Zhou Xuanlong: Strengthen academic publishing and promote the construction of the "three major systems"

In the field of philosophy and social sciences, building a discipline system, academic system and discourse system with Chinese characteristics, Chinese style and Chinese style is an inevitable requirement for upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. Zhonghua Bookstore has gone through the process of 110 years, especially after the central government determined the professional division of labor in 1958, it has always focused on sorting out the basic classics of traditional culture and publishing academic publications related to academic works. The following is a few personal thoughts based on the academic publishing of zhonghua bookstore and the construction of the "three major systems", as well as the trend of academic publishing in the next few years.

Academic publishing lays the foundation and leads the construction of discipline system

The construction of the discipline system depends on the study of basic works and the use of basic materials. After 1979, under the guidance of the tide of the times, the Zhonghua Book Company published a large number of important classics, treatises, and many academic series and collections, such as "Basic Series of Chinese Classical Literature", "New Compilation of Sons", "Science Series", "Series of Notes on Historical Materials of Past Dynasties", etc., as well as Qian Zhongshu's "Compilation of Pipe Cones", "Tan Yilu", Fu Xuanqun's "Tang Dynasty Poets Cong Kao", Ye Jiaying's "Jialing On Poetry Series", Yu Shengwu's "Oracle Bone Character Interpretation Forest", Huang Renyu's "Fifteen Years of Wanli", Qu Tongzu's "Chinese Law and Chinese Society", Tang Changru's "Collecting The History of the Southern and Northern Dynasties of Wei and Jin", Lü Lan's "A Brief Explanation of the Origins of Chinese Buddhism", zhang Dainian's "Methodology of the History of Chinese Philosophy", etc., have achieved many classic works, played a solid foundation and leading role in the foundation construction of literature, philosophy, history and other disciplines, and also laid the basic pattern of academic publication of ancient books in the Zhonghua Bookstore in one fell swoop.

After more than 70 years since the founding of New China, especially the more than 40 years of reform and opening up, the mainland has established a preliminary and complete system of philosophy and social science disciplines. The subdivision of disciplines has made academic research more specialized and refined, and academic publishing has also adapted to this and gradually refined. Academic publishing is like a sensitive "thermometer", from its publishing results, series of books and books continue to innovate, you can clearly feel the pulse of the development and change of the discipline system: to a larger extent, the development status and prosperity of academic publishing in a country or region can reflect its academic development; to a smaller extent, a discipline has the number and level of professional academic publishing, which can roughly judge the talent team, social needs and development level of the discipline.

At present, although the discipline system of philosophy and social sciences in the mainland has its scientific nature and rationality, its subdivision of research fields is clear and distinct, and it is not in line with the concept of "literature and history are not separated from the family" in traditional Chinese culture, such as the unpopular "absolute learning" advocated by the National Social Science Foundation in recent years, it is difficult to include them. The academic publications in the mainland involve all aspects of various fields of social science, and this comprehensive feature makes it not only limited to this profession, but also aims to meet the needs of society and solve practical problems. Thus breaking the boundaries of disciplines and achieving interdisciplinary cross-integration is not only conducive to the construction of a philosophical and social science system with Chinese characteristics, but also will further optimize and improve the discipline system. For example, the digitization of ancient books by Zhonghua Bookstore has been at the forefront of the industry, and it has co-sponsored the first digital humanities academic journal "Digital Humanities" officially published by Chinese mainland with Tsinghua University, which is not only committed to the cross-integration of interdisciplinary disciplines, but also promotes the integration of science and technology and humanities, and promotes the overall leapfrog development of humanities.

Academic publishing provides a stage for academic system innovation

Scholars present academic ideas and innovate academic views through papers or works. Therefore, academic publishing has become an important carrier for scholars to express theories and present ideas, and it is also the basic premise for scholars to carry out academic discussion and exchange activities. Wenshi is a large-scale academic quarterly journal sponsored by Zhonghua Bookstore, and this year is also the 60th anniversary of its founding, which has always adhered to the purpose of "advocating practical learning and never saying anything", and has become an important publishing platform for cutting-edge papers on literature, history and philosophy.

Evaluate the quality of academic achievements and demonstrate the academic level of scholars. In the current academic publishing mechanism, the gradual improvement of the review system for humanities and social science topics, the gradual improvement of the professional academic evaluation mechanism, and the extensive application of academic norms have jointly promoted academic publishing to return to the level and quality of the manuscript itself, and then the evaluation of academic works is more fair and objective. In the ecological chain of academic publishing as the medium, scholars, readers and publishers form an academic community and work together to carry out academic innovation in interactive exchanges. It is through the continuous introduction of new academic achievements that the publishing house continues to shape and consolidate the brand image of academic publishing, while helping scholars to promote cutting-edge research in the discipline. For example, Xiong Changyun's "New Qin and Han Dynasty Weights and Measures Collection", Li Kaisheng's "Ancient Books as Cultural Relics", Li Meng's "Buddhist Beliefs and Writings of the Qi Liang Imperial Family", etc., are all in-depth explorations of the academic frontiers in related fields.

Academic publishing opens up avenues for the construction of discourse systems

Any expression contains the specific thoughts and concepts of the speaker. The modern philosophical and social science system was deeply inspired and influenced by the European, American and Soviet systems, which also created their discursive hegemony in this system. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that in interpreting China's practice and constructing China's theory, we should have the most right to speak, but in fact, the voice of mainland philosophy and social science in the international community is still relatively small, and it is still in a situation where it cannot be said and cannot be spread. Therefore, the task of building a discourse system of philosophy and social science with Chinese characteristics for dialogue and exchange on an equal footing with the international academic community is arduous and urgent. The protagonist of the construction of an equal discourse system is contemporary Chinese scholars, and academic publishing is not only a platform for publishing scholars' achievements, but also a medium for scholars to communicate international academic discussions, and an important channel for sending out China's voice. It can be said that academic publishing plays an irreplaceable role in the construction of the discourse system of philosophy and social sciences. In the current process of constructing a discourse system of philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics, academic publishing vigorously advocates high-end original academic works, vigorously promotes the "going out" strategy of Chinese academia, and provides an effective way and inexhaustible source of living water for cultural export. For example, this year, Zhonghua Bookstore has 20 academic works published in recent years, such as "The Current Spirit of Chinese Culture", "Graphic Chinese History", "Ten Lectures on the History of Chinese Color", "The Yellow River and Chinese Civilization", "The World of Qin and Han Children", "How Disease Changes Our History", "The Game of Modern Chinese and Western Medicine", etc., and has been selected into the "List of Chinese Academic Foreign Translation Projects", which will be translated into English, French, Russian, Korean, Japanese and other versions.

Looking forward to the future, the world of academic publishing is vast and promising

Looking to the future, the development of academic publishing is in the midst of rapid change, and it is not easy to make accurate predictions. Regarding domestic academic publishing, I personally think that there are the following general hot spots and trends:

First, from the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Party last year to the 20th National Congress of the Party this year; from the 80th anniversary of the victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 2025 to the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army in 2027 and the 80th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 2029, during this period of time, the study of the history and military history of the Party and the praise of the glorious history and excellent traditions of our Party and our army will form a wave of rising climax.

The second is the great practice of the new era, facing many unstable factors and challenges at home and abroad, especially the continuous spread of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, all of which have put forward new tests and new topics for society and the people, and urgently require the vast number of scholars on the mainland to integrate Marxism, China's excellent traditional culture, and excellent foreign culture, put forward solutions, build new theories, and launch a number of academic masterpieces that combine basic theoretical research with applied countermeasure research to solve major theoretical and practical problems facing the mainland.

Third, today, when the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics are in full swing, some countries are still making discordant voices. Obviously, how to display new concepts, new categories and new expressions that are easily understood and accepted by the international community, and continuously expand the world influence of Chinese theory, Chinese thought and Chinese scholarship, is an important topic for Chinese scholars. With the "Chinese Academic Foreign Translation Project", "Classic China International Publishing Project" and "Silk Road Scholars Project" as the starting point, the majority of scholars will continue to create a number of academic monographs with Chinese characteristics, containing Chinese wisdom and embodying Chinese values.

Fourth, on February 11, the Ministry of Education and other departments announced the second round of "double first-class" construction universities and construction disciplines list, some schools were selected for the first time, some disciplines were added, and some disciplines were warned or even withdrawn. It can be seen that in addition to the Lide tree people, optimizing disciplines, taking the lead in promoting the adjustment of disciplines, consolidating the construction of basic disciplines, promoting the construction of the discipline system of philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics, and promoting the cross-integration of disciplines are the important goals of this round of construction. In the next few years, these disciplines will receive unprecedented support in terms of financial support, talent introduction, and achievement research and development, and will also produce a large number of collaborative and innovative academic achievements.

Fifth, with the gradual liberalization of Chinese and foreign libraries in recent years, the majority of scholars will have access to a large amount of academic literature, and at the same time increase the trouble and cost of retrieval for the huge amount of information. Therefore, while doing a good job in traditional publishing business, publishing houses have carried out business in scientific research processes such as academic search engines, literature databases, editing and processing technologies and personalized customization. Some publishing houses also realize technological integration through independent development of technology or cooperation with others, optimize and upgrade their products, and provide personalized customized services for scholars' content production, editing and publishing.

The "Resolution of the CPC Central Committee on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party's Century-Old Struggle" deliberated and adopted by the Sixth Plenary Session of the Nineteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China emphasizes that China's excellent traditional culture is the outstanding advantage of the Chinese nation and the foundation for us to stand firm in the turmoil of world culture. As an important publishing town of China's excellent traditional culture, Zhonghua Bookstore has been committed to the transformation of academic expression to the public for many years while publishing traditional culture academically. Backed by tradition, facing the future; relying on scholarship, facing the public; based on China, facing the world. In the construction of a discourse system with Chinese characteristics, Chinese style and Chinese style, Zhonghua Bookstore has a natural advantage and will certainly make more breakthroughs.

(The author is the editor-in-chief of Zhonghua Bookstore and the editor-in-chief of Literature and History Knowledge)

Editor: Chen Xuanyu