This book combines, in one volume, the English editions of
An Outline History of China, published in 1982, and
An Outline History of China 1919-1949, published in 1993.
In the autumn of 1997, the History of China in Chinese containing 22 sections bound in 12 volumes, of which I was chief editor, was completed. Mr. Wu Canfei, an editor at the Foreign Languages Press (FLP) in Beijing, suggested that the two English edition books, which had been published and distributed for many years, be bound into one volume titled An Outline History of China (revised edition), and be officially published by FLP after it had revised the translation. Prior to this, they had translated the Chinese editions of the two books into English, Japanese, Spanish, German, French and other languages. This was something I had wanted to do for many years. When I drew up the plan for compiling An Outline History of China, I considered writing about the period from 1919 to 1949 in the book, but failed to do so due to factual difficulties. The idea was realized in late 1987, and the second volume of the book came into being. It covers Chinese history from 1919 to 1949, and is now Chapter 11 in this revised edition of An Outline History of China. Though An Outline History of China, which now includes the second volume, cannot be regarded as a complete Chinese history, readers can gain an overall understanding of Chinese history more conveniently through this single-volume edition.
Bai Shouyi (1909-2000) was born in Kaifeng, Henan Province and educated at Zhongshan and Yanjing universities. Beginning his teaching career in 1939, he taught for more than 40 years, first at Yunnan University, then at Nanjing University and later at Beijing Teachers University where he served as head of both the Department of History and the Institute of History.
Professor Bai's many-sided academic interests are reflected in the courses he taught on such subjects as general historiography, historical materialism, a general history of China, cultural history of China, history of Chinese historiography, history of China's external communications, history of Chinese Islamism, history of the Spring and Autumn-Warring States Period, history of the Sui and Tang dynasties, and history of the Qing Dynasty. His works include History of China's Communications (1937). A Beginner's Miscellany (1962), History of Chinese Historiography (Part One, 1964), and The Hui People's Uprisings (1953), a collection of historical materials in four volumes. Bai Shouyi was chief editor of Morning Star monthly, Islam monthly, Cultural News monthly, History Teaching fortnightly and bi-monthly Beijing Teachers University Journal. He also was chief editor of the quarterly magazine Studies of the History of Historiography.
Professor Bai was a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, a member of the Presidium of the Chinese Society of Historians, and president of the Beijing Society of Historians.
