Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T17:08:56.144Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sir Robert Hart and the Writing of Modern Chinese History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2020

Chihyun Chang
Chihyun Chang*
Affiliation:
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
*
*Corresponding author. Email: chihyun@sjtu.edu.cn
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines the conflicts in writing the imperial modern history of China among various stakeholders, particularly Chinese and American historians, and their dealing with a set of personal documents of Sir Robert Hart, Inspector-General of the Chinese Maritime Customs Services (CMCS) during the Qing period. This set of documents is called “Hart Industry” and contains Hart's personal papers and seventy-seven volumes of diaries, among others. Revealing the imperial Inspector-General's view on “westernization” in modern China, the Hart Industry played a key role in the development of the history of modern China throughout the twentieth century. From around 1957 until 1995, the diaries became a source of a highly politicized academic debate between Chinese Communist historians of the People's Republic of China and western historians of the Hart Industry. By providing a “study of studies” on the historiography of the colonial modern history of China, this article argues that the Hart diaries were critical to historians’ understanding of their own academic discourse.

Keywords

The Chinese Maritime Customs ServiceRobert HartH. B. MorseT. F. Tsiangmodern Chinese history
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , July 2020 , pp. 109 - 126
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

FPGoogle Scholar
FP. Fairbank Papers, General Correspondence 1947–1991, Box 2 (HUGFP 12.8), Harvard University Archives.Google Scholar
People's Daily. People's Daily 人民日报, Digital Archives (1946–2003).Google Scholar
IACMC. The Research Office of the Directorate General of Customs ed., Imperialism and the Chinese Maritime Customs, vol. XI, Beijing: Zhonghua Bookstore, 1994.Google Scholar
The Times. The Times, Times Digital Archive.Google Scholar
THD. The Hart Diaries, Sir Robert Hart Manuscript Collection, MS 15/1/9, Queen's University Belfast.Google Scholar
TIGC. The PRC Directorate General of Customs, The Inspector-General's Circulars, Beijing: The Customs Press, 2013.Google Scholar
WP. Wright Papers, C5, The Wright Collection, MS16, Queen's University Belfast.Google Scholar
Banister, T. R. (1932). The Coastwise Lights of China: An Illustrated Account for the Chinese Maritime Customs Light Service. Shanghai: Statistical Department of Inspectorate General of Customs, 1932. As well as “The History of the External Trade of China, 1834–81” and “Synopsis of the External Trade of China, 1882–1931.” In Zhongguo Haiguan Xijian Wenxian Quan bian: Wushinian Gebu Haiguan Baogao 1882–1931 Vol. 13 中国海旧海关稀见文献全编：五十年各埠海关报告1882–1931 第十三册, ed. Liu Hui 刘辉, pp. 13–205. Beijing: Zhongguo Haiguan Chubanshe, 2009.Google Scholar
Bickers, Robert (2006). “Purloined Letters: History and the Chinese Maritime Customs Service.” Modern Asian Studies 40:3, pp. 691–723.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruner, K., Fairbank, J. and Smith, R. eds. (1986). Entering China's Service: Robert Hart's Journals, 1854–1863. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Chang, Chihyun (2017). The Chinese Journals of L. K. Little, 1943–1954: An Eyewitness Account of War and Revolution, 3 volumes. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Xiafei, Chen陈霞飞 (1992).“Yueguo Chongyang de Zhuida: Jizai Yige Yanjiu Xiangmuzhong yu Fei Zhengqing Jiaoshou de Wenzi Jiaowang” 越过重洋的追悼：记在一个研究项目中与费正清教授的文字交往. Modern Chinese History Studies 近代史研究 2, pp. 207–12.Google Scholar
Xiafei, Chen陈霞飞 and Rongfang, Han韩荣芳 (eds.) (1990). Archives of China's Imperial Maritime Customs: Confidential Correspondence between Robert Hart and James Duncan Campbell, 1874–1907, vol. I 中国海关密档：赫德、金登干函电汇编 1874–1907. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press Beijing.Google Scholar
Cohen, Paul and Merle, Goldman (1992). Fairbank Remembered. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drew, E. (1913/1914). “Sir Robert Hart and His Life Work in China.” Journal of Race Development 4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yifeng, Dai (1991). “Zhongguo Haiguan Midang: Hede Jin Denggan Handian Huibian Pingjie” 中国海关密档：赫德、金登干函电汇编评价. Modern Chinese History Studies 近代史研究 6, pp. 243–47.Google Scholar
Yifeng, Dai戴一峰 (1995). “Chen Shiqi Yu Zhongguo Jindai Haiguan Shi De Yanjiu “陈诗启与近代中国海关史的研究 (“Chen Shiqi and the Studies of Modern Chinese Maritime Customs Service”). Jindai Zhongguo Shi Yanjiu Tongxun 近代中国史研究通讯 (Newsletter for Modern Chinese History) 19, pp. 60–67.Google Scholar
Eberhard-Breard, Andrea (2006). “Robert Hart and China's Statistical Revolution.” Modern Asian Studies 40:3, pp. 605–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, P. (1988). John Fairbank and the American Understanding of Modern China. New York: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
John, Fairbank (1935). “The Provisional System at Shanghai in 1853–1854 (to be continued).” The Chinese Social and Political Science Review 18:4 (1935), pp. 455–504.Google Scholar
John, Fairbank (1935). “The Provisional System at Shanghai in 1853–1854 (concluded).” The Chinese Social and Political Science Review 19:1 (1935), pp. 65–124.Google Scholar
John, Fairbank (1936).“The Creation of the Foreign Inspectorate of Customs at Shanghai (to be continued).” The Chinese Social and Political Science Review 19:4 (1936), pp. 469–514.Google Scholar
Fairbank, John (1936). “The Creation of the Foreign Inspectorate of Customs at Shanghai (concluded).” The Chinese Social and Political Science Review 20:1, pp. 42–100.Google Scholar
Fairbank, John, Katherine, Bruner and Elizabeth, Matheson (eds.) (1975). The IG in Peking: Letter of Robert Hart Chinese Maritime Customs 1868–1907, vol. II. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975.Google Scholar
Fairbank, John (1983). Chinabound: A Fifty-Year Memoir. New York: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Fairbank, John, Katherine, Bruner and Elizabeth, Matheson (eds.) (1975). The IG in Peking: Letters of Robert Hart, Chinese Maritime Customs 1868–1907, vol. I. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Fairbank, John, Martha, Coolidge and Richard, Smith (1995). H. B. Morse: Customs Commissioner and Historian of China. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky.Google Scholar
Foster, Hall (2015 (1977)). “The Chinese Maritime Customs: An International Service, 1854–1950.” The Chinese Maritime Customs Project, Occasional Papers: No. 5 (1977), reprinted and published by University of Bristol in 2015.Google Scholar
Liang, Jing京良 (1989). “The Introduction for the First International Conference for the History of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service” 中国海关史研究首届国际研讨会择介. Modern Chinese History Studies 近代史研究 2, pp. 304–14.Google Scholar
King, Paul Henry (1924). In the Chinese Customs Service: A Personal Record of Forty-Seven Years. London: T. Fisher Unwin.Google Scholar
LeFevour, E. (1974). “A Report on the Robert Hart Papers at Queen's University, Belfast, N. I.” Journal of Asian Studies 33:3, pp. 437–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xinhao, Lian 连心豪 (1995). “ Tansuo zhongguo jindaishi yanjiu xin de qierudian: zhongguo haiguanshi disanci guojixueshu yantaohui zongshu” 探索中国近代史研究新的切入点──中国海关史第三次国际学术研讨会综述. The Journal of Chinese Social and Economic History 中国社会经济史研究 4, pp. 83–85.Google Scholar
Lo, Hui-Min (ed.) (1976). The Correspondence of G. E. Morrison, 1895–1912, vol. I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
O'Leary, R. (2006). “Robert Hart in China: The Significance of His Irish Roots.” Modern Asian Studies 40:3, pp. 583–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ballou, Morse Hosea (1918). The International Relations of the Chinese Empire: The Period of Submission, 1861–1893. London: Longmans, Green.Google Scholar
Ballou, Morse Hosea (1918) The International Relations of the Chinese Empire: The Period of Subjection, 1894–1911. London: Longmans, Green.Google Scholar
Fairbank, John (1936). “The Definition of the Foreign Inspector's Status.” Nankai Social and Economic Quarterly 9:1, pp. 125–63.Google Scholar
People's Daily (1959).“Ping Diguo Zhuyi Yu Zhongguo Haiguan” 评帝国主义与中国海关 (“The Introduction of Imperialism and the Chinese Maritime Customs Service”). People's Daily人民日报, 10 July.Google Scholar
Spence, Jonathan (1969). To Change China: Western Advisers in China. New York: Little, Brown and Company.Google Scholar
Smith, R., Fairbank, J. and Bruner, K. (eds.) (1991). Robert Hart and China's Early Modernization: His Journals, 1863–1866. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Tiffen, Mary (2012). Friends of Sir Robert Hart: Three Generations of Carrall Women in China. Crewkerne: Tiffania Books.Google Scholar
Ting-fu, Tsiang 蒋廷黻 (1931). Selected Materials for Modern Chinese Diplomatic History, vol. I 近代中国外交史资料辑要. Shanghai: The Commercial Press.Google Scholar
Van de Ven, Hans (2014). Breaking with the Past: The Maritime Customs Service and the Global Origins of Modernity in China. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Wright, Stanley (1936). China's Customs Revenue since the Revolution of 1911. Shanghai: Statistical Department of Inspectorate General of Customs.Google Scholar
Wright, Stanley (ed.) (1936–40). Documents Illustrative of the Origin, Development and Activities of the Chinese Customs Service. Shanghai: Statistical Department of Inspectorate General of Customs.Google Scholar
Wright, Stanley (1950). Hart and the Chinese Customs. Belfast: Wm. Mullan & Son Ltd, 1950.Google Scholar
Pengzhi, Xue薛鹏志 (1991). “The Summary for the Second International Conference for the History of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service” 中国海关史第二次国际学术研讨会综述. Historical Research 近代史研究 2, pp. 41–47.Google Scholar
FPGoogle Scholar
FP. Fairbank Papers, General Correspondence 1947–1991, Box 2 (HUGFP 12.8), Harvard University Archives.Google Scholar
People's Daily. People's Daily 人民日报, Digital Archives (1946–2003).Google Scholar
IACMC. The Research Office of the Directorate General of Customs ed., Imperialism and the Chinese Maritime Customs, vol. XI, Beijing: Zhonghua Bookstore, 1994.Google Scholar
The Times. The Times, Times Digital Archive.Google Scholar
THD. The Hart Diaries, Sir Robert Hart Manuscript Collection, MS 15/1/9, Queen's University Belfast.Google Scholar
TIGC. The PRC Directorate General of Customs, The Inspector-General's Circulars, Beijing: The Customs Press, 2013.Google Scholar
WP. Wright Papers, C5, The Wright Collection, MS16, Queen's University Belfast.Google Scholar
Banister, T. R. (1932). The Coastwise Lights of China: An Illustrated Account for the Chinese Maritime Customs Light Service. Shanghai: Statistical Department of Inspectorate General of Customs, 1932. As well as “The History of the External Trade of China, 1834–81” and “Synopsis of the External Trade of China, 1882–1931.” In Zhongguo Haiguan Xijian Wenxian Quan bian: Wushinian Gebu Haiguan Baogao 1882–1931 Vol. 13 中国海旧海关稀见文献全编：五十年各埠海关报告1882–1931 第十三册, ed. Liu Hui 刘辉, pp. 13–205. Beijing: Zhongguo Haiguan Chubanshe, 2009.Google Scholar
Bickers, Robert (2006). “Purloined Letters: History and the Chinese Maritime Customs Service.” Modern Asian Studies 40:3, pp. 691–723.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruner, K., Fairbank, J. and Smith, R. eds. (1986). Entering China's Service: Robert Hart's Journals, 1854–1863. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Chang, Chihyun (2017). The Chinese Journals of L. K. Little, 1943–1954: An Eyewitness Account of War and Revolution, 3 volumes. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Xiafei, Chen陈霞飞 (1992).“Yueguo Chongyang de Zhuida: Jizai Yige Yanjiu Xiangmuzhong yu Fei Zhengqing Jiaoshou de Wenzi Jiaowang” 越过重洋的追悼：记在一个研究项目中与费正清教授的文字交往. Modern Chinese History Studies 近代史研究 2, pp. 207–12.Google Scholar
Xiafei, Chen陈霞飞 and Rongfang, Han韩荣芳 (eds.) (1990). Archives of China's Imperial Maritime Customs: Confidential Correspondence between Robert Hart and James Duncan Campbell, 1874–1907, vol. I 中国海关密档：赫德、金登干函电汇编 1874–1907. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press Beijing.Google Scholar
Cohen, Paul and Merle, Goldman (1992). Fairbank Remembered. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drew, E. (1913/1914). “Sir Robert Hart and His Life Work in China.” Journal of Race Development 4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yifeng, Dai (1991). “Zhongguo Haiguan Midang: Hede Jin Denggan Handian Huibian Pingjie” 中国海关密档：赫德、金登干函电汇编评价. Modern Chinese History Studies 近代史研究 6, pp. 243–47.Google Scholar
Yifeng, Dai戴一峰 (1995). “Chen Shiqi Yu Zhongguo Jindai Haiguan Shi De Yanjiu “陈诗启与近代中国海关史的研究 (“Chen Shiqi and the Studies of Modern Chinese Maritime Customs Service”). Jindai Zhongguo Shi Yanjiu Tongxun 近代中国史研究通讯 (Newsletter for Modern Chinese History) 19, pp. 60–67.Google Scholar
Eberhard-Breard, Andrea (2006). “Robert Hart and China's Statistical Revolution.” Modern Asian Studies 40:3, pp. 605–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, P. (1988). John Fairbank and the American Understanding of Modern China. New York: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
John, Fairbank (1935). “The Provisional System at Shanghai in 1853–1854 (to be continued).” The Chinese Social and Political Science Review 18:4 (1935), pp. 455–504.Google Scholar
John, Fairbank (1935). “The Provisional System at Shanghai in 1853–1854 (concluded).” The Chinese Social and Political Science Review 19:1 (1935), pp. 65–124.Google Scholar
John, Fairbank (1936).“The Creation of the Foreign Inspectorate of Customs at Shanghai (to be continued).” The Chinese Social and Political Science Review 19:4 (1936), pp. 469–514.Google Scholar
Fairbank, John (1936). “The Creation of the Foreign Inspectorate of Customs at Shanghai (concluded).” The Chinese Social and Political Science Review 20:1, pp. 42–100.Google Scholar
Fairbank, John, Katherine, Bruner and Elizabeth, Matheson (eds.) (1975). The IG in Peking: Letter of Robert Hart Chinese Maritime Customs 1868–1907, vol. II. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975.Google Scholar
Fairbank, John (1983). Chinabound: A Fifty-Year Memoir. New York: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Fairbank, John, Katherine, Bruner and Elizabeth, Matheson (eds.) (1975). The IG in Peking: Letters of Robert Hart, Chinese Maritime Customs 1868–1907, vol. I. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Fairbank, John, Martha, Coolidge and Richard, Smith (1995). H. B. Morse: Customs Commissioner and Historian of China. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky.Google Scholar
Foster, Hall (2015 (1977)). “The Chinese Maritime Customs: An International Service, 1854–1950.” The Chinese Maritime Customs Project, Occasional Papers: No. 5 (1977), reprinted and published by University of Bristol in 2015.Google Scholar
Liang, Jing京良 (1989). “The Introduction for the First International Conference for the History of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service” 中国海关史研究首届国际研讨会择介. Modern Chinese History Studies 近代史研究 2, pp. 304–14.Google Scholar
King, Paul Henry (1924). In the Chinese Customs Service: A Personal Record of Forty-Seven Years. London: T. Fisher Unwin.Google Scholar
LeFevour, E. (1974). “A Report on the Robert Hart Papers at Queen's University, Belfast, N. I.” Journal of Asian Studies 33:3, pp. 437–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xinhao, Lian 连心豪 (1995). “ Tansuo zhongguo jindaishi yanjiu xin de qierudian: zhongguo haiguanshi disanci guojixueshu yantaohui zongshu” 探索中国近代史研究新的切入点──中国海关史第三次国际学术研讨会综述. The Journal of Chinese Social and Economic History 中国社会经济史研究 4, pp. 83–85.Google Scholar
Lo, Hui-Min (ed.) (1976). The Correspondence of G. E. Morrison, 1895–1912, vol. I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
O'Leary, R. (2006). “Robert Hart in China: The Significance of His Irish Roots.” Modern Asian Studies 40:3, pp. 583–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ballou, Morse Hosea (1918). The International Relations of the Chinese Empire: The Period of Submission, 1861–1893. London: Longmans, Green.Google Scholar
Ballou, Morse Hosea (1918) The International Relations of the Chinese Empire: The Period of Subjection, 1894–1911. London: Longmans, Green.Google Scholar
Fairbank, John (1936). “The Definition of the Foreign Inspector's Status.” Nankai Social and Economic Quarterly 9:1, pp. 125–63.Google Scholar
People's Daily (1959).“Ping Diguo Zhuyi Yu Zhongguo Haiguan” 评帝国主义与中国海关 (“The Introduction of Imperialism and the Chinese Maritime Customs Service”). People's Daily人民日报, 10 July.Google Scholar
Spence, Jonathan (1969). To Change China: Western Advisers in China. New York: Little, Brown and Company.Google Scholar
Smith, R., Fairbank, J. and Bruner, K. (eds.) (1991). Robert Hart and China's Early Modernization: His Journals, 1863–1866. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Tiffen, Mary (2012). Friends of Sir Robert Hart: Three Generations of Carrall Women in China. Crewkerne: Tiffania Books.Google Scholar
Ting-fu, Tsiang 蒋廷黻 (1931). Selected Materials for Modern Chinese Diplomatic History, vol. I 近代中国外交史资料辑要. Shanghai: The Commercial Press.Google Scholar
Van de Ven, Hans (2014). Breaking with the Past: The Maritime Customs Service and the Global Origins of Modernity in China. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Wright, Stanley (1936). China's Customs Revenue since the Revolution of 1911. Shanghai: Statistical Department of Inspectorate General of Customs.Google Scholar
Wright, Stanley (ed.) (1936–40). Documents Illustrative of the Origin, Development and Activities of the Chinese Customs Service. Shanghai: Statistical Department of Inspectorate General of Customs.Google Scholar
Wright, Stanley (1950). Hart and the Chinese Customs. Belfast: Wm. Mullan & Son Ltd, 1950.Google Scholar
Pengzhi, Xue薛鹏志 (1991). “The Summary for the Second International Conference for the History of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service” 中国海关史第二次国际学术研讨会综述. Historical Research 近代史研究 2, pp. 41–47.Google Scholar