A Study Of Liang Qichao's Biographies

Liang Qichao had a particular interest in the style of biography. According to yinbingshiheji, he wrote about 85 pieces of biography, with almost one million characters. However, the fifteen works, which he wrote at the end of 19century and the beginning of 20 century, acquired more concern, because of their specific features and their large social effect. These works can be treated as the representative works of Liang Qichao's biographies.The standpoint of the thesis is, the specific features were largely affected by the two kinds of position of Liang Qichao, one is"Xinshishi", the man who advocated new historiography, the other is"Xinminzi", the man who advocated the undertaking to instruct new citizens. So the thesis has two parts. The two parts both discusses from four perspectives, including how the biographer understood the style, what were his purposes when he wrote the works, how the biographer chose the heroes and what's the characteristic of his works in writing skills. However, in former part, the discussion is combined to Liang Qichao's thought of historiography, and in later part, the discussion is combined to Liang Qichao's thought of enlightenment. We hope to find the true reasons of the special features of these biographies, and put forward a new criterion to appraise these biographies through this kind of discussion.