Respecting the History of the State of Truth- Zhang Taiyan's Way of Governance

Zhang Taiyan (1869-1936), zi mei shu, later changed his name to Binglin, number Taiyan. In the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, democratic revolutionaries, thinkers, and famous scholars, whose research scope involved primary schools, history, philosophy, politics, medicine, etc., wrote a lot of works, and his representative works mainly included "New Theory of Confucianism", "On the Balance of the Past of the State", "Explanation of QiWu" and so on. His ideological experience and academic writings are full of many enlightening ideas, character and methods of governance.

Cause patriotism with history

He stressed that history is the foundation for a nation to settle down and establish its own destiny, and that "to arouse patriotism, it is indispensable to history." The reason why the Chinese nation can continue to multiply and develop is that it is a nation with historical consciousness, and it is that it can always maintain its own unique nature in the thousands of years of rich experience in production, exchanges, and organization, which determines that it can become a nation with a strong sense of self-awakening at a time of existential crisis. The record of the flow and change process of the Chinese nation is also China's long-standing historical writing tradition. He pointed out that although there are trade-offs in the management of learning, it is the most important thing to preserve national characteristics, and in order to preserve national characteristics and carry forward patriotic interests, it is necessary to preserve one's own history and study one's own history.

Adhere to the principle of "taking history as the essence". Zhang Taiyan attaches great importance to expounding the internal ideological theme of historical research and the political theme of historical relevance in the dual dimension of combining history and theory. As far as historiography is concerned, he explored the facts behind history based on empirical and critical brushwork, thus creating a "new historiography" that interprets the scriptures with history; as far as history is concerned, his historical interpretation of social behavior with reflective commentary contains the profound intention of constructing a narrative of historical continuity with the Chinese nation as the main body, and presents a spiritual expression of national characteristics. He repeatedly stressed the importance of history as a crucial science and the core element of maintaining national identity. This patriotic thought has always run through the interaction between his historiography and historical theory, and has been implemented throughout his academic career.

Advocate "saving the text with history". Zhang Taiyan re-mentioned "the history of the Six Classics", and the "history" he mentioned was "historiography" rather than "historical materials". He believes that the fundamental crisis of modern literature and classics lies in the systematic untrustworthiness of "history", and the salvation of the crisis of "literature" can be achieved by negating the abstract "text" and the absolutized "faith" and unifying the scriptures in history. This path of "saving literature with history" not only re-injects new vitality into traditional classical studies, but also provides a new and important way of thinking for China's academic and cultural transformation at the important juncture of "where Should Chinese culture go".

Take the hearts of the people as your heart

In terms of the character of governance, Zhang Taiyan advocated "taking the hearts of the people as the heart." He said: "Since I have speculated about my life, I have turned from the conventional to the true, and finally I have returned to the true and the conventional." This path of truth and custom has always run through his thinking on the interconnection and integration of "true truth" and "common truth", "true feelings" and "common feelings". In this reflection, he constantly tilted toward the "common truth" and "common feelings" and put forward the viewpoint that the true and the ordinary are not the same, which not only gave his path of governance a different color of going its own way, but also made his thinking on the study of learning have an intrinsic character of cherishing the people and loving the country and worrying about the people.

Throughout his life, Zhang Taiyan has been committed to pursuing the goal of "combining use and seeking truth in one furnace". In his 1932 publication of "On the Essential Learning of Today", Zhang Taiyan exclaimed: "Combining the use of unity and seeking truth in one furnace is the most important learning today." He advocated "learning to seek truth" and "using it in the pro-people"; because he was committed to "seeking truth", he more deeply understood "using it in the pro-people", and because he was committed to "using it in the pro-people", he worked harder to "seek the truth", which became the concentrated embodiment of Zhang Taiyan's character in governing learning. He stressed that "great independence must be a group, not a group of non-independence", because he truly understood that the real purpose of the "group" is not to seek selfish interests, but to maintain a large community and let everyone's life be settled; he truly understands that only by resolutely becoming independent from the "small group" can he devote himself to the cause of saving the "large group" and make the "great independence" have an extremely strong practical character, and the ultimate purpose of this practice is to benefit the "large group" so that while shouldering the heavy responsibility of saving the country and trying to save the country, To protect the interests of the broad masses of civilians from being violated.

Pursue the study of seeking truth from facts

In terms of the method of governance, Zhang Taiyan advocated that words must be truthful and reasonable, and opposed "inventing new solutions." The literary historian Pang Jun once pointed out in the "Academic Outline of Mr. Zhang": "In the comprehensive management of his methods of learning, there are six things: one is to judge the name and truth, the second is to re-examine the left evidence, the third is to abstain from delusion, the fourth is to keep ordinary examples, the fifth is to cut off emotions, and the sixth is to eliminate Hua Ci. Its rigor is such that it is a study of seeking truth from facts. Zhang Taiyan lamented the decline of Qianjiazhi's learning in the "Self-Described Academic Stages": "Si Si Shu, what a decline in the three hundred years! This is all a study of seeking truth from facts, and it is not possible to confuse those who are confused with empty words. Judging from the text, the "four techniques" he mentioned are all classics in the traditional sense, and from the perspective of his definition of macroscopic classics, "the six classics are all history", the scope of application of this method can obviously be extended to his entire process of governance.

How to be realistic? On this point, although Zhang Taiyan did not specifically explain it, he expressed its connotation as "the way of auditing the ancients, slightly like a photo, shortening black and white, and stopping at the shape of the portrait, so that the yan is a concubine, it is lost, and the concubine is not also obtained", that is, in the study, it should achieve an objective examination of "yes" equal to "facts". Specifically, it mainly includes the methods of "doubting its difficulty" and "forgiveness". "Doubting its difficulty" refers to "doubting the ancient" on the basis of insufficient written historical data as evidence. The method of "loyalty and forgiveness" refers to taking things as things and pushing others with oneself, "the mind can push forgiveness, and Zhou can detect things and be loyal", "Zhou can observe things, lift up their signs and discern their bones, and those who are loyal are also", "take one corner and oppose the three corners, forgive things also", and "the method of loyalty and forgiveness" is the key to achieving the equivalent of "real things" and "is". Zhang Taiyan's practical application of the above methods in the specific process of historical research not only reduced the Six Classics to ancient history, but also introduced logical methods, making them beyond the scope of traditional classical study, thus realizing the mutual unity of history and logic in historical research. In the face of different tasks of the times, he has his own emphasis on this method of governance, and concretely presents the academic interest between the two in different practical practices.

Source: Learning Times

Author: Sun Daozhuang

Reviewer: Pan Qiwen

Editor: Sun Min Zhang Zixin