On the Road in China: A Report on Research and Travel, November 1981 - March 1982

Volume Chinese Republican Studies Number VIII 1 October 1982 Newsletter $4.50 annually PUBLISHER ADVISORY and EDITOR CONTRIBUTING EDITORIAL BOARD Center for Asian Studies University of Illinois David G. Strand Lloyd Eastman, John Israel 1208 West California Dickinson College Herman Mast Ill, James Sheridan Urbana, IL 61801 Carlisle, PA 17013 Subscriptions and back issues Comments and manuscripts Issues in October and February !_he ~h~!l.9hai Intel.!_~tual .£om!!!.!:!nityL _lY27-1~2...:_ ~ Re~~h liote Sun Lung-kee * * * * * * * * * On !:h~ Road 1n China.:_ A Repor~ Q.!l Res~£!! ~nd I.r.~lL ~Q..Y~mb~ .l~l ::. Ma.r_ch .!2.~ Rodger B. Jeans. Washington and Lee University. The adventure really began when I met professors Zhang Kaiyuan (Central China Teachers College, Wuhan; hereafter, CCTC) and Xiao Zhizhi (Wuhan University ) at a meeting of the Washington and Southeast Regional Conferance on China in October 1979. For some time I had been working on a biography of Zhang Junmai (Chang Chun-mai, Carsun Chang: lb87- l9b9). With a year of leave ccming up in 1981-~2, I wanted to spend several months in Chin~, visiting libr~ries and archives and talking with Chinese historians. Since Zhang Junmai was primarily active during the Republican period and, in particular, the period when the Kuornintang controlled the government, at first I had hqped to affiliate with Nanjing University and The Second Historical Archives d~ China (also in Nanjing), the great repository for documents on Republican China. When this proved impossible , I wrote to Professor Zhang Kaiyuan. He responded, making my trip possible and ensuring the success of my research plan once I had arrived. I had hoped to arrive around October l, 1981, but the Chinese bureaucracy moved (and moves) slowly. This resulted in my missing the conference held in Wuhan to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution. Thanks to Professor Zhang's e£forts and steadfast support, however, my visa was finally issued on November 2, and I left for China on November 11. In short, arranging such tant when were PAGE 2 a research visit takes patience, persistence and perhaps most impora Chinese sponsor with these qualities. Beginning in January 1980, I first got in touch with Zhang, through October 1981, when arrangements finally concluded, we exchanged a total of 24 letters and four telegrams! In retrospect, it is clear that Wuhan was not the best place to search for materials concerning Zhang Junmai; Kunming, Beijing, Nanjing, and Shanghai were much more fruitful. For the success of the whole trip, however, the month spent in Wuhan was valuable. It gave me an opportunity to discuss my research plan with my host, Zhang Kaiyuan. A member of the Department of History, CCTC, Zhang is concurrently President of the Association for the Study of the History of the 1911 Revolution. He is among the most eminent historians in China and one of a small group of scholars now authorized by the government to train doctoral students in history. He is also well-known abroad, because of his travel to the u.s. and Japan, his publications, and his activity in arranging to invite foreign scholars to at tend conferences in China. 'I'h rough his "network" of friends and colleagues, he arranged for me to affiliate with institutions in five other cities. This not only made it possible for me to visit universities and institutes and meet their historians, it was much less expensive than staying in tourist hotels. This network also, I am convinced, made the travel possible ; by relying on personal ties . I was told, however, that they are still closed. (41) While in Shanghai, I had conversations with several scholars. Tang Zhijun , Director of the Institute, is primarily interested in intellectual history. He has published three books on the 1898 Reform Movement, a collection of Kang Youwei's political writings, another volume of the political writings of Zhang 'l'aiyan, and an anthology devoted to Daizhen. His most recent work, which he began before the disruptions of the Cultural Revolution, is a two-volume chronological biography (n i~~) of Zhang 'l'aiyan published in 1979. He is also interested in the study of the Confucian Classics...