不久前,在由汪坦教授主持召开的“中国近代建筑史研究讨论会”上,不少代表的发言涉及到中国近代建筑史研究的内涵问题。关于这一问题,可分纵横两方面来论述。纵的方面,即近代建筑史的断限;横的方面,即近代建筑史研究的对象或内容。这两方面即构成了近代建筑史的时空框架。中国近代建筑史的分期与断限,一方面应该考虑中国史学界对中国社会史分期问题的研究成果,另一方面也应该考虑到建筑史不同于政治史的某些特点。在前一方面,建筑史学界的观点较为一致,认为把中国近代建筑史的上下断限定为1940年到1949年,这是正确的。至于近代建筑在地域上发展的不平衡性,可以在研究地方史时取不同的断限,但从整体上看,从全国看,近代建筑 Not long ago, at the “China Modern Architecture Research Seminar” hosted by Prof. Wang Tan, many of the delegates’ speeches related to the connotation of the study of Chinese modern architecture history. On this issue, it can be discussed in two aspects. The vertical aspect is the limit of the history of modern architecture; the horizontal aspect is the object or content of the study of the history of modern architecture. These two aspects constitute the space-time framework of the history of modern architecture. The division and limitation of Chinese modern architecture history should, on the one hand, consider the research results of Chinese historiography on the issue of the period of Chinese social history. On the other hand, it should also take into account certain characteristics of architectural history that are different from political history. In the former aspect, the views of the architectural historians are relatively consistent. It is correct to regard the ups and downs of the Chinese modern architectural history as 1940 to 1949. As for the imbalance in the development of modern buildings in the region, different limits can be taken when studying local history, but from a whole point of view, from a national perspective, modern architecture