Recently, the seminar on the Nankai Edition of the Two Major General Histories was held simultaneously online and offline. Huang Jiayou, the Party Secretary of the Faculty of History, and Yu Xinzhong, the Dean, as well as Li Zhian and Wang Xianming, the overall responsible persons for A General History of China, and Chen Zhiqiang, the overall responsible person for A General History of the World, Wang Xi, the General Manager of the Commercial Press Wenjin Company, and Responsible Editor Shi Bin, were joined by more than 20 key contributors and main writers from inside and outside the university.
The conference began with discussions on the progress of each volume. Currently, except for a few volumes that have not been completed due to midway changing of responsible persons, the first drafts most volumes of the two major general histories have been completed. Nearly half of them have been revised and submitted to the publishing house. After deliberation, it was agreed that all volumes would be completed by the end of 2023, and would be published in batches over a two-year period.
Subsequently, scholars at the conference exchanged views on the positioning of the entire books and the existing issues in writing. They reached a consensus that the Nankai Edition of the Two Major General Histories will be academic historical works aimed at the general public. The complete edition includes eight volumes each of A General History of China and A General History of the World, which strike a balance between rigorous annotations and accessible writing.
Everyone unanimously agreed that the initiation of the Nankai Edition of the Two Major General Histories reflects the school's concern and support for the development of the historical discipline. They emphasized the need to concentrate their efforts in the near future to ensure the high-quality completion of all manuscripts. This will promote the development of Nankai's history discipline and general history compilation, while displaying the social value of historical research.
