Immediately commented | Shi Jingqian's death: he wrote about China and understood China in the West

On the evening of December 26, local time, the American sinologist Shi Jingqian died at the age of 85.

Born in the United Kingdom, Shi Jingqian, whose real name is Jonathan Spencer, graduated from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and Yale University in the United States, is a well-known expert in contemporary Chinese history in the United States, a sinologist, and is known for his research on the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

In 2010, Shi jingqian was awarded the Jefferson Chair, the highest honor in American literature by the U.S. federal government. Some commentators believe that in the Western world, Shi Jingqian "is a Chinese historian with the broadest readership of our time" and "enhanced the Western understanding of Chinese history and culture." He is also the sinologist who can write historical works as bestsellers, and he is also the sinologist who is most familiar to Chinese readers.

During his studies at Yale University, Shi Jingqian became interested in Chinese history and began to study modern and contemporary Chinese history under Professor Mary Rui. It was also during this period that Fang Zhaoyao, a historian, gave him the name of "Shi Jingqian", which means that "those who study history should look up to Sima Qian".

In 1965, Shi Jingqian received his Ph.D. in history from Yale, and his graduation thesis was Cao Yin and Kangxi: The Secret of the Career of a Royal Favorite.

Shi Jingqian's books are bestselled because of his unique perspective and "storytelling" writing style. However, this kind of "sword taking the side" approach in the eyes of some Chinese orthodox scholars does not affect the rigor of its historical spirit.

Some people have a biased mindset about historians, believing that they must be like the old master and focus on a certain historical event with their life's efforts to be called experts, or they must build a lofty position and put forward a set of theoretical frameworks to be considered authoritative. But such a view clearly places historiography under a narrow professional stance and ignores the humanistic spirit of historiography itself.

On the contrary, like Sima Qian, whose name pays tribute to him, Shi Jingqian follows the spirit of the "History of History" and in a sense is also committed to "the time of heaven and man". However, the "heaven" here does not refer to fate, but to the context and law behind history. At the same time, Shi Jingqian, as a latecomer, also avoided the shackles of Sima Qian's era, did not agree with the moral historiography tendency of the "Historical Record", and avoided writing history in a morally critical way.

From the beginning of "Cao Yin and Kangxi", Shi Jingqian formed his own way of writing historiography. On the surface, he wrote about people, and even the writing was very similar to a novel, but behind it was a huge amount of archival historical materials, as well as the study of the great society. He wrote about Kangxi's art of rule and outlined his inner world; in the book "Kangxi: Reconstructing the Inner World of a Chinese Emperor", he used a first-person narrative technique to show the joys and sorrows of an emperor, and then presented the whole picture of China at that time.

From Kangxi to Zhang Dai, who experienced the pain of the destruction of the country and his family, from the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci to the Catholic Hu John, who went to a foreign country, to the ordinary peasant woman Wang Shi, Shi Jingqian's life has become the face of Chinese history. Dry history is thus transformed into vivid stories.

All of this Shi Jingqian has done not only gives the Western world an extra window to understand China, but also provides Chinese readers with the opportunity to examine themselves with his understanding of China. He once said that his writing purpose is only to stimulate readers' interest in learning about China, which seems to be very low and full of humility, but in fact it is very high.

More importantly, Shi Jingqian never looked at Chinese history from a Western-centrist perspective, but believed that all cultures should be understood from its own particularities. From this point of view, this historian, who is like a child playing with building blocks, connecting and building the pictures scattered in the depths of history, has a pure heart that is both innocent and determined.

Shi Jing has moved away, and his rigorous approach to learning and unique historical writing will still have a long-lasting resonance in the academic community and readers.