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The significance of theSenzai Maru’s 1862 journey to Shanghai was great. From this opportunity, Japan not only learned from its neighbor the danger of closing off one’s borders and refusing to change, but also the importance of expanding its horizons and “learning from the world.” From these lessons, Japan transitioned from “expelling barbarians” toward “enlightenment,” from conservative to “reformist.” After successfully overthrowing the Tokugawa shogunate, Japan’s Meiji reforms thrived. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article discusses the origin of the term “Han traitor” (汉奸 Han jian) in history. It finds that the term was largely absent during most of the history in imperial China. Its first appearance occurred in the early Qing dynasty, or the later seventh century. Yet its meaning was rather different—“Han traitor” then meant those Han Chinese unwilling to follow the Qing policy in establishing rule over the Miao minority group in South China. Yet from the mid-nineteenth century when China suffered from the imperialist aggression, the term began to register a strong nationalist tone. It was used by the nationalists to refer first to those Chinese who supported the Qing dynasty and then to those who collaborated with the Japanese in World War II. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As a historical study, this article attempts to objectively describe the state of modern China, its territories, and its peoples, and the process by which they came into being, focusing on how Chinese academic circles participated in reconstructing the historical narrative on “China” and the “Chinese people” in the 1920s and 1930s. It narrates a historical process: how mainstream Chinese academic circles participated in the movement to reconstruct “China” and the “Chinese people” after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s, under the impetus of the historical, political, and social context of modern China. To a certain extent, their efforts to absorb the “four borderlands” into “China” may have hastened the rise of modern China, with its unique territories and peoples. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Chen Qubin was an activist during the 1911 Revolution and an important essayist, thinker, and poet. This article details the highlights of his life and career in that era, offering a comprehensive discussion and analysis of how Chen changed from a traditional member of the literati to a committed revolutionary against the Qing dynasty. Though not so atypical of the time, the author argues, Chen's career path was par excellence for his generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on the topic of revamping and reviving history education in the late Qing and early Republican China period.

Western missionaries began to arrive in China in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, prompting a meeting between Chinese and Western medicine. At first, the Jesuits placed Chinese medicine on an equal footing with Western medicine. Widening social disparities between China and the West, however, later caused Western people's valuation of Chinese medicine to sink. Christian hospitals flourished following the Opium War (1840-1842); and to a certain extent, medical missionaries began to acknowledge the value of traditional Chinese drugs. They used scientific methods to analyze the components of Chinese drugs but widely criticized the principles of Chinese medicine and slighted Chinese medical practitioners. Lacking an effective exchange between Chinese and Western medical circles, Western doctors universally questioned the basic value of Chinese medicine. After the Republic of China was founded, the missionaries' medical cause experienced internal and external changes. The development of medical schools at Christian universities provided the conditions for the missionaries to conduct in-depth research of Chinese medicine, while Western-trained Chinese doctors' introductions of Chinese medicine redressed the missionaries' misinterpretations of the canons of Chinese medicine. In particular, some medical missionaries, who had spent a long time in China and had studied the medical arts in conjunction with Chinese doctors, developed a "sympathetic viewpoint" via these interactions and began to recognize the value of Chinese medical principles, treatment experience, and drugs, setting a precedent for Westerners to understand and utilize the knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article details the task of the style subcommittee under the National Committee of the Qing History Project in finding and determining an appropriate style for the new ongoing Qing History, as well as the exchange of diverse views and disputes among scholars. By tracing the change of style in the history of historiography and focusing on the proposal and practices of recent late historians, the subcommittee decided after numerous consultations and meetings to adopt a new synthetic style for the Qing History, which will both reflect a continuity with traditional historiography and manifest contemporary characteristics and concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of the "New Qing History" school in the United States has opened new vistas for the study of Qing history. The school challenged the long-received idea of "sinification" in evaluating the dynasty and the non-Han Chinese regimes in general. It proposed to analyze the success and failure of Manchu rule in China from the Manchu perspective and focus on how Manchu rulers sought to maintain the Manchu ethnic identity throughout Qing history. All this could be useful for Chinese scholars of Qing history to explore new issues in their studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study of Qing history has changed its trailing position in the studies of dynastic histories, possibly catching up with and overtaking those on other dynasties. The abundance of primary sources available for research on Qing history cannot be matched by those of any other dynastic history. These sources should be utilized fully and appropriately. To make further improvements, the field of the Qing history study still needs work to rid itself of the interference of ideology. The ongoing compilation project on the Qing History (Qingshi) requires all participants to maintain an attitude of "reverence and trepidation" (chenghuang chengkong) or the utmost respect, to try to avoid the negative influence of the common practice of haste and impatience that prevails today. While compiling the Qing History, contributors should pay special attention to the ethnic conflicts between the Manchu and the Han peoples. The conflicts continued throughout the entire Qing history, and intentional avoidance of the discussion of those conflicts is not recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]