New Terms in the Knowledge of History and Historiography in Late Qing and Republican China

• In Event: Knowledge Construction and Disciplinary Specialization in Modern China

Abstract

The establishment of disciplinary terminology is crucial to the formation of standardized and specialized knowledge. However, its significance varies according to the discipline, and process of forming the modern discipline of history in China reveals issues distinct from other discipline. The very concept of “history”—though a traditional form of knowledge—itself changed as it reflected the shift in an entire discourse based around the new terms of “civilization” and “society,” thus making China into a product of so-called Universal History. The new “new historiography” of the early twentieth century took into account Western history. This was a process that not merely inserted new terminology in history writing but also reconceptualized the nature of Chinese knowledge of the “past.” The politicization and ideologicalization of history was inseparable from its rise as a specialized knowledge discipline. Above all, in education, disciplinary standards defined modern history and legitimated it. This paper examines how history achieved significance in the modern encounter. It has proved difficult for history as a modern discipline to prove its usefulness, especially its social significance and value, but for history to meet this challenge it must unfold according to true disciplinary standards in both the writing of history and in history education.

Author

• Qing Zhang, Fudan University