◎ Zheng Peikai
My teacher Shi Jingqian passed away, leading me into the academic halls, and the teacher who guided my academic career for nearly 50 years passed away at home in the United States. He walked peacefully and calmly entered the historical world in which he had studied all his life in his sleep, at the age of 85.
1
I was the first doctoral student he officially accepted in 1972, following him to study the cultural history of the Ming and Qing dynasties and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, it has been half a century, time has passed so fast, even I have entered the ancient rarity for many years. Looking back at the half century, Shi En was in his eyes, looking at the mountains and seas outside the window as calm as ancient times, the sun rising and the moon setting, autumn and winter coming, the teacher left forever, and he could no longer hear him talking, telling me about his writing plan, commenting on the novel he had just finished reading, or reciting a poem.
When I was on the wall of the teacher's door, I was still a literary youth who did not know the height of the sky, and I was full of spirit, just like Tang Xianzu's poem said, "The essence of the weak crown is open, and the wind and clouds on the road are out." Shi Jingqian, who was only 36 years old at the time and had just been promoted to professor, was one of the youngest professors in yale liberal arts, and was working on the book Kangxi: Reconstructing the Inner World of Chinese Emperors. Maybe because I was his first PhD student, he didn't seem to know that a rebellious student like me needed to be disciplined, or maybe it was because we were all young and the mentor-apprentice relationship was a bit unclear. I called him "Sir," Mr. Spence, and he called me Pei-kai in a way that was in keeping with the old Yale tradition, but he always felt a little awkward and told me, don't call him "Sir," too formally, and call Jonathan a little more cordial.
I am a student from the Chinese cultural environment, rebellious to rebellious, the rules should be followed, or always call him "sir". It wasn't until I was four years of PhD and I was writing my dissertation that he said to me, you're completely independent, we're equal, we're friends, and I'm more comfortable with that. Don't you Chinese have the saying "mentor and friend", this kind of relationship makes me feel much closer. He also gave his own example, saying that it was natural for him to call his teacher Arthur Wright Arthur and Mary Wright Mary. From then on, I called him Jonathan until he died.
Now I miss him and mention his name to people, but what comes to mind is the "sir" who was first called him. Perhaps when we get older, people become more and more traditional, and gradually accept the idea of "being a teacher for a lifetime as a father", after all, in the end, we will all become historical figures, all the same.
Mr. Shi Jingqian attaches great importance to teaching according to his aptitude, so that students can find their own research direction and give full play to their strengths. I'm a person who has a lot of interests, so he's a bit of a laissez-faire to me. Later, I found that he would guide different students in different ways, sometimes very strictly, and did not meet his requirements, and he did not even give students to pass the oral examination. I personally remembered that it was the first time we met and formally arranged my academic plans. He said that my Chinese better than his, interpreting Chinese documents and historical materials, he did not have to teach me anything, but he could teach me how to find relevant materials other than Chinese, such as the research results of Western sinology, the achievements of Japanese sinology, organize materials, clarify ideas, and present historical pictures.
Growing up in china's academic environment, I have never heard a teacher so open and honest, telling you that his knowledge structure is also lacking, even inferior to that of students. He spoke naturally and told me that we could study your subject together so that our teachers and students could make progress in their studies. I suspect that what he had in mind was what the Chinese tradition calls "teaching and learning." This made me feel at the beginning that this young teacher was very humble and very frank, and in him he combined the traditional Chinese "gentleman" and the British gentleman demeanor, not humble, not excited, not followed, and the personable demeanor contained kindness to people. He is a bit like a model of a traditional Chinese reader, in which you can feel what is "gentle and elegant". I don't know if this is because he came from a family of scholars and was immersed in the elegance of Western tradition, or because he liked Chinese culture and immersed himself in idealized ancient elegance, thus showing this personality tendency.
2
Shi Jingqian, the Chinese name, was the name he gave him when he was writing his thesis, under the tutelage of Mr. Fang Zhaoyao. Mr. Fang is a master of the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and together with his wife Du Lianzhe, he has made significant contributions to the study of Western Ming and Qing history. They edited in English three imperial masterpieces: Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period (1644–1912), The Biographical Dictionary of Republican China, and Dictionary of Ming Biography (1368-1644). It provides the most authoritative tool book for scholars who study the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Shi Jingqian admired their learning, and through the introduction of his teacher Rui Marie, he went to Australia to follow Fang Du and the two Ming and Qing dynasties to study, and completed his doctoral thesis "Kangxi and Cao Yin" under their guidance.
Shi Jingqian once wrote a commemorative article "My Teacher Fang Zhaoyao", in which he said, "Mr. Fang will always be a great teacher who follows the rules and induces good deeds. Mr. Fang named him "Shi Jingqian", the pronunciation of "Shi" is in line with the son sound of the beginning of Spence, and it is linked to the desire to study history for life, and "Jingqian" is to ask him to admire Sima Qian, learn the founding ancestor of Chinese historical writing, and become a family. Mr. Fang must have been very proud to give him such a resounding name, because this British student really persevered, devoted his life to studying the history of Modern China in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and achieved the words of the family.
Shi Jingqian began to make a doctoral dissertation, which was to study the relationship between Kangxi Cao Yin, reflecting the close cooperation between the emperor and the Baoyi family slaves, how to help the central government understand the local political and economic and cultural dynamics, and explore the secret of maintaining stability in the rule of the Qing Empire. He studied under Fang Zhaoyao, and he was really like a fish, not only was he taught by Fang Zhaoyao, but also because Mr. Fang had a close relationship with the person in charge of the Forbidden City in Taiwan, shi Jingqian was able to use the Forbidden City archives to see the Kangxi Imperial Approval Fold as the earliest through this special relationship. In the 1960s, Taiwan's National Palace Archives were still stored in Taichung, which was the era when the Sungai Palace Museum outside Taipei had not yet been built, and the Emperor's Imperial Approval Fold was not open at all, but when he arrived in Taiwan, the warehouse was opened for him to see, and he saw the folds that Kangxi personally draped and saw Kangxi's handwriting.
From the perspective of historical research, the first-hand information used in his doctoral dissertation is an undisclosed and very important first-hand material. In the past, no Western scholars had consulted the Kangxi Imperial Approval Archives, and no one had dealt with the Kangxi Criticism Red Cao Yin Secret. He also made use of some materials that studied the Dream of the Red Chamber, such as Zhou Ruchang's New Certificate of the Dream of the Red Chamber, many of which were about Cao Yin. An emperor, with a tight relationship with a cloak, became a secret channel for ruling the country. Cao Yin was Kangxi's closest comrade-in-arms and the most reliable slave, providing first-hand information about the Jiangnan region. The emperor in Beijing could get secret reports from the Jiangnan region, which meant that he had a confidant in Jiangnan and told him what really happened. From the perspective of the history major, this paper used original materials to write about Kangxi's grasp of the situation in Jiangnan, and there was a secret channel for direct notification, which was an important achievement in the study of Qing history, and was soon officially published by Yale University Press, laying the academic status of Shi Jingqian, and staying on to teach.
Later, he also used Kangxi archival materials and relevant documents to imagine how Kangxi observed the world, how to deal with complicated national events, how to settle the harem life of intrigue, and how to settle the problem of imperial succession. Kangxi was the emperor, the heavenly son of Fengtian, who could call the wind and rain, move mountains and seas, recover Taiwan, and quell the rebellion of San Francisco, but he was also a living person, with seven passions and six desires, and a life to live every day. He has countless troubles, endless Qi family governance and world disputes, and real life is also very troublesome. Shi Jingqian wrote "Kangxi Self-Portrait", portraying the emperor's "human comedy", allowing readers to see a flesh-and-blood emperor, who turned out to be a three-dimensional person, not just a mysterious tianzi who stood tall in the dragon court. After its publication, it not only showed a special style of historical writing, but also caused a sensation in the entire Western humanistic circles, allowing them to peek into the secrets of the forbidden city's palace walls.
In 1966, Shi Jingqian published his first academic book, Kangxi and Cao Yin, and has since completed 14 historical works on China, including "Changing China", "Kangxi Self-Portrait", "The Death of Wang", "Tiananmen: China's Intellectuals and Revolution", "Matteo Ricci's Memory Palace", "Hu John's Question", "In Search of Modern China", "God's Son of China: Hong Xiuquan's Taiping Heavenly Kingdom", "The Kingdom of the Great Khans: China in the Eyes of the West", "Mao Zedong", "The Great Righteous Consciousness of the Yongzheng Dynasty", "The Dream of the Former Dynasty" Wait a minute. These works of his are important monographs on the study of modern Chinese history in European and American academic circles, especially the book "In Search of Modern China", which replaces the early Fairbank textbooks of modern Chinese history and becomes a general course for Chinese history courses in Western universities.
The most interesting thing is that the historical monographs he wrote, once published, became the bestsellers of history in the market circulation, and the "Shi Jingqian's Works" series edited by Yan Xiu and me was also popular in China, and it was a long-selling book, which lasted for a long time after publication and had a far-reaching impact.
3
His later life after retirement was relatively calm and comfortable. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, I would fly from Hong Kong to New York every year and drive more than an hour to visit his Yale University suburban apartment. Sometimes he would wear a straw hat, work clothes for farm work, and carry a shovel stained with dirt in his hand, and open the door to greet me, an old student.
Shi Jingqian is very interesting, there is a big garden behind the house, like to do some gardening work, he likes to plant flowers and trees, not to plant vegetables, like a flower farmer, at the beginning of the spring dressed like a farmer, to the garden to level the land, cut trees and flowers. I sometimes laugh at him as Tao Yuanming of the United States, and he is very proud, every time he wants to show me the newly opened flower beds, and what new flowers have been planted, some of which are perennial, some of which are seasonal, as if they are operating flowers and trees for a living. The garden is very large, and a pavilion with Chinese and Western styles was built, and on the plaque was Zhang Chonghe's inscription "Youyou Pavilion", which I said had a good meaning, from the "Poetry Classic, Xiaoya": "Youyou deer singing, eating the apple of the wild." I have guests, drummers and trumpeters. Blowing drum springs, the basket is the will. People are good for me, show me to walk around. ”
We took many photos in front of the pavilion, and it was the time of cherry blossoms, and the red of the hanging tree was blowing in the breeze, lining the laughter of our gathering, and now I can only remember it. In addition to the weeping cherry blossoms, the most beautiful trees in the garden are the dogwoods that bloom in late spring, and they look at the exhibition to the heavenly dome, like The Gaoshi in the Ming and Qing landscape paintings, holding a cane and standing in the wind. There was also a slope behind his home, a very steep slope, and there was a small stream below, which flowed through, creating a primordial land, and he actually leveled the land and fenced it in that swamp-like field, creating a secret space that he jokingly called the "secret garden". The couple took us down the slopes and waded through the creeks, proudly displaying their masterpieces of farming. Shi Jingqian has a more introverted side of the British, he is very happy to do the garden, just like writing a book, Confucius has knowledge in heaven, which may change his criticism of Fan Chi.
People who are not familiar with him generally only see his appearance on the podium, the lectures are very lively and vivid, and when they make large-scale public speeches, they are personable and spit out words like orchids, as if the air is soaked with elegance. In public, he was humble and courteous, and very good at dealing with people. But he actually likes to hide in the research room or at home, and is a very introverted and introverted person. He was happy to wander in his own world, either reading books and doing research, or doing gardening. His wife, Jin Anping, loves to cook, is highly skilled in cooking, and is also fluent in Both Chinese and Western cooking. The two of them enjoy the blessings of a fairy companion, and occasionally open up beautiful private spaces to entertain friends. Unlike my teacher, Fai Chengqing, who opened the living room of his home every Thursday afternoon, he was a never-ending academic salon. The leading figures of Sinology in these two generations have different personalities, and their lives and social forms are also different.
When Teacher Shi Jingqian passed away, his mother, Jin Anping, called me and said that he had passed during half a sleep. My master told me that she felt that people walked calmly, which was also a kind of happiness. I also said that when a person dies in the end, it is better to have no pain. She told me that Mr. Shi had been bedridden for two and a half weeks because of a fall. Since he suffered from Parkinson's disease three years ago, he has basically not done farm work, except to read books, but to walk in the garden and admire the garden they have created. That day he came back from a walk in the garden, and when he went up the stairs, he didn't step on it well, and the man fell. The fall was more severe and I was unconscious. Good to have a dog at home and bark around. Jin Anping went out to see him and helped him back. When he woke up, he said it was no big deal, and he rested at home and ate. The next day it was not working, he cried out in pain, rushed to the hospital, and found that he had broken his ribs. It wouldn't be nice to come back and stay in an intensive care unit. He was older, weak because of a long-term illness, and then returned home to recuperate. After about two weeks, I walked away relatively calmly.
4
Some people say that Shi Jingqian's historical works are the most outstanding ones because they are well written, can tell stories, and may even be fictional, so that they can tell stories so vividly. In fact, he never left the historical materials to make up a fictitious, and like other historians, he went to the yellow spring and tried to find all the documents, organize the materials, and arrange how to faithfully present the historical details. Through the in-depth understanding of historical materials, he began to imagine specific historical scenes, using historical materials to provide specific details, fine cutting, so that historical figures are three-dimensional, not only showing the words and deeds of the characters, but also presenting the human situation, while combining the macro historical environment.
"In Search of Modern China" is one of his very popular books, The Search for Modern China, the title of the search reflects that when he wrote, what he wanted to do was to "pursue" there, a pursuit of the human situation, to pursue China that he had not yet fully mastered, to pursue China that was pursued on the wrong path, to pursue the historical understanding that knowledge could guide. He has a strong curiosity about knowledge, always there to pursue, in the modern history of China to seek the direction of the future. He has said that the transition from studying British history to studying Chinese history is a complex decision, showing that he is a person seeking knowledge and is full of curiosity and concern for Chinese history and culture. He studied the course of China's modern history and felt how Chinese faced difficult life situations in the face of earth-shaking historical changes. Chinese history led him to think about these questions, that is, to think about the universal significance of history, to think about the pursuits and choices of people living in history.
Shi Jingqian has a very deep understanding of the European cultural tradition, and his Western literature and Western cultural background are very deep, so he has a sensitivity, he looks at Chinese things, has a strong historical sympathy for the situation of Chinese, and is with transcendent, thinking about the universality of human concern. I think Shi Jingqian has a trait that a historian should have, the most important thing, but many historians do not have, that is, deep historical sympathy and concern for the human situation.
His writings are full of concern for China, and the starting point is concern for the human condition, which has made him far-reaching. His influence may be greater in the West than in China. In China, everyone pays attention to Shi Jingqian, mainly to see how a Westerner discusses Chinese history. In the West, through his writings, people have a better understanding of what China's entire history and culture are groping for, and know the dilemma of groping in cultural transformation. In fact, it is impossible for human beings to know exactly what the direction of our groping is, and we do not know what the future of the world will be. But you can grope, you can pursue, you can think. You can consider the various situations it may face. There will be a dilemma, as for how to break through the predicament, what you hope to achieve, and what you hope is a better future, it needs to be verified by time. Shi Jingqian's works and their ideological context are to take everyone back to the past that has already happened through historical narratives, to provide specific experiences of historical situations, and it is a retrospective journey of spiritual exploration, which is indeed a family statement.
Shi Jingqian showed his research and understanding of Chinese history and culture, the sufferings and setbacks that Chinese experienced, and the people of the West with a smooth and beautiful writing, which I think is his greatest cultural contribution. This goes beyond the so-called professional historical achievements that we generally speak of. Is Sima Qian, the ancestor of our Chinese history, just a person who piles up more historical materials? Of course not. He hopes to be able to investigate the time of heaven and man, through the changes of ancient and modern times, into a family of words, which is our highest yearning for historians, and Shi Jingqian has not lived up to the name given to him by Mr. Fang.
I think that in terms of spiritual pursuit, he has lived a very happy life. In his daily life, I think he is also very satisfied, because his main thing is to write, teach, and cultivate students. Living in an ivory tower, caring for mankind, caring for human history, caring for distant China, caring for China's thousands of years of history accumulated to the last four or five hundred years. He also cares about the future of Chinese and wants them to live happier.