The history of human society contains countless individual experiences, but it is itself an evolutionary process of socialized collaboration that is not subject to individual will. As an empirical discipline that explores the laws of human social development, history requires a dialectical unity of historical perspective, methodology, and value judgment system. Therefore, it is necessary for historical research to balance empirical and theoretical aspects. Empirical evidence and theory support each other, forming the two ends of the road in historical research work. Both are indispensable. Empirical research advocates using historical materials as the core to provide factual basis for understanding human history. The academic history of China has a materialist tradition of "seeking truth from facts and seeking truth from every truth", which is one of the important principles and methods for Chinese civilization to understand the world. Chinese ancient intellectuals emphasized empirical evidence from the perspective of practical application and the application of the Ming style. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, a learning style that emphasized practicality and empirical evidence was established. For example, Li Yong, a scholar in the early Qing Dynasty, defined Confucianism as "the study of the application of the clear body" and proposed that "by focusing on principles, one can gain knowledge; by focusing on internal principles, one can understand the mind, comprehend the essence, and practice empirical knowledge; by focusing on external principles, one can achieve success and benefit the people". In the Western academic community, Auguste Comte, the founder of positivism, believed that the spirit of empiricism is to carefully examine the natural world and human society, based on empirical and true facts, and find their development laws; Empiricism is the unity of ideas and objects in order to 'properly interpret the entire history of humanity'. It can be seen that there is a basic consensus among Chinese and Western scholars on the importance of empirical research, that is, empirical research is an effective way to explore the laws of social and historical development. With the professionalization of history in the 19th century, empirical research has shown a tendency towards fragmentation, ignoring the importance of theoretical research and equating objective research on history with literature analysis and historical research. This has severed the dialectical unity between specific empirical research and the study of historical laws, and unilaterally opposed micro empirical examples and macro development processes. The phenomenon of ignoring historical theories is reflected in the social history, cultural history, and global history of the Western academic community. With the increasing fragmentation of empirical research, the Journal of Global His theory, founded in 2006, advocates overcoming the fragmentation of historiography to present a more complete picture of historical knowledge. In 2016, German historian J ü rgen Osthamel even explicitly stated that global history is essentially a theoretical endeavor that cannot be satisfied with mere descriptions. Overall, since the 21st century, the research focus of Western global history has mainly been on specific case studies, with a lot of exploration of human horizontal communication phenomena, but little contribution to the development of historical theory. The problem of fragmented empirical research and neglect of theoretical research has also been reflected in the Chinese historical community. As early as 1934, historian He Changqun noticed the phenomenon that "in a subject or a problem, there are only a few scattered articles, like three or five small stars twinkling in the night sky," and that "the entire academic content is too disorderly and lacks linkage. It is difficult to find consistent cultural clues," and advocated that history is "a study that integrates ancient and modern times. French scholar Fran ç ois Doss' 1987 book "Fragmented History: From Yearbook to 'New History'" was released in Chinese in 2008. Doss uses the judgment of "fragmented history" to describe the phenomenon of "fragmented research objects" and "history being deconstructed into local practices and abandoning any overall goals". Subsequently, the fragmentation of empirical research and the neglect of theoretical research have been widely discussed in the Chinese academic community. Commentators often agree on the importance of concrete empirical research, while advocating for the importance of studying major historical events and fundamental theoretical issues. For example, historian Zhang Kaiyuan proposed that historical research should "pay attention to detailed studies while rejecting 'fragmentation'"; The proposition that macro research and micro research complement each other and are indispensable is one of the more representative viewpoints. Since the evolution of human society, the global population has exceeded 8 billion. Even with the most advanced technological means, no historian can exhaust all historical materials. Therefore, historical research requires clear theoretical analysis to pave the right path through complex phenomena. In fact, history is never a pile up of stagnant phenomena, but a dynamic process of human development. The vast individual experience differences and complexity of historical facts are precisely the practical basis for understanding the unity and regularity of historical development. As Marx pointed out, humans are "born social animals", and socialized cooperation has "new forces arising from the fusion of many forces into a single overall force". Unity and regularity stem from the objectivity of human existence, and from the overall development of humanity formed by socialized cooperation based on the practical activities of countless people. The core function of historical research is to use "historical analysis", "detailed study of the conditions for the existence of various social forms", clarify the "development process that includes a series of interconnected stages", and thus reveal the overall development of human social forms, that is, the overall development of humanity. It is in this sense that Marx and Engels proposed in their manuscript "The German Ideology" that "we only know one and only science, the science of history". It can be seen that the equal emphasis on empirical evidence and theory is an inherent requirement of historical science. The knowledge production of historical research is the foundation of all social science knowledge generation. Historical researchers can neither guide history with a priori theory nor simply suture literature. Instead, they should start from the current global practice of accelerating evolution, especially from the progress of Chinese path to modernization in promoting the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind, use solid empirical research to connect the past and the present, and use scientific theoretical analysis to improve their ability to explain the past, grasp the present and the future. In today's world where unprecedented changes are accelerating, both empirical and theoretical research in history are of great use and should serve the mission of exploring the laws of human social development and promoting the continuous progress of human civilization. Author: Dong Xinjie (Researcher at the Institute of Historical Theory, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)