A little big history of Tiananmen An example of a new type of long-term history

This study makes a case for little big histories and argues that they constitute a new type of long-term history that can enrich our understanding of both their subject’s past and big history.
Little big histories connect a specific subject to aspects of all major stages of big history. They do so using a distinct structure, which divides a subject's past into layers that describe how the subject became the way it is on a material, biological and cultural level and which allows for an exploration of how these layers of history affected each other.
As this study demonstrates, by combining cultural, biological, geological and even astronomical perspectives on a subject’s past, little big histories can help unify our understanding of that past. Because such perspectives often have not been connected before, little big histories can also generate new research questions and answers that can make our understanding of the history of their subject more complete.
To show how little big histories achieve this, this study uses Tiananmen as an example subject. It explores how the gate’s astronomical, geological, biological and cultural histories can jointly explain why the gate was built out of certain elements, molecules and materials and not others, why certain animals evolved the ability to build structures like Tiananmen whereas many others did not and why the gate was built in a way that emphasized cultural concepts such as harmony instead of others. This study examines what new knowledge such an exploration can generate. It also assesses how such knowledge can be used to test influential big history theories.