The Republican History Project in Peking—An Update

18. THE REPUBLICAN HISTORY PROJECT IN PEKING--AN UPDATE 1 Barry Keenan, Denison University All present and future publications from the Republican History Project of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Peking are divisible into two categories . First, the narrative History of Republican China will be a set of six volumes (juan) that will cover the years 1905-1949. Secondly, the "Source Materials" (including reference works) will be three multi-volume sets: (1) a chronology of major events, (2) biographies, (3) primary materials on specific topics. Draft Volumes Initial drafts of every volume written in the project are appearing first in a paperback series entitled Zhonghua minguo shi ziliao conggao ~ ~~ ~ 1~ ,-l-1 >~ ~~1 1r ~i;·~ --~ ~ ~AJ :;;;:_ m ~t"i m. r~J Each issue of this series is usually printed in only 8,000 copies for tne use of specialists revising the materials, and the price is consequently high. Somewhat like conference papers for projected books in the United States, revision is expected and citation is not permitted. In the final editing and revision, smaller volumes are combined to make larger ones. When final drafts are ready, they will then appear for public dissemination at home and abroad. Only the first volume of "Republican Biographies"--although technically still in the draft series--is easily available abroad. Current Status I. The History of Republican China The timetable of publication for the narrative history section of the project is on schedule, and all six volumes are hoped to be in final published form by 1985. The draft sections of the first volume of narrative history are now in circulation, and in the process of revision and editing. This volume is entitled Zhonghua minguo di chuangli '111~~lErf.J€1Jft and will cover the years 19051912 .2 It should appear in final published form in 1981. II.Source Materials (1) Of the three sets of source and reference volumes, the Chronology of Major Events now has thirty-eight draft sections in circulation. They cover up to 1927, and are soon to be edited and compiled into ten volumes and printed. Additional volumes of chronology will then continue this series from 1928 to 1949. (2) The Biographies are set two of the sources. A series of Minguo jenwu zhuan ~ rl A 4tJ ft will number about fourteen volumes. The first contains seventy of the total 1,000 Republican biographies to be written. The second volume of these 3,00Q-character biographies is to be published by the end of 1980. Also in this set will be a "biographical dictionary" (renming cidian) covering some 4~000 persons, each briefly described in one or two hundred characters . Finally, a "personnel chart" (jenwu biao) is the third part of the "biographies." (3) Specialized topics are set three of the sources. The 60Q-some topics will each produce a collection of sources, many of which are now being printed as individual volumes in the ziliao conggao series mentioned above. They pull not 19. only from the Republican History Archives in Nanking (Part of the No.2 Archives, as opposed to the Ming-Qing No. 1 Archives in Peking), but reprint material in collaboration with appropriate institutions throughout the country. The regional People's Bank in Shanxi has collaborated, for example, with the Institute of Modern History 3 at CASS on one collection relating to Shanxi banking in the twentieth century. Most of these volumes are in the range of 250 pages in length (about 200,000 characters). Sources are categorized by topic and one page sometimes carries more than one short source. Should several hundred source volumes result from this series, it would become the largest set of volUmes in the project. Related Publications The Institute of Modern History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences publishes other series of documents that should be distinguished from those integral to the Republican History Project. One such series is Jindai shi ziliao ilift~:ifift .This series was in its third volume in 1979, and reprints many Republican period sources. The Institute has also collaborated with the Republican History Archive in Nanking on special volumes such as Wusi aiguo yundong dangan ziliao (Peking: CASS, 1980). Finally, the...