'Layer-by-layer construction of the ancient history of China': Gu Jiegang's method and hypothesis

S.G. Petrova

Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, 125993 Russia

E-mail: petrova.silvja@yandex.ru

Received September 12, 2021

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

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DOI: 10.26907/2541-7738.2021.6.144-156

For citation: Petrova S.G. “Layer-by-layer construction of the ancient history of China”: Gu Jiegang’s method and hypothesis. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2021, vol. 163, no. 6, pp. 144–156. doi: 10.26907/2541-7738.2021.6.144-156. (In Russian)

Abstract

The article focuses on the establishment of the theoretical and methodological basis of the Chinese historical school of doubt in antiquity led by Gu Jiegang, a prominent historian. The study is driven and inspired by the growing research interest in the transitional periods of non-Western history. Gu Jiegang’s historical ideas and skeptical views, the method that he introduced, and his influence on the development of history as a science in China are analyzed using the comparative historical, genetic, and historical-biographical methods. Having absorbed the ideas of the traditional textological approach of Kaozheng, in particular the critical views of the Qing scribe Cui Shu, and the “genetic” method of his teacher Hu Shi, which had been adopted by the latter from J. Dewey, Gu Jiegang developed his own method of “layer-by-layer” reconstruction, which allows one to extract the “reliable” by identifying the “doubtful”. His hypothesis and methods were published and sparked furious debate among historians. Therefore, it is obvious that Gu Jiegang’s ideas induced the transformation of the historical thinking in China during the first third of the 20th century.

Keywords: China’s history, China’s historiography, methodology, Skepticism, Gu Jiegang, Hu Shi, doubt in antiquity

Figure Captions

Scheme 1. Chronology of the legendary emperors of antiquity.

Scheme 2. Evolution of the ideas about Yu.

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