Li Dazhao (李大钊) (29 October 1889 – 28 April 1927) was a native of Laoting County, Hebei Province. He was a pioneer and the earliest Marxist of the Chinese communist movement and one of the main founders of the Communist Party of China. In 1916, he became the editor-in-chief of the Beijing Morning Bell Newspaper. In 1917, he became the editor of the daily magazine Jiayin. At the end of 1917, he joined Peking University as the director of the library, participated in the editing of "New Youth", and served as a professor of economics and history at Peking University. He participated in the founding of the Weekly Review, participated in the preparation of the Communist Party of China, and served as a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Arrested in 1927, he was heroic. After the October Socialist Revolution, he took the lead in accepting and disseminating Marxism, and published famous papers such as "Comparative View of the Franco-Russian Revolution" and "The Victory of the Common People".
Whatever is a kind of learning, or a kind of knowledge, must be useful in life, it is real learning, real knowledge; otherwise it cannot be said that it is learning, or knowledge. Historiography is the study of the culture of human life and its products, and nature is closely related to life; historiography can become a kind of learning, a kind of knowledge, and nature must also be useful in life. In my opinion, the study of modern historiography and the attitude towards life have a great influence. First, historiography can temper our attitude toward science. The so-called scientific attitude has two main points: one is to respect doubts, and the other is to be based on evidence. Historians have taken these two as valuable tenets. Whenever a material is encountered, it is necessary to doubt him, criticize him, choose him, and find his solid evidence; only when there is solid evidence can such facts be believed; only by compiling records on the basis of the facts of which there is evidence, and the reasoning explained, can be considered relatively close to the truth and more credible. All learners seek truth, and history is especially true. This kind of truth-seeking attitude, gradually stained by the cultivation and penetrating deep into people's hearts, can create a serious habit, and everything must be done in a down-to-earth manner. Historiography is influenced by attitudes towards life, and its power is similar to this. Therefore, there is a group of scholars who say that the study of historiography is becoming more and more serious, which is a sign that the human spirit is gradually aging. In their intellectual adolescence, the world is novel to them, and it is enough to dazzle them with the eye, so that they do not have the interest of enthusiastically studying the past of the world. Life is an adventure for them, the world is a place of adventure for them, they do not pay much attention to what has been done in the world, but to those things that can be done by human beings in the future. In order to please them, history seems to be made into a legendary novel to burn their imagination; it is not necessary to make a philosophical appearance to enlighten their wisdom. Such a youthful spirit of striving forward to welcome the future is indeed enough to make people active and soar, but if they only manage to be active and only take off, and do not pay attention to whether the place on which they are based is real or not, then their future attempts are empty pens and dreams. Ben seeks to go far and high, and the end is trapped in the empty realm, and cannot take a step on the ground. This is not the case with the old spirit of training and awakening, who know very well that the world has given us the opportunity, and there must be some restrictions lurking under this opportunity to accompany it. These are the limitations that we must understand, and sometimes must yield. Therefore, they are very enthusiastic to study the past, to interpret life, in order to gain a philosophical wisdom, to illuminate the path of life, to sympathize with what human beings have done and to live a reasonable life in the possible realm.
Essentials of Historiography, Li Dazhao, Beijing Publishing House, July 2016.
The study of historiography, i.e., so expanded their sympathy for the past and promoted their rational life. The prevalence of the interest of studying history is a sign of an age that is growing and maturing, seeking a wise and exciting view of life. This old-fashioned intellect, and the spirit of courageous adventure, not only has not been discouraged, but has been enhanced, and it is possible to find a new world for them to experiment with. The new world that stands in the world of the past, the new world that is found, is real, and can be achieved in a down-to-earth manner; the new world that dreams of seeing in the future is virtual and false, and can only be described in "Utopia" and "The Land of Nothingness". The past period of history is just like a high-rise building built in the world of life" at "time", and the layer by layer display of the family treasures and national treasures that we humans have handed down from generation to generation. This high-rise building, only when it grows mature and tramples on the ground can it rise up the ladder and see all the levels it passes through and the treasures it has displayed; then it will go up to the top, climb the building and look around, the infinite future vision, the endless view of life, and can be compared and clearly overlooked. In this situation, we can recognize the main road forward in life. The higher we climb this lofty building of the past, the clearer we can understand the future of life and its path. The infinite future world can only be seen clearly on the top of the lofty building in the past; the infinite past lofty building can only be climbed by the old and trained to be solid and enterprising. Everything in the past is material for our use. Our future is created by the materials of the past and the labor of the present. This is the scientific attitude that modern historiography gives us. This scientific attitude has resulted in our down-to-earth outlook on life. In the former era when historiography was not developed, people only looked for history in the records of the past, thinking that history was only the deeds of the past. Modern historiography tells us that living history is not a record of these pasts. The history of life is indeed the life of all mankind in the past, present, and future. The past, the present, and the future are all on the line. The historical life of this line of time is a journey, a journey, a forward, and does not allow us to linger and examine. The approach of history, even though it sometimes flourishes and declines, decays and flourishes in a spiraling motion, but it is also cyclically advancing, rising, not cyclically stagnant, nor cyclically reversing and receding, thus giving us a progressive world outlook. Since we believe that the world is progressive and history is progressive, we should not be pessimistic and in history, that is, we should not be pessimistic, we should not worship the ancients, but we should only walk forward happily on this great road that allows us to travel, and the future has our bright future, and there will be our golden world in the future. This is the optimistic view of life that modern historiography gives us. The old history recognized that history was created by God and destined for heaven, that the saints who were born were blessed with good fortune, and that the heavenly heroes were in chaos. In accordance with the history compiled by this view of history, all the privileged classes such as the emperor and prince, Bo Shiju, were placed under the protection of the divine power, so that the ordinary people could not resist, or dare to resent, no matter how miserable the suffering they suffered, whether they were tyrannical, whether they were usurped, whether they were burned, or who plundered, and who could not resist, but also did not dare to resent, "the sins of the subjects should be cursed, and the heavenly kings were holy", no matter how miserable they suffered, they could only be grateful, they could only praise virtue, and they could only issue a lament of "Hao Tian does not hang", "I am not born". In this kind of history, all that can be found is some Gods, Emperors, Saints, kings, who will never find ourselves. This kind of history has completely eliminated people's personalities into a state of insensitivity, and only honestly listened to people to be slaughtered. The new view of history and the history compiled in line with the new view of history are not the same, he taught our people to be the motive of social life, not the gods of "Hehe" and "Huangyi", not the sages of "Tianqi" and "Tianzhong", but the survival of society itself. The discovery of an intellect, the invention of technology, and even the practicalization of an invention are the result of the labor of everyone in a society like ours. This progress of life technology has changed the whole life of society and improved the stage of history. This view of history leads us to discover our world and ourselves in history, to make us conscious of our own authority, to know that the history of the past was created by people like us, and that the present and even future history will remain so. That is to say, when we browse the history of the multiplication, we read that the hero Haojie sacrificed his life for the country and the nation as a sacrifice, and can also recognize that the so-called heroes of this class of so-called heroes and so-called Haojie are not any different from ordinary people, but they feel that the requirements of this society are sharper, and the emotions of wanting to meet the requirements of this society are warmer, so they stand up and dedicate themselves to society, leaving behind tragedies and magnificent dramas that can be sung and wept in history. We who read history in later generations do not feel that the feeling of excitement arose, and naturally a kind of admiration occurred, which aroused the emotion of "those who have done things are also", and the determination to be the pioneer of society has also spontaneously arisen. This is the emotion that the Shun people and people have aroused from the study of historiography. Naturally, along with the benefits of historical research, there are also some drawbacks that affect our mentality. For example, those who govern historiography are often hesitant to examine things when they encounter things, and they are often bound by trivialities and trivialities, and they cannot reach the great and far away, which cannot but be said to be the drawbacks that occur with the study of historiography. But if one peeks into the path of philosophy, such evils can be attained with philosophical knowledge, and a little attention can be avoided. I believe that there is our life in history, our world, and ourselves, so I use this pamphlet to publicize history, to incite our people's interest in the study of history, and to incite our people to seek life, to find the world, and to find their own interest in history.