On the 26th of this month, Shi Jingqian, an American historian and professor at Yale University, passed away. He is a world-renowned historian, and his method of writing history has also had a great influence on domestic intellectuals. Shi Jingqian not only influenced the field of historiography, but also the cleverness of his historical narrative style often inspired people in other fields of humanities and social sciences. Learning "storytelling" with Shi Jingqian is also the original intention of many people to read Shi Jingqian's works. What is the charm that makes Shi Jingqian's works "cross-border" and have a high reputation at home and abroad?
The collection of Works of Shi Jingqian, launched by the Republic of China, Chinese edition
See the skill of micro-knowledge
Generally speaking, history writers need the ability to tell grand narratives, because long time has left too many imprints, and they need to find patterns in seemingly disorganized information to form a sense of the wholeness of historical narratives. Many historical researchers have the awareness and ability of grand narratives, and in the past, our common historical narratives were mostly "general history", but there were also many narratives, only seeing the whole, not seeing the details, or being unable to present the overall sense of history from the details. Therefore, when historical research entered the 20th century, it was very rare to discover the mysteries of history through subtle details, to see the big in the small, and to know the small, and Shi Jingqian had such a rare skill.
Shi Jingqian pays great attention to the stories of small people in the grand historical background, such as the subtitle of the masterpiece "The Death of Wang", which is "The Fate of the Little People Behind the Great History", which shows the picture of ancient society such as famine, rural power struggles and chaste martyrs through the perspective of civilians. Readers who follow Shi Jingqian's brushstrokes are like returning to the historical scene, and can face the most real side of history, and a large number of details can make readers get emotional resonance. Of course, he did not just write about the fate of the small role of Wang, but presented the many problems of the huge empire through a microscopic and civilian perspective, showing the many problems of China's grassroots society in the 17th century.
In fact, the difficulty of writing such a work is not low, and Shi Jingqian needs to consult the "Tancheng County Chronicle" and other local chronicles, excavate available materials from rare historical materials, and combine the skills of historical research to complete such works. "Wonderful stories" are only its appearance, and its fundamental is still a solid historical effort and a strong humanistic concern, the overall concept of history, and these are also the qualities that excellent history writers must have.
In the book "Dream Memories of the Former Dynasty: Zhang Dai's Glitz and Desolation", Shi Jingqian puts his personal perspective on the late Ming Dynasty scholar Zhang Dai, and the strong literary color and "remembrance" narrative style in his works "Tao'an Dream Remembrance" and "West Lake Dream Search" are very personal. The writing presented by Shi Jingqian in the book is also similar to Zhang Dai's style, which makes people mesmerized. Even the chapter titles set by Shi Jingqian are also lamentable, such as "The Joy of Life Is Endless", "The End of the World", "Prosperity and Beauty Are Empty", which have a sense of rhythm when reading. Of course, this is inseparable from the credit of the Chinese translation, but even the best translation is inseparable from the wonderful writing of the original. The beauty of Shi Jingqian's writing language has been recognized by readers, and he is also recognized by historians as writers who can tell stories, which is indeed very rare.
There are also many readers who like the book "The Land of the Great Khan: China in the Eyes of the West", which presents the image of China from the Western perspective through the Western "observers" since Marco Polo. This kind of writing is extremely challenging, not only requires the accumulation of knowledge across different historical periods, but also requires a vertical sense of historical time, which is a combination of detail writing and grand narrative ability. It is not easy to write the details well, and it is even more difficult to nest the details in a grand structure, but Shi Jingqian has the ability to see the subtle knowledge, and the charm of his works can be seen from this.
Shi Jingqian
A literary historical narrative
The name Shi Jingqian has the meaning of "admiring Sima Qian", and he and Sima Qian's historical writing style do have similarities, such as a certain literary color and moderate fictional content.
But this way of writing was also questioned: Will increasing the literary character of history undermine the seriousness of history? This is actually a controversial topic. The reason for this statement is first of all because a lot of historical writing is too rigid and boring, which is not only a problem of reading experience, but also a problem that directly affects the innovation of historical research and writing methods. If we continue to follow an old-fashioned approach, history will become a boring field, not to mention the popularization of historical knowledge, which requires more clever and interesting writing.
Thus, the literary topic of historical writing arises, or rather, it is a question of the boundary between fictional and non-fiction writing. Of course, historical writing must pursue authenticity, but if a moderate literary element is added, as long as it is appropriate, it seems to be understandable. Among the masterpieces of ancient Chinese historiography, the literary elements of Sima Qian's "History" are very rich, and many of the character dialogues and dramatic scene descriptions have the component of "brain supplementation". However, as long as it is reasonable and appropriate, even "brain supplementation" cannot change reality, and those seemingly literary narratives also have sources of reality.
The really good way to deal with the boundary between fiction and non-fiction is that like Sima Qian and Shi Jingqian, they will never make up basic historical elements, such as creating new characters and events out of thin air, which is contrary to the authenticity of historical writing. What can be moderately fictional can only be scene description, atmosphere shaping and character dialogue. Because these contents can both increase readability without destroying authenticity. In other words, even if these contents are deleted, they will not destroy the original historical materials, but the lack of these contents will make the narrative boring.
For example, in "Kangxi: Reconstructing the Inner World of a Chinese Emperor", Shi Jingqian focuses on Kangxi's inner entanglements, and his love and hatred in reality are brilliantly presented in confessions, and even look for changes in his thinking from memory and dreams. As Shi Jingqian said in the book, "the reader should eventually be able to appreciate kangxi's innermost obstacles from Kangxi's own point of view, and then better understand Kangxi as a person", in fact, Shi Jingqian is the "tour guide" who leads the reader into the historical scene and the inner world of historical figures, which requires both historical kung fu and sufficient empathy. After all, history is not cold data, and only with humanistic care for history can we truly understand history.
The new path of historical writing excavated by Shi Jingqian is still inspiring us, whether it is a history writer or a reader who loves history, he can get spiritual nourishment from his works and experience the joy of reading. (Editor-in-Charge: Zhang Yuyao)