Abstract:

“Writing vernacular general history” was an important change in the rise of new history and vernacular language in modern China. It followed two directions: the tradition of telling historical stories started in the Song Dynasty and the new written form created based on the colloquial in the modern period. Completed in 1922, LV Si-mian’s Vernacular History of China made conscious exploration into the genre, language, and style in the writing of vernacular history, which differentiates the work from modern vernacular history that followed the tradition of telling historical stories in the previous two decades. As an “insider” of China’s literature revolution and historical revolution in the 20^th century, LV Si-mian consistently worked in the front lines of rebuilding written language and new general history, whereas keeping the two revolutions at arm’s length. Rather than taking an either-or approach to the relationship between the classical and the vernacular and that between paraphrasing and writing, his approach was more holist when he considered the problem of rebuilding national language and national history. He sought a “vernacular language” that is “easy” and unformalized while maintaining its “spiritual” tie to primary sources. To rebuild the new written form of writing of Chinese history, especially general Chinese history, his practice directs to a whole scheme that includes historical excerpt, the genre of new national language, and the new style of quotation. Such exploration was distinctive and far-reaching in a time when the opposition between the Chinese and the West on the one hand and the new and the old on the other gradually came into being.

Key words: LV Si-mian, writing vernacular general history in modern China, revolution of new history, literature revolution, historical excerpt