«Послойное создание древней истории Китая»: метод и гипотеза Гу Цзегана
“Layer-by-layer construction of the ancient history of China”: Gu Jiegang’s method and hypothesis

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on the establishment of the theoretical and methodological basis of the Chinese historical school of doubt in antiquity led by Gu Jiegang, a prominent historian. The study is driven and inspired by the growing research interest in the transitional periods of non-Western history. Gu Jiegang’s historical ideas and skeptical views, the method that he introduced, and his influence on the development of history as a science in China are analyzed using the comparative historical, genetic, and historicalbiographical methods. Having absorbed the ideas of the traditional textological approach of Kaozheng, in particular the critical views of the Qing scribe Cui Shu, and the “genetic” method of his teacher Hu Shi, which had been adopted by the latter from J. Dewey, Gu Jiegang developed his own method of “layer-by-layer” reconstruction, which allows one to extract the “reliable” by identifying the “doubtful”. His hypothesis and methods were published and sparked furious debate among historians. Therefore, it is obvious that Gu Jiegang’s ideas induced the transformation of the historical thinking in China during the first third of the 20th century.

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