Twentieth-century China witnessed not only the constant invasions of Western powers and internecine warfares, but also the shaking of self-confidence among the Chinese people. Ch'ien Mu（錢穆，1895~1990） stands out as a pivotal historian to console the frustrated souls of the Chinese in twentieth century through his historical works. This paper attempts at a study of the theory and practice of the ""national history"" (kuo-shih, 國史) in Ch'ien's historical scholarship. Ch'ien Mu had been torn between the ""universal"" and the ""particular"" in historical thinking. He insisted through his writings that Chinese history had her own particularity which should not be regarded as Asian footnotes to the Western patterns or theories. Moreover, Ch'ien Mu, in treating history as ""national epic"" as opposed to ""scientific history,"" urged the Chinese people to re-establish their own identity in Chinese history as collective memory.
The present paper consists of five sections. After reviewing the content and its historical background pertaining to Ch'ien Mu's notion of ""national history"" (section II), we in section III analyze the methodological issues in Ch'ien's ""national history"" and compare the difference between Ch'ien Mu and Hsu Fu-kuan (徐復觀，1902~1982). Section IV discusses the significance of Ch'ien Mu in the context of twentieth-century Chinese historiography. Special attention is paid to the contrast between Ch'ien Mu and Fu Ssu-nien (傅斯年，1896~1950). The final section V considers the significance of Ch'ien Mu's historiography in twentieth-century Chinese and world historiography.