history "tracing the source of the theories".There are four chapters of the main part.1.Destructions and Constructions:Gu Jiegang and Ancient China Study".Ancient history research is the core component of Gu Jiegang's ancient history study.the Accumulative Theory of Ancient History was the most important part of his research.The reason why Gu Jiegang was able to propose this revolutionary theory is not only to inherit the "suspicion of antiquity" research results of domestic scholars such as Ouyang Xiu,Liu Shu,Cui Shu,and Liang Yusheng,but also to draw on the results of western sinologist,such as Emmanuel-edouard Chavannes and Friedrich Hirth.Therefore,Chinese ancient history system was destroyed completely after the revolutionary theory came out.Since then,Gu Jiegang continued to work on the overthrow of "unbelievable history" and gradually turned to the reconstruction of real ancient history.Especially in the year of 1938,Gu Jiegang taught at Yunnan University and compiled Lecture Notes on Ancient Chinese History based on the previous syllabus.From the perspective of folklore,the book reconstructed the real ancient history of China preliminarily by using the scientific approach of "returning Zhou Qin to the Zhou and Qin dynasties".In addition,it should be noted that Gu Jiegang didn't abandon the previous suspicious standpoint as some people said.He didn't agree with the "existence of the Xia Dynasty",and continued to analyze the phenomenon of ancient history with the accumulation of ancient history theory.In this regard,in the study of Chinese ancient history,Gu Jiegang not only completely subverted the traditional system of ancient history,but also preliminarily established a real sy stem of ancient history.2.Distinguish True and False:Gu Jiegang and Ancient Chinese Book Study.The study of ancient books is another important component of Gu Jiegang's ancient history.It is closely related to the study of ancient history.In particular,Gu Jiegang constructed the Accumulative Theory of Ancient History just because of the late appearance of Yao Dian and the conflict between different concepts of ancient Chinese history in Yao Dian and Shi Jing.Since then,in order to further clarify the truth of ancient history,he continued to examine the era of Yao Dian,and then put forward the statement that"current version of Yao Dian was finished in Emperor Wu Period of Han Dynasty".The reason why Gu Jiegang was able to propose the doubting antiquity theory not only because he was inspired by the views of Yao Dian of Cao Yuezhi,Wang Bai,Kang Youwei,Liang Qichao,Hu Shi,Qian Xuantong,but because he conducted a detailed inspection of Yao Dian by examining the historical literature.Until now,this theory could not be concluded,and even there is a big controversy,but it undoubtedly conducted countless ways for the scholars to continue to examine the authenticity and era of the Yao Dian and other ancient books.The problem is more than that.Gu Jiegang did not advocate the abandonment of false books,or even destroy them,but put forward the false book relocation theory" constructively,that is,put the "false books" into the era of falsification,make it true materials for people to know the era when the book came out.That is re-evaluation of "false book".The reason why Gu Jiegang was able to put forward this constructive theory,was he had historical perspectives and equal perspectives,in addition to accepting the views of Ouyang Xiu,Hu Yinglin,Liang Qichao,Yang Honglei,Qian Xuantong.Therefore,after the statement was put forward,people's understanding of "false books" was further deepened,which further promoted the development of ancient book study.In addition,it is also necessary to clarify that when Gu Jiegang re-evaluated the "fake book",he didn't abandon the doubting antiquity views,although some "fake books" were "moved forward" and identified as old books of the pre-Qin period.So Gu Jiegang not only completely broke through the traditional ancient book research,but also created a new paradigm for modern ancient book study.3.Turning One Original to One Unity:Gu Jiegang and the Study of Ancient Ethnic Group.The Study of Ancient Ethnic Group is an important part of Gu Jiegang's ancient history study.It is inseparable from his ancient history study.Specifically,as a supplement to the Accumulative Theory of Ancient History,Gu Jiegang proposed four criteria for overthrowing "false history".The first one was to "break the idea that Chinese people comes from one ancestor".The criterion can be called "Chinese Nation is Not out of One Ancestor".Of course,since the Northern Song Dynasty,Ouyang Xiu,Hong Mai,Cui Shu,Liu Shipei,Liang Qichao,Li Taifen and others have tried to break the traditional theory "Chinese Nation is Not out of One Ancestor",but it didn't make any sense.Gu Jiegang conducted an in-depth analysis and investigation of this traditional theory and its origin,completely overthrowing this unbreakable view,and providing the basic conditions for later scholars to establish "national multi-originism".Since then,Gu Jiegang continued to do his research of ancient ethnic groups,and gradually turned from destruction to construction.Especially in the year of 1939,after the full outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War,Gu Jiegang constructively put forward the theory "Chinese Nation is indivisible",during the special times.The reason why Gu Jiegang was able to establish the theory "Chinese Nation is indivisible" is not only because he drew academic resources from the discussions of domestic scholars such as Liang Qichao and Sun Yat-sen,but also because he referred to the latest national theory from the West at that time.In addition,it is also necessary to point out here that when Gu Jiegang was establishing "Chinese Nation is indivisible",didn't abandon the doubting antiquity view,but insist on Shang and Zhou is definitely not one ethnic group,and then established the theory of "Chinese Nation is indivisible".Therefore,in terms of the study of ethnic groups in ancient China,Gu Jiegang not only overthrew the traditional ethnic theory,but also preliminarily constructed a modern ethnic theory.4.Turning Multisource to Entirety:Gu Jiegang and the Study of Ancient Territorial Issues.The study of ancient territory is another important part of Gu Jiegang's ancient history.It is also closely related to its ancient history research.As a supplement to the"history of tiredness in ancient history",Gu Jiegang proposed four criteria for overthrowing" false history”,the second of which is to "break the idea that Chinese territory was always unified".The criterion can be called "Chinese territory doesn't come from one unity".Since the Southern Song Dynasty,Hong Mai,Liang Qichao,Wang Guowei,Hu Shi have sharply questioned the traditional idea that "Chinese region was always unified",which didn't make any sense.Gu Jiegang conducted a detailed investigation and analysis of this deep-rooted traditional theory and its origin with the accumulation theory of ancient history,completely overthrew the traditional one,and provided the scholars with the basic elements to establish "the theory of regional expansion of ancient history”.The problem is more than that.Gu Jiegang continued to do the research of ancient territories,and gradually turned from destruction to construction.Especially in the year of 1938,after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War,due to the impact of this national crisis,Gu Jiegang and Shi Nianhai co-authored History of China's Territory.The book systematically discussed the changes of China's territory with scientific research approaches and defended the legitimacy of China's unified territory,which effectively strengthened people's sense of responsibility to defend their territory.In addition,it is necessary to clarify that,during the Anti-Japanese War,Gu Jiegang not as some scholars thought,abandoned the doubting antiquity view that "territory should not be a unity",but still believed that China's unified territory came from expansion,and then built the real transition track of China's territory on that premise.Therefore,in terms of ancient Chinese territory study,Gu Jiegang not only completely destroyed the traditional concept of territories,but also preliminarily established the concept of modern territories on this basis,and even established a paradigm for the study of Chinese territorial history.In conclusion,in the modern transformation of ancient China study,Gu Jiegang undoubtedly played a central role.Both destruction and construction were included in what he had done.Therefore,Gu Jiegang is not only one of the terminators of traditional ancient history,but one of the founders of modern ancient history on ancient China study.