Abstract: In recent years, grounded in an indigenous problem consciousness arising from contemporary China’s political development, historical politics has gradually emerged and promoted a historical turn in Chinese politics, with its central aim directed toward advancing the construction of an autonomous disciplinary knowledge system. However, as an emerging research orientation still in its formative stage, it face multiple challenges in terms of methodological foundations, ontological positioning, and the treatment of temporality. Building upon a review of existing historically oriented political studies, this article reflects on the methodological dilemmas confronting historical politics, including the demarcation of disciplinary boundaries, the relationship between structure and agency, the division between macro and micro level theorization, and the separation of deduction and induction. By further examining the limitations of teleological, experimental, and eventful temporalities, the article reveals the explanatory tensions embedded in prevailing temporal frameworks within historical social science. On this basis, the study introduces a genetic methodological perspective. By tracing its relevant philosophical lineage, it advances the analytical approach of “genetic historical politics”, emphasizing the reconstruction of processual explanatory frameworks of political change from the perspective of historical genesis and multiple contingencies with an aim to offer methodological insights for deepening the knowledge system of historical politics and promoting the autonomous development of Chinese politics.

Key words: methodology, qualitative social science, genetics, historical politics, temporality