‘現代史’의 早産과 지체된 성장 - 中國史의 ‘現代’는 언제 왜 탄생하여 오늘에 이르렀나? -

Abstract

The aim of this article is to reveal when and why the ‘contemporary history’(xiandaishi, 現代史), which is distinguished from the ‘modern history’ in China, was born. Studies conducted thus far regarded the contemporary history as an established fact and discussed only about when the contemporary history started.<BR> Chinese ‘contemporary history’ was born in 1913 in the secondary curriculum, and it referred to the period after the establishment of the Republic of China(1912). This is attributable to the fact that the Republican Government regarded the establishment of the republic as the beginning of a new era and attempted to justify historically it. This division method of historical period originated from the Japanese Ministry of Education’s attempt to distinguish the Meiji era, which was among the modern history, as the ‘contemporary history’ and indicate it in the secondary curriculum in 1902. Consequently, the contemporary history was separated from the modern history (近世史, since the 17th century). However, since the birth of the contemporary history of China was a premature birth, which was too early, it gradually settled not only in the secondary curriculum but in some college lectures and studies after the May Fourth Movement (1919).<BR> Since the Chinese contemporary history was created according to political needs as such, it must be fully historicized based on academic research. However, the research was delayed owing to the premature birth of xiandaishi itself and the political chaos of the republic. Even in Japan, the contemporary history became the subject of scientific research only after World War II.