A disciple of Chen Yinke, Tsinghua University and Peking University History Department jointly issued an obituary: Historian Liu Guisheng passed away

A reporter from The Paper learned from the History Department of the School of Humanities at Tsinghua University and the History Department of Peking University that the two departments jointly issued an obituary: Mr. Liu Guisheng, professor of the History Department of the School of Humanities at Tsinghua University and the History Department of Peking University, passed away at noon on June 29, 2024 at the age of 94.

Public information shows that Liu Guisheng was born in Kunming, Yunnan in August 1930. In early 1949, he entered the Department of Political History of Lingnan University and studied Chinese history under Professor Chen Yinke. In September of the following year, he transferred to the Department of History of Tsinghua University and graduated in 1952. In 1953, he completed the Chinese Revolutionary History Research Class of Renmin University of China. In the same year, he returned to Tsinghua University to teach, and served as an assistant, lecturer, associate professor, and professor. He was a member of the School Affairs Committee, a member of the School Degree Evaluation Committee, the Chairman of the Degree Committee of the Department of Social Sciences and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Deputy Director of the Institute of Ideology and Culture, and concurrently served as a member of the 7th and 8th Beijing CPPCC, and a member of the Expert Committee for the Protection of Documents in the Republic of China Period of the National Library of the Ministry of Culture.

In 1993, Liu Guisheng was transferred to the Department of History of Peking University as a professor and doctoral supervisor. He was the first supervisor to recruit doctoral students in modern Chinese history in the Department of History of Peking University. He also presided over the earliest postdoctoral mobile station for modern Chinese history at Peking University. In 1998, he was transferred back to Tsinghua University and was hired as a librarian at the Beijing Institute of Literature and History in the same year.

Liu Guisheng has devoted himself to the study of the history of the Communist Party of China and the history of modern Chinese thought. In terms of academic thought, influenced by his teachers Chen Yinke, Lei Haizong, and Shao Xunzheng, he inherited the national cultural spirit of "humanities are constantly improving" and the academic paradigm of the old Tsinghua University. He took the eight things of "body, mind, family, country, ancient, modern, Chinese, and foreign" as the key points, emphasized the unity of learning and being a person, paid attention to the integration of ancient and modern times, the integration of Chinese and Western cultures, two-way interaction, integration and mutual interpretation, and advocated the understanding of world culture on the basis of continuously deepening the understanding of one's own national culture; at the same time, on the basis of in-depth understanding of the mainstream cultures of the world, deepen the understanding of one's own national culture.

In terms of research methods, he advocates that learning requires "pre-flow" thinking and "front-line" concepts, emphasizes cross-cultural, cross-linguistic, and interdisciplinary research, emphasizes the combination of text analysis and contextual examination, and pays full attention to the differences in the conditions and production procedures of the text.

Liu Guisheng has written "Liu Guisheng's Academic and Cultural Essays" and "Historical Studies, Historical Knowledge, and Culture". His representative papers include "A Preliminary Analysis of Li Dazhao's Early Political Commentary" and "Modern Scholars' Misunderstanding of "Abolishing Hundred Schools of Thought and Respecting Confucianism"". He has discovered new materials, reinterpreted old materials, drawn new conclusions, and broken through the old sayings, which are highly valued by the academic community. He has successively edited "Historical Materials of the Work-Study Movement in France", "Illustrated Modern China", "The Dislocation of the Times and the Choice of Theory", and "A New Theory of Yan Fu's Thought". He presided over and participated in the editing and annotation work of the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" national key book publishing planning project "The Complete Works of Li Dazhao" and "The Complete Works of Sun Yat-sen". His achievements have won many awards such as the Beijing Philosophy and Social Science Outstanding Achievement Award and the China Outstanding Publication Award.

In recognition of his academic achievements in research fields such as Li Dazhao, the early history of the Communist Party of China, the history of the dissemination of Marxism, and the history of the New Culture Movement, Liu Guisheng was awarded the "Li Dazhao Research Lifetime Achievement Award" by the Li Dazhao Research Association of China in 2021.

Liu Guisheng is one of the important academic leaders in the reform of the "History of the Communist Party of China" course. After the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee in 1978, in response to the Ministry of Education's instructions on the reform of the "History of the Communist Party of China" course, Liu Guisheng proposed that Tsinghua University should enrich the teaching content of the "History of the Chinese Revolution" and "History of Modern China" courses based on the principle of "world cultural vision and global political mind", and explained the new course outline to the teachers and guided the rewriting of the textbooks. Since its implementation in the 1980s, this move has achieved remarkable results and is well received by students.

From 1994 to 1996, he taught courses such as "Special Topics in the History of Modern Chinese Thought" and "History of Modern Chinese Historiography" at Peking University, attracting graduate students from the history departments of Peking University and Tsinghua University to attend the courses together, thus strengthening the cooperation between the two departments. He was the first supervisor of the "National 100 Outstanding Doctoral Dissertations" and trained dozens of master's and doctoral students at Tsinghua University and Peking University, many of whom became academic backbones and leaders in the history disciplines of Peking University, Tsinghua University, Beijing Normal University and other schools.

Liu Guisheng loves his motherland, insists on the independence and self-confidence of Chinese culture, believes that the root of university culture lies in the self-confidence of its own national culture, and proposes that in terms of culture, we should "not forget our origins, absorb foreign cultures, and create the future". He advocates that in foreign cultural exchanges, we must first find a home for our souls, that is, we must firmly link our life ideals with the destiny of the nation in our thoughts; he has a broad vision and has been recognized by the international academic and educational circles for his solid academic foundation.

Liu Guisheng is a pioneer of international academic exchanges after the reform and opening up. As early as 1980, he was invited by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to give lectures at the Center for Modern Chinese Studies of the French Higher School of Social Sciences, the University of Paris VII, and the University of Paris VIII. In 1990-1991 and 1995, he was invited to serve as a visiting professor at the Institute of Sinology of Heidelberg University in Germany, and taught the courses "History of Ancient Chinese Thought" and "History of Modern Chinese Thought". After that, he went to Germany to give lectures several times. In 1997 and 2000, he went to the United States, Russia and other countries for academic exchanges. He has successively guided many scholars and international students from the United States, Germany, Italy, South Korea and other countries, contributed to the growth of a new generation of sinologists abroad, and played an important role in promoting the "going out" of Chinese culture.