Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
infl uential topic,
Red Star Over China
. It was also this student movement that
increased the admiration of the students for Dr. Sailer, for he showed enormous care
and support for students who, though suffering hunger and cold, had walked for
miles to join the demonstrations.
Six months after the 9 December demonstrations I graduated from my depart-
ment at Yenching University. The evening before my graduation Professor Gu
Jiegang told me that the university had appointed him as part-time head of the his-
tory department from the next term onward, and he hoped I would stay on as his
assistant. From August 1936 till June 1937, Professor Gu tried out a new approach
with his class “Exercise in research on ancient sites and ancient objects”. Every
fortnight on Saturday afternoon he would take the students to an old building or
ancient site which he had chosen beforehand, either inside Peking's city walls or in
the surrounding countryside, to make an on-the-spot investigation. He wanted me to
make a written report beforehand on the basis of his reference materials and my own
inspection results, and hand this out to the students for reference. It was a training
very precious for me, which deepened my interest in doing research on Peking's
historical geography.
On 7 July 1937 the Japanese aggressors staged the “Marco Polo Bridge Incident”
or “July 7 Incident” in the outskirts of Peking, and they attacked and occupied the
city, setting off the widespread War of Resistance Against Japan. Professor Gu
Jiegang left Peking quickly for the South, to escape an arrest by the Japanese.
Thereafter, I obtained a scholarship by the Harvard-Yenching Institute and became
a M.A. research student under the guidance of Professor William Hung. National
University had, just as Peking University and Qinghua University, already after the
Marco Polo Bridge Incident moved to the south. Although Yenching University was
situated in an enemy-occupied area, it could continue to exist because it was run by
an American Christian organisation, and Yenching was like a solitary island where
the youth in enemy-occupied north China could still pursue their studies. As a
research student the fi rst problem I had was what to choose as the fi eld of research
and the subject for my thesis. Actually, William Hung had proposed me a subject
long ago, when I wrote my graduation paper. Because he knew my interest had
moved to historical geography, he hoped I would take the chapter on Shandong
province from the work
Tianxia junguo libing shu
(
The Blessings and Ills of All
Regions of the Empire
) of the famous late Ming early Qing scholar Gu Yanwu, and
then add a compilation from the early Qing to the late Qing and early Republic. The
point was to disclose all good and bad aspects of every place inside Shandong prov-
ince of the past 300 years, to be of reference when building up the nation. For
although we were occupied by the enemy, everyone believed the war would eventu-
ally be won, and the nation would be built up again. The choice of Shandong was
made because it is my original home, and also because the library of Yenching had
the most Local Gazetteers on Shandong province. These Local Gazetteers are char-
acteristic of China, they are topics compiled by the authorities on the situation of all
districts in all provinces, usually compiled every odd years. Because I had only
limited time then, I could not but choose another subject for my thesis with a rather
smaller scope. M.A. research students now have enough time to do research. It was
