An investigation of debate on Chinese social history during the period of the late 1920s and the early 1930s does not mean to neglect or avoid those political elements throughout the debate. Actually, there is a close association between the debate on Chinese social history and establishment of materialistic conception of history. It did not only make Chinese Marxist historiography have revolutionary and practical characters, but also bestowed Marxist historiography with the characteristic of theoretical consideration and grand narration. It was the rapid development of materialistic conception of history in Yan’an and Chongqing during the antiJapanese period that made the camp of Chinese Marxist historiography take shape and exert extensive influence. However, we cannot neglect the initial significance of the debate on social history on the establishment of Chinese Marxist historiography.

the debate on social history; Chinese Marxist historiography; Guo Moruo; Tao Xisheng