Gu Jiegang’s “Discussion of Ancient History” Movement and Its Relationship with Developments in Western Sinology

Abstract

The scholarship in modern China is closely related to Western sinology in terms of school ties.Gu Jiegang’s launching of the"Discussion of Ancient History"movement centered on the"theory of the accumulated creation of Chinese ancient history"was a representative example.At the beginning of the movement Hu Shi and Gu Jiegang proposed the notion that,"there was no history before the Eastern Zhou Dynasty"which was indebted to the historical skepticism by Philip Van Ness Myers(American scholar)and Friedrich Hirth(German sinologist)of the same period.The idea that"the Shang Dynasty is still in the late Stone Age"advocated by Hu and Gu was also directly influenced by J.G.Andersson’s An Early Chinese Culture.Conversely,American sinologist Arthur W.Hummel Sr played a key role in introducing and evaluating the first volume of Discussion of Ancient History to Western academia.Paradoxically,while Swedish sinologis Bernhard Karlgren wrote On the Authenticity and Nature of the Tso Chuan to refute Kang Youwei’s reinterpretation of Confucian Classics(The Forged Classics of the Wang Mang Period),his work however became of value for Chinese historic doubt scholars to reaffirm the value of New Text Confucianism and advance the"Discussion of Ancient History"movement.If we would like to choose a saying to describe the relationship between the"Discussion of Ancien History"movement and Western Sinology,the Chinese proverb,"Stones from other hills may serve to polish jade of this one,"may be an appropriate choice.

Keywords

• western sinology
• “discussion of ancient history” movement
• history of academic exchanges between china and foreign countries