Zhai Bozan, formerly known as Xiangshi, uyghur, was born in 1898 in Taoyuan, Hunan Province.
In 1916, he was admitted to the Beiping Political Science and Law College, and later transferred to the Wuchang Commercial College. After graduation, he worked as an English teacher at his mother Principal De Middle School.
In 1924, he went to the University of California to study economics for about two years.
After returning to China in 1926, he went to Guangdong and served as a commissioner in the General Political Department of the National Revolutionary Army under deng Yanda's responsibility. After the defeat of the Great Revolution, under the influence of historian Lü Zhenyu and others, he began to study Chinese social and historical issues from a Marxist point of view. He has published papers such as "The Essence of China's Rural Society and the Division of Its Historical Development Stages" and "China's Rural Society in the Pre-feudal Period", and co-authored "The Recent World Capitalist Economy" with Lü Zhenyu.
He secretly joined the Communist Party of China in Nanjing in 1937. After the July 7 Incident, he served as a professor at the University of the Commonwealth of Northern China, which moved south, and published the famous book "Course in the Philosophy of History".
In 1940, he went to Chongqing and engaged in secret work under the leadership of Zhou Enlai.
During this period, he published more than 60 historical papers, including the informative two volumes of the Outline of Chinese History.
Zhai Bozan wrote in the first volume of the Outline of Chinese History, "History of the Pre-Qin Dynasty. In the History of Yin Zhou, the Xia Dynasty is also discussed as a period of decline and transformation into a class society.
The author believes that the Shang Dynasty, because the Yin Ruins oracle bones and new archaeological achievements provided a large number of "new real materials", so that "The ancient history of China dates back to the Yin Shang era".
The book was completed after the "Anhui Incident" in 1941. In 1943, it was officially published by the Chongqing Fifties Publishing House, and it was a general history masterpiece that had a great influence at that time.
In 1946, the Shanghai Bookstore included the book in the "New China University Series" and published it, and it was republished in 1947.
After the founding of New China, Sanlian Bookstore was republished in 1950.
Although this book is named "Outline of Chinese History", it actually involves content, "from the top to the earth, down to the yin zhou world." The scope of its discussion is the ancient history of China before the Qin Dynasty." For this reason, in 1998, Peking University Press finalized the title of "History of the Pre-Qin" and published it, and the second edition was printed in 1999.
The most fundamental reason why zhai bozan's work has been praised by historians and reprinted several times is that this book fully summarizes the achievements of Chinese historical research at that time, and takes the materialist view of history as the guide to expound his own unique views on some major historical issues.
In the "Preface" to the 1943 edition of the Outline of Chinese History, Zhai Bozan said: "For thousands of years, the ancient history before the Qin Dynasty was nothing more than some confusing shadows floating in myths and legends. Scholars of all generations have only conveyed the myths and strange works of ancient history, caught the wind and caught shadows, and because of errors and errors, they have been exposed to absurdity and absurdity, and they have been extremely strange and bizarre." Therefore, there is a great need to rebuild a new historical system. However, "the ancient history before the Qin Dynasty has reached the stage of science, but it has only been a matter of the last twenty years or so." On the one hand, it is certainly the discovery of new sciences, such as geology, paleontology, anthropology, archaeology, folklore, etc.; On the other hand, it is the inevitable end of the development of Chinese historiography itself. The so-called development of Chinese historiography itself, that is, from blind belief in ancient times to doubting ancient times, and even more from passive doubts about ancient times to active archaeology. The former is the so-called falsification and the latter is the so-called epigraphy and archaeology."
Zhai Bozan particularly emphasized the role of archaeology in the construction of new historiography. He argues that:
"The further development of ancient Chinese history is due to the continuous discovery of archaeology in recent years." The continuous excavation of ancient relics "provides new and new, true and true materials for the study of ancient Chinese history." These new true materials can not only test the authenticity of the historical materials in the literature, but also supplement the lack of historical materials in the literature." It is precisely because of the excavation and study of a large number of oracle bones and Shang Dynasty relics in Yin Ruins that "the ancient history of China dates back to the Yin Shang era." Due to the discovery of Neolithic culture in Gansu, Henan and other places, "the ancient history of China began to trace back to the legendary 'Xia Dynasty' and even the 'Yao, Shun, Yu' and 'Shennong, Yellow Emperor'."
Zhai Bozan's works not only fully reflect the achievements made by the "Skeptical School" in distinguishing forgeries, doubtful ancient history and emerging archaeology since the 1920s, but also insist on using the materialist concept of social development history to study Chinese history.
"I. Pre-Clan Society (Primitive Group)" in the book discusses "Early Paleolithic Culture and Primitive Gathering Economy - The Youchao Era"; "Middle Paleolithic Culture and Hunter-gatherer Economy - The Furen Era"; "Late Paleolithic Culture and the Development of Gathering and Hunting Economy- The Fushi Era".
In the book "II. Clan Society", "Early Neolithic Culture and the Invention of Animal Husbandry and Planting - Shennong and Yellow Emperor Era" are discussed; "The Development of Neolithic Culture and Animal Husbandry and Planting Economy in the Middle Period - The Yao, Shun, and Yu Dynasties"; and "The Emergence of Late Neolithic Culture and Field Agriculture - Xia Dynasty".
In the book, Zhai Bozan "regards the Xia Dynasty as a period of decline and transformation into a class society' of 'clan society'". He later said, "Therefore, this has little to do with insufficient documentation and archaeological data." In the field of historiography at that time, many people were skeptical about the existence of the 'Xia Dynasty'."
This insight of Zhai Bozan at that time was already invaluable.
In this book, "III. Slave Society", there is "Chapter 9, The Origin of the Shang Clan and the Establishment of the Ancient State". In the first section, "The Ancient World and Ancient China", it is said that China has "entered the era of ancient society since the Shang Dynasty, and in another corner of the world, there are also some human beings, whose culture has reached the same historical stage as China." The pagoda shadow on the banks of the Nile, the ancient stele on the banks of the Tigris River, and the tortoiseshell script in the middle reaches of the Yellow River are the characteristics of the three major cultural strongholds of this era."
Zhai Bozan's narration of Chinese history shows a cosmopolitan perspective - the Shang Dynasty, which is not only the source of China's written history, but also oracle bones, bronzes, etc., which reflect the ancient Egyptian pyramids of other early civilizations in the world and the ancient inscriptions of the Hammurabi Code in Babylon.
The author believes that in the process of "the great conquest of the Shang clan and the great movement of the Xia people", many clans became subordinate to the Shang Dynasty state, and they became part of the social economy of the Shang Dynasty slaves. The further development of the slave economy in the Shang Dynasty promoted the transformation of many conquered clans into slave economies. "The historical role of this interaction completed the Shang Dynasty ethnic state and reached a period of full maturity."
He analyzed that in the late Shang Dynasty, "in order to open up new markets and plunder the wider world, larger wars were constantly unfolding." The consequence was that "the revolutionary sentiment of the Shang Slave Masses and the Scattered Free People was high; on the other hand, the subjugated aliens rebelled, especially the northwestern subordinates led by the Zhou, and soon formed an armed group rebelling against the rule of the Shang Slave State."
Because most of the slaves of the Shang Dynasty came from the northwestern vassals, after the rebellion of these vassals, "the merchants lost a main source of slavery, so that all branches of production felt the lack of labor." Thus, the slave economy of the merchants began the process of collapse." At the same time, the development of the "manor system", that is, the well field system, in the late Shang Dynasty, due to the shortage of slaves, "the land nobility could not but divide large plots of land into many smaller district cities". Thus "objectively, slaves were thus partially emancipated and appeared as the predecessors of the later serfs." Due to the bankruptcy of the free people and the decline of the Shang central government, "these landed nobles gradually maintained their relatively independent nature, like some of the later feudal princes." In this way, the economy of the late Shang Dynasty has spontaneously begun its process of change."
Thus, with the fall of King Wu of Zhou and the "defection of former disciples" in 1122 BC, the Western Zhou Dynasty established and "was able to establish an early feudal state on the ruins of the slave-owning state".
This is a clear picture of the Shang Dynasty from rise to fall that the author presents to the reader. Compared with previous works of Chinese history, no one has yet been able to penetrate so deeply.
Then, there is the book "Fourth, Early Feudal Society". The author continues to make a wonderful exposition of the historical content of the social and economic structure of the Western Zhou Dynasty as before.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhai Bozan went to Shanghai in May 1946 to organize and lead the "Shanghai University Professors Association" with Zhang Zhirang and Zhou Gucheng. He is also a professor at Daxia University.
He came to Hong Kong in October 1947 as a professor at Dade College.
In November 1948, he left Hong Kong with Guo Moruo and Hou Wailu and arrived in Beiping on February 1 of the following year to participate in the preparations for the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and was elected as a member of the First National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhai Bozan successively served as a professor in the Department of Sociology of Yenching University, a professor and head of the Department of History of Peking University, and a vice president; a member of the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; a standing director and secretary general of the Chinese Historical Society; an editorial board member of Historical Research; an editor-in-chief of the Journal of Peking University and the "History" supplement of Guangming Daily; a member of the Cultural and Educational Committee of the State Council; a member of the Central Ethnic Affairs Commission; and a member of the Nationalities Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Vice Chairman of the Central Steering Committee for the Study of Ethnic History.
Since the early 1950s, Zhai Bozan has devoted himself to the construction of the discipline of historiography - initiating the compilation of the "Series of Materials on Modern Chinese History", a total of 11 topics, more than 20 million words. He edited two special topics, "The Penghu Coup" and "Boxer Rebellion". Since the spring of 1961, he has also served as the leader of the editing and reviewing team of history textbooks in colleges and universities across the country, and has edited the general textbooks "Outline of Chinese History" and "Reference Materials for the Teaching of Ancient Chinese History". He published papers criticizing the ultra-left ideology that began to emerge in historians since the late 1950s. After that, it attracted constant "criticism" articles, and gradually upgraded from academic criticism to political criticism.
After the "Cultural Revolution" began in 1966, he was repeatedly criticized as a "bourgeois reactionary academic authority". In December 1968, he and his wife died at Peking University at the same time.
Zhai Bozan wrote a lot in his lifetime. His monographs include: "The Recent World Capitalist Economy"; "Courses in the Philosophy of History"; and "Outline of Chinese History", vols. 1 and 2 (later renamed "History of the Pre-Qin Dynasty" and "History of the Qin and Han Dynasties"). Important collections of treatises include: The First and Second Series of Treatises on Chinese History, Series of Treatises on Historical Issues (Revised Edition), Selected Essays on the History of Zhai Bozan, and Historical Materials and Historiography. The editors-in-chief are: Outline of Chinese History and Chronology of Chinese and Foreign History. Co-editors include: Outline of Chinese History, etc. The editors-in-chief of the materials are: "Pengcheng Change Law"; "Boxer Rebellion"; "Compilation of Biographies of All Ethnic Groups in Past Dynasties"; and "Reference Materials for the General History of China" edited by Zheng Tianting.