Historian Shi Jingqian died, and his works sparked interest in Chinese history

Reporter | Lin Zi people

Edit | Yellow Moon

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Jonathan D. Spence, a prominent historian and professor emeritus at Yale University, died on December 26, 2021, local time, at the age of 85, and Joanne Freeman, a professor of history at Yale University, announced the news on her personal Twitter account.

Born in England, Shi Jingqian went to Yale University to pursue a doctorate in history after receiving a master's degree from Cambridge University, under the tutelage of Mary C. Wright. During this period, Fang Zhaoyao, a predecessor of Chinese historiography, took the initials of his surname and gave him the Chinese name "Shi Jingqian", which means to admire Sima Qian, and use it as a model. After graduating with a Ph.D., Shi Jingqian stayed on to teach, a historian known for his "good storytelling" who has been one of the world's most famous giants of Chinese history for more than half a century, focusing on cultural and political history after the Qing Dynasty, has a strong interest in cultural exchanges between China and the West, and a theme that runs through many works is how Westerners view China and try to "change China", but inevitably encountered setbacks.

Since 1974, he has completed 14 historical works on China, of which 12 have been introduced by the Republic of China in 2019 Chinese Simplified editions, including "Dreams of the Former Dynasty", "Kangxi", "The Great Righteous Consciousness of the Yongzheng Dynasty", "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom", "The Death of the Wang Family", "The Kingdom of the Great Khan", "Changing China", "Hu John's Question", "Cao Yin and Kangxi", "Matteo Ricci's Memory Palace", "China Vertical and Horizontal", and "In Search of Modern China". In 1974, "Kangxi" was first published in the United States and caused a sensation, and its narrative technique of combining knowledge and interest was well received by readers. His "Pursuit of Modern China" traces the historical process of China's entry into modern times from the late Ming Dynasty (1600), and was praised by Fairbank as "an unborn work, and it is difficult for the next generation to be out of the right." Historian Wang Yuanchong said that "In Search of Modern China" rushed to the Reading List of the New York Times that year, an achievement that no historian had achieved before. Although this kind of public-facing historical writing has caused some controversy in the historical circles, it has indeed succeeded in stimulating the interest of a large number of non-professional readers in Chinese history.

Shi Jingqian has also trained a large number of well-known scholars in the field of overseas China studies, including Kenneth Pomeranz, Lu Lehan (John Delury), Ke Jiaoyan (Pamela Kyle Crossley), Han Shurui (Susan Naquin), Gao Jialong (Sherman Cochran) and so on.