Gu Jiegang is the founder and main representative of the ancient history school. He was born in Suzhou, the center of Chinese studies in the Qing Dynasty from 65438 to 0893. He studied the Four Books and Five Classics since childhood, and was deeply influenced by traditional academics. He had a strong interest in Chinese studies. 19 13 was admitted to the preparatory class of Peking University, 19 16 was admitted to the philosophy department of Peking University, and 19 18 was admitted to the Winter Fashion Club, becoming one of the first members. 1920 After graduation, I worked as a teaching assistant of Chinese studies at Peking University and engaged in cataloging in the library. He personally participated in the new culture movement and deeply felt the inspiration of the spirit of the whole era. At that time, "Mr. Cai Guimin became the president of Peking University and wanted to get rid of the stale air in the school. The magazine "New Youth" run by Mr. Chen Duxiu, with the theme of ideological revolution, has gradually attracted people's attention. In addition, Mr. Huang published the article "China People's Public Poison" in Oriental Magazine, denouncing the root of China's ideological and academic circles. " Gu Jiegang once recalled that it was all this that made him "the arrogant opinions that have been hidden have been unexpectedly homologous" and made him "a lot more courageous". He also said that "everyone advocates ideological innovation, and I have a clear sense of breaking old ideas" (Introduction to Ancient History, Volume I, page 35). After graduation, Gu Jiegang took part in the work of "sorting out national heritage" advocated by Hu Shi. 19 19 In the second half of the year, Hu Shi published a series of articles, such as On the Study of National Heritage and The Significance of New Thinking, which elaborated the significance and methods of sorting out national heritage in detail. He believes that "national heritage" refers to all old academic ideas and "all past cultural history". The purpose of sorting out these past cultural histories is to "recreate civilization." Hu Shi pointed out: first, the old academic thought has no clue and no system; The second is not to talk about the historical origin and cause and effect of the development of academic thought; Third, there is no scientific method and accurate textual research, just a rumor; Fourth, they are either superstitious about the academic thoughts of their predecessors or have arbitrary prejudice. Therefore, we advocate a "critical attitude" towards these outdated academic ideas and re-evaluate their value. In short, sorting out the national heritage is to "find a coherent vein from the mess; Find a cause and effect from headless and brainless; Find the real meaning from the nonsense fallacy; Find a real value from arbitrary superstition "(Hu Cun, Volume 4, Volume 1, Page 162). It can be seen that the activities of sorting out national heritage are the concrete embodiment of the in-depth development of the new culture movement in academic circles. Under the advocacy of Hu Shi, this trend became all the rage. 1920 years later, Gu Jiegang found his place in the work of sorting out national heritage. In the process of collation and textual research of ancient books, he had frequent contacts with Hu Shi and Qian, and learned from each other. Hu Shi and Qian's thinking method and the spirit of doubt and discrimination played an important role in Gu Jiegang's view of ancient history and the formation of ancient history discrimination school.