NORTHEAST ASIAN HISTORY FOUNDATION 05/2022
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Lee Jeong-il, Researcher at the Research Institute of Ancient and Medieval History of Korea
World History for Chinese History
Tensions between the United States and China are escalating in the 21st century and becoming the central axis of changes in Northeast Asian issues. Recently, the Chinese history circles have set the integration of Chinese history and world history as one of their main undertakings by advocating 'Chinese History for the New Era,' a history that establishes the Chinese socialist view of history and justifies the revival of the Chinese nation and highlights the world-class level of Chinese civilization. The details of 'Chinese History for the New Era' can be generally divided into close communication between socialist historical theory and modern science and systematic harmony between socialist historical theory and Chinese tradition. Both have important implications in that they are the theoretical basis for asserting the integration of Chinese history and world history.
First, the close communication between socialist historical theory and modern science aims to broaden the understanding of Chinese history and Western history and develop Chinese historical ideas and models by activating comparative research through complementary collaboration between advanced theories of Western academia and the research and accumulation of historical materials by Chinese academia. This is based on the confidence that China has advanced enough to be recognized on the international stage and has grown academically as well, and that China has accumulated the capacity to fully adopt Western theories and complete a socialist view of history. Also, in this respect, Chinese academic circles cite the global history of Western academia, that is, world history, to criticize Westerncentrism in a more sophisticated way. As is well known, a major characteristic of world history is that it pursues comparative research based on the consilience between disciplines and between fields centered on interactivity while opposing Western-centric narratives of world history. World history looks back on the history of the West through the historical experiences of non-Western regions, especially the history of some countries such as China and India. It analyzes the history of the world in deeper depth from a non-Western perspective. Namely, diversification of views is the driving force for close communication between socialist historical theory and modern science and a theoretical foundation for integrating Chinese history and world history.
Meanwhile, the systematic harmony between socialist historical theory and Chinese tradition aims to reaffirm that socialist history is the best way to understand how the spirit of the times has been expressed in Chinese society from the past to the present. This is based on the belief that Chinese history and culture in the traditional era should not be denied but should be reinterpreted more coherently within the framework of socialist history and more organically absorbed as a part of Chinese socialist history. In this respect, the Chinese academic community recognized the need for conducting new comparative studies of world civilization, Chinese civilization, and world history and Chinese history to re-evaluate China's past and traditions and the status of Chinese civilization in world history to place all of Chinese history at the pinnacle of world history. It means that the re-establishment of the identity of Chinese history as socialist history through the rediscovery of tradition and culture is the driving force for systematic harmony between socialist historical theory and Chinese tradition, and is another theoretical foundation for the integration between Chinese history and world history.
World History Only for Chinese History?
However, this kind of integration between domestic and world history can cause severe problems as they say they aim for post-Western-centrism against the discrimination and prejudice of the current Western academia. However, they only focus on the importance of the Chinese socialist historical theory and emphasize the integration of Chinese history with world history. This is also because they have overlooked how the history and culture of neighboring countries in Northeast Asia and East Asia, which have existed with China for a long time, should participate in the new world history of the new era. How completely can they pursue post-Western-centric Chinese history and world history amid such exclusion and ignorance? Isn't there a China-centered expansionist historical consciousness that seeks to devalue the history of neighboring countries under the history of China, which has been singularly elevated to the level of world history through discrimination and prejudice in different dimensions?
If even a bit of such intentional imbalance exists, integrating Chinese history with world history will become a new primer for historical distortion. Wouldn't the historical consciousness that respects interactions between the various historical actors in the history of a country and the diversity that occurred in the process alongside the interactions and diversity of countless political bodies in local history to understand the meaning of I, us, and others in a more meaningful way be more necessary for the communication of Chinese history and world history? No one can deny the importance of China's history and civilization. However, we will be able to take a step closer to an open world history that harmonizes the history of each country, the region, and the history of all mankind, when we acknowledge the communication between the history of one country and the history of the region while pursuing a balance between the specificity of the history of one country and the universality of the world history, rather than exceptionalism armed with discrimination and exclusion. It reminds us, living in the global era of the 21st century, once again of the value of world history told from a horizontal perspective.
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