With Gan Yang and Hou Xudong as the editors,Xinya's Lecture Room of Chinese History was published by SDX Joint Publishing Company.Relying on the lecture notes for the course of general education on Chinese civilization in Xinya College, eight well-known scholars, namely Sun Qingwei, Hou Xudong, Yan Buke, Zhang Guogang, Deng Xiaonan, Yao Dali, Liu Zhiwei and Yang Nianqun, make a summary of the major historical periods in China and the development of core dynasties as well as their characteristics in different ages and analyze the problems emerging in different historical periods.In the book, various research features and lecture styles are displayed, and the overall development of Chinese history and the latest discoveries in current researches in this respect are also well connected in the content.

Origins ofXinya's Lecture Room of Chinese History

Gan Yang

The bookXinya's Lecture Room of Chinese History is originated from a 3-credit course of general education for undergraduate students in Xinya College, Tsinghua University.Divided into two parts, the course "Reading of Chinese Civilization" consists of regular class routines for students, such as reading, writing and discussion, and eight lectures (which also represent the eight sections in the book) by Chinese history professionals.Interestingly, there were only a few spending hours in reading, writing and discussion, while the attendees to the lectures soared up to hundreds of people. Looking back, the largest lecture hall for 600 people in Tsinghua University was crammed with people every Thursday evening and such magnificent scene could be seen from April to June in 2018.

I'm always in hope that Chinese history or the history of Chinese civilization should be taken as the most fundamental core course of university's general education in China. However, it's hard to realize it, despite of few opponents. At present, there are only about 12 credits for general education courses, even in top tier universities such as Tsinghua University, Peking University and Fudan University, which indicates that there are only four to five undergraduate courses related to general education and students majoring in subjects other than history will at most choose only one course of Chinese history throughout his or her undergraduate study.Therefore, from the perspective of general education, we have to ask two questions: what should students learn from the only one Chinese history course throughout their undergraduate study and what's the class form? Ideally, all university students in China should have taken at least one course of history of Chinese civilization. However, the fact shows that most Chinese university students, except for those who major in history, have never taken a course related to Chinese history or the history of Chinese civilization during their four-year undergraduate study.To say the least, Chinese history has not yet been taken into consideration as a mandatory course for both faculties of science and engineering and faculties of social sciences such as School of Law and School of Economics and Management, which shows that history of Chinese history receives less attention than it should have done in the universities in China. What a pity? Isn't it?

After taking the full-time position as Dean of Xinya College in 2017, I talked quite often with Prof. Hou Xudong from the Department of History about how to set up a course of "Reading of Chinese Civilization" for students in the college. Personally, I expected that the course could meet two requirements. On the one hand, it should cover the complete Chinese history rather than separate dynastic history, and on the other hand, the reading materials should include not only Chinese history literature but also researches on the history of Chinese civilization from Japan and Western countries, which, from my own perspective, was essential because we were in the age of globalization. Nevertheless, the long reading list would impose greater pressure on students who intended to take the class. In the spring of 2018, I made my final decision to set up the course "Reading of Chinese Civilization" and started with a study course for undergraduate students majoring in "Philosophy, Politics and Economics", because many students studying such cross-disciplinary subject would choose social sciences as their final direction and social sciences in China was undoubtedly based on Chinese history, otherwise, our studies in the so called "China-based social sciences" would turn into an empty talk in the end.After deliberation, I decided to includeA History of China series published by Kodansha Co., Ltd. at the beginning ofthe21st century as required readings in comparison with other discussions and analyses of Chinese history scholars. At the same time, many Chinese history professionals would be invited to give lectures in order to provide a platform for students to get close to the latest development of studies of Chinese history.Fortunately, I could be able to work with Prof. Hou Xudong on planning eight series of lectures and preside over study course for students together with Prof. Liu Zhiwei once a week, with their great support for my crazy idea. From my point of view, although students can benefit from attending lectures, it's of the greatest importance to lead them to read and reflect themselves. As such, the combination of sufficient reading, writing and discussion in the course and additional lectures is the most ideal arrangement for them.