A Tentative Discussion of the "Four Histories" and the "Cultural Revolution" (111): a New Page in Family and Nationality Histories

Abstract

Another vicissitude which developed almost simultaneously with the "contending" in Chinese social history was the dispute over the forming of the nation. This vicissitude may be stated as two facets of the single problem of China's social development, stemming from the study of the history of social development and the application of historical materialism to the analysis of Chinese history. To be more specific, it stemmed directly from the "study" of Stalin's The National Problem and Leninism in 1950. (1) Although the vicissitude of the dispute over the "problem of the shaping of the nation" is not as broad as the social history of China, it has surfaced over and over again. In 1955 it recurred after the "land reform," and again later at the time of "great contending and great blooming" The "cultural revolution" of 1961 may be described as another instance.