The History of Su Bao Prior to the “Su Bao Case”

Various accounts on the early history of Su Bao — its history prior to the Su Bao Case(1903) — during the late Qing and early Republican era have been either extremely vague or largely inaccurate.The documents on the early history of Su Bao have not been made available for scholars for a very long time.Therefore,there have been very few in-depth research on its early history.Our current understanding of its early history has been by and large the same as that during the Republican era.However,with the increasing availability and accessibility of myriad historical materials (especially the construction of databases on modern newspapers and periodicals),many historical documents related to the early history of Su Bao have been located,which has laid a solid foundation for a deep analysis of its history.Drawing on the early editions of Su Bao and Sheng Xuanhuai Documents,as well as other primary sources,this article uncovers the history of the creation and transference of Su Bao,while demonstrating the historical changes of political opinions and positions of Su Bao during its early days by combing through its “Public Opinion Sections”.Finally,this article adopts an innovative research approach by partially reproducing a piece of newspaper that is no longer extant through big data reconstruction.