World History

Author: Zhou Gucheng
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-05-01
Features: This book is a set of lecture notes on World History delivered at the College of Liberal Arts and Law of the National Fudan University. During the lectures, students often took notes. Later, mimeographed teaching materials were also distributed. However, due to the large number of students, it was highly inconvenient, so it was expanded into a book. When compiling it, the author had several opinions, which are presented below and may serve as a helpful guide for readers to understand the book.
1. World History is not merely the sum of national histories. This may be well-known to those who study history, but some historians still regard the sum of national histories as World History. For example, William Smith's The Historians’ History of the World, though grand in scale with twenty-five volumes, is essentially a compilation of dozens of national histories. I do not consider the sum of national histories to be World History, so in the narration, I have deliberately avoided a nationalistic approach and emphasized the interconnectedness of different parts of the world.
2. European History is not the center of World History. It is understandable that European scholars, when writing World History, tend to focus on Europe, given that Europeans were already active worldwide after the 15th century. However, before the 15th century, what we call "world activities" were largely confined to Asia, Europe, and Africa. Therefore, we cannot overlook the activities between Asia and Eurasia. In the narration, I have strived for balance to avoid excessive emphasis on any particular aspect or region.
3. Stages of evolution should not be denied due to their complexity. The historical development of all parts of the world follows distinct stages. A typical progression includes the tribal society era, the slave economy era, the feudal era, the pre-capitalist and capitalist eras, and finally the socialist era. For example, the six ancient cultural regions described in Chapters 3 and 4 of this book all have cities and commerce, class antagonism, slave labor, city-states, metal objects, and written records. From these features, they can be seen as corresponding to the stage of the slave economy. While I have tried to avoid a mechanical formulaic approach, the stages of evolution cannot be ignored. Wherever it is possible to identify them, I have pointed them out.
4. Generalized narration should not degenerate into abstract and empty talk. Hegel categorized historical works into three types: original history, which emphasizes concrete descriptions; reflective history, which focuses on general trends; and philosophical history, which prioritizes abstract "ideas." Moving from description to generalization, from the concrete to the abstract, is in line with the principle of scientific economy. However, Hegel's assertion that abstract "ideas" precede and give rise to concrete events is something we cannot accept. We value generalized narration, but we cannot engage in abstract and empty talk detached from concrete facts. The chapters, sections, and headings of this book are derived from concrete events, but they are not abstract concepts.
This book is the first truly Western-centric World History in China, treating the entire world as a unified whole. It begins with the primitive era and ends with the "Mercantilist" period (i.e., capitalism), adopting a comparative approach to historical stages in both the East and the West to trace the true development of world history, rather than simply piecing together the national histories of the East and the West. The book strives to elucidate historical phenomena from the perspective of historical materialism, covering politics, economics, culture, ethnicity, and society without resorting to dogmatism. It draws heavily on foreign and Chinese materials (many of which are primary sources) and introduces or critiques the theories and viewpoints of previous scholars, all with solid evidence. This book holds enduring historical value in the field of world history.