"Walking In China" and watching the movements of the past century
This article totals 2931 words | Estimated reading time is 9 minutes
Since Hegel, traditional China has long been seen by Eurocentrists as a "stagnant empire."
Decades after this concept emerged, the Chinese people finally realized that China is facing unprecedented and profound changes. In the eleventh year of Qing Tongzhi (1872 AD), Li Hongzhang said in "Reconsideration of the Manufacture of Steamships That Cannot Be Abolished": "The vassals have only stolen the European countries, and for a hundred years, from India to Nanyang, from Nanyang to China, broke into the hinterland of the border. My emperor is like the degree of heaven, and he has made a covenant to trade, so as to cage it, and to unite the ninety thousand miles away from the east, west, south, and south of the earth, and gather in China, and this three-thousand-year great change is also a major change. ”
In the first year of Guangxu (1875 AD), Li Shi also said in "Planning for Coastal Defense Folding Because of the Taiwan Incident": "The border has been prepared for generations, mostly in the northwest. Its strength and weakness, the shape of the subject and the guest, are all suitable for each other, and there is still a boundary between China and foreign countries. Today, for more than 10,000 miles in the southeastern sea, countries trade and preach, travel freely, gather the capital and the hinterland of the provinces, the name of Yangtuo and good, the plan of devouring the yin, the troubles of one country, and the incitement of several countries, which is a change that has not been seen in thousands of years. ”
Li Hongzhang's understanding of the world and China has been said on many occasions. At that time, China suddenly fell from the world of "the whole world, can not be the royal land; the coast of the land, can not be the king's subject", quickly fell into the world of five oceans, four continents, and even just a backward big country in eastern Asia.
This great change, which has not occurred in thousands of years, is the modernization and modernization led by the industrial revolution, and the modernization and modernization process of China's transformation from a traditional society to a modern society is still in progress.
In the past hundred years, some Chinese and foreign people have walked in the ancient and changing land of China. Among the walkers were foreign missionaries, diplomats, and explorers, as well as Chinese literati, scholars, scientists, merchants, soldiers, and even housewives. Their travelogues, notes, expedition reports, expedition records, etc., witnessed and recorded their own walking experiences and the process of Modernization and Modernization in China. Although the people who wrote these words at that time had different identities and different purposes, each work recorded the author's personal observations and experiences, as well as their thoughts and personality characteristics. The different works are put together to show the customs and social outlook of various parts of China in horizontal space, while in the vertical time, they show the details and general trends of China's social changes in different historical periods. In their pen, China is no longer an old memory in the old paper pile, but a realistic scene unfolding vividly.
Restoring history to the scene and actual life is probably the greatest desire of everyone who wants to understand history.
We see a kind of living Chinese history from the walks and experiences of these authors in China, which is obviously different from the static Chinese history recorded in the past and documents such as official archives, and the richness of life, the difference in perspective, and the pluralism of society are also in it.
The "understanding of sympathy" advocated by the German scholar Herder, as a historical research method, is the most deeply and best used among Chinese scholars such as Chen Yinke. Nowadays, we read, feel and study the various works of these Chinese and foreign authors as historical texts, and experience their walking, seeing and thinking on this land through these texts, which is also a practice of "sympathetic understanding". Today's people can feel the Chinese society experienced by these authors, so as to observe and understand the hardships and experiences of China's modernization and modernization process more concretely and deeply.
Looking at China in the context of the overall world pattern, this history of more than a hundred years is roughly a process of shaking and faltering to the world and to modernity. Only by looking at the past can we understand the present and the future, but due to factors such as past concepts, methods, habits and experiences, intentionally or unintentionally obscure and shape our understanding and interpretation of this period of history, therefore, this set of large-scale series of "Walking China" is looking back at the movements of China in the past century, and is experiencing the experience of "I see people and see me", and its essence is to move forward and move towards the eternal future.
The green mountains can't cover it, after all, it flows east. Although the torrent of history and the tide of the times may be delayed, it cannot be blocked forever.
Sima Xiangru once said, "There must be extraordinary people in the world, and then there will be extraordinary things; there will be extraordinary things, and then there will be extraordinary merits." Extraordinary, fixed ordinary people are different. ”
Li Hongzhang said: "In a strange situation that has not existed for thousands of years, we should build a miracle that has not existed for thousands of years." ”
The time difference between these two sentences is two thousand years, but they express the same kind of voice, which is copied here as our expectations for the country and the times.
Zhang Changshan, a professor, is mainly engaged in academic research in the fields of archival science and history. He has presided over the research work of a number of national, provincial and ministerial projects. He has served as the chief editor of many large-scale book series such as "Yunnan Wenku Dawen Series", "Walking China Series", "Dianyun Eight-Year Book Series and Old Periodicals Wencong", and has written a lot of books.
The more than 100 years from the middle of the 19th century to the founding of New China in 1949 were an era of increasing decay and decay of China's feudal society, the division of China by foreign powers, the establishment of the Republic of China, and the sharp turmoil in Chinese society. In the context of this era, first of all, many foreign explorers, missionaries, scholars, merchants, etc. poured into China to carry out various types of investigations and expeditions, their respective activities are different, their purposes are different, the methods are different, and a number of expedition reports, expedition records, related travelogues and notes have been created.
Among them, a considerable number of reports and travelogues are the first-hand materials for the field records and field measurements at that time, especially the ancient cultural relics that have been lost in the dust of history. The description and recording of social features, folk customs, historical geography and major historical events at that time are more and more precious today, not only a window for people to understand China's modern history and carry out patriotic education, but also have important value for related discipline research.
For a long time, these related works have been difficult to find because they are deeply stored in domestic and foreign libraries, or because they involve a variety of foreign languages, they are not easy for people to read, they are difficult for researchers to use, and they cannot enter the reading horizons of the majority of readers. Therefore, we have launched this large series of books to make up for this shortcoming, so that more readers can use this historical material to create conditions.
The "Walking China Series" has been published in the bibliography
The Silk Road : Gods, Sergeants and Merchants
Beijing to Mandalay : A Journey from Tibetan Areas of Sichuan and Yunnan
"Flat Boat Crossing the Three Gorges"
The Chronicle of China in 1907
"Yunnan Travelogue - From Tokyo Bay to India"
Circumnavigation of the World on the Tip of the Pen (1857-1860)
Crossing Krisse – From Guangzhou to Mandalay
"Roaming the South of Caiyun and Crossing the Surprising Journey through Yunnan"
Travels from St. Petersburg to Beijing (1719-1722)
"Didang Valley: The Yunnan-Vietnam Railway Experienced by a Zurich Engineer from 1903 to 1910"
"The Origin of Blue Flower and Green Velvet Artemisia: The Northwest Yunnan and Chuankang Jixing of British Naturalists in the Late Qing Dynasty"
"The Past of Borderlands - Touching the Old Time of Pu'er"
"Hunting Trail of Yunnan and Fujian"
Adventures in the West
"Walking China Series"
In 2022, the Yunnan edition of fine publishing projects into the warehouse project
Books that can be purchased are subject to actual inventory
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Producer: New Media Design Center of Yunnan People's Publishing House
Editors: Zhang Yihun, Li Shuang, Zhang Liyuan
Preliminary: Zhang Yihun Re-examination: Ma Bin Final: Duan Xingmin
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