Historical Materialist History from the Perspective of Textual Criticism:A Case Study of Tong Shu-ye

CHEN Feng (Institute of Literature, History & Philosophy, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, P.R.China)  

In the 20th century, there were two schools of thought in the circle of historical study, historical materialism and the textual criticism, which were opposed to each other but which direct confrontation was rarely seen. Tong Shu-ye, a representative of the school of textual criticism, once debated with Wang Yichang, Li Zhi and Jian Bozan, representatives of the school of historical materialism, and the former even publicly evaluated the latter academic achievements. Though Tong did not deny the value of materialist history proper, he argued against the idealist view ancient Chinese history held by some historical materialists and their almost personal attack-like criticism against textual criticism. He pointed out that historical materialists, on the basis of the materialist historical theories, used analogy in their study in order to come to a conclusion consistent with theories. He further pointed that historical materialism is not a science, but instead it is a school of thought and religious philosophy. Tong Shuye's idea of historical materialism is quite different from the orthodox understanding after 1949, it scope being much broader. The rise of historical materialism after the anti-Japanese War has certain scientific basis, and it not only the result of political change.

【Key Words】： historical materialism school Textual criticism school Tong Shu-ye scientific theory
【Fund】： 山东省社会科学规划研究项目(06CFZ006)。
【CateGory Index】： K092

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