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1 - Introduction: Maritime and continental in China's history

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

John K. Fairbank
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Summary

The 37 years from 1912 to 1949 are known as the period of the Chinese Republic in order to distinguish them from the periods of more stable central government which came before and after. These years were marked by civil war, revolution and invasion at the military-political level, and by change and growth in the economic, social, intellectual and cultural spheres. If we could neatly set forth in this first chapter the major historical issues, events and Chinese achievements in these various realms, the following chapters might be almost unnecessary. In that case, however, the cart would be in front of the horses.

Our new view of the republic must come from several angles of approach. Only one is pursued in this introductory chapter, yet it appears to serve as a central and necessary starting point.

THE PROBLEM OF FOREIGN INFLUENCE

China's modern problem of adjustment has been that of a dominant, majority civilization that rather suddenly found itself in a minority position in the world. Acceptance of outside ‘modern’ ways was made difficult by the massive persistence of deeply-rooted Chinese ways. The issue of outer versus inner absorbed major attention at the time and still confronts historians as a thorny problem of definition and analysis.

Anyone comparing the Chinese Republic of 1912-49 with the late Ch'ing period that preceded it or with the People's Republic that followed will be struck by the degree of foreign influence upon and even participation in Chinese life during these years. The Boxer peace settlement of 1901 had marked the end of blind resistance to foreign privilege under the unequal treaties; students flocked to Tokyo, Peking proclaimed foreign-style reforms, and both weakened the old order.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1983

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References

Johnson, David G. The medieval Chinese oligarchy. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1977
Kierman, Frank A. Jr. and Fairbank, John K., eds. Chinese ways in warfare. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1974
Lo, J. P. (Lo Jung-pang). ‘Maritime commerce and its relation to the Sung navy’. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 12.1 (1969)Google Scholar
Mote, Frederick W.The T'u-mu incident of 1449’, in Kierman, Frank A. Jr., and Fairbank, John K., eds. Chinese ways in warfare. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1974Google Scholar
Review symposium’ on Metzger's, Thomas A. Escape from predicament: Neo-Confucianism and China's evolving political culture. JAS, 39.2 (Feb. 1980)Google Scholar
Wang, Gungwu. ‘The Nanhai trade’. Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 31 (1958) pt 2.1–135Google Scholar
Wills, John E. Jr. Pepper, guns and parleys: the Dutch East India Company and China, 1662–1681. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1974
Wright, Arthur F.The study of Chinese civilization’. Journal of the History of Ideas, 21.2 (April–June 1960)Google Scholar

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