On the afternoon of September 13, 2018, I landed at New York JFK Airport. Moving on and off with the flow of people, fourteen hours of flight and insomnia made my limbs stiff and numb, too late to feel nervous about the upcoming conference paper presentation. The trip to the United States was to participate in the "Material Culture and Mao Zedong China" workshop held at Yale University on September 14 and 15. For most of the American scholars in attendance, it was a short weekend squeezed out of the hustle and bustle of the beginning of the new semester. I was the only attendee to go back and forth from Chinese mainland".
Yale University is located in the northeastern United States in New Haven, Connecticut. Flying to New York, then taking a train or driving, is the choice of most local scholars. The organizer thoughtfully arranged a pick-up service for my long-distance passenger. The car drove unhurriedly and slowly in the rush hour congestion that began at three o'clock in the afternoon. "In three hours, we will arrive at your hotel." The driver prompted me. I completely relaxed, and the exhaustion of the journey and the anxiety before the meeting flooded my mind. I opened my phone and wrote an email to the organizer of the conference, Professor Denise Ho, to report that he was safe. She replied almost immediately, in a tone of usual gentleness and ease: "See you tomorrow!" Oh, by the way, Anping and Jonathan will be making a special trip to hear your report on Saturday. ”
The last sentence of the email suddenly made me sit up straight. I didn't expect that the first time I met Mr. Shi Jingqian, it would be such a situation.
One
In fact, shortly before this trip, on September 7, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, where I worked, had just awarded Mr. Shi Jingqian the "Fourth World Contribution Award for Chinese Studies". Mr. Shi's wife, Jin Anping, made a special trip to Shanghai to receive the award on her behalf. I was in charge of the liaison work of the China Studies Award, and corresponded with the two gentlemen many times about the acceptance of the award.
Mr. Shi's wife, Jin Anping, delivered a speech at the award ceremony of the 4th World Contribution Award for Chinese Studies
On July 31, 2018, I wrote to Mr. Shi's work email address at Yale University, and on behalf of the Organizing Committee of the World Forum on Chinese Studies, I sent a message of his award. Since this was my first contact with him, and he had been retired from Yale University for many years, I was absolutely unsure whether I would get a response. A week after the email was sent, I was preparing to try something else, and on August 8, he replied (the original letter was in English, the following is the author's self-translation):
Dear Professor Pan, thank you very much for writing to inform you of the news that the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences has awarded me the award. Thanks to the decision of the organizing committee, I will gladly accept this honor. My only concern at the moment is that I'm afraid I won't be able to collect the prize myself. The journey to Shanghai was too long, and over the past year I have felt weaker and weaker (in a few days I will be eighty-two). Therefore, I wonder if it would be appropriate to invite my wife or a fellow scholar to attend the award ceremony on my behalf. We kindly ask for your understanding. If you have any questions, please advise.
Say hello
Jonathan Spencer
Although it was for business, I was excited to receive an email from the famous Shi Jingqian. I immediately sent the details of the arrangement for receiving the award in Shanghai, and couldn't help but include a sentence: "Maybe it is a little inappropriate to say in this official email, I am a loyal reader of your work." ”
The next day, I received a response from him:
Hello Wei Lin, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your reply. I'm glad you enjoyed my book. My wife, Jin Anping, was willing to attend the award ceremony on her behalf. In view of your invitation, she is considering making a presentation on her recent research, but would like to discuss with you how to plan first. I have sent her a copy of this letter, please contact her directly.
Thanks again,
Apologetically, we issued our notice only a month before the scheduled award ceremony. Fortunately, Mr. Jin Anping was serious and efficient, and neatly completed the preparation of materials from visas and itinerary arrangements to Mr. Shi's resume and the Chinese and English versions of the award speech. During her four-day trip to Shanghai, she also squeezed out time to give a speech entitled "The Analects Overseas: The Footprints of Richard and Pound." This talk is selected from a new book written by Mr. King for Princeton University's "Life History of the World's Classics" book department. The overseas parts of the Analects were written after she and Mr. Shi worked together. Therefore, they wrote to explain in advance that they felt that this topic was closest to the theme of the World Contribution Award for Chinese Studies. In 2019, the Chinese translation of the book, the English translation and commentary of the Analects, was published by Guangxi Normal University Press, which is a combination of the company's "Works of Shi Jingqian" series.
On the occasion of saying goodbye to Mr. Jin in Shanghai, I mentioned that I was going to a meeting at Yale and would visit her and Mr. Shi if I had the opportunity. Mr. Kim was very happy and said he must come. Having said that, I didn't make a specific agreement with them for fear of being too disturbing. However, I still picked out one of their works and put them in Li— "The Four Sisters of Hefei" and "Matteo Ricci's Memory Palace", hoping to get the author's signature. I asked Mr. Shi to sign "Matteo Ricci's Memory Palace", which is a "task" that Waizi Zhang can use as the translator of the book and specially entrusted to me.
Two
The word "especially" in the mail of the book scares my sleepy worm away. Unexpectedly, Mr. and Mrs. Shi arranged a meeting before I contacted me, which made me flattered and ashamed. Two nights before my turn to report, I stayed up all night, thinking hard about how to present my research topic, writing and changing word for word. The crisp early autumn in New Haven, like a harsh winter for me, I wore a sweater and down jacket, which seemed out of place. Professor Jacob Eyferth kindly explained to me that jet lag insomnia must make people have a low body temperature. If there had been a group photo at the meeting, I would have looked pale and tense, like a student about to defend my dissertation.
The 16th arrived quickly. My group presentation and that of Ruoshu were the first in the morning. The previous day's keynote speeches, three sets of presentations and comprehensive discussions were held in a small conference room at the Sterling Memorial Library. On this day, it was changed to a large conference room in Luce Hall, and some audiences were also attended. When it was my turn to speak, Ruoshu said that today's meeting came a rare guest, our old colleague Jonathan. He has just received the Outstanding Contribution Award from the World Forum on Chinese Studies of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and the next speaker is from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
The applause rang out, and through the eyes of the crowd, my gaze naturally fell on a gray-haired figure in the last row wearing a white shirt, and my heart suddenly became strangely quiet. I heard myself say word for word:
The title of my report is "The Campaign for recycling waste materials in socialist China." I would like to start with the story of a young girl as a tribute to Professor Shi Jingqian, who is the most storyteller I know.
The protagonist of my story is named Zhu Qiaodi. She came from a family of workers in New China, but unfortunately fell ill as a child and became disabled. In 1968, after graduating from high school, she was assigned to the Shanghai Hongkou District Waste Materials Company, engaged in the work commonly known as "garbage collection" in Shanghai. She went from initial frustration and resistance to selflessness and hard work. In 1974, he was rated as an advanced model of commercial work in Shanghai, and the following year he entered Beijing and was received by Wang Zhen, then vice premier of the State Council, and then elected as a national model worker and a deputy to the National People's Congress in 1978. The reportage about Zhu Qiaodi in the 1970s caught my attention. It is a story of positive energy that finds self-worth from the humble labor identified by the world. It perfectly embodies: "Socialism liberates not only the laborers and the means of production from the old society, but also the vast natural world which the old society cannot use." (Mao Zedong: "Excess Labor Finds a Way Out", 1955)
In the summer of 2018, my first book, "Ritual Consumption and Local Change: A Material And Cultural History of Tin Foil in Jiangsu and Zhejiang," was published. In the process of revising the manuscript, I developed an interest in the history of tin metal recycling from tin foil research, so I turned to the formation of the modern Chinese material recovery system. At that time, Shanghai was implementing a new garbage sorting and recycling policy, which was a timely choice. Two young overseas historians of republican history, Jennifer Altehenger and He Ruoshu, learned of my research direction by chance and invited me to join a workshop organized by them. By chance, I stepped into the field of research after 1949. In the process of collecting materials, the depiction of the idea of "comprehensive utilization" and its mass movement in publications from the 1950s to the 1970s brought me many fresh shocks similar to Zhu Qiaodi's story. However, to understand such stories, I feel that I need to study the history of the Republic in depth, and I need to find and read the relevant archival materials.
The report doesn't seem to be working badly. I know that it was Zhu Qiaodi's story and the depiction of the mass movement that helped me cover up the lack of research on the actual operation of the material recovery system in Shanghai at that time.
After the discussion of our group, Mr. Jin took Mr. Shi up and said goodbye. Before leaving, Mr. Jin formally introduced me to Mr. Shi. Mr. Shi walked very slowly, spoke lightly, was also a little vague, and dressed very casually, as if he was getting up in the morning on the weekend to prepare for breakfast slowly. It's very different from the image I see in media photos. The only constant is probably that he is very tall and his eyes are deep and clear. Everyone came to greet them in pairs, not facing the solemnity of the academic elite, only the cordiality between colleagues and friends. Ruo shu said that Jonathan's coming was so rare that he had not appeared for many years. Mr. Kim smiled and said to her, Denise, I'm sorry, we're going to "borrow" Wei Lin in the evening, take her to sit at home, and then take her to your dinner place.
Three
Throughout the afternoon, I immersed myself in the relaxed joy of "completing the task" and the expectation of seeing Mr. and Mrs. Shi again in the afternoon, glad that I had not forgotten to take the book I wanted them to sign with me. In the evening, Mr. Kim arrived as promised. Along the way, I drove fast and constantly looked for various topics to chat with. She repeatedly apologized to me, saying that Mr. Shi's poor physical condition was inseparable from her care, so her trip to Shanghai was hurried back and forth, and she could not better entertain me in New Haven. Naturally, I would not expect more, and I know that today's encounter is due to the generosity of the two elders and their greetings to the Academy of Social Sciences.
When we arrived, Mr. Shi was standing in the garden behind the house, only his dog was mischievously bouncing in front of him. Once inside, I caught a glimpse of the bag containing the contribution prize plate still hanging from the coat rack in the foyer. Mr. Jin smiled and said that when he came back, he was busy with housework and had not yet had time to put it away. I didn't expect to bring any gifts, so I only took out my new book and sent Mr. Shi for correction. Mr. Shi was inconvenient to speak, sitting on the side and silently flipping through my book. Most of the time It was Mr. Kim who was chatting with me, relaying to him the gist of what we were saying from time to time. Suddenly he looked up and asked me. Mr. Jin looked at me stunned and did not hear clearly, and repeated: Mr. Shi asked now that mainland scholars have begun to do such research as yours? She also explained that Mr. Shi had not read a book by a Chinese scholar for a long time. I am embarrassed to explain that my research is a very marginal subject, and recently I have criticized the fragmentation of historical research and advocated the study of big history.
Mr. Shi nodded and looked at Mr. Jin. Mr. Kim got up and said downstairs, "By the way, we have something to give you, and I'll go to the study and get it." A moment later, Mr. Kim came back and said, after listening to your report in the morning, Mr. Shi said that he would give you this book. I took a look at "The Death of Wang", the first English edition in 1978. Mr. Kim said that this book also began with a woman's story, and we feel that there is something in common with your research, and you may be inspired to read it, and this book has had a great influence on my research. I was touched by the fact that they had listened carefully to my immature report, and admired their immediate confusion about how to deal with the subject.
The first English edition of "The Death of Wang" presented by Mr. Shi Jingqian
Subsequently, at my request, the two gentlemen signed the book I had brought. Due to his illness, Mr. Shi was very unable to hold a pen and write, and he occasionally needed Mr. Jin's reminder when spelling. But the two cooperated, calmly signing the inscriptions one by one, not too much trouble, but it made me very unhappy.
As soon as it was time for dinner, Mr. Jin took Mr. Shi with him and drove me again. Along the way, I still drive the car and enliven the atmosphere in the car. At the intersection of a certain street, Mr. Kim pointed me the way to the restaurant, and I got out of the car to say goodbye. I had been walking through two intersections when I suddenly heard someone behind me shouting my name. Looking back, it was Mr. Kim who had rushed all the way and told me that I had pointed in the wrong direction. She gasped and said that the front block was not safe, and when she found herself pointing the wrong way, she was worried that it was broken, so she had to leave Mr. Shi alone in the car and run over by herself. So we walked back to the car and hugged and said goodbye. Mr. Shi sat in the co-driver and watched us quietly, and I waved to him. As a final farewell, this picture is somewhat funny and a little sad.
Mr. Shi Jingqian and Mr. Jin Anping signed "Matteo Ricci's Memory Palace" and "Hefei Four Sisters" that I brought
Four
On the plane back, I began to read the English version of The Death of Wang. The last two paragraphs of the preface make me feel close to me (the following is quoted from the translation of Li Xiaokai of Guangxi Normal University Press):
Because the book begins with Wang, it is natural to end with her. When I stumbled upon her story in a library a few years ago, she guided me into the grief of Tancheng and Tancheng history, leading me for the first time into a marginal county where all visible wealth, influence, and distribution of power had failed. I still don't know how much her story can tell us about the whole Qing Dynasty, but I guess there are many women like her, like many counties and Tancheng, who suffer and pay taxes, and yet return very little.
My reaction to Wang was vague but profound. She was to me like what people see in the low tide, shining slightly in the rocks, and a stone picked up from the tide with almost regret knew that soon as the stone dried in the sun, the colors all over it would fade and fade. But in this case, the color and texture did not fade: when it lay flat in my hand, the color and texture appeared more vivid. From time to time, I know that it is the stone itself that is heating the flesh and blood that hold it.
"The Death of wang" is the second time that wang's story has been told. The first to tell the story of the Wang clan was Huang Liuhong, Ling of Tancheng County. In his book "The Complete Book of Blessings", which he made a name for himself, he relayed the confession of the original defendant in the murder of Wang Shi and his conclusion of the case. Huang Liuhong, a dutiful magistrate, analyzed the identity of the culprit who killed wang, but in line with the classical principle of "doubting merit is heavy, crime is light, rather than killing, it is better to lose than to lose" (Shang Shu Yu Shu Da Yu Mo), which is a classical principle of dealing with the suspicion of murder, he let go of the person concerned. Wang is not the protagonist of this story. A vague image of the Wang family pieced together by the mouth of others is nothing more than a poor woman who has lost her moral character because she has escaped from someone and abandoned her corpse after being killed by her husband.
The Complete Book of Blessings
Shi Jingqian once again tells the story of the Wang family, trying to make her the protagonist of this history. With a collection of ghost stories of Tancheng County, Huang Liuhong's official proverbs and Pu Songling's popular population, Shi Jingqian is a daily life in the early Qing Dynasty Shandong countryside, which is full of impermanence, hardship, violence, and greed, human feelings become thin under the repeated beating of harsh reality, and those occasional chivalry and disobedience of the weak have certainly left traces in local histories and personal notes, but they have not penetrated the heavy cover of the curtain of history. Shi Jingqian helped readers to imagine Wang's situation before letting her make her debut in the finale, which was also the last moment of her life. Her thoughts and emotions do not have a single word of historical materials, and Shi Jingqian borrowed Pu Songling's novel to sew and weave a final dream for her. The great history after the Ming and Qing dynasties finally set the scene for the sorrow and joy of a small person.
The success of Bingbi Shishi is differently commented by later generations, but the work itself has become a legend. The New York Review of Books, a top American intellectual journal, introduced Shi Jingqian as "He is the death of Wang... and other authors of books".
At the time of the cover-up, I was amazed at how abruptly the story ended. Is Shi Jingqian himself satisfied with the story he tells? I regret not asking when I met, and even if I thought about asking, it would be difficult to say. The Scythians are gone, but he has already written the answer in his book, leaving it for those who have a heart to look for. In writing this memoir, I unexpectedly read about his reflections on his work in his early collection:
All of us will soon be replaced, in one way or another. Years of research and writing will prove to be variable or inadequate. New texts will emerge, or old ones will be revalued; new themes will appeal to scholars and their readers; new approaches to the past will push the old aside. ...... Academic research itself is imbued with a kind of barely manageable madness. We're doing what we can in time, ready to suffer or be rewarded — perhaps both. If we choose to do nothing about our entire research, not to write it down, not to weigh it, not to make our ideas public, then we are protected to some extent, but it is a cowardly protection, a protection that avoids the pursuit of true knowledge. In our silence, we can still be scrutinizers, and we can even gaze at the big picture calmly, but we can never truly participate in the deepest recesses of academic debate. (Chinese Roundabout: Essays in History and Culture, 1993, pp.5-7.
It turns out that Shi Jingqian, who "wrote like an angel" (Levinson), also had moments of wandering. His often self-described figures are not great men or masters, but people in history obsessed with a certain writing obsession, such as Theophilius Siegfried Bayer (1694-1738), the author of the first introductory Chinese in Europe. Shi Jingqian paraphrases the moment when the obsession with studying the Chinese language suddenly came to Bayer:
Suddenly, the desire to learn Chinese overwhelmed me. In the time that followed, I worked hard to think—or dream—how to delve into this mysterious discipline. As long as I can produce something small in this field, I will consider myself a grandson of God and a king of kings. I was like a pregnant rabbit, collecting everything in my cave, and anything I could find could be compiled into some sort of dictionary and some introduction to the rules of Chinese Chinese and Chinese literature.
In 2018, Shi Jingqian wrote in his acceptance speech for the Contribution to The World China Studies Award: "I have formed an indissoluble relationship with China and its history a long time ago. After taking a few classes in modern Chinese, I felt the vastness of Chinese history, art history and literature for me to explore up and down. So, more than sixty years ago, I became fascinated with China, and I could no longer convince myself to pursue other careers. "I think what he's telling us is the story of himself falling down the rabbit hole. There is a more vivid version of this story:
A picture popped into my mind of me long ago when I was walking in the rain with my father. My father's terrier, Thomas, convulsed with excitement and roared at a rabbit hole, its front paws agitating wildly, and dirt flying out of clumps between its open hind legs. I stood aside and watched in amazement at the scene: the mud was piling up, the dogs were barking incessantly, and the rain was pouring down; and the rabbits did not appear. Under Toms' shouting, they had probably retreated to a quieter shelter in the adjacent tunnels. Maybe that's my own chaotic modernist version of Bayer's rabbit hole.
Every historian has his own "rabbit hole." I have piled up mountains of dirt to dig a "new hole." When you are confused, you will think of the relationship with Mr. Shi Jingqian and the wordless encouragement he gave. At this point in the story, I should say like Huang Liuhong: "Tell it to replace a legend, can you?" ”
January 9, 2022