The Institutionalization of Modern Literary History in China, 1922-1980

Literary historiography was a new scholarly subject in China at the beginning of the twentieth century. After Lin Chuanjia published the first book of Zhongguo wenxue shi in 1910, Chinese literary history gradually began to attract academic attention. Between 1910 and 1949, approximately 320 books were published on the subject (Hu Dalei, 1990). After a period of strictly regulated production between 1949 and 1978, literary histories returned in even greater numbers. In the late 1980s, it was no longer an exaggeration to claim that the discipline of literary historiography had become a booming industry in China.' Nevertheless, one should not forget that the concept of literary history was not available in the discourse of traditional Chinese literary criticism.2 According to Zhu Ziqing (1898-1948), literary historiography emerged in modern China under heavy Japanese influence.3 The first group of Chinese literary histories resembled an encyclopedia in that they abounded in concrete detail but lacked in vision (jian), differentiation (shi), and historical view (shiguan). From the 1920s onward, Chinese literary historiography began to make steady progress: Hu Shi (1891-1962) published Baihua wenxue shi (A History of Vernacular Chinese Literature) in 1928, Zheng Zhenduo (1898-1958) published Chatuben Zhongguo wenxue shi (An Illustrated History of Chinese Literature) in 1932, and Liu Dajie