A Discussion On The Historical Thought Of Wang Kaiyun

Wang Kaiyun was a historical person with many reviews in modern China. He was criticized with conservative and backward thoughts. So scholars seldom researched Wang's thoughts. But the plentiful and intense thoughts of Wang couldn't be neglected. The article selected the visual angle of Wang's historical thought, and he was viewed in developing historical and social movement. By way of historical judge and judge of value, the author made an intense exploration on the forming process, content, practice and characteristics of his historical thought, in order to define the historical position of Wang again and recover the reality of history. Firstly, the article made a historical inspect about living surroundings, forming process and original causes of Wang's historical thought. And it analyzed the important distinct between Confucian classics and history, the main points of studying history and recording history with poetry. Finally, it analyzed the four characteristics of Wang's thought. The author stressed that the thought was not conservative but a combination of advocating cultural tradition and insisting on serving for reality, if we placed Wang's thought in the developing and changing historical culture. This would benefit sustaining the bond of Chinese existence. Cultural development has the characteristics of changing and creation. Wang's historical thought was more stressing on making historical function into play on the basis of serving for reality. His thought was often embodied in the practice of the authorities when they couldn't be achieved by way of Wang. This had positive social meaning in the practice. There was a new understanding here about his negative comments from 1912 because of the curator of library of Qing Dynasty history.