Li Gongming
A Hundred Years of Homeland: The Story of the Tang Family, by He Qian, Guangxi Normal University Press, Xinmin Shuo, September 2021 edition, 404 pp., 88.00 yuan
The Story of the Elders: A Century of Family History in Dianchi Lake, by Xiong Jingming, Hong Kong university press of Chinese, August 2021, 404 pp
Many years ago, reading Liu Xiaolei's "Mirror of History" (Guangdong People's Publishing House, 2015), seventeen essays on literature and history reflected the ups and downs of Chinese history in the twentieth century, so I remember the title of this book very deeply. Recently, after reading two newly published family stories, Xiong Jingming's "The Story of the Elders: The Past of the Dianchi Family in a Hundred Years" (Hong Kong Chinese University Press, 2021) and He Qian's "A Hundred Years of Home Country: The Story of the Tang Family" (Guangxi Normal University Press, September 2021), immediately remembered the saying "historical mirror", and deeply felt that the family history and personal stories of the twentieth century Chinese are countless mirrors that can reflect the historical truth. Or in the words of Taiwanese writer Yang Zhao, his "One Hundred Years of Wandering: The Story of Taiwan" (Sanlian Bookstore, 2016) is "the side face of Taiwan's history", so the "mirror of history" is to show those "side faces" that are too much obscured by "positive faces".
Teacher Xiong Jingming previously wrote a book "Home in the South of the Clouds: Remembering Parents, Remembering the Past" (People's Literature Publishing House, 2010), which is to write about relatives he knows by memory. Now this "Story of the Elders" is more based on the data, doing research and research to write about her great-grandfather, grandfather, grandfather, dry father and other people. "The author is neither miserable nor resentful, but calmly, objectively, and lightly sketches the laughter in suffering, the hope in despair, as well as the big and small stories of family and relatives and friends, the new and old history, which are intricately intertwined into a microcosm of the Chinese nation in the last century." (Chen Fangzheng, see the back cover of the book) "This family memory history, through the ups and downs of the fate of the characters, shows the political situation and the conflict between the old and the new in the nearly one hundred years from the Republic of China to the Republic of China in the southwestern border city of Kunming, and the profound impact of the storm of the times on a big family." It delicately depicts that in the tide of great changes in the times, a group of people still adhere to traditional virtues and adhere to the beautiful belief of human nature, so that they can warm each other and benefit society. (See the back cover of the book)
The story still begins with her parents, but the soul of the entire family is her great-grandfather Xiong Tingquan, who was a local official who served in Sichuan and Yunnan in the late Qing Dynasty and early Min, and there is a record of him in the "Yunnan Tongzhi Continuation": Guangxu Yanwei (1893) raised a person, Wu Shu (1898) Jinshi, successively held official positions in Sichuan and Yunnan, "talented, tongzhi, insight into the border, from the pastoral order to the prefectural road, in order to follow the liang name." In his later years, he lectured at the Minglun Society, the capital of the province, and advocated backward progress with poetry and ancient texts." (See Xiong Jingming, "The Story of the Elders", pp. 285-286) Xiong Tingquan is undoubtedly the soul of the entire family, and Chen Fangzheng summarizes his life in the preface as "not only entering Tibet to coordinate the suppression of the rebellion, but also pouring into the education of their children in Tengchong and the British, sending them many to study abroad, and cultivating more than a dozen talents in the next two generations who served in the local and Kuomintang parties in Yunnan." This is undoubtedly the best portrayal of how a scholar in a remote province transformed into a modern intellectual between the Penghu Reform Law and the May Fourth Movement." Therefore, as Wang Dingjun said, "Only the background of the extended family produces such a story." Calm narration, no grievances; writing about the conflict between tradition and revolution, lifting heavy weights; writing about the mother's poetry pen, writing the father's history pen." (see back cover)
He Qian's "A Hundred Years of Homeland: The Story of the Tang Family" systematically sorts out and tells the story of her mother's family, the Tang family in Guanyang County, Guilin, Guangxi, based on historical materials such as historical materials such as diary, oral accounts, manuscripts, genealogies, and local histories of her predecessors, as well as academic research works (see "References" after the book). The fate of individuals and families fluctuates in the whirlpool of history, and due to the large number of characters and the rich changes and transformations of historical scenes, the whole book is divided into four parts and more than ninety chapters in terms of writing structure. In order to help readers read, the "Editor's Recommendation" summarizes the main contents of the book in this way: Tang Jingsong's Sino-French War, the battle of the Sino-French War, the blood of the lone soldiers of Jia Wu Baotai, and the adventure of crossing back to the Guixiang River; Tang Jingcheng accompanied Tang Jingsong in resisting the law and Baotai, secretly taking charge of the Jianghu armed forces, and getting involved in the Penghu Revolution, the Xinhai Revolution, and other events; Tang Chaohuan accompanied Li Mingrui on the Northern Expedition, led his troops to participate in the Nanning Defense War, and helped the liberation of Nanning in 1949; Tang Xian's teacher Chengtao Xingzhi, one of the "Eight Monsters" in Guangxi's educational circles, prepared for the establishment of the predecessor of Guangxi Normal University; Tang Zhaohua Li Siguang, Yu Qingsong and Ding Xubao loved their disciples, and the husband and wife joined hands in the War of Resistance and carried out lifelong education; Tang Rongzhen went to the front line of the War of Resistance with her husband and personally experienced the great victory of Taierzhuang... (See https://book.douban.com/subject/35623188/) This is indeed a family story involving many historical events in modern and modern China, and the author describes that through "this in-depth excavation and writing of family history, I can really understand my family." The true feelings of home and country, from Vietnam to Taiwan, from the Sino-French War, the Sino-Japanese War, to the War of Resistance Against Japan, generation after generation of blood, bravery and loyalty to the country." (p. 151) Reading the entire book, it is clear that the most prominent narrative discourse between the lines of the whole book is a strong and enthusiastic patriotic spirit. The main character list in front of the book introduces the resumes and relationships with the author of the main ancestors, which is also very helpful to the reader: Tang Jingsong is the author's ancestor of the Waigao ethnic group, Jinshi and Hanlin in the fourth year of tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1865), and the acting governor of Taiwan during the Jia Wu period; Tang Zhaohua is the author's maternal grandfather, associate professor of the Department of Physics of Guangxi University after the founding of New China, and vice president of Guangxi Normal University; Tang Xianzhi is the author's grandfather, Tang Zhaohua's cousin, and a famous educator in Guangxi; Tang Jingcheng is the grandfather of Tang Xianzhi and Tang Zhaohua. During the Guangxu years, he was the general office of Taiwan's Taichung Lijin Bureau and the director of the Anping Taxation and Customs Bureau, and assisted Tang Jingsong in resisting France on the battlefield of Vietnam and defending Taiwan in Taiwan.
The stories of the elders in the storms of the times are the epitome of the times, and many historical memories sound both thrilling today and thought-provoking to think with the hindsight of history. The details of history often not only present the truth of the microscopic, but often more truly reflect the essential attributes of macroscopic history. In the great vortex of history, the contingency of personal destiny is often inevitable. There is also the question of the so-called "small history" and "big history", the former can be understood as personal experience, local social landscape and the normal changes of daily life, that is, "partial" history; the latter is the history of the whole situation, the rise and fall of the country's chaos, the change of dynasties, and major canonical systems, events and figures. From the perspective of historical narrative, it can be said more bluntly, the former is "folk history" and the latter is "national history", and first of all, it is not the difference between micro history and macro history that people often say, nor is it the difference between "small traditions" and "big traditions" that people like to use. At that time, Liang Qichao said that the old twenty-four histories "can only be called the twenty-four family trees", that is to say, the so-called dynastic history and national history in the old historiography are actually just the "family trees" of the emperor seizing power and ruling the world. Chen Dichen and Deng Shi even vigorously advocated writing "civil history", and even explored the relationship between "civil history" and "civil rights". (See Zhao Shiyu, "Small History and Big History", Sanlian Bookstore, 2006, pp. 6-7) Then, it should be said that folk history and family history are not "small history", as Lin Chaomin, a professor of history at Yunnan University, said in the preface to Xiong Jingming, the small story of the family reflects the great history of the nation; he also reminds readers to be wary of "the ruler will use power to deliberately obliterate, distort, and eradicate the memory of history."
Speaking of "family history," I recall that in the mid-1960s, there was a mass movement to talk about "family history," which was an integral part of the "three histories" education in the rural socialist education movement that was widely carried out throughout the country. The so-called "three histories" refer to family history, village history and social history, and their core purpose is to carry out education in class struggle. In the process of compiling the "family history," the "three elders" (old poor peasants, old cadres, and old party members) were often asked to tell the young people about the "three histories." The concept of "family tree" was also widely used, and the slogans of "reading the red family tree, raising class consciousness and inspiring revolutionary morale" and "continuing the red family tree and passing on the revolutionary spirit" became the title of various publications and propaganda posters. For example, the propaganda poster "Continuing the Red Family Tree and Passing on the Revolutionary Spirit" (author: Feng Zhi, Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House, 1963) is set against the background of Wang Shikuo's famous sketch work "Bloody Clothing", and the main character is the image of the old, middle-aged and young peasants of the "Continuation of the Red Family Tree", and interprets the "revolutionary spirit" to be inherited by continuing the "Red Family Tree" with the class revenge summoned by "Blood Clothing". Of course, this association itself is a kind of historical memory, and the imprint of the era about "family history" should not be forgotten by both the author and the reader.
In addition, the process of writing family stories and family histories is extremely closely related to the research methods of oral historiography, which need not be repeated, but it is necessary to be vigilant because the protagonist of the narrative is a family relative, which is prone to problems of hidden evil and overflow. Or not implicit evil or overflowing, but from the narrator to the writer are invisibly affected by various personality common patterns, as you Jianming pointed out, many interviewees have memories of their predecessors, describing the model from the same, from hard work and thrift, knowledgeable and reasonable, generous and kind, strict governance, charity, to reading books and serving the country, loyal to the country, in the new and old alternate era to forge ahead, seek new changes, advocate equality, all of which may be in the traditional framework, the values of the times, social expectations, The actual relationship between the interviewee and the molded person and even the inducement of the interviewer are affected and guided. (See You Jianming's "You Have Me, I Have You?") Gender Image in Oral History Materials", Edited by Zai Ding Yizhuang et al., Oral History Reader, Peking University Press, 2011)
There is also the question of the attributes of genres such as family stories. The 1976 african-American writer Alex Haley's family history novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family, which was published in 1976, traces how her ancestor Quinta Kent was taken captive from the west coast of Africa to North America as a slave and her descendants lived under American slavery, based on his grandmother's family story and years of research. But there are divergent opinions as to whether the basic attribute of the work is history or literature. In book promotion, it was listed as a "non-fiction bestseller", and in April 1977, it won the National Book Prize Committee History Grand Prize as a "non-fiction historical work", and some reviews also criticized it for the academic requirements of historical works; on the other hand, from the reader's feedback, it was more likely to read it as a literary work, considering it to be a historical novel that integrated family stories, and many critics also classified it as African American literature. Perhaps this also reflects the reading bias of scholars and the average reader, and what I prefer to read is a perceptual narrative based on rigorous research. Aleida Assmann argues that "history in family memory" is a private passage to "world history" and that "it makes the family novel a hybrid literary genre that breaks the clear line between fictional literature and documentary history." An important structural feature of the 'family novel' is the recognition of the history of the individual, the family, and the history of the nation/state that exists interactively, and this is also the basis of its cognitive strategy and emotional state." (Aleda Asman, History in Memory: From Personal Experience to Public Presentation, translated by Yuan Siqiao, Nanjing University Press, 2017, p. 54) His final conclusion is: "The treatment of memory is a major historical project that spans generations, and its significance lies not only in the fact that it is a historical task of preserving traces and reimagining, but also transforming family history into a literary form, that is, a novel that continues, rewrites, and returns to the future." Memories and imaginations of the past are intervening in this way in the lives of the future and the next generation. The last point to recognize is that man is part of history, and history can be continued by man in different ways. (Ibid., p. 74) I think the last sentence has been made very clear, that the innumerable mirrors of history can be cast in different narrative ways.
Returning to the two family stories in front of me, their narrative content has a clear common feature of the frontier region of Modern and Contemporary Chinese History, which is a good historical material for the study of regional history, and it is also the "side face" of history that I am most interested in reading.
In the early years of the Republic of China, Tang Jiyao took charge of Yunnan, promoted county autonomy, founded autonomous training centers, and organized the compilation of the "Lecture Notes on local self-government centers in Yunnan Province", of which the third "Interpretation of the Provisional County System in Yunnan Province" was written by Xiong Jingming's grandfather Xiong Guangqi. He wrote in the "Preface": "The spirit of the county system is to integrate official rule and autonomy into one breath; its provisions are purely emphasis on people's rule. "The three powers of the legislative, executive, and judicial powers should be separated; the finances should be separated, and the unified managers of the state should also be known to those who have a little political knowledge." Therefore, it is necessary to directly elect the county magistrate: "The republic is the family, the sovereignty lies in the people, and the main purpose of this reform of the county system in this province is to expand the rights of the people." This system has given the people everywhere the real power to participate in county politics, in order to achieve the hope of the politics of the whole people, then the chief executive of a county should be directly elected by the county people, and not only the county magistrate is also elected. The election of the county magistrate, in fact, has become a matter of course and has no need to consider. (The Story of the Elders, p. 315) For civil organizations, it is emphasized that the autonomous groups have their own personality, that is, they aim at their own subsistence activities, "have their own meanings, have their own affairs, and although they fulfill their obligations to the state at any time, they ultimately aim to protect their own subsistence activities." With regard to county finances, it is believed that "the distinction between state and local taxes must be clarified first." The national economy and the local economy are both national economies, and no matter what taxes are levied, they are directly and indirectly taken from the people.". Although it is a "definition" on paper, this young man is not unaware of the shortcomings of the old political system in reality: "The old system of administration, justice, and finance is one of the county governors", and the rest of the personnel are filled with Xu officials, while the county council and the Senate are all useless, "If the husband colludes with the gentry by virtue of judicial power and expropriation power, the fly camps and dogs, and the people who pervert the law and steal fish and meat, they are everywhere, and the facts are there, how difficult it is to verify." And there are still curves as a cover, and strive to make this bureaucratic and book-run old system a good person, and do not sincerely understand the peace of their eyes." (p. 316) has been made too clear. Xiong Jingming said, "To eliminate the passion for the establishment of a monarchy and inspire this ambitious young official to promote the county autonomy movement is equivalent to challenging the entire bureaucracy, relying on the good wishes and efforts of the reformers alone, with little hope of success." The theoretical basis behind autonomy, 'civil rights', subverted the foundation of thousands of years of institutional stability, 'imperial power'. Nearly a hundred years later, it has not been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. (p. 317) It is worth noting that Xiong Guangqi's political identity at the time was that of a member of the Chinese Communist Party. Xiong Jingming believes that his grandfather, a communist party member, was entrusted with the important task of compiling the key documents of the provincial government and county autonomy movement, which may indicate the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in talent and personnel at that time, and perhaps the Tu Emperor of Yunnan did not take the partisan struggle seriously. (Ibid.)
Regarding the relationship between Tang Jiyao and the Yunnan autonomy movement, some historians have also put forward different views, holding that since the Xinhai Revolution, Yunnan has in fact been in a semi-independent state isolated from the central government, and after nine years of the Republic of China, Tang Jiyao announced the abolition of governorship and autonomy in Yunnan, which is in nature a separatist movement aimed at warlord self-protection, rather than an autonomy movement like other provinces that aims to oppose warlords and flaunt the rule of the people. (See Hu Chunhui, "Localism and Provincial Autonomy in the Early Ming Dynasty," China Social Science Press, 2011, p. 228) If viewed in this way, Xiong Guangqi's "Interpretation of the Provisional County System in Yunnan Province" is even more valuable and meaningful.
Another important document left by Xiong Guangqi in history is the inspection report and administrative suggestions- "The Two-Step Plan for Developing the Whole of Lancang and Consolidating the National Defense of Southwest China", which was included in the "Yunnan BorderLand Research" in the Yunnan series edited by Long Yun in 1933. In 1930, Xiong Guangqi went to Lancang County, the land of miasma, as a county magistrate, and after taking office, he spent half a year "weekly consultation and visit, and earnest consideration," and then formulated this two-step reform plan: the first step was to build the county town and the surrounding areas, build roads, run education, reclaim wasteland, and change the status of toast to autonomy; the second step was to naturalize the indigenous people, change the official system, divide the reclamation, unify the finances, and reduce the burden on the border people. For this two-step plan, there are detailed explanations, implementation plans and timetables. "All in all, if we want to seek all the development of Lancang in order to consolidate the national defense and border defense of the southwest, there is really no other good way to win without this two-step approach." As far as Qi's ideal is concerned, if this whole plan can be implemented, it is expected that in the twenty-first year of the Republic of China, the county's household registration survey will be clear and the security will be perfected. Furthermore, when investigating the household registration, we will go a step further and divide the townships, towns, lu, and neighbors into sub-districts, paying special attention to popularizing education and training the people. By 22 years, the road had also been successfully built. Twenty-three years later, the reclamation has been completed, at this time there are 600,000 acres of land upgraded, and the second phase of reclamation methods should be considered, and the land survey of the whole county can be completed. After several years of operation, the power of toast, when gradually divided, the people's training, is also nearly mature. It has also stepped up its work and actively prepared for autonomy in accordance with the "County Organization Law" and the "Law on The Autonomy of Districts, Townships, and Neighbors." Twenty-four or five years later, this barren and barren region has shortened the evolutionary process and become a completely autonomous county. This non-Guangqi is all based on ideals, exaggerating its words, for the way to cure, according to the time and place, inherently unexpected, all in the treatment of the law and why to treat people like ears. However, if the relationship between timing is the most important thing in everything, if the timing is not ripe, or if the timing changes in progress, then it is hereby calculated that the outcome cannot be predicted. ("Conclusion" of "The Two-Step Plan for Developing lancang and consolidating the national defense of southwest China", see Lin Wenxun's "Compilation of Yunnan Frontier Development Plans in the Republic of China Period", Yunnan People's Publishing House, 2013, pp. 572-573) In the preface to the "Compilation", Lin Wenxun believes that Xiong Guangqi "once served as an official in the border areas, had insight into the border situation, and was targeted", so his development plan "has certain representative and reference significance". (Ibid., p. 11) Speaking of the "significance of reference", Xiong Guangqi said that "knowing that the result is ultimately nothing but empty talk, there is no possibility of realization... After there are comrades or can collect parts, see the implementation, then in Guangqi can also cloud not to live up to this trip also." (Ibid., p. 550) Xiong Jingming's concern is that "in eighty years, probably not a local lancang official has consulted this plan." (The Story of the Elders, p. 321)
He Qian told the story of "the father's lonely, helpless, tragic and tragic history of resisting Japan and defending Taiwan" in "The Story of the Tang Family in a Hundred Years of Home country", and the author quoted Hu Shi's "Inscription on Mr. Tang Jingsong's Legacy" written on the second day after the September 18 Incident at the beginning of the second part of "Jia Wu - Taiwan": "The Southern Heavenly Democracy, looking back and hurting god." Where is the Black Tiger now? Huang Long has also been aged. A few useless pens, half a dozen people with hearts. After all, the sky is difficult to make up, gushing forty spring! After reading it, Chen Yin said to himself that he "did not know where to go from tears", and the author said that because Hu Shi's father Hu Chuan (Zhizhou, Taitung Zhizhou during the Jia Wu Period) and Chen Yin Ke's uncle Yu Mingzhen (the envoy of Taiwan during the Jia Wu Period) both followed Jing Songgong to participate in the disobedience and defense of Taiwan in the Sino-Japanese War. (pp. 28-29) This opening is touching. Unfortunately, there is no illustration added, the rectangular blue-ground yellow tiger flag, "the tiger's head is introverted, the tail is high and the head is down", in order to show that it does not forget Middle-earth and submits to the Middle Dynasty. (See Qi Qizhang' History of the Sino-Japanese War, Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2014, p. 449) Looking at this picture, we can understand Hu Shi's poem "Where is the black tiger now?" Huang Long has also shown how the imagery of "Huang Long" is closely related to "the southern heavenly democracy, looking back and hurting the gods".
In May 1887, Tang Jingsong officially took up his post in Taiwan and became Liu Ming's right-hand man in ruling The Station. During His stay in Taiwan, Liu Mingchuan consolidated national defense, built railways, set up enterprises, and developed education, laying the foundation for Taiwan's modernization. (p. 31) This is an accurate and general statement. Some historians have summarized the main contents of Liu Mingchuan's implementation of the New Deal in Taiwan into eight aspects: first, strengthening defense; second, transportation construction; third, industry and mining; fourth, commerce; fifth, Xingshi; sixth, Reclamation; seventh, Qingfu; and eighth, education. Then he pointed out that "the construction of Taiwan in the late Qing Dynasty was part of China's self-improvement movement at that time, and it also had its own characteristics." The so-called characteristics refer to the mainland's self-improvement movement to establish a military industry as the first priority, but Taiwan attaches equal importance to military use and people's livelihood, and attaches importance to private enterprises from the very beginning. As a result, after twenty years of operation in the late Qing Dynasty, Taiwan's earliest self-run telegraph industry and new-style postal services, the earliest new-style large coal mines operating and producing in China, China's first railway, the first telephone, the first stamp, the first foreign school, and even more the emergence of its own steamship companies that dared to compete with foreigners, as well as the emergence of the first national capital enterprises, "became an advanced model in the self-improvement movement in all of China at the end of the 19th century." (Song Guangyu, "History of Taiwan," People's Publishing House, 2007, pp. 97-99) In detail, we can also see the fundamental reason why the Gentry of Taiwan opposed the cession of Taiwan.
The Sino-Japanese Naval Battle ended in China's defeat, and on April 17, 1895, China and Japan signed the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Peace (also known as the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Maguan) at Maguan, and the Liaodong Peninsula and the entire island of Taiwan were ceded to Japan. The news reached Taiwan on the same day, and the hearers rushed to tell each other and gathered in the city and Shino. Tang Jingsong, Qiu Fengjia, and others continued to write to the imperial court without success, and finally decided to disobey the order to protect Taiwan. In the whole book, this "tragic and tragic history of resisting Japan and defending Taiwan" is written in the most detailed, and the historical materials are also very precious.
Finally, I return to the historical questions that interest me the most. Teacher Xiong Jingming said, "Reading a large number of texts left by great-grandfathers, grandfathers and grandfathers is the process of learning modern history. Grandpa's records of the feelings of ordinary people at the time of the handover of power, as well as his letters to the municipal government at that time, are all historical materials. In special times, special historical materials will naturally arise, that is, the ideological examination, explanation of historical problems, and confessions written by the parties themselves in the previous movements. Xiong Jingming was surprised to read the inspection book written by her father during the Cultural Revolution: his father said in the inspection book that he thought... Still on the road of revisionism, he encouraged his children to learn foreign languages well, borrowed an English typewriter for them to learn typing, and bought a tape recorder to help them practice speaking. (p. 71) Such honesty and frankness seems a little inconceivable to us today, and this is the preciousness of the historical materials in this batch of family histories.
Editor-in-Charge: Huang Xiaofeng