The Changing Description Of The Opium War In Secondary Schools’ History Textbooks

The Opium War is a major event in Chinese history, but our cognition to it is a dynamic and changing process with time by. It is the same when it reflects in history textbooks of secondary school. In the late Qing Dynasty, the Opium War in secondary schools’history textbooks was described as a normal historical event. At that time, textbooks focused on the procedure of the war, and there were many different versions to describe the event in different textbooks. The description of the Opium War in textbooks tended to be consistent after 1922. Besides, the authors of the textbooks began to realize the underlying causes of the war, and had a more profound understanding about the impact of the war and the Treaty of Nanking. In a word, they gradually realized the great historical significance of the Opium War. Furthermore, during the War of Liberation, the history textbooks of secondary school in the Revolutionary Base Areas had nominally or actually given the Opium War an important title, namely the beginning of modern Chinese history. After 1949, the new government quickly set up the Regimenting System of textbooks, so the description about the Opium War was relatively consistent for a long time. The Opium War was still regarded as the beginning of modern Chinese history, but the description was driven by politics to some extent at that time. Since 1986, as the policy of reform and opening up was further implemented and the Censoring System of textbooks was reestablished, the description of the Opium War became diverse and scientific. Then the new curriculum reform has begun since 2001, the description of the Opium War is more scientific and rigorous, but there are still a lot of things we can do better. By illustrating the changing description of the Opium War in secondary schools’ history textbooks in different times, I want to restore a more comprehensive, objective and true Opium War as much as possible, and to provide a new perspective for the scholars who research the Opium War in the future. I also hope to provide some useful references for teachers and textbook writers.