From 2010 to 2013, Professor Ge Zhaoguang was a visiting professor at Princeton University for four years. He said, "On Hu Shi's sixtieth birthday, also in Princeton, I am sixty years younger than Hu Shi, and I will spend my sixtieth birthday at Puda, which seems to be a coincidence." ”
Coincidentally, Hu Shi wrote a "Birthday Resolution" at that time, to the effect that his life was not long, and if he wanted to pay off his life's literary debts, the first was to write his intellectual history. And Ge Zhaoguang is also concerned with and engaged in the history of ideas.
Hu Shi was the director of the East Asian Library at The University of Puta, which made the library one of the best East Asian libraries in the United States. Sixty years later, Ge Zhaoguang read in the library and found that the library still used the introduction written by Mr. Hu Shi.
Ge Zhaoguang regarded it as a kind of fate.
In many places, Ge Zhaoguang will take Hu Shi as a spiritual guide or even a role model. After graduating from Peking University, a key choice for academic research was to study Zen Buddhism from the perspective of cultural history. This is "influenced by Hu Shi (Ge Zhaoguang)", and he also wrote the article "On Hu Shi's Extension Line". Not only in the history of Zen Buddhism, but in many, many ways, he said, we are still on Hu Shi's extension line.
It was on this Hu Shi extension line that I began to pay attention to Professor Ge Zhaoguang and his research on "China".
When I read his "House In China" at that time, there was a point of view that was quite enlightening: "China's modern state has metamorphosed from the traditional tianxia empire, and this modern country still retains the traditional imperial consciousness of the world." That is to say, China has a limited concept of "state" in the traditional "empire under heaven" consciousness, and in the limited "state" cognition, it has preserved the imagination of "empire under heaven".
This looming consciousness and imagination of the "Empire under Heaven" has caused many troubles in our thinking and concepts, as well as in actual life.
Teacher Ge put forward two points worth clarifying for this reason.
One is an important time node: 1895.
In 1895 (the Treaty of Maguan was signed after the Sino-Japanese War, and the land was cut off), the end of the traditional Chinese era in the history of ideas. After 1895, China had to come out of the "world" and enter the "world", that is, to enter the new international order and world pattern, so it had to redefine "China" again, what is "Asia", what is "world", what is "China"? We can't still stay in the imagination of "Tianxia", and feel that we are still the Heavenly Dynasty, or the Heavenly Heaven, or the suzerainty of the tributary system. Therefore, after 1895, "China", which was not a problem, became a "problem".
Teacher Ge believes that up to now, many Chinese scholars, studying Chinese literature, Chinese history, and Chinese philosophy, seem to have never regarded China as a natural concept, and have never felt that it needs to be redefined in history.
One is the definition of the concept of "China".
Historically, we have confused three concepts: 1. "China" centered on the Han nationality and basically identical in language, customs, and ethnicity. 2. The traditional state within the territory effectively controlled by successive dynasties is the "dynasty". 3. A "multi-ethnic state" with the legitimate territory of modern China as the space. For a long time, we have not been able to consciously distinguish between these three concepts, let alone "China", "state" and "government".
Therefore, when discussing "China", it is best to conceptually distinguish between historical China, political China and cultural China, otherwise it is difficult to deal with issues including "identity", "territory", "nationality" and "religion", and it is not clear what is Chinese culture, what Chinese culture should be revived, and what is "culture" as the basis of identity.
Over the years, Teacher Ge has written "Zhaozi China", "What is China", "Inside and Outside Of Historical China", and "Imagination of "Tianxia"", discussing "China", discussing China's "inside" and "outside", involving issues such as territory, ethnic groups, religion, country and identity.
We all know that the boundaries of nations are constantly moving, ethnic groups are often changing and merging, and national identity is sometimes a group emotion, sometimes an imagination. So some historians say that identity can sometimes build an ethnic group, and sometimes it can tear apart an ethnic group. Only by returning to history will we know how the narrow nationalism and the arrogant tianxia came about, and this should be used as a sobering medicine.
Explore the problems that "China" needs to solve and think about
Clarifying the above important nodes and concepts, Professor Ge believes that there are many issues to be considered when discussing "China":
China in the first and twentieth centuries could not have isolated itself outside of Asia and the world like a traditional empire and become a self-sufficient historical world. So, how to discuss the historical changes in modern China in the Context of Asia and the World?
How did China in the second and twentieth centuries move from a traditional empire to a modern state, and did it really become a modern "nation-state" or a "national state"?
Third, is China a special form of a country in the modern world, or for what historical reasons has it become a special form of state?
In terms of refinement, it can be summarized as the following questions:
1. Is the current "China" a traditional empire or a modern state? Or is it a special state that blends traditional empires with modern states, or a civilization disguised as a state?
2. Should this "China" become a modern state and integrate into the modern international order, or should it return to the imperial era and rebuild the "new tributary system" through the imagination of "Tianxia"?
3. How did the territory of "China" in history change and transform? Should history be traced back and forth according to the territory of modern China, or should history be written according to the territory of historical China?
4. How were the ethnic groups that historically identified with "China" and the various ethnic groups now included in "China" integrated? Can they be seen as a "Chinese nation"? If it is one, will it be accepted and recognized by all ethnic groups in China?
These questions are words and needles, and there is no need to repeat them here.
Teacher Ge said that this is the point of re-exploring the meaning of "China".
I would like to say that this is the purpose of this article and recommendation of this book.
The title of this book is "Going Backstage to See History Removing Makeup", which is The latest collection of essays by Teacher Ge Zhaoguang. The article was commissioned by Kitajima and Gan Qi, and was collected in series and produced by Movable Type Culture.
Group photo of Ge Zhaoguang and Mr. Yu Yingshi
Can't help but think back to the campus time of Princeton University, there was Hu Shi, there was Yu Yingshi (Ge's teacher and friend who chatted freely at the Puda party), there was Ge Zhaoguang... How cozy.
I asked the hero, called Ge Teacher historian? He replied in seconds: Thinker.
END
Print Culture
Achieve living thoughts