The Jesus Chronicles' method which sets the history beginning with the birth of Jesus, were created by the Western countries. It provides people with a new concept that history evolves with a one-way non-circular style. The Catholic mission-aries were the introducer of the Western calendar in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. The Western Christian missionaries were the perpetrators of the Jesus Chronicles'method in modern times. In order to change the idea of Chinese scholar class'con-tempt of the Western culture,and achieve the time consistencebetween Chinese and Western history,Christian missionaries took the Chinese and Western calendar table"universal history"concept,Chinese intellectuals showed different attitudes to the Jesus Chronicles' method. From their respective political positions,they put forward different views on history writing. The proposition of using the Republic of China chronology method did not stop the intellectuals'argument. The Jesus Chronicles'method was offi-cially accepted in the People's Republic of China. This chronology method used in the modern history writing brought not only the new way of year's expression but also new concepts,including the continuous concept,the development concept,the comparative thinking between China and the West, and exploring the causal relationship between events. From the debate on the Jesus Chronicles' method,we know that Chinese social elite lacked self-confidence in local culture in that special era of national cri-sis.%公元纪年是西方国家创设的以耶稣诞生为开始的纪年方式,它提供给人们一种单向性非循环的历史观念.明末清初的天主教传教士是西方历法的引入者,近代以来的西方新教传教士是公元纪年身体力行的推行者.他们为改变中国士人阶层藐视西方的观念,实现中西历史的时空会通,将中西纪年对照表作为吸引中国社会精英阶层的重要内容.在西方"普遍历史"发展模式的影响下,中国知识分子对公元纪年的态度表现不一.围绕近代中国的历史任务,士人阶层从各自政治立场出发,对中国历史书写应使用的纪年方式提出了不同见解.民国纪年法的提出,并未止息知识分子对新时期纪年方式的探求.作为新政权建立的主要标志和与世界接轨的体现,公元纪年法在新中国第一届政治协商会议上被确定下来.公元纪年在近代历史书写上的运用,带来的不仅是纪年方式的改变,还包括连续的观念、发展的观念、中西比较的历史思维、探索事件的因果关系等.从公元纪年的学术论争来看,在保国救亡的时代要求下,社会精英阶层缺乏对本土文化应有的自信.
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