ABSTRACT
The questions that he at the heart of this paper were ones that preoccupied China's historians in the early twentieth century as they tried to manage the transition from fragmenting empire to nation state: how was it possible to move from writing the story of a dynastic enterprise to constructing a nation's history; how could they tell the national story in a way that would give meaning to the inherited cultural legacy yet also help them shape the emerging nation? These questions were complicated by a rich tradition of historical practice. Although some historians suggested past practice was redundant and should be abandoned, for most this was not a possibility. While they were concerned to create a 'new' history, they believed this had to be done in a way that maintained the integrity of the cultural traditions that gave meaning to the Chinese community. Without these there could be no Chinese nation. And for some, inherited historical practice was central to these very cultural traditions. How then could existing methodologies and narrative techniques be adapted to tell a new history? This paper will examine some of the narrative strategies employed by Chinese historians as they grappled with these questions.
