On The Research Contribution Of Historical Development In Wei, Jin, Southern And Northern Dynasties Made By Yi-liang Chou

Yi-Liang Chou was one of the reputable historians in modern times, who was of greatattainment in historiography of Wei, Jin, the Southern and Northern Dynasties and madegreat contributions to promote the development of the historiography in this period. Hegave primary focus on the history of historiography in Wei, Jin, Southern and NorthernDynasties which older historians had not probed into. As for the research methods,different from the introduction type or chip-cutting type, starting form the explaination of"culture in a deep sense", Yi-Liang Chou studied historiography in Wei, Jin, Southern andNorthern Dynasties from several aspects, such as the developmental characteristics ofhistoriography, the relationship between historiography and politics, the similarities anddifferences between the north and south in Wei-jin period, as well as the historians at thattime, so as to systematize the research of history of historiography in this period in themanner of "see a world in a grain of sand". Combined with his achievements inhistoriography in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, this paper makes anobjective and fair evaluation on Yi-Liang Chou’s contributions to the development ofhistoriography in this period based on the predecessors’ research results. This paper mainlyincludes the following several parts:The first part is the introduction, which describes current research achievements ofhistorical circle, performing an analysis and making a summary based on the researchresult of the predecessors, sorting out the deficiencies, and points out the purpose,significance, and innovation of this study.In the second part, the author summarizes the academic career and academic origin ofYi-Liang Chou, analyzing the main research achievement and reason why he could makean outstanding contribution in this field, in order to provide the first understanding of Mr. Chou’s academic feature.In the third part, starting from the works of history of historiography, the author talksabout several representative arguments, such as the developmental characteristics ofhistoriography, the relationship between historiography and politics, the similarities anddifferences between the north and south in Wei-jin period, the features of history books, aswell as the evaluation of the historians at that time, so as to probe into the remarkableaccomplishments in the research of history of historiography in this period.In the fourth part, the author mainly analyzes and summarizes the mostly usedmethods by Yi-Liang Chou to study history of historiography, namely Classic LiteratureResearch Method, Historical Comparative Method and Interdisciplinary Method.In the fifth part, the author generalizes Yi-Liang Chou’s academic status andacademic value,and highly simplifies his important role in studying this special historyand distinguished contribution.In a word, this paper summarizes and analyzes Yi-Liang Chou’s contribution indifferent facets based on the generalization of previous research results, striving to make adeep and comprehensive research on his achievements in research of history ofhistoriography in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.