Author:   Du Jidong    Hits:    Update Time:2005年09月06日

The Department of Intellectual History was established in 1988. From 1988 to 1992, it was termed a project group. The first director was Geng Yunzhi, who was succeeded by Wen Liming. The present director is Zheng Dahua. The department, with only six members currently, is one of the smallest and most recently established departments in the Institue. The department has two research fellows, three associate research fellows, and one assistant research fellow. All but one of them have doctorates or master’s degrees.

In the more than ten years since was established, the department has undertaken a total of 14 key research projects for the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and National Social Science Foundation. The department’s publications include:

· More than 20 monographs (including two of co-written monographs), totaling more than 7 million Chinese characters.

· Six collections of academic papers (including four as chief editor), totaling approximately 1.5 million Chinese characters.

· Eighteen collections of historical materials, totaling more than 20 million Chinese characters in 66 volumes.

· Seven translations of monographs (including four co-translated monographs), totaling approximately 2 million Chinese characters.

· More than 250 academic articles, totaling approximately 2.5 million Chinese characters.

The department has been awarded five national and provincial (ministry) level prizes, and has held seven national academic conferences. In 2002, the department was affirmed as one of the first round of priority scholarly development projects at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

In the more than ten years since it was established, the department has considered the state of the field in China and overseas, and its own conditions and strengths, and has undertaken the following projects:

1. The department has gathered, arranged and published a great deal of research materials on intellectual history, such as: Hu Shi’s Posthumous Manuscripts and Private Letters (44 volumes), edited under the supervision of Geng Yunzhi; Hu Shi’s Letters (3 volumes), edited by Geng Yunzhi; Anthology of the Hu Shi Debate (3 volumes), edited by Geng Yunzhi; Complete Works of Hu Shi, co-edited by Geng Yunzhi and Zheng Dahua; Library of Chinese Enlightenment Thought (20 works, awarded the China Book Prize, third class), edited and arranged in part by Zheng Dahua; Selected Works of Modern Neo-Confucianism (16 works), co-edited by Zheng Dahua; Scholarly Controversies in 20th Century China (10 volumes), co-edited by Zheng Dahua, etc.

2. The Department has conducted research on a number of important political and cultural movements and events in modern Chinese history, and made a number of achievements in this area. For example, “A Study of Modern Chinese Cultural Transformation” (published as Western Democracy in Modern China), a CASS and National Social Science Foundation priority project, was undertaken by the Department under the direction of Geng Yunzhi. “A Study of Democracy in Ancient Chinese Political Culture,” a CASS project, was undertaken by the Department with Geng Yunzhi as project director. “Third-Party Political Forces in China during the Resistance War against Japan,” a National Social Science Foundation project, was undertaken by Wen Liming. “A Comparative Study of Modern Chinese Cultural Conservatism and Westernization Thought: centered on Liang Shumin and Hu Shi,” a National Social Science Foundation youth project, was undertaken by Zheng Dahua, and so on.

3. We have made many significant achievements in the field of modern Chinese intellectual history, such as Geng Yunzhi’s studies on the thought of Liang Qichao and Hu Shi and the constitutional thought of Sun Yat-sen; Wen Liming’s studies on the thought of Wen Yiduo; Zheng Dahua’s studies on the thought of Bao Shicheng, Ma Yifu, Liang Shumin and Zhang Junmai; Zou Xiaozhan’s studies on the liberal thought of Zhang Shizhao; Zheng Kuangmin’s studies on the Japanese background of Liang Qichao’s enlightenment thought, and so on. Of these, Geng Yunzhi’s studies on the thought of Hu Shi, Wen Liming’s studies on the thought of Wen Yiduo, Zheng Dahua’s studies on the thought of Bao Shicheng, Liang Shumin and Zhang Junmai, Zheng Kuangmin’s studies on the Japanese background of Liang Qichao’s enlightenment thought, and Zou Xiaozhan’s studies on the liberal thought of Zhang Shizhao are all at the forefront of their fields.

On the basis of this research, we have published a number of pioneering works, such as: Western Democracy in Modern China (Geng Yunzhi, et al., Beijing: China Youth Press, 2003), which systematically studies the views and practices of democracy among modern Chinese people; Liang Shumin and Hu Shi: A Comparative Study of Cultural Conservatism and Westernization Thought (Zheng Dahua, Beijing: Zhonghua Book Co., 1994), which systematically compares cultural conservatism and Westernization thought; The Village Construction Movement in Republican China (Zheng Dahua, Beijing: Social Science Academic Press, 2000), which systematically studies the village construction movement in Republican China; Selected Works on Hu Shi (Geng Yunzhi, Chengdu: Sichuan People’s Publishing House, 1985) and New Views on Hu Shi (Geng Yunzhi, Changsha: Hunan Press, 1996), which systematically study Hu Shi’s thought; Chronology of the Life of Wen Yiduo (Wen Liming ed., Wuhan: Hubei People’s Publishing House, 1992) and Biography of Wen Yiduo (Wen Liming, Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1994), which systematically study Wen Yiduo’s career and thought; Biography of Zhang Junmai (Zheng Dahua, Beijing: Zhonghua Book Co., 1997) and Critical Record of Zhang Junmai’s Academic Thought (Zheng Dahua, Beijing: Beijing Library Press, 1999), which systematically study Zhang Junmai’s career and thought; A Study of Zhang Shizhao’s Social and Political Thought, 1903-1927 (Zou Xiaozhan, Changsha: Hunan Education Press, 2001), which examines Zhang Shizhao’s liberal thought; and The Japanese Background of Liang Qichao’s Enlightenment Thought (Zheng Kuangmin, Shanghai: Shanghai Bookstore Press, 2003), which investigates the Japanese background of Liang’s thought.

At present, Geng Yunzhi’s studies of Hu Shi’s career and thought are generally recognized in Chinese and foreign academic circles as the most authoritative works on the subject. As a result, the Department is now generally recognized in academic circles as a major center for Hu Shi studies.

In addition, Geng Yunzhi’s studies of the constitutionalist political and intellectual movements in the late Qing, his studies of the May Fourth New Culture Movement, Zheng Dahua’s studies of Liang Shumin, Zhang Junmai, the Republican village construction movement, Republican cultural history, and studies of Chinese intellectual circles during and after the First World War, Zheng Kuangmin’s studies of the influence of modern Japanese intellectual circles on China, and Zou Xiaozhan’s studies of Zhang Shizhao’s liberal thought are also at the forefront of their fields in China, and exert a widespread influence in China and overseas. Generally speaking, as the only research unit in the country specializing in modern Chinese intellectual history, the Department of Intellectual History of the Institute of Modern History, CASS, has essentially functioned as the focal point for research on modern Chinese intellectual history in China. Its work has garnered praise and recognition in Chinese and international academic circles, and some of its views and conclusions have been widely cited by scholars in related fields. In particular, Geng Yunzhi’s research on Hu Shi is basic and required reading for Chinese students who study Hu Shi.

In order to promote the deepening and broadening of research on modern Chinese intellectual history, the Department plans to direct its research in the next 50 years towards pursuing comprehensive, innovative and interdisciplinary studies. The Department plans to enlarge its field of research from focusing mainly on thought and intellectuals to focusing mainly on the transformation of modern culture, and the process and characteristics of the development of modern thought. After finishing the CASS priority project “A Study of Modern Chinese Cultural Transformation”, the Department will do the preparatory work for writing a General Modern Chinese Intellectual History, namely, finishing the Modern History Institute priority project Chronology of Modern Chinese Intellectual History, and beginning to write Selected Works of Modern Chinese Intellectual History and Modern Chinese Thinkers and the Course of Modern Chinese Thought. The Department will also compile a series of books: Compendium of Sources in Modern Chinese Intellectual History.

In order to promote the study of modern Chinese intellectual history in China and overseas, and to enhance academic dialog and exchange between China and foreign countries, the Department plans to cooperate with other research units, colleges and universities, taking turns holding alternate biannual nationwide and international academic conferences. In 2002, 2003 and 2004, the Department organized and hosted the “Seminar on Research Methods in Modern Chinese Intellectual History”, “Seminar on Conservatism and Radicalism in Modern Chinese Intellectual History” and the “First International Seminar on Modern Chinese Intellectual History”. These three academic conferences and the papers they have produced have elicited a strong response in academic circles and played a definite role in promoting the development of the study of modern Chinese intellectual history.

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Email: sxs-jd@cass.org.cn