探讨新世纪中国史学发展的道路,很自然地是同如何看待唯物史观的指导作用,以及如何评价中国马克思主义史学走过的历程和取得的成果密切相关的。有的研究者认为,中国马克思主义史学自“五四”时期创立以后,总体上遵循着“唯物史观基本原理与中国历史实际相结合”的根本宗旨,不断发展壮大,开拓了诸多研究领域,取得了一系列重要成果,把中国史学推向了新的阶段。其间,曾经出现教条化泛滥的严重曲折,经过拨乱反正,批判和克服了“左”倾思想的恶劣影响,使史学出现了空前的繁荣局面。有的研究者则对唯物史观以及运用这一理论而获得的认识提出质疑,或认为建国后十七年史学完全成为政治的附庸,应该彻底否定。既然学者们的认识有如此大的分歧,就亟须通过展开争鸣,各抒己见,以利求得更科学的评价。为此,本刊特发表这组笔谈,期望引起更多学人的关注,并使新世纪中国史学的发展得到正确、科学的引导。 To explore the road to the development of Chinese historiography in the new century naturally very closely relates to how to treat the guiding role of historical materialism and how to appraise the course of the history of Marxism in China and the achievements made. Some researchers think that after the founding of the “May 4th Movement”, China’s Marxist historiography follows the fundamental principle of “integrating the basic principles of historical materialism with the reality of Chinese history” and continues to grow and develop In many fields of research, a series of important achievements have been made and the history of China has been pushed to a new stage. In the meantime, there have been serious twists and turns of dogmatic rampant. Through the indiscriminate chaos, criticism and overcoming the bad influence of the “leftist” ideology, historians have seen unprecedented prosperity. Some researchers questioned the historical materialism and the knowledge gained from using this theory, or thought that historiography became the vassal of politics completely 17 years after the founding of the People’s Republic of China and should be completely negated. Since there is such a big difference between the scholars’ understanding, it is imperative to express their opinions through eager contests so as to strive for a more scientific evaluation. To this end, we published this series of special written notes, expecting to attract more scholars’ attention and make the development of Chinese history in the new century be correctly and scientifically guided.