On the history and historiography of the “South China School”

The South China School is currently an influential academic school in China, and its scholarship methods and practices are worthy of attention and discussion. The formation of the South China School is rooted in the tradition of “downward-looking” and interdisciplinary scholarship since the construction of the liberal arts at Sun Yat-sen University, and is inspired by the theories and methods of Fu Yiling and Liang Fangzhong in the study of Chinese social and economic history. On this basis, the School has actively absorbed the historiographical theories of the Western annals school, and formed a common philosophy of scholarship through long-term cooperation and exchange with overseas scholars. The formation of the South China School is closely related to the changes in Chinese society and its academic trends in the last hundred years, which reflect certain common features of Chinese historiography from tradition to modernity. Exploring the formation process of this school should be of some significance for the development of contemporary Chinese historiography.