Shi Jingqian is good at using a narrative method that focuses on the fate of individuals to uncover the corner of the great historical changes in China and writes beautifully, which makes his writings full of humanity and storytelling.
▲ On December 26, historian Shi Jingqian passed away. Video/Beijing News Book Review Weekly
Wen | Zhao Qingyuan
According to the Beijing News, Shi Jingqian, a famous historian and honorary professor at Yale University, passed away on December 26, 2021 local time, at the age of 85.
When Shi Jingqian was studying for a doctorate at Yale University, he received his Chinese name from his mentor and Ming and Qing historian Fang Zhaoyao, which means "study history and admire Sima Qian". He may not have imagined that this profound name would be known all over the world many years later. He is also regarded as a representative figure in the second generation of sinologists after Fairbank, together with Kong Feili and Wei Feide, he is called the "Three Masters of American Sinology".
▲ On November 15, 2005, the American historian Shi Jingqian ended his trip in the afternoon and attended the new book launch of his wife Jin Anping before getting on the plane. Figure/IC photo
Small incisions write China's "big history"
Born in 1936 to an intellectual family in the northern suburbs of London, Shi Jingqian was taught at the University of Winchester and the University of Cambridge, and completed an important turn in Chinese history during his PhD studies at Yale University in the United States in the 1960s.
He had two mentors, one was Rui Marie, The most proud student of Fairbank, and the other was Fang Zhaoyao, a historian of the Ming and Qing dynasties. As for why he wants to study China, Shi Jingqian once said: "Because Chinese history is very complicated. I love history, I love people, I like to study the relationships between people. ”
His field of historical research is quite broad, integrating people, society, politics and cross-cultural communication, showing all aspects of Chinese history from different perspectives. He is adept at using narratives that focus on the fate of individuals to uncover the corners of the great historical changes in China, and his writing is beautiful. This makes his writings humane and storytelling.
We know that due to the dedication of the historians to the elevation of historiography to a science, the strict observance of the accuracy of historical materials and the objectivity of the narrative of history have made most of the historical works difficult to understand, and the readership is limited to professional researchers.
In the context of this kind of academic writing, Shi Jingqian added his own reasonable imagination on the basis of historical materials, adopted literary narrative techniques, truly reproduced the historical background, vividly portrayed the inner hearts of the characters, made them flesh and blood figures, and greatly enhanced the readability of his historical works. This is very rare.
In Shi Jingqian's pen, there are not only the famous emperors in Chinese history, Kangxi, but also the unknown and small figures, the Wang family, an unknown peasant woman in Tancheng, an unknown small county town in Shandong; the Chinese experience recorded by Westerners who came to China, "The Country of the Great Khans: China in the Eyes of the West"; and there are also works that examine Chinese civilization with an international perspective, "The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci".
It can be seen that whether it is a topic or a historical writing, Shi Jingqian is trying to construct or reveal its main purpose through the excavation and description of small historical materials. Starting from the small topic selection link, step by step laying out the weaving and rendering, and finally forming a grand historical structure, which is a major feature of the history of historical scenery.
He once said that the reason why he often writes about some unique historical themes is not that he has some theories and grand designs in mind, but that he is completely opposite, and his mind is always full of details such as "hints, images, scenes and sounds". And once a detail draws him to be identified as a historical subject, then he becomes intoxicated with writing "the intrinsic connection between these individual things, the mutual influences, and the overall historical environment in which these things exist."
▲ Cover art of Shi Jingqian's work "Dream Memories of the Former Dynasty".
Let the West read China
Although Shi Jingqian's works have no lack of respect for historical materials, many people still believe that the boundary between his works and "historical novels" is blurred, and the reason is that in the process of describing history, he uses "imagination", which is a taboo method for contemporary historians, to restore history. For example, Wang's dreams before his death and Hu Ruowang's conversations with children after he returned home are undeniably pure imaginations and fictions.
Shi Jingqian's imagination mainly focuses on three aspects: the integration of fractured materials, this type of imagination is mostly based on reliable historical materials, connecting the "blank areas" in historical materials; empathy and repetition, with the commonality of human experience, the outline of the inner world of historical figures; the addition of branches and leaves in narrative techniques, setting off the atmosphere, and increasing the readability of the work.
However, this does not mean that Shi Jingqian's narrative history is a kind of historical novel, because it is not the same as the "imagination" of historical novels: first, the characters told are real characters who have existed, not fictional characters; second, the main storyline is supported by data, neither Zhang Guan Li Dai nor fanciful fiction.
These imaginations are added by the author in the process of writing with full consideration of the reader's acceptance factor, and its main effect is that it closes the reader's distance from the things described, and can even resonate, even if all these imaginary details are removed, it does not affect his main academic view of history. He used historical imagination only to better describe facts to the extent permitted by the laws of historiography.
In his research and writing, Shi Jingqian also devoted himself to the collision and exchange of Chinese and Western cultures.
As an Englishman studying Chinese history in the United States, Shi Jingqian is in a cross-cultural context, and what is even more valuable is that in addition to English, he is also fluent in Many languages such as Chinese, French, Italian and Latin, which makes his historical works full of cross-cultural communication tension.
In the view of Shi Jingqian's wife, Jin Anping, who is also a historian, the reason why her husband's book is popular in the West is because "it provides a way for Western readers to read it with a beautiful style." In this sense, it is not difficult to understand the role played by Shi Jingqian in disseminating Chinese history and culture: through the depiction of those little-known historical details, it constitutes a full and real China with epochal significance.
Beijing News Special Writer | Zhao Qingyuan (Media Person)
Edit | Li Xiaoxiao
Intern | Velyuil
Proofreading | Zhao Lin
Click on the business card below to read more exciting ideas