Traditional Chinese literature states that the Chinese nation originated in the Central Plains, and some of them were exiled to the frontiers, giving rise to the "four ethnic groups". Sima Qian summarized the theories of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and described it in "The Chronicles of the Five Emperors": Since the emperor Gong, Dou, Sanmiao, and Gun were guilty, "Shun then returned to the emperor and asked Liu to work in Youling. To transform the Northern Di; to place the Dou in Chongshan to transform the Southern Barbarians; to move the Sanmiao to Sanwei to transform the Western Rong; to kill Gun in Yushan to transform the Eastern Yi." This historical view not only affected the "History" and "Han", but even in modern times, some experts believed that the Chinese nation and Chinese civilization originated in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, and then spread to the frontiers, and only then did the ethnic groups and peoples in the frontiers come into being. civilization.
However, this orthodox historical view of the origin of a unitary center was challenged at the beginning of the 20th century. First, Liang Qichao used the theory of evolution as his ideological weapon. At the same time, he was also inspired by Marxism. He published "New Historiography" in 1902, proposing to replace the emperor with a new history that studies the evolution of society and the national population and obtains its "justices and rules". Centered on old historiography. In 1906, he published "Observations on the Chinese Nationalities in History", referring to the Han people as "Chinese nation" and "Chinese nation" as the general name for all ethnic groups in China. He pointed out that "the Chinese nation today is not one ethnic group from the beginning, but is actually a mixture of many ethnic groups." However, other "Chinese ethnic groups" such as the "Miao Man", "Baiyue", and "Bai Pu" "have their own history." He has been living in China since then." Later, in 1922, he published "Study on Ethnic Groups in Chinese History", which provided a preliminary description of the Han, Mongolian, Turkic and other ethnic groups. Today we look at Liang's research, which only raises some questions, and is inevitably influenced by the orthodox view of Han chauvinism. However, in the early 20th century, he dared to deny the single origin of the Han nationality and asserted that it is "a mixture of majority ethnic groups", which is a monolithic view of the Chinese nation. A bold challenge to the orthodoxy of central origins.
The other school is the "Ancient History Bian" school represented by Gu Jiegang. Gu published "Discussing Ancient History Books with Mr. Qian Xuantong" in 1923, proposing a "view of ancient history created layer by layer." In 1923, he published "Reply to Mr. Liu (Liu) and Hu (Jingren)", which further clarified this ancient view of history, "1. The concept that the nation originates from one yuan", "2. The concept that the region has always been unified ", "3. The concept of ancient history and culture", "4. The concept of the ancient golden world", which triggered a great debate about the reliability of ancient Chinese history and pre-Qin documents. This was an academic discussion that played a widespread role in Chinese history circles from the 1920s to the 1940s. Academically, Gu was directly influenced by the forgery-discriminating theories of Cui Shu and Yao Jiheng in the Qing Dynasty. In terms of thinking and scholarship, he was mainly influenced by Liang Qichao, Qian Xuantong, Hu Shi, Wang Guowei and others. He was also influenced by " New Youth" and the inspiration of the May 4th Movement. He said, “If I had not come to Peking University, or if Mr. Jie Min (Cai Yuanpei) and others had not created a trend for the academic world,” and “if I had not encountered the ideological revolution advocacy of “New Youth,” I would have accumulated a lot of thoughts in my heart. I dare not boldly declare my opinions that break with traditional theories." (Preface to the first volume of "Ancient History"). Afterwards, he also pointed out in the preface to the fourth volume of "Ancient History": "I myself am by no means opposed to historical materialism... As for studying ancient thoughts and systems, we should not not take historical materialism as the basic concept."
Of course, the "view of ancient history formed layer by layer" involves a wide range of content. The ancient history school's doubts about antiquity and the comprehensive criticism and even denial of ancient books in the pre-Qin period are some of the conclusions and methods that are overcorrected. There are disadvantages, but its impact on breaking the origin of the Chinese nation's unitary center is obvious.
It is very different from the ancient history debaters' attitude towards ancient history and related documents. However, those who also do not believe that the Chinese nation has only one origin is "Gu Shi Zhen Wei" written by Meng Wentong in 1927, which believes that the ancient Chinese nation It can be divided into three families: Jianghan, Haidai and Heluo. Their tribes, surnames and regions are different, and their economy and culture have their own characteristics. This "Three Lineage Theory" of Mongolia can be echoed by "The Legendary Era of Ancient Chinese History" written by Xu Xusheng published in 1943. Xu summarized that ancient China can be roughly divided into three major groups: Huaxia, Dongyi, and Miaoman. The three major groups fought against each other, and later peacefully coexisted, and finally completely assimilated, gradually forming the Han nationality. He said, "We people in the Warring States and Qin and Han dynasties often call themselves Huaxia, which is wrong. They are actually a mixture of the three ethnic groups of Huaxia, Dongyi and Miaoman. We often call ourselves 'Yanhuang people', but in fact this term cannot represent us. . It must be said that Xi, Yan, and Huang Yizhou can represent all of us old Han people (it is very clear that the Han people today are mixed with many ethnic groups)" (preface to "The Legendary Era of Ancient Chinese History"). This book received great attention upon its publication. Because of its large length and self-contained system, it indeed played a great role in promoting the study of the origins of the Chinese nation, especially the Han nationality.
In addition, from the 1920s to the 1940s, a variety of comprehensive histories of the Chinese nation were published. Among them, "History of the Chinese Nation" (The Commercial Press, 1936) written by Lin Huixiang was a more comprehensive review of Chinese historical documents. A systematic and comprehensive study was carried out with the archaeological materials and research results of various disciplines such as ethnology at that time, thus giving a relatively comprehensive description of the origin and formation of Huaxia, the Han nationality and other Chinese nationalities, which can be regarded as the establishment of New China. A representative work of past Chinese national history.
Although the above-mentioned schools do not take historical materialism as their guiding ideology, some are directly or indirectly inspired by historical materialism. While Li Dazhao introduced Marxist revolutionary theory to China, he has also Dadi pays close attention to the work of creating a new Marxist history guided by Marxist historical materialism. Later, Guo Moruo applied historical materialism to the study of oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions, and thus wrote "Research on Ancient Chinese Society", "The Bronze Age", "The Age of Slavery", "Research on Oracle Bone Inscriptions", "Compilation of Oracle Bone Inscriptions", A series of monumental works such as "Two Weeks of Bronze Inscriptions and Illustrations" established the academic system of China's development from primitive society, slave society to feudal society. Today it seems to have the characteristics of the early form of Chinese Marxist historiography, but in the 1930s and 1940s, this was a real revolution in Chinese historiography. Other Marxist Chinese historians and ethnologists at the same time have done a lot of pioneering work in the overall research on the origins of various ethnic groups in China and the origins of Chinese civilization, so that the national history of New China can continue to develop in the right direction and on a good basis. . Before the 1980s, it was mainly focused on ethnic history research, and then comprehensive research momentum emerged. Fei Xiaotong's "The Pluralistic and Integrated Pattern of the Chinese Nation" demonstrates the formation process of the Chinese nation's pluralistic and unified pattern from multiple perspectives such as the diverse origins of the Chinese nation, the emergence of the cohesive core Han nationality, and the development of various ethnic minorities, and points out: "It The mainstream is due to the fact that many scattered and isolated ethnic units have come into contact, mixed, united and integrated, and at the same time split and disappeared, forming a world where you come and I go, I go and you come, you are among me, and I am among you. , but each has its own personality." ("The Pattern of Diversity and Unity of the Chinese Nation", page 1, Minzu University of China Press, 1989) Fei's formulation will further promote our guidance in historical materialism. This brings the study of Chinese civilization and the origin of the Chinese nation to a new level.