Pay attention to the | context and academic changes

"Research on the Compilation of Chinese Literary History in the Early 20th Century (1900-1910)" (Wen Qingxin, Social Science Literature Publishing House, May 2020 edition) takes Huang Ren's "History of Chinese Literature", Lin Chuanjia's "History of Chinese Literature", Lai Yugong's "Draft History of Chinese Literature" as research objects, deeply restores the social background, knowledge selection and compilation intention of the early compilation of Chinese literary history in the early 20th century, and proposes that although the Chinese literary history of this period is diverse in style, different in style, and different in length, Complex ideas and diverse values, but they all accept the framework of foreign literary history, and are widely influenced by the reform of the modern academic system, the background of "East-West transportation", and the needs of the times for education and enlightenment. Most of these literary histories are textbook handouts compiled by universities, middle schools, and even church schools at that time. While borrowing the framework of literary history to compile Chinese literary history, they do not focus their main compilation ideas on the discussion and practice of the internal laws of literary history, but try their best to effectively respond to China's historical background, social value and knowledge structure in the early 20th century.

The author carefully argues how the reform of the modern academic system affected the educational transformation of the new-style academies at that time, especially the relationship between the establishment and promulgation of the statutes such as the Statutes of the Higher Education Halls and the changes in modern scholarship, and finally concludes that the compilation of Chinese literary history is an important part of the modern academic changes, and it is inevitable that it will be affected by this. Since the morality of human ethics and the great righteousness of scripture were placed at the top of the disciplines of modern universities, such as the discipline of classics, literature, engineering, and agriculture, the "Chinese Literature Gate" of modern universities listed "speaking literature", "phonology", "Qunjing style", and "the end of various chronicles" as compulsory courses, which became the direction that must be followed in compiling the history of Chinese literature at that time.

The book analyzes how Huang Ren and Lin Chuanjia highlighted the tradition of "primary school" governance, how to emphasize the root of phonology and attach importance to dialect research, and how to advocate inheriting the "primary school" and connecting with "today's national scripts", so as to meet the needs of the times. The author finds that the needs raised by the current situation ultimately determine that the compilation of Chinese literary history in the early 20th century cannot fully adhere to tradition, nor simply copy Western studies; practical intentions ultimately determine what kind of ideas and methods can adapt to the needs of the times, and they will eventually be pushed onto the historical stage, thus promoting the traffic and mixing of Chinese and Western scholarship.

In the book, the author comprehensively expounds the identification of Huang Ren, Lin Chuanjia, Lai Yugong and others with the traditional "inherent learning", forming a common choice to advocate "restoring human morality", which is in line with the spiritual demands of modern aspirants such as Zhang Zhidong and Zhang Taiyan in seeking the restoration of Confucianism in the academic traffic of China and the West. The voice of people with lofty ideals in modern times has made the writers of literary history in this period adopt traditional scholarship as the dominant trend of traditional scholarship in the traffic trend of Chinese and Western scholarship under the multiple roles of personal quality and knowledge structure, which is in line with the spirit of the reform of the modern academic system. In particular, Huang Ren, Lin Chuanjia, and others had a strong sense of identification with China's inherent learning, advocated the restoration of human morality, and tried to practice the cultural tradition of "relying on oneself and not relying on him", which became a common value and academic self-discipline behavior of those who ruled literary history at that time. Therefore, the author concludes that "the intention of compiling 'enlightening the people's wisdom' and maintaining human morality became the most important spiritual demand for the compilation of Chinese literary history in the early 20th century." In other words, the changes in modern scholarship and the reform of the academic system deeply affected the worldview, values and methodologies of the compilers of Chinese literary history in the early 20th century, prompting the history of Chinese literature in the early 20th century to pay attention to the regional differences in literature and the self-improvement of scholarship, and ultimately dominated the writing choices of Chinese literary history at that time.

"Under the influence of the reform of the modern academic system, the inheritance and improvement of traditional scholarship in the compilation of Chinese literary history in the early 20th century is often reflected in the absorption and abandonment of critical methods, critical concepts, material selection, and specific assertions in the General Catalogue of the Four Libraries." Huang Ren, Lin Chuanjia, Lai Yugong, etc. tried to grasp the general trend of the development of Chinese literature through the study of traditional catalogues to "distinguish the scholarship of chapters and examine the source of the mirror". This choice of knowledge construction is not only deeply influenced by the modern idea of application through the ages, but also influenced by the traditional academic criticism ideas and cognitive perspectives. This prompted the writers of Chinese literary history at that time to integrate their values based on personal experience, the needs of the times and the intention of compiling literary history, and even the multi-faceted influence of subjective wishes such as ideas and expectations for the image of China in the future, and finally established a Chinese image that included the personal experience of literary history compilers, literary works of past dynasties, and the multiple subjects and multiple levels presented in history.

The biggest problem facing the compilation of Chinese literary history in the early 20th century was that there were not a large number of similar works to learn from, and there was a lack of a compilation paradigm for reference. Although compilers can grasp the general trend of Chinese literary evolution with the help of traditional learning, how to effectively cut into the writing of Chinese literary evolution, while seeking evaluation systems and methods for reference, depends on the personality of the compiler. Therefore, we see that Huang Ren's "History of Chinese Literature" is a "representative of a literary artist" with both a "biographical body", a work examination and compilation of bibliographic significance, and a "selection of works" with an anthological significance. It is seen that Lin Chuanjia uses thematic form to effectively integrate "literary scholars related to various disciplines" with literary history, and forms a unique personality through "attaching contempt" and "literary classics" to preach by example. I saw that Lai Yugong's "Manuscript of the History of Chinese Literature" was "personally inherited from the style and poetry system and recorded Han and Wei poetry", and the way of writing was to record another of his works, "Han Wendian", and to use philology and philology as the two guiding ideologies for compilation.

The author believes that the compilation of Chinese literary history in the early 20th century finally led to the modern reform of traditional scholarship in the choice between tradition and modernity, so as to meet the needs of the situation. How does the foreign "history of Chinese literature" integrate with traditional scholarship, how can it become a tool for compilers to practice their purpose intentions, and in what ways do compilers choose between Western literary history theories? The discussion of these issues can not only deeply grasp the modern transformation of modern Chinese scholarship, but also help to restore many facts in the compilation of Chinese literary history in the early 20th century, so as to see the arduous process of compiling Chinese literary history by people with lofty ideals at that time.

This is of enlightening significance for the current compilation of Chinese literary history: Chinese literary history is both an academic work and an important teaching material for teaching, and the relevant compilation should not only absorb the latest research results of the academic community, but also involve the related primary school, classics, historiography and other related knowledge, so that students can fully understand the classic characteristics and cultural attributes of traditional literature and history as much as possible. At present, the compilation and teaching of Chinese literary history need to serve the needs of the country and society, explain in an easy-to-understand way, and impart traditional literary and historical knowledge, so as to form students' self-confidence and pride in intuitively feeling the inherent charm of traditional culture.

(Author Affilications:College of Social Development, Yangzhou University)

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