王韬史学成就及其在中国近代史学上的地位

WANG Tao's Historical Achievements and His Status in Chinese Modern Historiography

王韬是中国近代法国史研究的先驱,也是较早试图全面研究西方历史的学者,还是近代第一个没有官方背景走出国门对西方政治、经济、文化进行实地考察的中国史家。他撰写了许多西方史地著作,系统地书写了法国历史,记述了普法战争的始末,对当时东南亚、非洲、欧洲和日本的政治状况、社会风貌也作了比较全面的考察和描述。王韬的历史著作,追求信史,采取了保存异说的方式;在体裁、体例上,坚持内容决定形式,不拘一体;他注重研究历史与关注社会现实的结合,所作史论充满经世思想;在表述上,他采取了骈散结合的手法,文字优美,同时还体现出较为突出的社会史意识和世界史意识。王韬在中国近代史学史上占有独特的地位,他的史学上承魏源、徐继畬,下启康有为、梁启超,是近代中国史学发展中的一个重要环节。

WANG Tao was not only the pioneer in French history study, but also one of the Chinese scholars attempting to comprehensively study the western history in modern China. He was one of the first historians that had no official background to go aboard investigating Western politics, economies and culture in modern China. He wrote many books on western history, de- scribed the French history, introduced the information of the Franco-Prussian war, recorded the southeast Asia, Africa, Europe and Japan＇s political situation and social environment. WANG Tao adopted different ways in writing history. In both genre and style, he adopted different forms according to different contents. He combined history study with social reality. His history com- ments were filled with classic thoughts and his historical writings were ones with beautiful narra- tive styles and also reflected prominent viewpoints of social history and the world history. WANG Tao rested on the special position in the history of modern Chinese historiography, and his histo- riography, learning from former scholars such as WEI Yuan and XU Ji-yu while enlightened the followers such as KANG You-wei and LIANG Qi-ehao, it was an important link in the develop- ment of modern Chinese historiography.