Caption Photo / Zhu Xuan
Many historians claim to study "history for history's sake," which in fact cannot be done. Historical research without seeking meaning and value has no meaning and value. Historical materials provide an important basis for historical research, but history is not historical in any sense, just as no bricks and tiles can not build a house, but bricks and tiles are not houses, and houses provide new meaning and value because of their function. As the British historian E.H. Carr wrote in What is History? "History is an endless dialogue between the present and the past." "In a particular historical context, the historian's attempt to make his research provide society with what meaning and value must have a strong interaction with that era." At present, on the one hand, the threshold for professional research in historiography is getting higher and higher, and even scholars have reflected and criticized the fragmentation of academic research; on the other hand, society's expectations for history to provide experience and guidance are also getting higher and higher. In the face of this situation, it is very necessary and beneficial for us to once again ask and think about what the function of historiography is, and what kind of meaning and value can be provided to society today.
Historians with a sense of social responsibility have never stopped thinking and writing like this. Mr. Yu Yunguo, a senior historian whom the author respects, has been thinking unremittingly about this question, and has been working tirelessly in his ancient years to try to give his answer to this question. "Learning History of Samadhi" is the latest collection of Mr. Yu's thinking. Although this book is composed of many critical articles and is not a systematic work, the criteria and organizational structure are very rigorous. According to Mr. Yu's own account, the whole book is divided into three major sections: the first part, "Learning History enlightenment", is a group of articles on historical views and historical methodologies. In fact, this group of articles is Mr. Yu's thinking and accumulation in the professional field as a professional historian. The second part, "Critique of Heritage", focuses on the critique of the traditional authoritarian system in Chinese history, and the content is very rich, from the pre-Qin to the Republic of China, with both abstract theory reflection and criticism of specific phenomena. The third part, "Also History", is Mr. Yu's feelings and reflections on the major social events he has experienced over the past few decades. I think these three parts can actually be reduced to two themes, one process. The first and third parts reflect the same theme, that is, whether it is the accumulation of academic ideas or the participation of real life, they belong to Mr. Yu's own history; the second part is an independent theme, that is, Mr. Yu's understanding and criticism of history. Together, these two themes constitute a process, the interaction of history and reality. The starting point and destination of Mr. Yu's study of history are actually concerned about reality, and at the same time, he will feed back the feelings obtained from historical research into the observation and thinking of reality, and in Mr. Yu's decades of academic career, reality and history have never been separated.
Mr. Yu was the first college student after the resumption of the college entrance examination in 1977. Because of the difficult setbacks of the special era, Mr. Yu was close to standing when he entered the university. The pain of that generation in that special era, the anxiety of both material and spiritual deprivation, is something that we cannot fully understand in the generation we grew up with. Therefore, after entering the university, it is a common phenomenon of Scholars of Mr. Yu's generation to forget to sleep and forget to eat in order to explore the truth. Mr. Yu said that he originally liked classical literature, but after experiencing the pain of the "Cultural Revolution", he deeply realized how important it was to reflect on Chinese history in depth, and resolutely decided to change the history department.
The "Study history of samadhi" includes an article entitled "Why I Studied the Song Dynasty Taiwan Counseling System". In Mr. Yu's view, an important reason for political turmoil and social disasters is the lack of effective institutional constraint mechanisms in traditional Chinese politics. Proceeding from this awareness, Mr. Yu completed his first masterpiece, "Research on the Taiwan Counseling System in the Song Dynasty". In Mr. Yu's own words, through this research, realistic care has shifted to the cornerstone of rational reflection. Because it is based on realistic care as the starting point, Mr. Yu's historical research does not fall in love with what he studies like some scholars, but uses cold brushstrokes to reveal to the reader that in Chinese history, although the political atmosphere of the Song Dynasty is more enlightened than other dynasties, after all, the Taizhi is a caged bird of imperial power, and it does not fly high or fly far. What Mr. Yu thought about was what laws should be followed on the road of power constraint in modern China. It is no wonder that Mr. Wang Jiafan said in the preface to the "Study of the Song Dynasty's Taiwan Counseling System" that Mr. Yu "wants to use historiography to support righteousness."
The preface to "Studying the History of Samadhi" is titled "The Right to Defend History", and Mr. Yu said that history is not only the history of the big people, but also the history of each of our little people. History affects us, and our actions shape history. Although in the long river of history, each of us is a humble dust, we should still cherish the right to participate in history, and in the same way, each of us has the right to record and write history, which is an inalienable right. In this single preface, the conscience of a historian is laid out openly. This is the significance and value of historical research that Mr. Yu, as a historian, tries to convey to the public. No historian can be external to a specific value pursuit, the difference is only in the way of interpreting and processing historical materials is straight or curved, and the final conclusion is to cover up the absurdity of themselves and the world, or to face up to their own shortcomings and the world.
(The author is an associate professor at the Department of History, Fudan University)
《History of Learning》
Written by Yu Yunguo
Fudan University Press