View of history that sees the rise and fall of dynasties as passing the mandate of heaven.
Most Chinese history that is published in the People's Republic of China is based on a Marxist interpretation of history. The Marxist view of history is that history is governed by universal laws and that according to these laws, a society moves through a series of stages with the transition between stages being driven by class struggle. These stages are
The official historical view within the People's Republic of China associates each of these stages with a particular era in Chinese history as well as making some subdivisions.
This view of Chinese history sees Chinese society in the 20th century as a traditional society seeking to become modern.
John Fairbanks
Ray Huang's involution theory.
Post-modern interpretations of Chinese history tend to reject the grand narratives of other interpretations of history. Instead of seeking a grand pattern of history, post-modern interpretations tend to focus on a small subset of Chinese history.
In attention rather than focusing on the political elites of China, post-modern historians look also at the daily lives of ordinary people.