Hou Wailu And "Study Of The Social History Of Ancient China"

Hou Wailu was a famous Marxist historian in our country, he had many contributions in history of ideas and Social History,"Study of the Social History of Ancient China" was his representative in the social history aspects. Asiatic mode production was just the theoretical basis of this book, it combined with the specific circumstances of ancient Chinese society to detailed analysis the special path of the origin of Chinese civilization."Study of the Social History of Ancient China "reflected the fundamental method of Hou Wailu’s history study was Marxist method, embodied in the study of Social History started from economics, committed to Marxist historiography in China, use the research method of comparing China with the West, and adhere to the principle of seeking truth from facts, keep the research Distinguishing. In addition, we can see Hou Wailu’s historical research features from "Study of the Social History of Ancient China", especially the interactive study of Social History and Ideolofical History, his study of history have a very strong spirit of service for the reality, and focused on the particularity of the development of Chinese history. Of course, at the same time positive affirmation of the achievements of Hou Wailu’s study, we should also see the shortcomings and ’deficiencies of his study, such as he took the West as typical and believed China the special, there was no avoiding the "Western-centric"; he believes China from the end of the Yin dynasties and the beginning of the Zhou dynasties to Qin and Han dynasties was slave society, so we should have a necessary reflection on Hou Wailu’s ancient Chinese social history research system.