Sinology

Hsu Cho-yun

2024
  • 1/

Professor Hsu Cho-yun integrated methodologies drawn from social sciences into historical research in his early career and devoted himself to comprehensive historical narratives in his later years. His scholarship reflects historical insights that take one to look into not only the bygone ages but the present and future, such that it embodies a blend of antiquity and modernity. He demonstrates that Sinology is not confined to the ivory tower of academia but engages with the public and society, thus opening a path for Sinology to dialogue with the humanities and social sciences. He has made a fundamental impact on Sinology.

Expanding Chinese History Research with Unique Historical Insights

Professor Hsu specializes in particular topics of the Zhou, Qin, and Han periods, achieving unique insights that contribute to a comprehensive interpretation of the history of early China. Notable examples include his exploration of the Huaxia consciousness among kinship groups in the Xizhou Shi (English version: Western Chou Civilization), the central/local and political/social bureaucratic system in Qiugu Bian [Discovering Antiquity], and the intensive rural/commercial market economy in Han Agriculture. These works form what he calls “the three matrixes of Chinese culture” (as seen in Zhongguo Gudai Wenhua De Tezhi [The Characteristics of Ancient Chinese Culture]), which can be considered the foundations of Chinese culture.

Focusing on the dynastic history of the Western Zhou, Professor Hsu’s Western Chou Civilization (first published in Chinese in 1984) inaugurates a new direction in the study of ancient Chinese history. The book has been continually updated along with new archaeological discoveries, and the latest revised edition was in 2020, 36 years after its first edition. It is only one of the examples of Professor Hsu’s rigor in scholarly contemporaneity. The book’s unique insight lies in its inquisition of the formation of the Huaxia state within “China” at the time, and the continued expansion of its cultural sphere. This perspective forms the basis of his later historical view that culminates in Huaxia Lunshu [Discourse on the Huaxia] (2015). This magnum opus highlights the inclusiveness and uniqueness of Chinese historical development and his concerns about the trajectory of modern China.

Qiugu Bian [Discovering Antiquity] (1982), a collection of Hsu’s early and mid-career essays, deals primarily with political, social, economic, and cultural issues of the Zhou, Qin, and Han periods. He proposes themes such as “administrative systems and governance,” “the interaction between political power and social forces,” and “intensive rural and commercial market economy” that extend beyond the Warring States to the early Han periods and are in effect illuminating all eras of early China.

China is traditionally considered an agrarian state, but this is not an inevitable feature of Chinese history in light of the development of trade and commerce from the Warring States to the early Han period. Han Agriculture addresses this crucial transition. Hsu’s study of agricultural history, set in the early imperial Han dynasty, explores essential elements of a long-term history. The book provides a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of crop varieties, tools and techniques, farming methods, and peasant livelihoods. Agriculture, as the economic foundation of the state, involves critical factors such as land distribution, the control of social forces by imperial power, the ideology that emphasized agriculture over commerce, and government fiscal policies. Hsu’s study of “Han agriculture” transcends the “Han dynasty” and “agriculture” alone, offering insights into core themes of Chinese history.

Network Theory and the Pulse of Chinese History

Hsu posits that economic systems stem from the exchange of resources, which relies on transportation systems. The tangible systems facilitate not only material circulation but also social contact and cultural exchange. As a vast empire, China’s military and political control depended on roads and waterways as did the spread of ideology. Therefore, economic, social, political, and ideological aspects are inseparable from the transportation network, akin to the structure of a tree from the trunk to the branches. These branches are interconnected, forming a complex network that Hsu terms his “network theory.” The social kinship, intensive rural/commercial market economy, bureaucratic system, and Confucian ideology together provide a structure for the pulse of Chinese history over two millennia.

Hsu’s network theory not only subsumes local, trivial issues but also lends foundation to vague, grand theories, providing a practical framework for grand historical analysis. This innovative approach surpasses the methodology of social sciences introduced to historical studies in the 1960s.

A Comprehensive World Civilization Perspective on Chinese History

In his later years, Hsu published a series of comprehensive historical works that integrate China into world civilizations and emphasize the unique aspects of Chinese historical and cultural development. Wangu Jianghe (2006; English version: China: A New Cultural History, 2012) elaborates on the “cultural sphere expansion” perspective of Western Chou Civilization, portraying Chinese culture as an expanding process from the Central Plains to China, East Asia, Asia, and the world. By integrating new and old historical materials and drawing on extant research outcomes, Hsu constructs a general history of China, thriving on continued cultural development in response to external stimuli, thus giving rise to varied epochal manifestations and significances. This book particularly focuses on Sino-foreign cultural exchanges, a rarity among similar works.

Shihai Xunhang: Lishi Wenxue Zhouji [Voyage on the Sea of History: Weekly Studies in Historical Inquiry] (2007, 2008) examines China from ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary world perspectives. Valuing Sino-Western historical comparisons, he perceives Chinese history in the context of world history, leading to unique observations and discoveries.

Nurturing Talent and Bridging Historiography and Society

Beyond his scholarly contributions, Hsu has led new trends in historical research, influencing Taiwanese historiography for three decades. After the 1980s, his students emerged as elite historians who excelled in integrating historiography with the social sciences. Since the 1990s, his historical perspectives have been widely disseminated through lectures and publications in mainland China and exerted significant impacts on the academia and society all over the world.

With his expertise and insights, Hsu has been able to critique political dynamics, institutional transformations, and individual ups and downs from a historical perspective. He has transformed historical research into a resource for humanistic education, publishing numerous works on general themes from epochal transitions, to leadership, organizational systems, the rise and fall of great powers, knowledge and democracy, social trends and scholarship, and more. Modern academics have rarely been able to demonstrate such a magnitude as Hsu does. He is indeed a model figure demonstrating both Western academic rigor and traditional Chinese intellectual engagement.

20150501 奧比薩克思在建中演講