Former sages have their own unreachable places: Dai Haibin's 2021 book list

Professor Dai Haibin of the Department of History of Fudan University.

Zhang Shunhui, Zhou Guolin Dian School: The Diary of ZhuangYixuan, Central China Normal University Press, 2018

The Diary of Zhuang Yixuan is the early diary of Mr. Zhang Shunhui, which was divided into two parts: "JuXiang Compilation" (Lantian National Normal College and Northern Civilian National College Period) and "Entering long compilation" (Lanzhou University period), which was written between about 1942 and 1947. According to the classification standard of the diary of the present generation, this diary can probably be classified as a "scholar's diary", and the daily record is based on the reading notes as a large quantity, in addition to copying the original text, there are also many "discussions" words, and the research experience has "the prototype of academic papers", and most of them have been integrated into monographs such as "Qing People's Collected Records" and "Qing Ren Notes and Articles". He also recorded many scholars' travels and inquiries, and the deeds of Qian Xuantong, Wu Chengshi, Yu Jiaxi, Yang Shuda, Li Jinxi, Qian Jibo, Ma Zonghuo, and others were quite vivid, and they were not included in his book, which is undoubtedly a very valuable material for the study of modern academic history. It is worth mentioning in particular that the full manuscript of the diary is vigorous and meticulous, like an engraving, giving people a strong sense of beauty and shock, and seeing this, it is deeply felt that the former sages have their own inaccessible to the present.

In recent years, the photocopy of "ZhuangYixuan's Diary" (National Library Press, 2010) has often been on the desk, reading tirelessly, and sometimes knowing. In 2018, mr. Zhou Guolin sorted out the schoolbook, which is more convenient to use. Personally, I think that the greatest essence played by Zhang Shunhui in the "Diary of Zhuangyixuan", and the greatest lesson that this diary has given to readers in this world, is not yet a far-reaching way of "high wisdom and brilliance", but only in the plain four words of "making up for bias and saving shortcomings". In the 1940s, compared with the Beibei-Shiyu school headed by Hu Shi and Fu Sinian, or the Zhanghuang school that had gradually declined and was still typical (as the saying goes, "donkeys do not fall"), Zhang Shunhui, who was in a corner of chudi, undoubtedly belonged to marginal scholars, but did not lean on the door, or was silent, "not conforming to the current atmosphere, outstanding self-reliance." In the diary, there are many records of reading "Hu Shi's Recent Works on The Study of Science" and Fu Sinian's "On School Reading", and it is believed that "the words of the two kings seem to be true but not true". In 1944, he drafted the "Ten Discussions on Kuang Shi", which was based on the style of zhenshi, and all those who read the scriptures, examine history, honor Confucius, teach filial piety, change words, chongwen, Guangcai, re-election, customized, and responsibility and reality, "all of which are related to the greatness of today's politics and religion, and will come up with new ideas to divide the theories." The news of this kind of regional faction and secret competition was also revealed in zhang Shunhui's "Xiangxian Quotations" and "Xiangxian Xue Case" compiled at that time, which can be used to glimpse the diversified study style of mainstream and non-mainstream factions within the academic circles during the Republic of China period.

Ye Yijun: "Towards the Road of Marxist Historiography: Fan Wenlan's Prequel", Sanmin Bookstore, 2020

Taiwan's historians have always had a lot of research and enthusiasm for Historians of the Republic of China such as Fu Sinian and Chen Yinke, but for Marxist historiography, due to the influence of various factors, they are often ignored in the name of non-academics. Ye Yijun graduated from the Institute of History of Tsinghua University in Taiwan, and as a purely "Taiwanese" academic leader, he engaged in quite unpopular Fan Wenlan research, which can indeed be counted as an "outlier". From 1928 to 1949, the historical view of historical materialism rose against the domestic winds and gradually occupied a major position, as Wang Fansen said, "persuaded countless young scholars to turn to their academic positions", the theme of the book is to argue how the power of this "persuasion" is reflected in fan wenlan's academic transformation process. With the method of "ideological biography", the whole book depicts how Fan Wenlan, founding director of the Institute of Modern History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences today, went from a "successor of the old Chinese studies" who graduated from Peking University in the early years of the Republic of China to one of the "Five Elders of Marxist Historiography" respected by the Chinese mainland historians.

Fan Wenlan left little material, and most of them were academic treatises, and there were few humane materials. Ye Yijun can explore its depths, take it from left and right, and meet its origins, reflecting a very delicate and sophisticated way of handling historical materials. He also has a good training in Chinese and Western historical theory, and in terms of research consciousness, he tends to "not regard the history of historiography as a general academic history, but understand it as the history of historiography as the history of ideas", pay attention to restoring the context and context of Fan Wenlan's academic growth and career development, as a basis for understanding his ideological transformation, and make a very in-depth attempt to explore the "life of thought, the ideological nature of life". The author originally hoped to write about the changes in Mr. Fan Wenlan's scholarship and thinking in his life, but the completion of more than 300,000 words of "prequel" is already a grand view. If the "prequel" that successfully explained Fan Wenlan's "why he became a Marxist historian" has greatly aroused the appetite of readers, then the "sequel" that specifically deals with his "how to become a Marxist historian" is undoubtedly more worth looking forward to.

Yang Hu: The Annals of Li Dazhao, Yunnan Education Press, 2021

It's a big book. The "big" here not only refers to the intuitive impression conveyed by the scale of the two huge volumes, totaling more than 1,700 pages and more than 1.35 million words, but also the profound feeling of the materials, words, and condensed ideas accumulated by the 20 years of research skills of the whole book. A revolutionary pioneer of the order of magnitude, Li Dazhao has never lacked research, and it is still increasing at a rate of dozens of papers per year. However, looking at these achievements, we can find the phenomenon of "three more and three less": there are more duplicate results and less original research; there are more conceptual discourses and less empirical research; there are more political propaganda articles and few academic research papers. Yang Hu has a full understanding of this situation, "starting from the most basic work, constantly expanding the scope to find, collect and read various original materials", this work has been carried out intermittently for about ten years, during which he has participated in the revision of the new edition of "The Complete Works of Li Dazhao". In 2013, he began to write a chronology, basically became a book in 2019, and officially published it in 2021 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. As I understand it, the author of this book basically did a "pre-flow" thing in an "anti-current" way.

The almanac takes Li Dazhao's life and deeds as the core, the main body is the "genealogy of the main strategy", "poetry and literature year", "current affairs minutes" three parts, and added "doubts", "examination and identification", "ideological evolution" and other departments, in the style of a lot of innovation, and with the principle of "multi-party reference, examination and correction of errors" to treat each piece of historical materials, choose its credible and use it, and its untrustworthy people will abandon it, which also makes the annals have a high degree of research. The "Comprehensive Picture of Li Dazhao's Revolutionary Activities" established in this book on the basis of accurate and reliable historical materials will undoubtedly have a lot of enlightenment for contemporary people who understand Li Dazhao through film and television works such as "The Age of Awakening" and "Revolutionaries".

More than 300,000 words of historical materials were newly excavated throughout the book, supplementing a large number of genealogical deeds and ideological remarks. If driven purely by the "economic rationality" of calculating the ratio of academic input to output, these precious new historical materials may probably give birth to N core or C journal papers, but the author cannot calculate this, but frankly contributes to the academic circles with academic publicness, so that the historical material workers can "give them their labor, people enjoy their leisure; give them difficulties, and people enjoy their ease" The noble purpose of "giving them difficulties and making people happy and easy" cannot but make readers awe-inspired.

Dai Haibin