The 1911 Revolution: The State of the Field in 1982

Vol. 6, No. 1 Late Imperial ChinaJune 1985 THE 1911 REVOLUTION: THE STATE OF THE FIELD IN 1982 Zhang Kaiyuan and Liu Wangling ^ fl" >/_, , ^) *¿ ^T Following the flurry of activity surrounding the seventieth anniversary of the 1911 Revolution in 1981, research on the history of the Revolution has continued forward in 1982. Reflecting a steadily growing interest in the 1911 Revolution, a large number of scholars have endeavored to open new areas of research, taken up new topics, and stepped up investigation of local personages and events. With stress on the gathering, ordering, and publication of historical documents, scholarship on the 191 1 Revolution has advanced in scope and depth. In 1982, Chinese scholars from both sides of the Taiwan Straits attended a symposium on the 1911 Revolution held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies in Chicago. At the symposium scholars exchanged research results and held a profitable debate (which received international attention) on whether the 1911 Revolution was a bourgeois revolution or a popular revolution. In the realm of academic writing, the Zhonghua Shuju continued its publication of The History of the Republic of China -f O^ -K $ -X. edited by Lixin ^. fir . In 1982 it released the second volume of the first section: The Founding of the Republic of China 4^ yjf ¿k/'\í) i)3^/J à- . This section, which contains 12 chapters, concentrates on the period of the founding of the Republic of China and the provisional Republican government in Nanjing. Focusing on the 1911 Revolution as a true bourgeois democratic revolution, the authors discuss its historical background, and the role of the Reformers and the Constitutional Movement. They establish the leading role of the bourgeois revolutionaries and their Tongmeng Hui under the leadership of Sun Yat-sen. They fully evaluate the achievements of the 1911 Revolution and the Nanjing Provisional Government, and at the same time point out the objective restraints and subjective mistakes of leadership which caused the Revolution to fail. The first and second volumes of An Introduction to Periodicals of the 1911 Revolution Period f |, %4"'3J'-^ i)\ H 4\~ H , edited by Ding Shouhe -y >-7 fa , was published by Renmin Chuban She.¡13 114The 1911 Revolution: The State ofthe Field in 1982 This work gives a fairly systematic and complete introduction to all types of important periodicals (and a few newspapers) of the period. The first two volumes include 83 periodicals of various types published before 1908. When complete the five volume set will introduce over 200 of the most important and representative newspapers and periodicals. Besides discussing the nature and history of each periodical, this work also pays special attention to their political inclinations and major political statements . In 1982 a great deal of archival material on the 1911 Revolution was published. For example, the first two volumes of the massive Complete Works of Zhang Taiyuan % J^ £_-£· ^ (his early writings edited and published by Shanghai Renmin Chuban She) contains Chang's reading notes plus five other categories. The Collected Works of Cai E %£-'* Wfûcn mns t0 400,000 characters, contains a variety of documents, letters, and telegrams. It is edited by Mao Zhuqing£, *? ¦% , Li Ao ^ -^- , and Chen Xinxian \%^%axià published by the Hunan Renmin Chuban She. The Collected Works of Chen Tianhua V^ A. if ^ , was re-edited by Liu Jingpo *] ^ sài and Peng Guoxing |^ )?) -^ (Hunan Remin Chuban She). Another two volume work released sequentially in 1982 was Historical Material on the 1911 Revolution in Sichuan \jz? >>) ^- % & ^·?_*4· . This collection of material on the Sichuan Provincial Assembly, the Railway Protection Movement, and various uprisings which occurred between 1905 and 1913 was compiled and edited by Kui Yingtao T^ pj^ >|· and Zhao Qing ^¿ yk (Sichuan Renmin Chuban She). Two other new releases compiled and edited by the Institute of Modern History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 1982 were A Classified Compilation of the 1911 Revolution % A^4^ $ $Y$cM)^ and The Overseas Chinese and the 1911 Revolution dfi ^-? ^f- ^, $f- ^r These two volumes contain material which previously had only minimal circulation or had never been published. The Chinese Number One Historical Archives compiled and edited A Collection of...