The Wenshi Ziliao Collection of the Center for Chinese Studies Library, University of California, Berkeley

The Wenshi Ziliao Collection of the Center for Chinese Studies Library, University of California, Berkeley by Annie K. Chang For many years, the Wenshi ziliao (Literary and historical materials) have been recognized as important but difficult-to-access primary sources for scholars of twentieth-century China. Below, I would like to describe some background on this important publication project and describe the collection of these resources available at the Center for Chinese Studies Library (CCSL) at the University of California, Berkeley. I. BACKGROUND OF THE WENSHI ZILlA 0 PROJECT A proposal made by Zhou Enlai in April, 1959 provided the impetus for the project and designated it as a major publication project of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Zhou noted the need to collect historical documents for the period from the reform movement of 1898 to the establishment of the PRC in 1949, a period in which China witnessed tremendous changes. Thus, Zhou called for the solicitation of materials by urging older Chinese citizens with personal experience of historical events of the late Qing, Beiyang, and Guomindang (GMD) periods to write down their recollections to serve as reference materials to help future historians to study modem Chinese history. II. THE FIRST ERA OF PuBLICATION: 1960-1966 During the initial era of publication (1960-1966), a total of 54,000 articles were collected and published in twenty-three series titles by national, provincial, and local level branches of the CPPCC. The subjects of articles written during this period include political and military affairs, the economy, culture and education , social movements, and biographies of prominent figures, but the majority deal with political and military affairs. Typical examples of articles published during this period include: "Huangpu jian chun" [The military establishment of Huangpu], and "Wo zai Xinan de zhengzha he bei qianmie jingguo" [Myexperience of struggle and loss in the Southwest] by Song Xilian, a well-known GMD Twentieth-Century China, Vol. 26, NO.1 (November, 2000): 103-08 104 Twentieth-Century China general who later spent ten years as a prisoner of war in the PRC, and "Kunming '7/15' zhengya xuesheng aiguo yundong jingguo" [The suppression of the patriotic student movement on 15 July in Kunming] by Shen Zui, a member of the pre-1949 GMD intelligence service. Authors during this initial period tended to be officials of the former Qing and GMD regimes. Their memoirs by and large address national level affairs and high profile historical events. III. THESECOND ERAOFPuBLICATION: 1978-PRESENT With the commencement of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, the publication of all Wenshi ziliao titles was suspended. After the resumption of publication in 1978, the scope of the project was widened to include more diverse topics, such as economics, commerce, sciences, nationalities, religion, literature and the arts, society, and revolutionary history. The publication policy also changed: materials pertaining to national-level events were to be sent to the national publication office, those pertaining to provincial level events were to be sent to provincial publication offices, and so forth. There was also an enormous expansion in the number of local-level publications. By June of 1991, according to the Quanguo geji zhengxie wenshi ziliao fensheng fenlei tongjibiao [Statistical chart on literary and historical materials of the People's Political Consultative Conference Nationwide at all levels by administrative division], Appendix 2, p. 1, there were 2268 titles published by 2055 national, provincial, and county CPPCC offices. A total of 256 volumes had been published by the Quanguo _ zhengxie [National-level CPPCC], 1162 volumes by Shengji zhengxie [Provincial -level CPPCC], 1860 volumes by Diji zhengxie [Major city-level CPPCC], and 9722 volumes by Xianji zhengxie [County-level CPPCC]. In contrast to the first period's emphasis on national events in political and revolutionary history, the post-1978 period of publication has produced a wealth of articles covering local and regional history. Take, for example, Zhangjiakou wenshi ziliao, v. 13, entitled Gongshang shiliao zhuanji [Special issue on industrial and commercial history]. The city of Zhangjiakou, once known as the "Fur Capital," served as a major trade center from the Ming period on, particularly for Sino-Russian and Han-Mongolian trade. In this particular volume, fiftysix articles cover...