在一般印象中，郭廷以是位專門研究中國近現代史的學者。然而，透過其手書於1940年代晚期的《中國通史》稿本，可以感受到郭廷以全史在胸的恢宏史識和縝密推敲的敘事筆法。並且，從其中第一編〈史前時期〉與第二編〈歷史的展開〉的內容，也可看出郭廷以對於晚清民國以降史學發展的過程，和當時學界討論熱烈的古史觀念皆頗為熟稔，且迭獲卓見。1920年代以後，中國通史教材內，原本由傳說中的三皇五帝建構的上古黃金世界逐步崩解，取而代之的是新發現的史前文化年代序列。郭廷以所撰《中國通史》稿本前兩編的敘述，清楚地反映出此一觀念的持續影響與賡續發展。在現代辨偽方法與考古學興起之後，如何準確地理解傳統典籍中對於古史傳說，以及上古民族摶成的實際情狀等等面向，皆為亟待解決的重要課題。郭廷以對於晚近出土的甲骨文字與考古資料，和傳統史傳文字所進行的歷史解釋與史料評析，在《中國通史》稿本前兩編的章節安排和字裡行間中，亦可概見。

Kuo Ting-yee, not only a nationally renowned professor of modern Chinese history, but also paid close attention to the development of contemporary Chinese pre-history historiography continuously, edited a class-note style manuscript called Chinese General History in the late 1940s. The first two parts of the Chinese General History, "The Prehistory period" and "The Expansion of Ancient History" that describe the pre-history Chinese civilization era constitute the main subjects I will discuss in this article. From the late Ch'ing to early Republican periods, the discovery of the historical value of non-Confucian pre-Ch'in texts and their historical implications, as well as the challenges posed through Ku Chieh-kang's suspicion toward the records of Chinese antiquity renewed from that time onward the intellectual concepts of the development of Chinese historiography. Under such current, the originals of Chinese civilization and the royal lineage of San-tai were drastically reformed in many historical textbooks in 1920-40s. Kuo's Chinese General History reflected in part of the concepts of this new paradigm of modern Chinese historiography. During the same period of time, the nationalism historiography and the archeology achievements of Anyang directed by the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica diverged the development of contemporary Chinese historiography into two directions. In the Chinese General History, we can see that Kuo fully understood the philological research of oracles bones discovered at Yin-hsu sites played the key role to realizing the history of Shang Dynasty. On the other hand, Kuo also inclined another way with the idea of nationalism historiography to construct the outline of early Chinese civilization years.