The Guangming Research Institute for Literary Heritage at Beijing Language and Culture University is a substantive academic institution jointly established by Guangming Daily and Beijing Language and Culture University in early 2015, in accordance with the spirit of relevant central government directives. Its primary responsibilities include promoting research on outstanding traditional Chinese culture and providing academic support for the "Literary Heritage" special issue of Guangming Daily.
The Guangming Daily's weekly column Literary Heritage was launched on March 1, 1954, with one issue per week. The Guangming Daily successively entrusted the editorial work to the Classical Literature Department of the Chinese Writers Association, where the renowned scholar Chen Xianghe worked, the Institute of Literature at Peking University, and the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Chen Xianghe served as the editor-in-chief. In the mid-1960s, the weekly column Literary Heritage was discontinued. After the 1980s, Literary Heritage was intermittently published as a monthly or semi-monthly journal until it ceased publication around 2010. In 2015, following the instructions of central leadership, the Guangming Daily planned to revive the Literary Heritage column and restore the tradition of expert-led editorial work. It entrusted relevant scholars from Beijing Language and Culture University to establish an expert committee and founded the Guangming Literary Heritage Research Institute. This institute serves as the academic support and editorial platform for the Guangming Daily's Literary Heritage column, responsible for selecting topics and handling editorial work for the column.
With the editorial mission of "following academic frontiers, leading academic trends, responding to social concerns, and promoting academic development," the Literary Heritage supplement of Guangming Daily, relying on the academic platform of Guangming Academy of Literary Heritage at Beijing Language and Culture University, has closely united outstanding ancient literature scholars and a broad readership across the country. In 2015, 2016, and 2017, the Literary Heritage supplement went through three phases: monthly, biweekly, and weekly publication. In 2018, it joined the History and Philosophy supplements to form the Humanities Weekly. It has played an active role in vigorously advancing the construction of socialist core values based on traditional Chinese culture and promoting the dissemination of traditional Chinese culture, receiving praise on multiple occasions from central leadership and Guangming Daily.
After 2022, due to a significant increase in the workload of manuscript editing, and after consultations with relevant departments of Guangming Daily, the Guangming Academy of Literary Heritage has primarily been responsible for providing academic support to the "Literary Heritage" special issue, and no longer handles the tasks of soliciting contributions or editing manuscripts.
