"Bai Yang Edition of the Chronicle of the General Chronicle", by Bai Yang, Oriental Publishing House, published in October 2021
Ms. Zhang Xianghua, the widow of the famous Chinese writer and humanistic master Bai Yang, once authorized Bai Yang's iconic works in history, "Bai Yang Vernacular Edition Zizhi Tongjian", "Bai Yang Edition Tongjian Chronicle", and "Bai Yang Yue" to be published by Oriental Publishing House. "Bai Yang Edition Tongjian Chronicle End" has been 20 years since the completion of the manuscript, a few days ago, the Oriental Publishing House solemnly launched the "Bai Yang Edition Of the Chronicle of the End of the Chronicle" (all ten volumes) hardcover collection edition to commemorate the 101st anniversary of Mr. Bai Yang's birth.
Recount in the vernacular the history covered by the Zizhi Tongjian
Sima Guang presided over the compilation of the "Zizhi Tongjian", which adopts the chronology, takes time as the main axis, and records history according to the year, month and day, which can clearly reflect the background of the era in which each historical event occurred and developed, and brings a clear concept of time to the reader. However, limitations also come with it, because major events in history often span a large time span, and the content of the chronicle is fragmented, and it is difficult to grasp the complete picture of intricate historical events. Therefore, in the "Bai Yang Edition of the Chronicle of the Chronicle of the General Jian", Bai Yang adopted the end of the Chronicle, centered on the event, and recounted the history covered by the Zizhi Tongjian in the form of a continuous story and in the vernacular.
"Bai Yang Edition Tongjian Chronicle End" follows the title of the Southern Song Dynasty Yuan Shu's work "Tongjian Chronicle End", but it is not a translation of Yuan Shu's original work, the passage of the "Bai Yang Edition Of Tongjian Chronicle End", taken from the "Bai Yang Vernacular Edition Zizhi Tongjian", in the chapter, there is a new division of the Bai Yang version, so that readers can easily clearly understand the ins and outs of historical events.
The Zizhi Tongjian is one of the two most valuable history books in China, and is a historical masterpiece that embodies the laws of political operation in ancient China. Mao Zedong's study of the Zizhi Tongjian lasted his life, reading through the Zizhi Tongjian as many as 17 times. Browsing the Zizhi Tongjian, you can systematically and fully understand the history of China for more than 1,300 years from the Warring States period to the Five Dynasties period. Reading the Zizhi Tongjian is like reading a newspaper issued at that time, and you can see the astronomical ups and downs of history at every moment, the joys and sorrows of the world, the bloody battles on the battlefield, and the political conspiracies and struggles. Sima Guang's job was to sort out these "newspapers" and bind them into volumes, which became the "bound editions" we see today, the Zizhi Tongjian. This "newspaper bound edition" collected a large number of political, military, and economic news, as well as various social news that Sima Guang considered to be the most important in the style of a chronicle.
However, it is impossible for a newspaper to publish a single message, and if there is a continuity of news, it is impossible for a newspaper to report only on this one news every day. Large-scale wars or political struggles often last for years, decades, or even decades. Therefore, if readers want to obtain a complete report of a certain event from the "Zizhi Tongjian", they often have a lot of confusion. This limitation was immediately revealed after the publication of the Zizhi Tongjian. However, the "Zizhi Tongjian" is too heavy and has too many articles, and there is no good solution for a while. It was not until a hundred years later, in the twelfth century, that Yuan Shu first created the "Chronicle of the End of the Chronicle" and solved this problem: he singled out all the related events in the Zizhi Tongjian, recombined and pasted them in chronological order, and the work sounded easy, but it took him at least two years to complete the preliminary completion and named it "The End of the Chronicle of the General Chronicle". In modern language, it is also "zizhi tongjian historical story".
The Tongjian Chronicle is not a substitute for the Zizhi Tongjian, just as a newspaper scrapbook cannot replace a newspaper bound edition. However, after the publication of Yuan Shu's edition of the Tongjian Chronicle, it was no less popular than the Zizhi Tongjian itself. Because of this, after Bai Yang translated the Zizhi Tongjian for ten years, he also adopted the end of the chronicle and re-edited the Baiyang Vernacular Version of the Zizhi Tongjian.
Although the "Bai Yang Edition of the Chronicle of Tongjian Chronicle" takes the name of Yuan Shu's work, it is not a translation of Yuan Shu's original work: what Yuan Shu did in the "Chronicle of the End" was a simple reorganization and cutting of the original text of the "Zizhi Tongjian", with only a small number of harmless deletions and changes; the passage of the "Baiyang Edition of the Tongjian Chronicle" was taken from Bai Yang's own translation of "Zizhi Tongjian", and in the chapters, it has its own new division of the Baiyang version.
In addition to objectively recounting history, Bai Yang injected historical views and commentaries into the notes
The Oriental Publishing House launched the hardcover collection edition of the "Bai Yang Edition of the Chronicle of the General Chronicle" (all ten volumes) to commemorate the 101st anniversary of Mr. Bai Yang's birth. Sun Han, editor-in-chief of the Oriental Publishing House, said in an interview: "Bai Yang is a famous writer who has influenced the Chinese people on both sides of the Strait and the world for decades, a disseminator of China's excellent traditional culture and a promoter of cross-strait cultural exchanges. Oriental Publishing House attaches great importance to Mr. Bai Yang's works, and strives to make Mr. Bai Yang's works into fine works and dedicate themselves to readers. ”
Wang Lili, the editor-in-charge of the "Bai Yang Edition Of The Chronicle of the General Chronicle" and the editor-in-chief of Dongyin Publishing House, said: "Since 2005, I have been the editor of Mr. Bai Yang's books, and I have great respect for Mr. Bai Yang, and this time I can get the copyright of Mr. Bai Yang's historical works, which is a dream of my 16 years. Mr. Bai Yang's historical works amount to tens of millions of words, and the book "Bai Yang Edition of the Chronicle of the Chronicle" alone reaches nearly 9 million words, in order to make this set of books, our team has worked diligently for two years, often without rest on holidays. In the process of forming this book, the original design layout and cover were all torn down twice. This is done, first, to pay homage to the classics, and second, to give Mr. Bai Yang's loyal readers a surprise: a set of the most beautiful version. ”
In the "Bai Yang Edition of the Chronicle of the General Chronicle", there are several features worth paying attention to:
The first is time. In ancient China, the era name was mainly used, and the dry branch was used. Contemporary readers often do not know the specific time referred to when reading, and need to be repeatedly calculated, so Bai Yang does not shy away from time in the text, changing the imperial year number to the Common Era year, which is clear at a glance; for the dry branch date, it is all calculated and converted into a digital date, meticulously.
The second is official positions. The names of official positions in Chinese dynasties often have allusions and are strange and grotesque to read, so all the ancient official titles that Appear in Bai Yang's book are compared with modern titles that are familiar to contemporary people, so that readers can clearly understand the power position of ancient officials.
The third is place names. There is no map in the history books, and the reader looks at historical figures and historical events as if they are hanging in mid-air, and there are actors and no stages, and they look ethereal. To this end, Bai Yang has equipped almost every important event in the book with a personal map, marking the main routes, important areas and the overall situation of major nodes such as conquest, migration, siege, and escape at that time, so that the reader can more easily understand the whole event.
In addition, the "Baiyang Edition of the Chronicle of the Chronicle" not only translates the ancient text into modern vernacular, but also recreates it on the basis of loyalty to the original. In addition to objectively recording history, Bai Yang often injects historical views and comments into the notes, making unique observations and comments on historical facts from a broader perspective, expressing his understanding and feelings as a modern person. "The long river of Chinese history is very magnificent and tortuous and mighty, and in the process of rewriting, I must carefully 'pass' the recorded historical events, not only read and translate, but also seriously think, use modern democratic ideas to analyze the causes and consequences of historical events, inject my personal views, let readers read this book, understand history, understand what is feudal despotism, and see the mentality and power of the ruling class from it." Mr. Sima Guang wrote this book for the emperor's ministers to read, and I rewrote this vernacular version for today's officials and ordinary people, so that they can see what is the righteousness of the Chinese nation, what is the suppression of feudal despotism, and the deceit and hypocrisy of the treacherous and evil people, and let readers draw historical lessons and benefits from life. ”
In 1983, Bai Yang, who began to translate the Zizhi Tongjian, was sixty-four years old and already had white hair; by the time the "Baiyang Vernacular Version of Zizhi Tongjian" had become a 10,000-word foreign grand view, Bai Yang was already seventy-three years old, with white hair. After the opening up of cross-strait exchanges, Bai Yang revised the notes on the current place names of the "Zizhi Tongjian" according to the latest geographical divisions of the Chinese mainland at that time, presided over the drawing of a more accurate historical map of the events recorded in the "Zizhi Tongjian"; and began to compile a new vernacular reading of the "Zizhi Tongjian" in the style of the chronicle. By the end of the "Baiyang Edition of the Chronicle of the General Review", it was the beginning of the 21st century. In Bai Yang's view, the translation and commentary of the Zizhi Tongjian is "another new prison career, and the study has become a prison cell." As the last work in Bai Yang's "Zizhi Tongjian" series of works, "Bai Yang's Edition of Tongjian Chronicle" condenses all of Bai Yang's previous efforts to "Zizhi Tongjian". The "Baiyang Edition of the Chronicle of tongjian" has also become the most convenient and preferred reading book for contemporary readers to read and study the Zizhi Tongjian.
(Yan Durong media reporter Song Yan)