Abstract:
Miao Fenglin was an eminent historian and theorist who explored the compilation of Chinese general history theoretically and practically in relatively early days and made prominent accomplishments after Liang Qichao. By compiling The Outline of Chinese General History and The Summary of Chinese General History, he courageously innovated in compiling theory, forms and modes of historical works, which established him as one of the typical representatives in the new upsurge of compiling Chinese general history in the 1930s and 1940s. He intended to inspire the spirit of the Chinese nation by compiling general history, paying special attention to “recording the performance of national own strength” taking the shaping and growth of the Chinese nation as the mainline of historical narration to magnify the integrity and individuality of the nation. On the one hand, he expounded “the importance of general history” in terms of implications and functions of history, and on the other, he explained the necessity and complexity of “alternative tradeoff” and set up the key standards for it by discriminatively analyzing the subjective and objective relationship in history studies. Based on this, he managed to create a new complex as a model of combination of Chinese and western historiographies, which not only presented the tendency of historical evolution but also included rich social contents.
