Jian Bozan

Jian Bozan was a prominent Marxist historian.

Biography

Early years and education

According to reports, Jian was a sinicized born in Hubei province. However, other reports identify him as a native Uyghur of , in Hunan province. In 1916, he entered school in Beijing, where he studied and conducted research concerning China's economic history. Believing in the ideal of industry as China's savior, he travelled to the University of California in 1924 to research economics. During this time, he closely read Anti-Dühring, The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State, The Communist Manifesto, and other famous Marxist works. He returned to China in 1926. He published his first Marxist interpretation of Chinese history during the 1930s, and joined the Communist Party of China in 1937. As a close ally of the Party, Jian became professor of history at Peking University after the party's rise to power in 1949, and later served as dean of the faculty of history and vice-president of the university. These criticisms drove Jian to commit suicide. He, along with his wife, took an overdose of sleeping pills and died on December 18th, 1968.

Abridged list of publications

* ''Treatise on Chinese History''
* ''Discussions of Historical Questions''
* ''Anthology of Historical Works by Jian Bozan''
* ''Historical Data and the Study of History''
* ''Recent Capitalist Economy of the World''
* ''A Course in the Philosophy of History''
* ''An Outline of Chinese History''
* ''History of the Qin and Han Dynasties''
* ''Timeline of Chinese and Foreign History''
* ''General Reference on Chinese History''

Ji Xianlin

Ji Xianlin is a linguist, paleographer, historian, and writer who has been honored by the governments of both India and China. He was born in Qingping County, now Linqing. with Emil Sieg, receiving his Ph.D. in 1941.,,

In addition to his translation of ''Ramayana'', Ji wrote seven books including a short history of India.

In 2006, Ji received a lifetime achievement award from the government of China for his contributions to the field of translation; accepting the award, he stated, "The reason our Chinese culture has been able to remain consistent and rich throughout its 5,000 years of history is closely linked to translation. Translations from other cultures have helped infuse new blood into our culture". ,
Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee personally presented the Padma Bhushan to Ji on 6 June 2008. Mukherjee paid a visit to the ailing 97-year-old Ji, who is the first Chinese to receive the honour, at a military hospital where he has been staying and presented the medallion and award certificate.

Exemplary personal life

Ji is also highly regarded for his moral values, character, and personality. Chinese premier Wen Jiabao is reported to have told Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that Ji was his mentor.

Ji is an unabashed patriot, saying, "Even when I am burned down to ashes, my love for China will not change." As a student at Tsinghua University, he signed a petition to Chiang Kai-shek to oppose the Japanese invaders in Nanjing. As an impoverished but brilliant student, he said, "I haven't disgraced my country; my scores are the only comfort that I can give to my motherland."

Ji cultivates the unassuming appearance of a farmer or worker rather than a prestigious scholar, wearing bleached khaki suits and cloth shoes, and carrying an old leather schoolbag; he is also similarly reputed as treating people of all walks of life with equal respect and sincerity. He has opined that the meaning of life lies in work, and he avoids distractions which would detract from his working time; in order to do one's work, however, he believes that one must stay healthy, so he exercises for his health. He is reported as getting up at 4:30 AM，breakfasting at 5:00 AM, and then beginning to write. He once said that he often felt compelled to get up at this early hour to work. Nevertheless, he writes with great speed and efficiency, completing his famous essay "Forever Regret" within a few hours.

He is also often cited as fearless in his pursuit of academic truth, as shown not only by his daring to translate ''Ramayana'' during the Cultural Revolution, but also by his 1986 article, written against the advice of his friends, "A Few Words for Hu Shi", who at that time was in disrepute and whose work was shunned by most scholars. Ji, however, felt that academic progress required acknowledging not only Hu Shi's mistakes, but also his contributions to modern Chinese literature. His article was sufficiently convincing to many scholars that it caused a re-evaluation of the development of modern Chinese literature and the role of Hu Shi.

Gu Jiegang

Gu Jiegang was a historian who is known best for his seven volume work ''Gushi Bian'' . He is considered the founder of the Skeptical school of early Chinese history, known as ''yigupai''.

Biography

Gu Jiegang was born two years before China's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War. As a result, the country during his early years was wrought with turmoil. During high school, Gu briefly joined a revolutionary group during the 1911 Revolution. However, he soon realized that he had "no personal aptitude for politics, and no ability in promoting great social movements". He developed an interest in history while a student at Peking University, and resolved to use a new historical narrative to calm his country's social and political turmoil.

Historiography

Gu has been viewed as something of an enigma by many scholars. His work has been characterized as scientific and antitraditional, while at the same time showing pride in Chinese culture and believing that the Chinese identity would withstand modernization. The German scholar Ursula Richter characterized this discrepancy by labeling Gu "the traditional and yet modern scholar who was true to tradition also in that he 'obeyed yet resisted'".

According to Laurence Schneider, the "most persistent theme" in Gu's writings is "the central role of the intellectual in Chinese history, and the centrality of history to the Chinese intellectual". He attributed China's failure to modernize to opportunistic intellectuals who allied with the aristocracy, rather than pursuing truth. In order to restore China to greatness, Gu, along with his mentor Hu Shi, advocated a non-political role for Chinese intellectuals, against the emerging trend of Marxist histories.

To this end, Gu used textual criticism to challenge traditional Chinese historiography. One example is the myth of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, a supposed golden age in China's antiquity that had scarcely been doubted up to the present. It is important to note that Gu's purpose in questioning the historicity of this myth was not only to rectify errors in understanding, but also to destroy the entire philosophy of history that revolved around looking back to this supposed golden age.

Gu is also known for his theory of Chinese diversity, as opposed to the idea of Chinese homogeneity, which is the main assumption of hanism. He states that there is no such thing as the Chinese national identity. This is a bold remark, considering the fact that he was living in a period of fundamental change and the period of pan-hanism in China.

Further Reading

* Richter, Ursula Richter, 'Obituary: Gu Jiegang ', ''The Journal of Asian Studies'', Vol. 41, No. 2. , pp. 441-442.
* Schneider, Laurence A. ''Ku Chieh-kang and China’s New History: Nationalism and the Quest for Alternative Traditions''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971.

Bao Zunxin

Bao Zunxin was a Chinese historian and political dissident who was arrested and jailed for his role in the 1989 .

Biography

Bao graduated from Beijing University in 1964. He was a scholar at the History Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Bao also taught as a professor at Beijing Normal University. He was released in 1992. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison for his participation in the pro-democracy movement. He served 3 and a half years of his sentence before being released.

Death

Bao died in Beijing on October 28, 2007 of a brain hemorrhage. He was 70 years old.

Bai Shouyi

Bai Shouyi was a prominent Muslim historian, thinker, social activist and who revolutionized recent Chinese historiography and pioneered in relying heavily on scientific excavations and reports. A Marxist philosophically, his studies thus take a very class-centric view and reasoning.
Born a son of a merchant in Kaifeng, he became literate in from his mother and aunt.

He died in Beijing at the age of 91.