【Text/Observer Network Columnist Paul】
Not long ago, the famous American sinologist Jonathan D. Spence passed away at the age of 85. As one of the most famous Chinese historians in the Western world, this news has also caused a lot of waves in China, and many people have written articles to express their nostalgia and respect.
The author has no chance of interacting with this top sinologist, and naturally does not dare to miss it. However, as a general reader who has read many of Shi's works, some simple ideas seem to be interchangeable.
As a sinologist, where did Shi Jingqian's fame come from? Under the glossy name, is there no flaw? Today, as an ordinary Chinese reader, how should we read and understand Shi Jingqian's works? This is what I want to share.
Shi Jingqian (data map)
The most storytelling sinologist
Born in the United Kingdom, Shi Jingqian studied at Cambridge, Yale and other first-class Western universities, and under the guidance of famous artists such as Mary Rui and Fang Zhaoyao, he received systematic and orthodox academic training, and eventually served Yale University in the United States. He has long taught and studied Chinese history, mainly studying Chinese historical issues from the Ming and Qing dynasties to the contemporary era.
In China, the name Shi Jingqian has only been mentioned in the last two decades, but in the United States, Shi Jingqian has embarked on the road to fame more than forty years ago.
Since the 1970s, several heavyweight scholars of modern Chinese history have emerged in the American academic circles, conducting research from different angles and breaking through the old research paradigm: Kong Feili is highly praised for his profound theory and rigorous analysis; Wei Feide is known for his magnificent vision and macroscopic insight; Shi Jingqian's specialty lies in narrative, his writing is elegant, his words are fluent, and in the seemingly eloquent stories, he contains historical thinking. So much so that there is a saying that Shi Jingqian is the western sinologist who can tell stories.
Academically, Shi Jingqian was a prolific scholar. At the same time, his works are also very distinctive, and it is not difficult to look at the title of the book to find that Shi Jingqian's research mainly revolves around the characters. In his pen, there are emperors sitting on dragon chairs, there are women cowering in the corners of history; there are talented writers, there are slaves who bow down to their ears; there are confused students, and there are haojie who rise up.
For a period of time, Shi Jingqian paid special attention to the historical figures connecting China and the West, he specially wrote about famous missionaries such as Matteo Ricci and John Tang, and also put dozens of diplomats, missionaries, writers, adventurers and other foreigners who influenced China in a book.
Generally speaking, historians have the advantage of writing character stories in their mastery of historical materials, and the same is true of Shi Jingqian. Some people often praise Shi Jingqian, saying that he has the ability to control the huge historical materials and sort out the historical context. In fact, this ability is the "standard" of historians. Shi Jingqian's real specialty is the ability that many historians do not have, that is, "storytelling".
Unlike many historians who are accustomed to writing academic papers and do not consider the sense of reading, Shi Jingqian has a very superb narrative technique, and the historical stories he writes often give people the impression of film clips. Wei Feide, who has a broad vision, said that his favorite is Shi Jingqian's last two paragraphs in "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom", which depicts the memory of the young heavenly king Hong Tianfugui in flashbacks, giving people the feeling of time and space transformation.
Looking at Shi Jingqian's works, whether it is the original English version or the sophisticated Chinese translation, it is difficult for readers not to be overwhelmed by their words. In his pen, the dry history of the academic school has become a story of flesh and blood characters, with the magic of turning decay into magic.
Shi Jingqian is good at storytelling and also attaches great importance to the ability to tell stories. He once explained to visiting Chinese scholars that an important reason why he Chinese name "Shi Jingqian" was that he admired Ma Qian of the Taishi Company and hoped to become a historian like Sima Qian.
As we all know, Tai Shi Gong's "History of History" has the reputation of "no rhyme and no rhyme", Shi Jingqian attaches importance to the ability to tell stories, pays attention to writing skills, and seems to have a sense of admiration for the sages. In terms of results, Shi Jingqian's story has been a great success, and his books have sold very well in the United States, China, and even the world, and many works have been reprinted repeatedly. Shi Jingqian himself, with his outstanding talent, became a recognized standard-bearer of narrative history in the 1980s, ranking among the first-class sinologists.
Controversy and Challenge
The "storytelling" writing method has brought Shi Jingqian fame, but this kind of writing has also received a lot of criticism. Behind the praise, a considerable number of scholars do not agree with Shi Jingqian's research methods. For example, Bruce Mazlish, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, gave a very unceremonious criticism of Shi Jingqian's "heavy narrative, light analysis" writing mode, and in response to Shi Jingqian's book "The Question of John Hu", Mazlis even questioned: Is this writing history or writing a novel?
Shi Jingqian is not without analysis, but his analysis is not satisfactory. Duke University professor Arif Dirlik once criticized Shi Jingqian for being too immersed in the surface of history and for making too shallow a historical analysis. He believes that Shi Jingqian's book "Tracing Modern China" compiles a beautiful historical picture, but it is only that, saying that it is "pursuit", but it does not propose any new ways of interpretation, nor does it give a new interpretation method, which greatly reduces the academic value of the whole book.
The "story" told by Shi Jingqian has also been questioned by scholars. Taking his masterpiece "The Death of Wang" as an example, even American scholars have noticed that Shi Jingqian's case selection is problematic. Wang's life is very miserable, but this poor village from the turbulent years, if it is changed to Jiangnan in a rich year, may be completely different. How big is the scope of application of such an example?
"The Death of the Wang Family" book shadow
Still in the book "The Death of Wang", Shi Jingqian made extensive use of the "Fuhui Quanshu" and "Liaozhai Zhiyi" as historical materials, the former containing special events, not to mention the authenticity and reliability of the latter. Many scholars believe that Shi Jingqian's story is not so much history as a novel, and then calls his research "postmodernism".
However, Shi Jingqian himself does not agree with this criticism, and he has said that he strives to merge history and literature instead of combining history and fiction. The key difference between the two is whether or not to insist on historical data as the basis for research.
Indeed, as Shi Jingqian said, looking through his writings, the footnotes are always very rich. In some chapters, footnotes even occupy more than one-third of the space, which shows that Shi Jingqian did attach importance to historical materials. However, another criticism he received also came from this, that is, his ability to understand historical materials, especially classical texts.
Heavyweight Chinese-American historians such as Wang Rongzu and Xiao Gongquan, who have taught at famous American universities, have pointed out the problem of Shi Jingqian's ability to read ancient texts and criticized them quite severely.
Although there are also many people who defend Shi Jingqian's Chinese ability, saying that he has "worked very hard" or that "Fairbank's Chinese is not good." But in any case, as a first-class researcher of Chinese history, the ability to read and correctly understand historical materials should be possessed, and this does constitute an important flaw and regret in Shi Jingqian's writings.
In the book "Former Dynasty Dreams: Zhang Dai's Glitz and Desolation", Shi Jingqian inevitably wanted a large number of essays by Zhang Dai, a scholar in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Due to the elegance and obscurity of Zhang Dai's writing, Shi Jingqian made many mistakes in understanding in this book.
For example, Zhang Dai said: "If there are not three millimeters on the cheek, then there is a painting in the eye", using the allusion of Gu Kaizhi's portrait of Pei Kai, saying that it is to add three hairs on the cheek, and suddenly there is a sense of finishing touch. Shi Jingqian did not understand his meaning, and directly explained that he wanted to add three hairs to his face and lightly tap on his eyes.
For another example, Zhang Dai said that "ladies laugh with the column", in ancient texts, "ladies" only refer to women, while Shi Jingqian thought it was a young man and woman. Then the ladies "scattered the stars", which is the meaning of dispersion, and Shi Jingqian literally understood that the stars in the sky scattered.
For another example, Zhang Dai called himself a "bookworm poetry demon", self-deprecating reading and reading poetry with demons, but Shi Jingqian understood it as "books poisoned him, and poetry confused him". There is also the word "Mo Reverse", which in Old Chinese mostly refers to "the friendship of Mo Reverse", and Shi Jingqian mistakenly thought that it was to quell rebellion. There are many similar examples, and there is no need to list them all here.
By the column, "Willow is So" stills
Showcasing the fun of Chinese history
Among his contemporaries, Shi Jingqian's Chinese ability is not first-rate, and he himself cannot use Chinese fluently to talk, which is still insufficient compared to today's new generation of Western Chinese history researchers. But even so, Shi Jingqian still enjoys a lofty reputation in the academic circles, and even critical scholars recognize Shi Jingqian's academic status.
The first reason is Shi Jingqian's historical insight. Before he became famous, the "shock-response" model was the dominant view in the United States in understanding China's historical developments. According to this view, China's history since the Ming and Qing dynasties has been almost static, and it was not until western societies brought shocks that China responded and then changed.
Since the 1970s, Shi Jingqian has told one story after another in his writings, presenting the development process of China's historical self in vivid descriptions, showing the so-called "internal coherence" point of view. Whether this view is valid or not can be discussed today, but at that time, it did strongly criticize the stagnation theory of Chinese history.
It can be said that from the beginning of shi Jingqian's entry into the academic world, he jumped out of the old historical epistemology, not only standing on the academic trend, but also the person who led the trend.
Shi Jingqian, who led the trend, also used his own research to open a new window for the study of Chinese history in the United States. Beginning with Fairbank until the 1970s, American academics studied Chinese history, focusing primarily on macroscopic politics, economics, the military, and the upper elites. However, starting from Wei Feide, Kong Feili, and Shi Jingqian, the study of this large historical scene began to transform.
Wei Feide pioneered the study of local history and social history, Kong Feili broke through the study of political history and military history that only focused on the elite, and Shi Jingqian, represented by "The Death of Wang", published in 1978, focused on the daily life of the people at the bottom, opening up this vast field of research. From this point of view, Shi Jingqian's research does have loopholes and errors, and the research of future generations can be more outstanding, but it is always standing on his shoulders to continue to climb upwards.
The second reason that shaped Shi Jingqian's academic status was his enlightening effect on readers, especially ordinary readers. In fact, Shi Jingqian did not completely shy away from his academic weaknesses, and he once said in public more than once that it was difficult to learn Chinese. So the question is, why does a scholar who seems to have obvious weaknesses still sell so well? Why do general readers buy it?
Before the 1970s, American sinologists represented by Fairbank were mainly active in political and diplomatic circles outside of academia. One of the important goals of Fairbank's research was to change U.S. foreign policy.
Fairbank (infographic)
Shi Jingqian, on the other hand, wrote with the goal of encouraging people to understand China and interest more Americans in reading Chinese history. With his wonderful writing and excellent historical knowledge, Shi Jingqian was a great success, and he not only won the admiration of American readers with his beautiful English, but also won the recognition of many Chinese readers with the help of excellent translators.
It can be said that with enthusiasm and curiosity about Chinese history, Shi Jingqian not only wants to have a dialogue with his peers in the academic circles, but also wants to introduce this historical curiosity to ordinary Western readers, share the interest of Chinese history with them, and stimulate their interest in China. Since the 1980s, Shi Jingqian, with his rich writings, has built an interesting and extremely "civilian" bridge for Americans to understand Chinese history, and this contribution is worthy of recognition.
Of course, we must also see that the Chinese picture constructed by Shi Jingqian is still subordinate to the classic Western cultural system, whether it is system or empirical evidence, Shi Jingqian's research no longer has the concept of "absolute leadership" today. As an ordinary reader, it is naturally okay to have respect for Shi Shi's works, but there is no need to enshrine every word because of Shi Jingqian's status. True masterpieces are bound to last forever, and true scholars will not disappear from academic history because of a few criticisms.
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