The academic value of documents during the Qing dynasty and the Republic of China has been widely recognised by domestic and foreign scholars. For nearly a century, there has been a solid number of studies based on those documents published, which played an essential role in shaping historical narratives. Most reviews of document-based studies used research themes as categories to show and explain in detail the specific content of their studies. At the same time, the paradigm shifts in different periods have been acknowledged, yet not systematically summarised. This paradigm is of great significance to documental studies, impacting primary concerns, themes, selection of documents, and paradigm shifts in said documental studies throughout different periods which have also contributed to the shifts of overall China's historical narrative. Taking the paradigm shift as a perspective, this article divides the studies of history on documents of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China into three periods:the transplantation and adaptation of Western concepts and theories; the discussion of the self-generated order and spontaneous market from China's own context; and the crisis under the paradigm shift in the new period, thus attempting to explain the systematic structure and theoretical level of the studies of documents. The recent changes in historical theory and the real world have led to the studies of documents, which in the process of developing further have also encountering the dilemma of "losing the paradigm" under the paradigm shift. In recent years, with the rapidly increasing number of documents collected and published, the growth of their academic value cannot be fully realized without the guidance of an appropriate paradigm. Currently, some scholars' arguments about "general history" and regional comparisons might conduce to a paradigm shift in the study of documents. As "one of the main historical materials for rewriting China's history", under the breakthrough and innovation of paradigm, documents during the Qing dynasty and the Republic of China are expected to be used to create a new future not only in the study of documents but China's history studies.