A Study Of Hainan's Local Records Published During The Period Of Republic Of China

Local records, each of which deals with different administrative divisions of China respectively, are comprehensive informative records of the history as well as the present state of a particular division. These records refer to both the natural and social aspects, such as astronomy, geography, politics, economy, the military, culture, customs and calamity. As writings of an independent genre, local records, with a long history and rich in content, are of unique value, and thereby regarded as excellent cultural heritage of our nation.The compilation of local records has been attached considerable importance to during almost every historical period in Hainan Island, especially during the period of Republic of China. As many as fifteen different kinds of local records were compiled in only thirty-eight years: among them are seven provincial records, four county records, three records devoted to the islands in South China Sea and one handbook of interviews. At that time, along with the social development, it became necessary to change the traditional way of compilation; Hainan's local records were therefore reformed in terms of content and compiling style and methods. Such reforms brought about groundbreaking changes to the traditional local records which had lasted hundreds of years in the past Chinese feudal societies and thus promoted the development of local records.The present thesis concentrates on Hainan's local records published during the period of Republic of China. We further the study by looking into the various compilation schools, backgrounds, characteristics and their information value, which offers a comprehensive and systematic analysis of those local records. In this way, we tell the very difference between them and those compiled in the previous periods.Our study, based on the thorough collection and careful sort-out of historical materials, employs the theories as well as methods of historiography, science of historical documents, sociology and statistics. During the process of research, we not only refer to the individual cases, but also pay attention to the global outline of those local records. Comparative studies are also carried out when necessary.We found that the advantages of the local records of that period mainly go as follows: the government attached importance to the compilation; an enormous number of compilers took part in the compilation; and the records were rich in content and of value as historical data. However, every coin has two sides. Due to the limitations of that time, quite a little of what was recorded in those local records were unsound; what's worse, because of frequent wars and political instability, the amount of local records did not reach what it was supposed to be. All in all, we should study those local records in great detail, without ignoring their defects or strengths, in order to facilitate the producing of Hainan's Local Records in the future.