Yu Zhengxie’s Historical Studies

As an excellent scholar of Ch’ing Dynasty, Yu Zhengxie (1775-1840) researched on a number of historical fields and attained various achievements. However, his achievements have not gotten much attention to. Based on his works, Gui Si Lei Gao and Gui Si Cun Gao, this paper aims to assess his historical achievements, thoughts, and method.The paper contains three chapters with a preface. The preface introduces a review of studies on Yu Zhengxie and the aims of the paper. The first chapter tells us Yu’s life, his Mends like some outstanding Qianjia scholars and specialists in Northwest Historical and Geographical studies, and his students, and all of which reflected in his works. According to his works, Gui Si Lei Gao and Gui Si Cun Gao, the second chapter presents Yu’s achievements on historical studies, including Northwest border and Southwest coast of China, ancient Chinese history, articles, customs and religions. Yu was a pioneer in systematically research Russia, Taiwan, and Macao. His attainments are still treasures for today’s New Cultural History. The last chapter analyzes how Yu studied history by gathering a various range of sources, Yu’s opinions on historiography like historical styles and formats, and his brilliant insight which helps him win his fame. The epilog summarizes several scholars’ remarks on Yu and attempts to raise the author’s view on Yu’s status in modern China’s history of historiography.