Wang Xuedian: All historical research that answers questions is inseparable from theory

All macroscopic research, process research, structural research, and problem research are inseparable from a specific theory. Any historical study that answers questions is inseparable from theory. Let's look at the role of theory as an analytical tool and a conceptual tool through some examples.

On the theory of the five modes of production

The theory that has had the greatest influence on historians in recent decades is the theory of the five modes of production. The five-mode theory of production is a model that had a great impact after 1949. Although it has now been recognized as a fact that "there were slaves in Chinese history, but there was no such social form as slavery", the question of the staging of slavery and feudalism still played an immeasurable role in the cleanup of ancient Chinese society, especially the cleanup of the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties, Wei and Jin societies. The so-called problem of staging ancient history is actually a false problem, but it has obtained real and huge research results. The introduction of the concept of slavery, the question of when slavery and feudalism were staged, and the considerable energy invested by academia on this issue are incalculable in promoting academic history itself. The reason why the pre-Qin and Qin and Han societies were so thoroughly cleaned up is that it is the center of this great debate.

About "Asia Production Methods"

Commerce in Chinese history has been grossly underestimated, and the Chinese nation is a nation with outstanding business talents. How high is the Chinese nation's business talent, so high that it can only be suppressed by the two-thousand-year-old so-called feudal dynasty with the national policy of heavy agriculture and suppressing commerce. In the eyes of the feudal rulers, commerce and the market brought instability everywhere, and the most stable was agriculture. In order to maintain the long-term stability of this society and maintain the so-called stability, it is necessary to suppress commerce, and successive dynasties have regarded heavy agriculture and suppression of commerce as an important national policy.

Such a developed Chinese industry and commerce does not have the nature and elements that gave rise to capitalism in the West, and it will not spontaneously develop into that society, so Chinese society is a very unique society. Despite this, the concept of the embryonic capitalism still played a huge role in promoting the study of the economic history of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Without this concept, there would be no research situation in the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties today. The same is true of Marxist concepts such as the productive forces, the relations of production, the economic base, and the "Asiatic mode of production." Marx defined European society as a slave society, a feudal society, a capitalist society, but he found that the region from India to Asia was a completely different society from the West, of course, according to the records and reports of Western missionaries. Marx thought that Eastern society was special, including Chinese society, but he could not find a suitable concept, so he had to use a regional concept, called "Asiatic mode of production", that is, the Oriental mode of production, or the oriental social form. If you look at the concept of the Asian mode of production, it essentially embodies respect for the unique path taken by the society of the East and the history of the East, and it is in line with what we call Chinese characteristics today. Therefore, the discussion on the mode of production in Asia Minor, the explanation of the mode of production in China's historical development and the particularity of China's social development, has laid a solid foundation for the study of Chinese characteristics today. This concept is not like feudal society, slave society, capitalist society, it is a concept of nature. This is purely a regional concept, but it still plays a huge role in the study of ancient Chinese history.

About "Primitive Chinese Society"

So far, the theoretical work that has the greatest influence on Chinese historiography is Engels's The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (hereinafter referred to as "The Origin"), and it can be said that without "Origin", there would be no thorough study of ancient Chinese history today. Concepts such as "matrilineal clan society" and "patrilineal clan society" make it meaningful that materials that have always been regarded as absurd and nonsensical, such as "the people know their mother but do not know their father". In addition, concepts such as the Stone Age, the Wood Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, as well as the Ages of Obscurantism, barbarism and Civilization, have made ancient Chinese society understandable. Without the anthropological work "Origin", we simply cannot clean up a "Chinese primitive society" from the ancient myths and legends! The study of ancient Chinese society can be said to provide the best example of how great the role of theory is!

About "Native China"

Mr. Fei Xiaotong proposed a pair of concepts, saying that "local society" is a "society of acquaintances" and "urban society" is a "society of strangers". The two concepts of acquaintance society and stranger society are very important conceptual and theoretical tools for us to analyze cities and villages. Through these two concepts, we can quickly grasp the differences between these two societies. Since it is a stranger society, how to manage these strangers? The problem of the rule of law comes out, the problem of the system comes out; since it is a society of acquaintances, based on mutual trust, the problem of morality and ethics comes out. There are, of course, many more differences between urban and rural societies, but these two concepts are enough to make you see these two societies clearly and thus draw other logical inferences based on them. Mr. Fei Xiaotong's "Native China" is very useful, not only to explain the society in which we once lived, but also to bring inspiration to other disciplines.

Four tools about Mr. Chen Yinke

Mr. Chen Yinke has a set of conceptual tools for his studies, and family, family, culture, and marriage are the four major tools for his studies. In the study of a Chinese society in the classical period, family, lineage, culture, and marriage are indeed very important tools. When Marx was doing social analysis, his tools were called classes, slave-owning classes, aristocratic classes, peasant classes, and other classes.

It can be said that Marx used the concept of class, and Mr. Chen Yinke talked more about family, family, and marriage. Therefore, Mr. Chen Yinke has come to many conclusions, such as the difference between the nobility and the Shu people is not in the door but in the culture, and the difference between the ethnic minorities in the north is not in race, not in blood but in culture. Mr. Chen Yinke uses these concepts with ease, using culture to explain, using marriage to explain, using the level of the door to explain, using the nobility and the Shu clan to explain, using different marriage groups, intermarriage groups to explain, of course, will give people a very chic and fresh feeling. Compared with the class theory of Marxist historians, there is no hole in the sky. The reason is that under different theoretical concepts, things often present different aspects, although Chen Yinke must have absorbed some components of Marx's class theory in the process of using the concepts of marriage and mendi, but he did not use this concept to express, but used more cultural tools to dissect. These questions will give us great inspiration.

About the modernization paradigm

At present, it has gradually become a trend to write history with modernization theory and modernization model. The history since 1840 was originally written as a revolutionary history, and now it can be written as a history of continuous modernization and continuous learning from the West. The mode of writing of the modernization paradigm began with Mr. Jiang Tingdi, whose "Modern Chinese History" is very typical, and describes this history entirely from the perspective of culture, from the perspective of learning from the West, that is, from the perspective of modernization. In the past 30 years, a big theory - civil society theory has been introduced, and concepts such as chambers of commerce, business gangs, and civil society have had a great influence on the field of history for a period of time. This influence soon subsided, because the social situation in China is difficult to explain in terms of civil society, but the introduction of civil society theory did inject new vitality into history for a period of time. In addition, Mr. Zhang Zhongli proposed a concept of "gentry society", and like Mr. Fei Xiaotong, he was committed to extracting concepts from the local area, such as "gentry", a concept can explain a lot of things, these concepts have a great effect on historical research.

The fact that some historians can have such a huge impact on the field of historiography is derived to a considerable extent from the theories they use and from the conceptual tools they use, which is a very big difference between modern historiography and traditional historiography. What is the role of theory, where it plays, I will use these examples to analyze.

(The author is a professor at Shandong University)