Zhang Binglin, Gu Jiegang and the "Historiographic Revolution" in China

Abstract

The article is devoted to the “historiographical revolution” of the 20th c. in China. Two methodological systems by radical thinkers representing two generations were chosen for analysis, that of Zhang Binglin (1869–1936) and Gu Jiegang (1893–1980). Both of them received traditional Confucian education, which determined the direction for research, an ambivalent attitude to traditional Chinese culture and historical knowledge. The thinking of Zhang Binglin had a strong political and nationalist conditionality, which was combined with the perception of the latest trends of the Kulturgeschichte through Japanese translations and works by Japanese historians. The perception of important provisions of Rankean positivism, in particular, the emphasis on source criticism (Quellenkritik), correlated with the neo-Confucian “evidential scholarship” (kaozheng). Recognizing the objectivity of time and existence of the laws of history, Zhang Binglin rejected moral assessments of traditional Confucian historiography. He was also the first to contrast mythology and historical truth, the analysis of which was carried out by Gu Jiegang. On the one hand, Gu Jiegang strove for a phenomenological reconstruction of mentality and perception of history at the next stage of historical development. On the other hand, he was never able to go beyond pragmatic use of mythological information to prove correctness of hypotheses put forward.