A Study On Modern Historian-Li Jian-nong

Li Jian-nong (1880-1963), born in Shaoyang of Hunan Province, was a distinguished historian in modern China. He occupied an important position in the New Culture Movement and the Autonomous Movement of Hunan Province. Later, he switched to historical studies, and focused his research mainly on China's modern history and economic history of ancient China. His works included History of Chinese Politics in the Past SO Years, History of Chinese politics the Past 100 Years, and the 3-volume Economic History of Ancient China. There are some researches on his personal thoughts, political activities, publicity activities and his academic accomplishments, but these are far from enough when considering his important position in history and there is much room for more studies about him.This thesis is based on his political essays published in the journal The Pacific, the reports in Shanghai Times and Da Gong Newspapers of Hunan, as well as his works on China's modern history and economic history of ancient China, and mainly deals with the following 5 aspects:1. Soon after he finished his study in Britain and returned to China, he opened a journal on the exploration on politics and academic theories, the Pacific. The writers for this journal were mostly students who once pursued their study in Britain or Japan, and many of them also wrote for another journal Jia Yin. The Journal The Pacific became an important front of New Culture Movement. But it differed from another journal under the leadership of Chen Du-xiu, New Youth, in that it represented a mild and reserved style, while New Youth was strongly against the tradition. This difference in the style didn't exist by accident. It was actually closely related to the British way of thinking of the writers, especially of the editor Li jian-nong.2. In 1922, the Autonomy Movement sprang up in Hunan. Li Jian-nong, following a gradual liberalism, accepted the invitation of Hunan's warlord Zhao Heng-ti, to lead some other intellectual celebrities into making the first provincial constitution in Chinese history, and to work as the Ministry of Provincial Affairs and the Chief Secretary of education, attempting to cultivate a piece of land in democratic experiment. Although he tried his utmost, his experiment ended in failure, for in the crack of warlord politics, there wasn't much space for his experiment for liberalism and democracy. This experience in his political career gave him a hard blow, which was the primary reason why he plunged into academic studies afterwards.3. Although Li Jian-nong didn't have a systematic political theoretic system, his exploration of the achievement of liberty and democracy in China was the focus of his research from 1916 to 1922. Taking The pacific as the front, he published a large number of essays on politics, so his ideas could be considered as belonging to liberalism.4. Li Jian-nong was a very important forerunner in China's modern history. His books History of Chinese Politics in the Past 30 Years, History of Chinese Politics in the Past 100 Years are still important reference books even today in the field of modern history studies. He differed from Chen Gonglu's Chinas Modern History, which features "a modern discourse", and was also different from Li Dingsheng's China's Modern History, which features a revolutionary discourse. He was in the middle of the two ends.5. In the research of economy history of ancient China, he was greatly affected by Marxist historical theories, but avoided the drawback of empty talk in it. He just treated the "5 kinds of social forms" as a key point in the summary of the long Chinese history, but preferred not to go to great lengths to discuss the correlation of the 5 kinds of social forms to Chinese society. So in the study of economy history of ancient china, he was making great efforts to dig into the historical materials, just as what he did in the study of his China's modern history. In this sense, he had the characteristics of the School of Historical Materials. His 3-volume Economic History of Ancient China, which took him nearly 20 years to compose, has become a prominent work in the formation of the subject Economic History of Ancient China. For all its many drawbacks, these works were widely valued and praised by the academicians in the field of economic history of China.