This book examines forms of Chinese historical production happening outside the mainstream of academic history, through such new measures as the publication of textbooks, the writing of local history, the preservation of archival materials, and government attempts to establish orthodox historical accounts. The book does so in order to broaden the scope of modern Chinese historiography, when it focuses primarily on a small group of writers such as Liang Qichao, Gu Jiegang, and Fu Sinian.

Directly linking historical writings to the formation of the nation, the justification of elite authority, and the cultivation of active citizenry, this book shows that historiography is essential to understanding the uniqueness of Chinese modernity.

Tze-ki Hon, Ph.D. (1992) in History, University of Chicago, is Associate Professor of History at State University of New York-Geneseo. His r esearch interests cover both pre-modern and modern China. His book, Yijing and the Chinese Politics (SUNY Press, 2005) examines the Yijing commentaries of the Northern Song period. He is an editor of a volume on the May-Fourth New Culture paradigm. Currently, he is completing a book on the Guocui xuebao (1905-1912).

Robert J. Culp, Ph.D. (1999) in History, Cornell University, is Assistant Professor of History and Asian Studies at Bard College. His first book is Articulating Citizenship: Civic Education and Student Politics in Southeastern China, 1912–1940 (Cambridge, MA, forthcoming 2007). His current work focuses on publishing and cultural production in early 20th-century China.