Reflections on the Methodology of Chinese Literary History Research of 20th Century

The research of Chinese literary history of 20th century can be categorized into three types: that of empirical demonstration, that of theoretical logic and that of cultural explanation. The method of empirical demonstration takes literary fact as the basic object of literary history research, the description of literary fact and construction of knowledge system of literary history as the fundamental aim of research, whereas ignores the human characteristic of literary history research.. The method of theoretical logic sees the reason that literary phenomenon exists as the basic task of literary history research and try to find out the laws in complex social relationships, theoretical systems and universal spiritual logic which lies behind the literary phenomenon and determines the development of literature, whereas ignores the historic complexity of literary history and the subjectivity of literature. The method of cultural explanation defines the research of literary history as the course of communication between the object and subject of research and stresses the subjective individual cultural function and explanative effect, whereas the knowledgeability and effectiveness it studies can hardly be established universally.