The Institute of Chinese  History has a strong academic heritage that started from the pioneering work of the famous historians such as Ge Maochun. They established the authorization of the first master’s degree in historical theory in new China . “Introduction to the Historiography” edited by Ge Maochun and Xiang Guanqi was the first textbook of this kind, and now is still widely used. Ge Maochun made great achievements in editing and studying the literature about the history of Chinese modern historical theory systemically. The three volumes of “Anthology of Chinese Modern History” edited by Ge Maochun, Li Xingzhi and Jiang Jun et al., which contained nearly 2 million words, mainly collected the literature about the theory of historical development and the historical methodology during1919 to 1949. On this basis, Jiang Jun wrote the book titled “Process of Modernization of Chinese Historiography”, and described precisely the transition from traditional Chinese history to modern Chinese history in Republican China, which won the widespread reputation and was considered the representative book in this field.

The institute has a solid foundation on the research of the history of Qin & Han Dynasties, especially studies on the characters and the history of political system during this period. This can be represented by Prof. Meng Xiangcai's numerous books. His representative books of the studies on the characters in Qin & Han Dynasties include “Biography of Wang Mang”, “Critical Biography of Liu Bang”, “Biography of Hangaodi” and “Biography of HanGuangwudi”. His representative books of the comprehensive studies on the history of Qin & Han include “Historical comment in Pre-Qin and Qin-Han”, “History of Chinese Peasants’ War • Qin-Han Volume”, “Economic History of China’s Feudal Society: Volume 1”, “Critical Biography of Ancient Military Characters in Qi-Lu ”, “History of Thought and Culture in Qi-Lu: from the Regional Culture to the Mainstream Culture”. His books including “General History of China’s Political System • Qin-Han volume”, “General History of China’s Reform • Pre-Qin volume” and “History of China’s Political System” published by the People’s Publishing House reflect the standards of studies on the history of Qin & Han’s political system in the present academic circle. In addition, the institute supported adjunct prof. Zhang Jinguang to publish his book titled “the Research of Qin Dynasty’s System” by Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House. Prof. Zhang spent his whole life on this book. The publication of the book refreshed the overall studies on the history of the Qin Dynasty.

Currently, the institute has two majors including historical theory & historiography and modern Chinese history. Among them, 20^th century’s Chinese historical theory and historiography is the main direction and has received widespread recognition in this research area. The institute is exploring the research on historical theory and historiography step by step to form a thorough and orderly system through revising the textbook of the introduction to the history with new ideas and styles, editing a variety of important academic materials, compiling representative books, rewriting the historiography and so on. Many achievements made by the institute, especially studies on the historical thought on modern and contemporary times and the trends of historical thought, have produced lasting influence and are widely recognized in the academic circle. At the same time, the institute has taken a leading position in China by paying a close attention to the current new trend of historical research, and putting forward a series of original thinking about many cutting-edge problems. 

Prof. Wang Xuedian is one of the leaders in the discipline of historical theory in China . He has published “Historical Fate of the Historicism Thoughts”, “The Main Trend of China Historiography in the Second Part of 20^th Century”, “Historical Review of 20^th Century in China”, “Critical Biography of Jian Bozan’s Academic Thoughts”, “Gu Jiegang and His Disciples”, “Chinese Historiography in the 20^th Century”, “the New Era of Enlightenment in the History of Thinking”, “the Conflict between Historical Materialism and Historical Ethic Conception” and many other monographs. These books played a very important role in exploring historical epistemology, the development of Chinese historiography in the 20th century, the changing course of the materialists’ historiography, and the evolution of contemporary historiography. Some of these books have filled the blanks in the research field. The “Introduction to historiography” edited by Prof. Wang has been used as a textbook in the Department of History of more than 20 Universities. The institute also paid much attention to the study of the traditional Chinese historiography from the angle of bibliography. This research subject was led by Prof. Zhang Fuxiang. He has published several books such as “Research on Song Dynasty’s literature” and some articles in the top journals including “Social Science in China” and “Historical Studies”, which has won praise from the peers. Recently, Prof. Zhang Fuxiang has been editing the book titled “General Historiography of All the Dynasties” and trying to study the historiography of all the dynasties including overall status of each dynasty, the clues of development, unique categories, deep causes, and later influences. The completion of the book will reverse a severe bias of the current theoretical research and fill a large gap in academic history. In addition, the young teachers including prof. Chen Feng, Associate Prof. Li Yangmei and lecturer Yanghua have also been engaged in some research work. They explore Chinese Marxists’ historiography, historiography of “Gushibian” school and American Chinese studies respectively. They have made considerable achievements and received some attention in the academic circle.

The research of modern Chinese history is a new research direction. This direction takes the history of modern academic thought as a subject, and focuses on the study of modern Chinese economic history. Currently, the history of academic thought is led by Prof. Wang Xuedian, using both academic and social methods and ideas to deepen the research and upgrade the insights and conformity of the history. The study on Economic history is led by Prof. Li Pingsheng who was Prof. Kong Lingren's student. Prof. Li has made a series of distinctive research results and published several books and many influential papers in professional and authoritative magazines. He also undertook several provincial projects and won awards on several occasions. He offers the courses including “Chinese modern history”, “economic history of modern China”, “the history of China’s early modernization”, “study on early modernization in Shandong regional economy”, “the history of the Sino-British relations (in English )”. Chen Feng , Li Yangmei and Yanghua are also committed to teaching and research work. This direction will enrich the power and scale, strengthen the cooperation and try to become a new growth point in academy.

The institute is composed of a strong academic team with a reasonable structure. They devoted themselves to academic research, not for fame or fortune, which laid a cornerstone for the sustainable development of the institute. Also, the institute is a very active force in the academic field. The institute had extensive and in-depth academic exchanges with academia at home and abroad, established close contact with authoritative academic journals, and hosted successfully the international conferences. Therefore, the institute has become a vibrant academic base of the historical theory and historiography except for that in Beijing and Shanghai.