Guo Tingyi

Guo Tingyi

Guo Tingyi (from January 12, 1904 to September 14, 1975) was born in Wuyang, Henan Province. He graduated from the Department of history of National Southeast University in 1926. He taught in Tsinghua University, Henan University and central political school, and was promoted to Professor and head of History Department of Central University. In 1949, he went to Taiwan as a professor of Taiwan University, Professor of Taiwan Normal University and Dean of the College of Arts. In 1955, he was the director of the Preparatory Office of the Institute of modern history of Academia Sinica and later the director of the Institute of modern history. Since 1959, he has cooperated with the Institute of East Asian Studies of Columbia University in the United States to initiate oral history work, collecting materials for the history of the Republic of China in the form of oral notes. He has lectured and studied at the University of Hawaii, Harvard University, Yale University and Columbia University, and is a visiting senior researcher at the Institute of East Asian Studies at Columbia University. He died in New York in 1975. He devoted all his life to the teaching and research of modern Chinese history, cultivated a large number of historical talents, and became a famous pioneer of modern history.

Life of the characters

The family is well-off.

From the winter of 1923 to 1926, he studied in the Department of history, National Southeast University and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Under the influence of Liu Yizheng, Xu Yangqiu and other teachers, he laid a solid foundation for the study of history. Later, he was taught by Luo Jialun and embarked on the road of modern history research.

On July 10, 1928, she married Ms. Li Xinyan and had three sons and one daughter.

In the autumn of 1928, they went to Tsinghua University in Beijing with Luo Jialun. They jointly opened the course of modern Chinese history, and then began their career of teaching and research. Since then, he has successively taught in Tsinghua University, Henan University and Nanjing central political school. Later, he returned to teach in the History Department of Central University and concurrently served as the director of the Department.

In 1947, he came to Taiwan and successively served as the chair of Taiwan University and Normal University. In the past decades, string songs have been continuously Sung and numerous talents have been cultivated.

In January 1955, he was appointed to prepare for the Institute of modern history of Academia Sinica and became the first director of the Institute. During the period when he presided over the Institute of modern history, he actively cultivated research talents, expanded international academic exchanges, and worked hard to develop the Institute.

In 1965, the Institute of modern history was officially established. We need to build a "blue thread" for the purpose of "enriching academic exchanges and enhancing international influence". At the beginning of the founding of the Institute of history, he negotiated with the Ministry of foreign affairs, and was able to receive a large number of valuable archives from the Ministry, including the national affairs yamen of the Prime Minister of the Qing Dynasty, the Ministry of foreign affairs, and the Ministry of foreign affairs of the Beiyang Government of the Republic of China.

In 1966, the Ministry of economy received the archives of the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of agriculture and commerce, the Ministry of industry and the Ministry of economy from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China. These historical materials are the basic materials to explore the changes in modern China, and are highly valued by the international academic circles. During his tenure in charge of the Institute of history, he directed a group of young historiographers to compile diplomatic archives, and successively published a collection of historical materials such as coastal defense archives, mining archives, Sino French Vietnam negotiation archives, historical materials of Sino Russian relations, and addendum to the whole process of preparing for the establishment of foreign affairs, which not only constructed the cornerstone of historical research, but also made the academic backwardness establish the foundation of independent scholarship.

At the beginning of the Institute, Guo Ting drew up the outline and detailed rules of oral history, initiated the trend, promoted oral work, and successively visited many important figures in politics, economy, education and culture, which made oral history popular in China. The number of people who personally visited or reviewed the manuscripts reached 59, more than 4 million words.

From 1964 to 1969, he set an example, accepted an interview and completed the book "interview record of Mr. Guo Tingyi".

Guo Ting actively promoted the exchanges between the Institute and foreign academic institutions, and successively established cooperative relations with Asian Association, University of Washington, Columbia University, University of Hawaii, Ford foundation, etc., so that the Institute received response and assistance from international academic institutions in the collection and compilation of historical materials, the promotion of oral history, and the development of special research.

From 1962 to 1972, the Institute received a grant of about US $420000 from the Ford Foundation. It was able to enrich its library facilities, and sent research colleagues to study abroad to expand their academic horizons and improve their research level.

In 1968, because of his outstanding contribution to the study of modern Chinese history, he was elected as a member of the seventh humanities group of Academia Sinica.

Under the ideology of the cold war, Guo Tingyi's academic exchanges with Fei Zhengqing and others were finally involved in the political whirlpool.

In 1969, at the invitation of the East West Center of the University of Hawaii, he went to the United States to give lectures.

In 1971, he left his post as director of the Institute of modern history. After that, he stayed in the United States for a long time and was in a difficult situation, but he still devoted himself to research and writing, and completed the outline of modern Chinese history.

On September 14, 1975, he died at St. Luke's Hospital in New York at the age of 72.

In January 2004, it was Mr. Guo's birthday. My colleagues in the Institute of modern history of Academia Sinica recalled his predecessors and specially produced the documentary film "the pioneer of the Institute of modern history of China: biography of Guo Ting", which demonstrated Mr. Guo's achievements.

Publishing works

historical studies

Professor Guo Tingyi is a great historian and one of the pioneers of modern history. His rigorous scholarship has become a guide for many famous Taiwan historians to enter the field of modern history. His research methods and academic vision are very unique, and have the value of penetrating time and space. In March 1963, when Guo Tingyi, then director of the Institute of modern history, attended the annual meeting of the American Society of Asian Studies, he once addressed the participants, "academic research must get rid of national boundaries and subjectivity, especially regional history.".

From today's point of view, Guo Ting's many special books are all great works. However, he has always been modest and does not regard himself as an academic work of history. In 1940, the example of modern Chinese history said, "the purpose of compiling this book is to arrange the whole collection of historical materials and do his best to make some preparations for later historians We will never take historical works as our own inheritance. " In the later published historical records of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, "this book is a kind of historical records belonging to the category of tools. The editor only wants to do preparatory work for others, hoping to save the energy and time of historians with talent and moral education." Guo Ting's modesty and academic spirit remained unchanged until his death. The outline of modern Chinese history, published by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, was written half a month before his death. He still said that his book was "not an academic work". Mr. Fu has repeatedly said this because of his modest nature, which is also related to the style of study at that time. At that time, the style of study in Taiwan was at the beginning, and historical materials were not prepared, and ordinary people did not pay attention to it. Therefore, Fu Sinian advocated that "historical materials are history", "history is historical materials science". Luo Jialun stressed that "the main part of the method of studying modern Chinese history is the method of sorting out modern Chinese historical materials." Mr. Guo Tingyi has been practicing the basic work.

Although Guo Ting has been modest again and again, his historical works are not just a simple list of materials and historical events. They often have clear chapters and clear context. He has a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of major historical events and their causal relationship, which is thorough and thorough. Luo Jialun commented on Guo Tingyi that "he was very cautious in his administration of history.".

Modernization can be said to be the mainstream of the development of modern Chinese history. Guo Tingyi has always attached great importance to the changes in modern China, because the issue he attached importance to was China's modernization. To understand the success and failure of China's modernization over the past 150 years, and to have a prospect for the future direction and future of China, we must conduct in-depth research and Discussion on the changes in modern China, and clarify the key to the problem. This problem is the most concerned problem in Guo Ting's academic career, and it is also the central theme of the book "changes in modern China". The changes in modern China was published not long ago, and soon attracted the attention of the academic circles. The book has been identified by the new law college of Hong Kong as a book recommended for senior high school students, especially the sixth and seventh grade students. At the same time, he wrote the outline of modern national history.

In 1950, Guo Ting published an article entitled "the delay of China's modernization" in mainland magazine. Besides analyzing many reasons for the delay, he first put forward some principled Views: "the history of any nation can be said to be a history of survival and competition. The success or failure of the competition process and the result determine the fate of the country. Success or failure depends on the adaptability of the nation to the environment of the times, that is, on the degree of modernization. To be able to adapt to the environment or modernization, we must first have a correct understanding of the environment and the times. " In modern times, Chinese people did not know much about the main ideas and theories of the west, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of social, political and economic aspects. The Western powers blindly made efforts for the expansion of their commercial interests, relying on their strong ships and cannons to achieve their goals, and rarely promoted mutual understanding and trust from the perspective of friendship, cooperation and cultural exchanges, so as to enhance the common interests of both sides and achieve a win-win situation. In the outline of modern Chinese history, it is written that "history is continuous, but it is always changing. It varies from time to time according to the profits and losses of the revolution." as far as China is concerned, it has been the most remarkable since the middle of the 19th century At that time, the people with heart pointed out that "today's world is not the world of three generations. Some people stressed that it is a great change that has not happened in three thousand years, and it is a change that has not happened since the Qin Dynasty China has encountered an unprecedented strong enemy, and the situation is far from what it used to be. Not only is it no longer a unique China, but it's even a matter of survival. " Guo Ting advocated that China should uphold the fine tradition of culture and be inclusive