Liang Qichao and "New Historiography" in the Late Qing Dynasty

190 1 and 1902, Liang Qichao published two articles, China's Historical Narration and New History, which severely criticized China's traditional history. He believes that traditional historiography has nothing to do with the cause of the country and the people, but acts as a "political textbook" for the emperor; Therefore, although China's ancient historiography was developed, its citizens failed to learn from it. He called for a "historical revolution" and proposed to establish a new historiography and rewrite the history of China. Liang Qichao's two articles, called the Declaration of New Historiography, had a great influence on the historical reform at that time.

The new historiography is fundamentally different from the traditional historiography in historical concept, purpose and object: the new historiography holds the view of historical evolution, which is different from the traditional historiography in the concept of retro and recycling; The new historiography takes ethnic groups as the historical center, which is different from the traditional historiography taking the imperial dynasty as the historical center. The new historiography is aimed at the whole people, which is different from the traditional historiography and provides reference for the emperor. In a word, the purpose of new historiography is to write history for all the people and the history of all the people.