About the author: Lv Simian (1884- 1957), a native of Wujin, Jiangsu Province, is known as one of the four great historians in modern times together with Chen Yuan, Chen Yinque and Qian Mu. In his early years, he taught in Changzhou Xishan Primary School and Changzhou Shen Fu School. Among the students were Qian Mu, Zhao Yuanren and others, who later became masters of literature and history. After 1926, he taught at Guanghua University for a long time. After liberation, he became a first-class professor in the history department of East China Normal University. He reads widely, pays attention to comprehensive research, and pays attention to mastery. In his life, he wrote two general histories of China, four dynastic histories and five special histories, plus a large number of historical notes which enjoyed high reputation in the history circle, totaling 10 more than ten thousand words. Lu's most representative historical works include China Vernacular History, Lu Zhu's General History of China, History of Pre-Qin, History of Qin and Han Dynasties, History of Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, History of Sui and Tang Dynasties and Notes on Reading History.
Department 1923 The History of China Vernacular Literature published by the Commercial Press, which is his famous historical work and the first general history of China written in vernacular in China history. Later, when it was published in recent years, it was renamed General History of China. The History of China in Vernacular Chinese has long been used as a college teaching material and a self-study reading for teenagers. It was reprinted four times from 1933 to 1935, which had a great influence on China historians in the 1920s and 1930s.
This book was written by Mr. Lv Simian based on his teaching notes and historical research for many years. The book is divided into four volumes with about 600,000 words. The content framework consists of an introduction and five parts, and each part is divided into several chapters, detailing the history of the Washington Conference in China from ancient times to the eleventh year of the Republic of China, including political and historical events, socio-economic and cultural phenomena, and also describing the relations between countries, nationalities and China in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and West Asia from the perspective of world history. The book is divided into six different periods according to the socio-economic development and social organization changes in China, namely: ancient times (pre-Qin); Middle Ages (the heyday from Qin and Han Dynasties to Tang Dynasty); Modern times (from the Anshi Rebellion in Tang Dynasty to the Southern Song Dynasty); Modern times (from Yuan Dynasty to the middle of Qing Dynasty); Modern times (from the west to the demise of the Qing Dynasty); Modern (after the Revolution of 1911). This practice of dividing historical stages according to the viewpoint of social evolution is obviously different from previous history books and has a far-reaching impact on contemporary people and future historians. Strictly speaking, there was no real new general history in China before The History of China Vernacular Literature was published. Liu Yizhi's Brief History of Past Dynasties, published in 1902, was adapted from Japanese scholar Nakata's General History of zhina. Because The General History of zhina is written for Japanese, although it has been adapted by Liu Yizhi, it still can't reflect the history of China well on the whole. Xia Cengyou's latest China history textbook and Liu's 1904 China history textbook are both unfinished works. The lower limit of Xia Cengyou's book is only the Sui Dynasty, and the lower limit of Liu's book is only the late Western Zhou Dynasty. The History of China Vernacular Literature, written from ancient times to the early years of the Republic of China, is a complete general history.
-
Another original work, A General History of China by Lu Zhu, was completed in 1939. The first volume was published in 1940, and the second volume was delayed to 1944.
This book aims at the learning needs of liberal arts students in Shanghai University at that time, and does not adopt the general historical style. The book is divided into two parts. The first part systematically describes the development of socio-economic system, political system and culture and scholarship. The second part systematically describes the changes of political history in chronological order. The author thinks that the popular general history works in Shanghai at that time, although they contained some laws and regulations in the process of describing the rise and fall of chaos, often lacked a coherent system, which made beginners confused and could not constitute systematic historical knowledge. In particular, liberal arts students in universities need systematic historical knowledge for further study, so it is necessary to adopt such a special style to compile general history. Today, this general history of China is still useful for beginners, and it is of great benefit to help readers master all aspects of China's history, especially the historical knowledge of social economy, political system, academic culture and other systems.
The name "China Cultural History" was used in the recent reprint.