A Historian’s Ethical Duty: Chen Yuan’s ‘Illumination of the Subtle’ in Occupied Beiping

Yuan, Yidan

Abstract

In the wake of Japan's occupation of Beiping (now Beijing) in 1937, the historian Chen Yuan's choice between staying in or leaving the city (which would imply accommodation or resistance) was regarded not merely as a personal decision but also as a symbolic stance for the ethical principles of the Chinese intelligentsia. Based on a close reading of Chen's historical writings during the Japanese occupation, this paper focuses on the inner world of this historian, and argues that a salient rhetorical feature of Chen's wartime work was its role as a mechanism which he referred to as 'illuminating the subtle'. This involved historical facts being cited and interpreted in a way that demonstrated the historian's attitude and feelings towards contemporary events. It is proposed that the 'illumination of the subtle' is not accepted at face value as academic research, but rather that it is treated as a rhetorical device, in order to understand the inner logic and dynamism of this expressive mechanism.

Citation

Yuan, Y. (2020). A Historian’s Ethical Duty: Chen Yuan’s ‘Illumination of the Subtle’ in Occupied Beiping. European Journal of East Asian Studies, 19(2), 297-323. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700615-01902009

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 25, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Dec 4, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020-12
• Deposit Date: Feb 26, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 26, 2021
• Journal: European Journal of East Asian Studies
• Print ISSN: 1568-0584
• Electronic ISSN: 1570-0615
• Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 19
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 297-323
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15700615-01902009
• Keywords: Political Science and International Relations; Geography, Planning and Development; Development; Cultural Studies; Sociology and Political Science; History
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5352482
• Publisher URL: https://brill.com/view/journals/ejea/19/2/article-p297_7.xml
• Additional Information: This article is part of a series of articles published on an open access basis in Vol. 1, Issue 2 of The European Journal of East Asian Studies (Table of Contents: https://brill.com/view/journals/ejea/19/2/ejea.19.issue-2.xml. Open access costs were covered by the Cultures of Occupation in Twentieth Century Asia (COTCA) project, funded by the European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Number 682081).