Abstract:Liang Qichao was obsessed with writing about the general history of China all his life. Although he did not complete a complete general history of China, he wrote part of it in his lectures, and in many articles and lectures, he repeatedly stated various ideas for compiling a new type of general history of China. In terms of the structure of general history, he changed from a vertical staged narrative based on different periodization viewpoints to a "multi-line parallel" special history to form a general history writing pattern; in terms of content, he changed from advocating political history to cultural history, and his cognition of the concept of "cultural history" also changed; in terms of historical outlook, he developed from accepting and advocating the evolutionary view of history in his early years to doubting it in his later years, and continued to explore historical theories that are more suitable for "social change".
Introduction: Liang Qichao was obsessed with writing about the general history of China all his life. In July 1902, when he commented on the works on Chinese history written by foreign scholars in his "Oriental Yuedan", he said: "There is no good book of Chinese history so far," and "this matter cannot be looked at at other mountains after all," which hinted at his ambition; in December of the same year, he wrote "Thirty Self-Statements," which "has been quite thin for a year, and has tried his best to draft a general history of China to help the development of patriotic thought, but the sun and the moon have flown and still have not been able to complete two out of ten," indicating that during this period, he had already begun to write a general history of China, and published the "Narrative of Chinese History" in September 1901 The scope, nomenclature, ethnicity, chronology, prehistory, and division of Chinese history discussed in this article are all problems that he encountered and needed to solve when writing the general history. In 1904, in a letter to Jiang Guanyun, he detailed the compilation and preparation of the "Manuscript of the History of the People's Republic of China": "The first part will also be printed during the day, and the manuscript will be sorted out. In 1907, when referring to the work of "History of China" in a letter to Kang Youwei, he said, "The disciple vows to complete this work, and if he wants to do so, he will complete it in the coming year, one to fulfill his long-cherished wish, and the other to educate the national spirit", and at the same time, to repay the debt of Guangzhi Bookstore. However, during this time, he was extremely busy with government affairs and newspaper business, and could not concentrate on writing. It was not until the spring and summer of 1918 that he "abandoned Pepsi and devoted himself to the work of general history", and in May he wrote to Uncle Chen that his work had "become 120,000 words", and the letter also mentioned the matter of publication. In the summer and autumn of that year, he informed his brother Liang Zhongce that the "Spring and Autumn Chronicles" was out of draft, "There are all four leaves, and its pride can be imagined. However, in the following August and September, he suffered from hematemesis due to his excessive writing, and on September 16, a friend sent a letter to persuade him that "the compilation of the General History should be suspended for half a year or a year before it is completed." In his later years, he continued to write in Tsinghua Garden, but in the end he did not complete a complete general history of China, which he himself regarded as a great regret: "Siyong said that my "History of China" is indeed a big account that I should make to the Chinese people, and if I don't make it done, I really can't live with the people and myself." Throughout Liang Qichao's career in history, although he has published a large number of historical works, many of which are classics, writing a new general history of China should be one of his greatest wishes. Since the 80s of the 20th century, some scholars have paid attention to the compilation and writing of Liang Qichao's general history, and related research involves the background, process and historical compilation ideas contained in the writing of Liang Qichao's general history, as well as the comparative study of Liang Qichao's and Zhang Taiyan's general history genres, and the discussion and analysis of the evolutionary historical concept and the periodization of Chinese history expounded in Liang Qichao's general history. On the whole, the research is mainly limited to a general introduction, or combined with other related issues, and there is a lack of a more detailed review of the process before and after Liang Qichao's compilation of the General History of China, and there is little more in-depth analysis of the parts of the General History of China that he has already written, which may be related to Liang Qichao's failure to complete a complete General History of China. However, it was Liang Qichao's long-cherished wish to write a new general history of China, and it was precisely because of his very high requirements for writing a new type of general history of China that he practiced it many times but was ultimately unable to complete it, and it was precisely because he wrote a new type of general history of China as a direct cause that he called for the establishment of a "new historiography" and proposed a "revolution in history", so that Chinese historiography truly has the characteristics of modern transformation, so it is necessary to conduct more in-depth research on the writing of his general history of China. On the basis of combing through the historical materials, the author examines his style and concept of general history, hoping to have a more comprehensive understanding of Liang Qichao's academic practice process in writing the general history of China, explore his concepts of general history in different periods, and clarify his many thoughts on the compilation of a new type of general history of China, so as to reflect the changes in his academic thought and his influence on modern Chinese historiography. 1. Exploration of the General History Style Liang Qichao's concept of general history is grand, and he mentions in his letters that it has been completed, including the "National History Manuscript", "more than 200,000 words, the part of the "Pre-Qin" is 11 volumes, crowned with a general narrative, about 200,000 words, and "The Spring and Autumn Chronicles" has been taken out of manuscript, and there are 100 leaves in 100. Tang Renze and others traced the remnants when compiling the Complete Works of Liang Qichao, and saw that "the Manuscript of National History is a 'long article' in the 'fragmentary manuscript', written on the manuscript paper of the 'Manuscript of the Writings of the Ice Drinking Room', with a total of 44 leaves, each leaf on the front and back, and 13 lines on each side", and its scale can be seen. Liang Qichao's conception of a general history is very complex. In the surviving literature, there are many catalogues of general histories written by him, and the content varies greatly, so the relevant studies have different opinions on the style of the general histories he wrote, and most of the "general histories" he refers to are regarded as a consistent one. However, if we compare the general history items we have seen, and then refer to the relevant letters and other materials, we can see that Liang Qichao's writing of the general history of China actually went through the process of starting anew many times. (1) The first style of general history proposed by Liang Qichao is the self-created style mentioned in his letters, which includes five parts: "Chronology", "Chronicles", "Chronicles", "Biography" and "Chronicles". At that time, he was very satisfied with the style he created, and said in a letter to Uncle Chen: "The style has no time to write a detailed book to the public, and my brother is confident that there is no one before him." Zai Ping once read the manuscript of 40,000 words twice in half a day, which is unbearable, and I think that all readers may be the same. This type of work has been called a "new complex" by researchers. As can be seen in Table 1, each part has a corresponding volume. The catalogue of the "Manuscripts of the General History of China" in the "Surviving Manuscripts" recorded in the "Ice Room Collection" is similar. The second style is the table of contents of the "Manuscripts of the History of the People's Republic of China" in the "Fragment of Manuscripts", which is in chronological order and uses the chapter style. It is completely different from the style of the Manuscript of the General History of China mentioned above. Judging from the handwriting of the remnants of the "National History Manuscript" that Tang Renze saw, the style of the finished manuscript is basically unchanged compared with the table of contents, with only slight changes in some titles.
In addition to the fragments, Liang's existing catalogue of general history includes the Catalogue of the Original General History of China, which was published in the spring and summer of 1918 in the appendix of the Religious Etiquette of the Three Dynasties, which is divided into three parts: politics, culture, society, and livelihood. Although this catalogue of general history was written in the same year as the general history mentioned in the letter to Chen Shutong, it is composed of a general history with a special history, and the style of canonical chronicles, such as the "New Complex", the "Manuscript of the National History" and the "Manuscript of the General History of China", are all different. In addition, the "Religious Etiquette of the Three Dynasties" is also accompanied by the "Catalogue of the Original Proposed Chinese Cultural History", which is not divided, but corresponds almost one-to-one with the titles of the "Catalogue of the Original Catalogue of the General History of China". The catalogue prepared by Liang Qichao for the middle school national history textbook in 1922 is also similar to the original catalogue of the general history of China, and the scope and main content of the two can correspond to each other. Compared with the two catalogues of the "original draft", the "Catalogue of the Reform of the National History Textbook for Middle Schools" can be regarded as its concretization, and in addition, the latter also clearly reflects the timeline in the special history, which is closer to the ideal of "following the same from the same and exemplifying it all the time". So far, we know that there are three examples of the general history style proposed by Liang: (1) the self-created "new complex" of "Chronicles", "Zhiluo", "Chronology", "Biography" and "Zhi", which can be found in Liang's letters and the "Manuscript of the General History of China" of the "Fragmentary Manuscript Inventory", ;(2) the chapter body with a time axis, which can be found in the "Fragmentary Manuscript Inventory" "National History Manuscript" and Tang Renze's handwriting of the fragmentary manuscript; (3) the special history of the similar classic style that follows the same and describes its whole life, which can be found in the "Catalogue of the Original Proposed General History of China", "The Catalogue of the Original Catalogue of Chinese Cultural History", and "The Catalogue of the Reform of the National History Textbook for Middle Schools". (2) Analysis of the Identification of Correspondence in Various Periods and the Relationship between Various Styles In 1904, Liang sent a letter to Jiang Guanyun about the matter of the Fu Zi of the first volume of the "National History Manuscript", and the editor of the "Long Compilation of the Annals of Mr. Liang Rengong" said: "The National History Manuscript is the "General History of China" that Mr. Ren Yin planned to compile since his reign, which was later renamed "The History of the Chinese Nation", and now it is renamed "The Manuscript of the National History". As for the content of the "Manuscript of the History of the Kingdom", Ding Bo speculated that it was the general history of the Qing Dynasty according to the sentence "The History of the National Dynasty was written first in this dynasty, and I am afraid that it would be too laborious to write the "National History", and the column was not as good as writing it from ancient times, and it could be sold if it became a volume, and it was not necessary to complete the whole book. In fact, the "Manuscript of National History" in this volume should be the "Manuscript of National History" in the "Remaining Manuscripts" recorded in the "Collection of Ice Drinking Rooms", and the content is the history of antiquity (see Table 2 for the table of contents), for the following reasons: First of all, Liang Qichao mentioned in this letter that "the clumsy work is quite like to attach pictures, and it is not uncommon to collect the pictures and paintings of Yuling recently, and now I will think about the shadows and paintings of Yuling for a while", which requires "Yuling shadows and paintings", which should belong to the content of ancient history. Second, the letter also said: "The work of the contemptible "History of Foreign Competition" will be put aside after seeing this book (that is, Jiang Guanyun's "History of the Growth and Decline of China's National Power" - the author). The original name of the original manuscript is external competition, and the civilization of the near and internal is also described, since seeing this book, I dare not talk about external competition, and Gaiwan can not add also. It is explained that Liang Qichao's draft should have the content of "external competition". And this paragraph was circled and deleted in the "Remaining Manuscript" and replaced with "(1) The name of the Chinese people", this change is also related to Liang Qichao's saying that "the work of the contemptible "History of Foreign Competition" will be put aside after seeing this book. "Yes. Third, according to Tang Renze's handwriting, the first section of the "Manuscript of the National History" was originally "The Relationship between the Purpose of the Whole Book and the Chapter", which says: "The greatest responsibility of a historian is to describe the traces of the growth and development of a nation, and the results of its negotiation and competition with other nations, and its rank. The purpose of the compilation of this book lies in this, and the source of this book should be doubted. It can be seen that the content of the handwriting coincides with the letter mentioned in the letter. Fourth, there is the "Journal of Historiography", because there are many papers on "the communication between the Chinese nation and the world", and it is hoped that it will be used as "the material of the second part and below in the future", and the style name of the "second part" is only the same as the fragment of the manuscript "Manuscript of National History"; in addition, the fragment manuscript has "12 pages of inscriptions entitled "Hegemony Politics" and "Negotiation Table between Our Nation and Rong Di in the Spring and Autumn Period", and the "Collection of Ice Drinking Rooms" calls it "another draft of the "Manuscript of National History", which is related to "the communication between the Chinese nation and the world". Therefore, the author speculates that the "Manuscript of the National History" to be published in this volume is not only the "History of the Foreign Competition of the Chinese Nation" as stated by the editor of the "Long Edition", but also the "Manuscript of the National History" in the surviving manuscript. Liang Qichao's General History of China, written in 1918, is not the same as the above-mentioned Manuscript of the History of China, and the General History of China is not a sequel to the Manuscript of the Manuscript of the History of the People's Republic of China. First of all, the two styles are different: the "Manuscript of the National History" is a chapter in chronological order, while the "General History" mentioned in 1918 is a "new complex" of "Biography", "Chronicles", "Chronology", "Chronicles" and "Chronicles". Second, the two have different treatments of whether prehistory is a history of faith, and the prehistory of the "General History" mentioned in 1918 includes the "Taigu and Three Dynasties Chronicles", and the "Ancient Biography Chapter No. 1" in this article contains the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, but the "Doubtful Era" in the "Manuscript of the National History" is annotated with "before Shennong" and "Yellow Emperor Yan Yao Shun" is set in the "Early Historical Era". Based on these two points, the author believes that the two should be independent of each other as general history systems. As to whether the "History of the State" ("History of China") written for the purpose of saving Guangzhi Books in the letters from 1907 to 1909 refers to the "Manuscript of the History of the State", there has not been any further confirmation from the materials. In 1921, Liang Qichao gave a lecture at Nankai University, "It is to take care of the old business, benefit from the new knowledge, and discuss with his classmates." At the end of the semester, he will receive a volume of "Methods for the Study of Chinese History". When discussing how to write a general history, the book pointed out: If we want to write a "History of China" suitable for the needs of contemporary Chinese, the important items that need to be included include Chinese and foreign ethnic issues, class systems, social groups, politics, law, economy, agriculture and industry, population, and cultural issues. These "important projects" are clearly reflected in the "Catalogue of the Original General History of China" and the "Catalogue of the Reform of National History Textbooks for Middle Schools". In the autumn of 1925, Liang Qichao gave lectures at the Tsinghua Institute of Sinology, and his disciples Zhou Chuanru and Yao Mingda took notes and compiled the "Supplement to the Research Method of Chinese History". The practice of teaching special history is divided into five types: people, events, cultural relics, places, and dynasties, which are combined into a general history. At this time, the "general history" is close to the two "original" catalogs and the "Catalogue of National History Textbooks for Secondary Schools". However, when summarizing the traditional historical style, the "Chinese Historical Research Method" says: "The reasons and results of the husband's desire for historical sites are used to learn from the past and know the future, and they must be based on things." This shows that he believes that the chronicle is not only the genre that is closest to the ideal new history book of today's scholars, but also the highest degree of development of traditional historiography. "There is a book in the biography body, which originates from the "Book of Shang", and the purpose is in the system of special cultural relics, which is closer to the new history that I squeezed require. This evaluation is in line with the exploration of the "new complex" of "Chronicles", "Chronicles", "Chronology", "Biography" and "Chronicles". Based on the above analysis, the author believes that the order and relationship between the general history styles conceived and practiced by Liang Qichao are as follows: the "Manuscript of the History of the National History" written from 1901 to 1904 in the form of chapters, which was discarded before 1918, and the manuscript prepared before it has not been published. After 1918, the "new complex" was used as the "Manuscript of the General History of China", and the "original draft" of the two catalogues in 1918 and the "Catalogue of Chinese History Textbooks for Secondary Schools" in 1922 and the "new complex" of the "Manuscript of the General History of China" were the "one body, two wings" in Liang Qichao's conception of compiling the general history of China. In 1925, Liang Qichao summarized this previous thinking in the Supplement to the Methods of Chinese Historical Research, and finally tended to a "new complex" that "collected the history horizontally and the era vertically". 2. Reflections and Practice of the General History StructureLiang Qichao's three general history styles can be divided into two structures: one is to carry out the general narrative in chronological order, and the other is to form a general history with a special history. The former involves how to divide the historical stages and what is the main line of narrative, while the latter involves the treatment of the relationship between "specialization" and "communication". (1) The division of historical stages in the writing of the General HistoryAccording to the above, Liang Qichao's writing of the General History of China is first of all the "Manuscript of the History of the People's Republic of China", which is chronologically narrated, and although the fragment is only listed in the first and third parts, the division of the era of Chinese history is mentioned in the three articles published in the year before his writing (1901). In his Narrative of Chinese History, published in September 1901, he divided Chinese history into three stages: the history of the upper world (before the unification of Qin), the history of the Middle Ages (from the unification of Qin to the end of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty), and the history of the modern era (after the end of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty). Judging from the remnants of the "National History Manuscript", the division of its time period and the focus of the narrative are the same. In October 1901, he published "The Theory of Similarities and Differences in the Ideological Changes of the State," which proposed the division of six eras: the era of familialism, the era of chiefdomism, the era of imperialism, the era of nationalism, the era of national imperialism, and the era of universal nationalism (the future) based on the changes in the ideology of European countries. He believed that at that time, European and American countries had entered the era of national imperialism, and Asia belonged to the stage of transition from imperialism to nationalism. Published in December 1901, the article "Yao Shun is an Examination of the Abuse of the Monarchy of the Central Monarchy" also proposed a division scheme for the era of barbaric freedom, the era of aristocratic imperial government, the era of extreme monarchy, and the era of civilization and freedom, with the Yellow Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, and Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty as the limit, and this division was mainly based on different political system forms. The basis for the division of these three types is different, but the division of the time limit is the same, and no matter which kind of time limit is wide open and closed, it is not based on the change of dynasties as the era limit, which is not only inspired by Japanese scholars, but also because he realized that "history is like flowing water, and it cannot be broken with a knife". Regarding the breaking of the dynasty, Liang Qichao's opinion is: "In the old days, it was inappropriate to use the rise and fall of a surname as the standard. History is inseparable, with continuity. For the sake of research convenience, a few major changes have been singled out, and it is okay to use them as a basis for reluctant staging. It would be meaningless if it did not rise and fall according to major changes, but according to a surname. Although emperors change frequently, and society changes very little, although it belongs to several generations, it should still be combined into one period. Taking the "major changes" of society as the basis for periodization, it shows that Liang Qichao has never forgotten to practice his original intention of proposing a "new historiography" to change the old history books "based on the rise and fall of one surname". Liang Qichao has tried several periodization models based on "major changes", but until he published the Supplement to the Methods of Chinese Historical Research, he was still in a state of "reluctant periodization", which shows that he is still in the process of exploring the historical concept as the theoretical basis for historical periodization, but there is no objection to abandoning the standard of "judging dynasties based on the rise and fall of a surname" as a general history, and this kind of recognition is also one of the main signs of the transformation from traditional historiography to modern historiography. (2) The main content of the general history narrativeThe main content of the general history narrative of China, Liang Qichao's views have undergone a change from focusing on political history to focusing on cultural history, and at the same time, his interpretation of the concepts of "political history" and "cultural history" has also changed. Liang Qichao proposed in 1901 to divide the three time periods, mainly focusing on the content of political history, such as national competition, centralization, imperial development, and extreme monarchy; the national history he wrote in 1904 was originally titled "The History of China's Ethnic Competition", and the main content of its historical narrative was not much different from the former; after 1918, he began to advocate that "the biography" and the "chronicles" should not be separated, and there are only three kinds of "chronology", "chronicles", and "chronicles" The content of the political history in the four chronicles is no longer the main line of the general history narrative, but is in roughly the same position as other special histories. In 1922, the "Catalogue of the Reform of National History Textbooks for Middle Schools" clearly pointed out: "The current textbooks are all in the nature of political history, but in fact, political history cannot cover the whole of history", and the correction method he proposed was to "replace political history with cultural history", indicating that at this time he had shifted the main content of the general history narrative from political history to cultural history. The names of the "Catalogue of the Original General History of China" and the "Catalogue of the Original Catalogue of Chinese Cultural History" are different, but the contents are extremely similar, and they can almost be corresponded to one by one. This involves the following question: What is cultural history? Is it the same as the whole history of China's general history or does it correspond to "political history"? In the "cultural history and political history" proposed by Liang Qichao in the "Catalogue of the Reform of the National History Textbook for Middle Schools," "cultural history" is a narrow concept relative to "political history." In the "Transformation of History" in the "Chinese Historical Research Method", it is said: "The history needed today should be divided into two paths: special history and universal history. Specialized history such as the history of the legal system, the history of literature, the history of philosophy, the history of art, and so on, and the general history is also the general history of culture. is a broad concept. In 1925, he gave a lecture on "General History of China" at Tsinghua University, and the lecture notes were "Chinese Cultural History: Social Organization Edition", which should also be a broad concept that included "political history" and covered other whole histories. As for the definition of the term "culture", it was not until the "Supplement to the Chinese Historical Research Law" that it was explained: "The term culture has two senses: broad and narrow, the broad sense includes politics and economy, and the narrow sense only refers to language, writing, religion, literature, art, science, historiography, and philosophy. The meaning of "cultural history" has been clarified, and the main content of his general history has also undergone a significant shift in the process, that is, from "focusing on the rise and fall of dynasties and wars" to emphasizing the overall culture of society. In the 20s of the 20th century, the "New Historiography" movement in Germany and the United States attracted the attention of Chinese scholars because of its emphasis on the analysis of social and cultural psychological factors and in line with the needs of Chinese historiography; Robinson's "New Historiography" translated by He Bingsong and other related translations had a wide influence; the debate between Eastern and Western cultural issues conducted during the May Fourth New Culture Movement also made in-depth discussions on the concepts of "culture" and "civilization"; and Hu Shih's advocacy of "sorting out the country's history" The movement also touched on the issues of "culture" and "cultural history". Liang Qichao's turn to "cultural history" in the writing of China's general history is not unrelated to the "culture" and "cultural history" boom at that time, and can also be regarded as an important part of this trend. (3) Monohistory and General HistoryLiang Qichao lamented in his 1921 "Chinese Historical Research Method": "Those who govern history today are forcibly divided into ancient, medieval, and modern times, and they are still unable to obtain legitimate standards." This seems to imply that he was not very satisfied with the chronological scheme in the practice of writing history; in fact, in a part of the general history of China he wrote after 1918, it shows that he began the practice of "multi-line parallel" composed of special histories to form a general history. The 3rd "Chronicles" and "Ji Xia Yin Wang Ye" are political histories, which are parallel to the "Zhi Language and Writing" and "Zhi Three Generations of Religious Etiquette", and their style is transformed from the traditional chronicle and the chronicle style, which can be regarded as a "multi-line parallel" special history to form a general history. The 1918 Catalogue of the Original General History of China, which is extremely detailed under the three parts of politics, culture, society, and economy, is a typical example of this kind of historical narrative. In 1922, Liang Qichao used this method of narration as a remedy for the ills of national history textbooks in secondary schools at that time, arguing that the most disadvantaged of the current textbooks was that "the old-style political history focused on the rise and fall of dynasties and wars, and could not explain the changes in political trends." As for social and cultural matters, although there are descriptions after each dynasty, they are too brief and incoherent", so it is necessary to use the "longitudinal history and transverse history", that is, the whole history is divided into six parts: chronology, geography, ethnicity, politics, society and economy, and culture. In the "Supplement to the Methods of Chinese Historical Research", Liang Qichao teaches the research methods of longitudinal history, which is divided into five kinds of history: people, events, cultural relics, places, and dynasties. Among them, the "special history of people" is roughly equivalent to biography, the "special history of cultural relics" is equivalent to the chronicle style of the old history, the "special history of things" is the chronicle of the book and the end of the study more thoroughly, the "special history of the place" is the disguise of the local chronicle, and the "special history of the times" is the history of the previous dynasties. Liang Qichao believes that "the history needed today should be divided into special history and general history", which actually puts forward the boundary between "special history" and "general history": "specialized history such as the history of the legal system, the history of literature, the history of philosophy, the history of art, etc.", and those who govern specialized history "instruct the specialized scholars"; "General History" refers to "general cultural history", and those who write universal history "must have a special kind of general knowledge, which goes beyond the various specialized matters and penetrates through them", and "is entrusted to the historians". If a historian wants to do a good job in the general history, he must do a good job in the special history, "if the special history is mostly established, the general history is easier to work on", and "everyone does a part of the special history, and everyone together is a good general history." Although the great historians since ancient times have said the disadvantages of cultivating history by all hands, and take "the words of becoming a family" as a hoof, but "born in today's extremely complex society, and want to rely on the fierceness of one hand and one foot, to provide the people with all the knowledge of history, although only Shi Zuo, Ma, know Bo Zheng, Zhang, and the matter can not be done." Liang Qichao sighed: "Only scholars in the United Nations who are interested in history are part of the precise research because of their sexual preferences and abilities. The purpose of hanging a public trend and the common research method are divided and combined to achieve. If so, then in a few years' time, a new history of our ideals may be expected to emerge. This should be his mental journey after about 20 years of repeated thinking about how to write a new general history of China. In 1927, when Liang Qichao traveled to Beihai with students of the Tsinghua Research Institute, he said: "In the past, I had an ambition to reconstruct a Chinese history with anger. Now I know that this is definitely not something that can be done by one person's strength, and it can never be done without division of labor and cooperation, so I also have this purpose at Tsinghua University, hoping to use my method to meet a few friends who have the same interest as me, work together, and work faithfully and practically. From the very beginning, Liang Qichao demanded his own work on the general history of China with the "ideal new history", and wanted to construct a general history of great thought, so he repeatedly changed it in the process of practice, and finally found that his strength was insufficient, so he needed the cooperation of various special history families to form a part of the precise research. 3. Changes in the General History Concept of HistoryThe general history concept of history is the core of the writing, which expresses the historian's views and summaries of the laws of Chinese history and the sorting out of the logic of historical development. Liang Qichao's selection and application of historical outlook in the general history is typical of his time, and has a leading role in implementing the new historical outlook in historical research. Due to the drastic changes in the social environment and the shift of personal interests, his choice and view of history have not changed, forming an interaction with the social reality environment and ideological trends. In the late 19th century, Liang Qichao's articles were still expressed as a "view of ancient history", for example, in his article "On China's Weakness Due to Fraud Prevention" written in 1896, he listed the facts that China's political system and academic thought had declined due to "fraud prevention", all of which were explained by how the "ancients" perfected them. Starting from about 1897's article "On the Principle of the Monarchy and Civil Affairs", Liang Qichao gradually showed the consciousness of the evolutionary view of history, and he expounded on the basis of the "Three Worlds Theory", but these three worlds and six others "have a reason related to the number of years since the beginning of human beings on the earth. He believes that these stages are not only the processes that human beings must go through in chronological order, but also a trend of improvement: "Everything and everything on the earth must advance from simplicity to complexity, from quality to literature, from evil to good, and so on. In the early 20th century, Liang Qichao's series of articles, such as "The Narrative of Chinese History", "The History of the Evolution of China's Autocratic Politics", "The Theory of the Similarities and Differences of National Ideological Changes", "On the General Trend of the Changes of Chinese Academic Thought", "Yao Shun's Examination of the Abuse of the Central Monarchy of China", etc., all focused on conveying the concept of evolutionary history, and even his famous essay "Juvenile China Says" has a metaphor for comparing life to the nation with the concept of evolutionary history: "Therefore, Tang Yu was the embryonic era before, the Yin Zhou era was the era of breastfeeding, and from Confucius to the present is the age of children." It has gradually developed, and now it is beginning to enter the realm of teenagers above the adult level. On the other hand, "New Historiography" refutes the "cyclical view of history" at more length, and systematically demonstrates and demonstrates the concept of evolutionary history, and puts forward the famous "theory of historiography", that is, "the phenomenon of narrating evolution", "narrating the phenomenon of population evolution", and "narrating the phenomenon of population evolution and seeking its axioms and precedents". He believed that world history not only evolved on the same line, but also that there were universal laws. In the practice of general history after 1918, Liang Qichao implemented the concept of evolutionary history, and he used the "evolutionary track" to reflect on the sacred personality and splendid civilization of the ancient monarchs described by Confucianism, such as: "The extent to which ancient culture has developed is quite different. Or it is said that in the Yanhuang era, the cultural relics have been rotten, and the husband has passed on the scriptures, and the summer Yin is still the wind of the wilderness, which is said to be the ancient anti-pole gorgeous, and it is very different from the principle of evolution. If at this time, Liang Qichao was still comparing Chinese history with the concept of evolutionary history, then in the subsequent publication of "Ji Xia Yin Wang Ye", he tried to summarize the concept of evolutionary history from Chinese history: "If according to the reality of the evolution of various societies, then the throne will be passed on to the virtuous, and the natural trend of the people at the beginning of the year will be changed and passed on, which is the beginning of the national system." He further emphasized that "such a class has experienced in ancient history, regardless of nationality or country...... Although the mainland is a god, how can it be alone in this track? It is clear that this is the case, and the knowledge of the shell Shun is tired and diligent and Zen is also a mediocre virtue at that time, and it is not very strange, and the inheritance of Yu is the success of our Chinese nation in building a country." Here, he significantly changed the traditional Confucian evaluation of the history of the three dynasties according to the evolutionary view of history. Under this linear view of history, the future changes from unknowable to knowable and known. In this case, it has become the proper meaning of historiography to reinterpret Chinese history and clarify the path of future development, so he proposed that "if we cannot make a revolution in the historical world, our country will not be saved"; and the task of historiography and historians is to rewrite history from an evolutionary point of view on the one hand, and to discover where the axioms and precedents lie on the other. However, Liang Qichao's view of history is not stereotyped, even if he frequently emphasizes "the fortune of social evolution and nature" in the writing of the general history, it is difficult to hide the "ancient historical view" that unexpectedly emerged: "The great cause of Yu is to conquer nature, and those who are capable are first dominating their own selfish desires." Yu's divine power is using all kinds of things, and those who are capable are exerting human instincts. In this way, the model of personality is established, and people realize what is the value of what is more important than all things. The saint of Fu Yao Shun is admired for all generations, and it has been solid. This not only reflects Liang Qichao's traditional Confucian genes, but also reflects the inherent tension in the logic of "national development". Shen Songqiao pointed out that in the eyes of intellectuals at that time, "the fact that Chinese history has accumulated so many shortcomings is not the fault of 'history' itself, but the failure of traditional historians to fulfill their duties, which has led to it." Therefore, there are "people and thieves in the past dynasties who have suffocated their vitality" and "New Historiography" criticizes the traditional historiography of "four evils, two diseases, and three evil consequences," "24 genealogies," "epitaphs," and "mutual slashes." This inherent tension went in the other direction after Liang Qichao's post-war tour of Western Europe in 1918: the dream of universal applicability of Western "modernity" was shattered in his mind, and his "Journey to Europe Video" even criticized the social Darwinian view of evolutionary history extended by Darwin's theory of biological evolution. In 1923, after returning to China, when he gave a lecture entitled "Several Important Issues in the Study of Cultural History" at the No. 1 Middle School of Jinling University in Nanjing, he said, "I don't dare to insist on it very much these days" regarding his stance of refuting the cyclical view of history in "New Historiography"; Therefore, he can only admit that "the concept of human equality and the unity of mankind" and "cultural common karma" are evolving, and the rest has to be compiled in the circle of "one rule of chaos". Liang Qichao's view of history has since fallen into his own denial and wandering. In his later years, he taught a course on general history at Tsinghua Garden, teaching "Social Organization" in the form of a special history, examining specific issues such as matrilineal and patrilineal, marriage, family, form, class, rural governance, and urbanity. Under the changing view of general history, Liang Qichao has always adhered to his motivation and value orientation for writing history. For him, "Chinese history" is not an objective object of study, and he is very clear about his subjective will to devote himself to the writing of a general history. In "New Historiography", he emphasized that history should be "praised and depreciated by the great and noble ideals of the whole nation, if the one is superior, if the one is inferior, what is the reason for a certain era to become strong, and what is the reason for the decline of a certain era." He drew on the writing of the General History of China in order to "help the development of patriotic thought." He sounded the clarion call of "new historiography", tried his best to absorb Western studies, created new studies, and absorbed the most "Western-centric" view of evolutionary history, which is precisely the expression of his desire for China to keep pace with Western countries. Based on the analysis of China's current predicament and the expectation of guiding the direction for the future, he carefully constructed his theory of China's general history while calling for a "new historiography". Changeability is a consistent characteristic of Liang Qichao's academic thought, so he is evaluated as "fluid and fickle", which he explained in his conversations with students: "I myself often say: 'I do not hesitate to use my current self to oppose the old self', politically and academically. ...... This is by no means a question of sentiment or power or profit, but is determined by my central idea and consistent position. What is my central idea? What has I always stood for? That is, to save the country. It is precisely because of his patriotic enthusiasm that his concept of writing a general history of China has not only influenced the development of modern and even contemporary Chinese historiography, but also has become a spiritual driving force that inspires modern Chinese to unite and work hard. About author:Huang Wenjun is a master's student at the School of History, Beijing Normal University. Source: Issues in History Teaching, Issue 4, 2023.