"The process of academic history depends mainly on the paper work of scholars, and their achievements are roughly based on the number of writings and the insights in them. This point is certainly beyond reproach, but it is somewhat unreasonable to ignore Zhang Yuanji, who is lighter than his writings and more important than his career. These are the first two sentences of the book "Zhang Yuanji Commentary" written by Professor Ronghua. The words are very common. However, reading it after Mr. Yu returned to Daoshan made people ponder.
The focus of his life's reading and teaching is precisely academic history (of course, the strong score also includes the history of history and cultural history). His understanding of scholarship, which is rarely entrusted to empty words, is often revealed in his own practice. He has observed and criticized many phenomena such as forgetting and distortion in academic historical writing (and historical research). For example, scholars in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China often discussed the origin of Confucianism, and later scholars paid more attention to the expositions of Liu Shipei, Zhang Taiyan, Hu Shi and others when sorting out this topic, which was often inferior to the rest. He specially wrote an article about Xu Dishan's article "Primitive Confucianism, Confucianism, and Confucianism", which was not popular but can correct stereotypes, and said that "the logic of officialdom that people speak lightly is not applicable to academic research" (this article was recently selected from his relics and has not been published before). Later, when commenting on another topic, he further pointed out that "in history, things that have no name are often attached to reality because they are named, and those that have real but no name are ignored, although they are not"; He also quoted Bentham's creationist theory that "language can fictionalize reality or facts", and Hobbes's "ruling technique of the state apparatus that abuses words and clever names to make the people believe in reality" to warn of the evil consequences of distorting historical writing.
These lessons have been translated into his own academic practice, that is, ink is like gold, not seeking the name of the text, but only asking for knowledge. Perhaps, in the opinion of the gentleman, the things of learning, read, thought, and laughed, are enough. He is a solitary and calm scholar who rarely participates in academic activities; However, he was not isolated from academia, but was sensitive to the worldly style, sometimes showing debatable points in the writings of famous masters in class, and sometimes writing articles criticizing crude works. He has said several times that when reading books, we should read more old books, and that research should not be deliberately fashionable, and all remind disciples to devote their efforts to basic literature and classic treatises, so as to cultivate a solid foundation of learning.
One of the typical ways to practice this academic ideal is to immerse himself in the manuscripts of scholars. Sometimes it takes only one day or two to read through one article, and my husband is also very happy with it. He also led his disciples to read manuscripts to achieve multi-level training in words, literature, famous objects, and doctrine. In one class, the disciple inadvertently said that reading the manuscript of Qian Chongshu was "eye-catching", and Mr. Cheng told him that it was "eye-catching".
"Eye-catching" is precisely the portrayal of Mr. Chen's academic quality. He did not want to be a member of the academic production assembly line, but just read quietly, and then cultivated eye-catching works. Bingyuanshi used the words of Confucius to evaluate Mr. as "Madame does not speak, words must be in the middle". Believe it!
Early in his academic career, he focused on cultural studies and wrote articles such as "The Historical Fate of Utilitarianism in China". The thinking involving cultural studies and the understanding of practical issues reflect the special academic atmosphere of that era. In the 90s, he participated in the compilation of many collections, especially "Synopsis of Chinese Academic Masterpieces and History Volumes" and "Kang Youwei's Complete Works". This is directly related to the academic resources and intellectual history research tradition of Fudan historiography. At the same time, he successively published research results on Yan Fu, Zhang Yuanji, Kang Youwei and others (including his only monograph "Zhang Yuanji Commentary"), entering a mature period of scholarship. In the first few years of this century, he did not publish much, and after a few years, he suddenly came out with the article "Zhang Taiyan and Zhang Xuecheng", which deeply impressed readers; Immediately, the masterpiece "The Complete Works of Kang Youwei" was published. In the last ten years of his life, he continued to pay attention to the search for Kang Youwei's literature, and compiled the "Collection of Kang Youwei's Correspondence"; Most of the time, he was reading the manuscripts of famous artists such as Qian Xuantong and Qian Chongshu. Under the "mobilization" of the students, he has successively published more than ten lively and well-educated works in media such as "Book City" and "The Paper". Among them, the interpretation of cultural phenomena such as "Shijun wants to consult but does not want Chen", "Zhongxing", "Wu Zixu Shen Bao Xu died and Chu Fuchu" and other cultural phenomena can be described as the realm of talking about art management cones.
Professor Zhang Ronghua
There are not many words left by Mr. Wang, but they are worth three times. The three sets of relationships that frequently appear in Mr. Chen's article are exemplified.
The first is the relationship between different cultural subjects in cultural studies. In the previous article on utilitarianism, he refuted the specious view that non-utilitarianism is a characteristic of traditional Chinese culture. The basic premise of his thesis is to reject the practice of previous theorists to derive the overall characteristics of traditional Chinese culture from the theory of heavy meaning and inferiority of a few thinkers. In his view, when discussing the overall characteristics of a society and culture, it is necessary to pay attention to at least the differences between the two main constituent factors, ideology and social psychology. Social psychology arises from people's social experience and is expressed through emotions, fashions, habits, etc., "without social psychology, it is impossible to obtain a tangible understanding and recognition of the multiplicity of complex social history and cultural connotations, and it is impossible to define the overall characteristics of social culture." Four years later, he advised the Collected Journal of Chinese Cultural Studies, which had been in existence for seven years and had been instrumental in the cultural research boom at the time, that it should pay attention to "the study of the relationship between upper culture (i.e., the ideology of the ruling class as Marx put it) and folk culture (i.e., mass culture)."
This is not a slogan for a joke, but a topic that Mr. continues to think about. More than ten years later, he published an article entitled "The Relationship between Large and Small Traditions in the Study of Cultural History". This paper summarizes some important studies on the relationship between large and small traditions in Western academia, and divides them into six categories: dominance theory, gap theory, challenge theory, revision theory, appropriation theory and source flow theory. He argues that there are sharing and compromises between large and small traditions, but researchers cannot go to the other extreme and ignore the juxtaposition and separate historical existence of the two, "especially noting that in the process of history, the transformation of small traditions has a class character, and the ruling class always tries to transform small traditions according to its own cultural values, or even to turn small traditions into creations of the ruling class, which undoubtedly indirectly reflects the outline of the opposition between the two traditions." The large and small traditions are not balanced in terms of discourse system and historical data retention, so he is more concerned with the problem of how to write about small traditions, that is, "identifying and expressing the authenticity of small traditions". In particular, we should avoid the method of "focusing on the value standards or interesting categories of large traditions, selectively highlighting, explaining or modeling the content of various small traditions, so as to demonstrate the coherence or integration characteristics between large and small traditions". He also cautioned to distinguish between popular culture, which "rises from the bottom and is a true expression of the voice of the people," and mass culture, which "descends from above, as a type of social control or an instrument of political domination." And in Mr. Chen's article many years ago, folk culture is mixed with popular culture.
The second is the relationship between politics and academia. The discussion of this relationship constitutes a main axis in Mr. Smith's article, either implicit or explicit. In the nineties, the "public sphere" and the relationship between the state and society behind it were a hotly debated topic in Chinese academia, and the academic circles were inconclusive about whether there was a "public sphere" in modern China and whether it could introduce this concept to study modern Chinese history. He affirmed this, and in writing a biography of Zhang Yuanji, he praised Zhang as "an example of modern China's commitment to the 'public sphere'". He believes that Zhang Yuanji's greatest contribution to academia is not to compile textbooks, compile reference books, organize ancient books and introduce Western studies, but through the operation of the Commercial Press, "tirelessly build a solid foundation for safeguarding the independent ideal and independent spirit of academic culture".
The entries he wrote for the Synopsis of Chinese Academic Masterpieces and History Volume (38 in the 1994 edition, with several additions or revisions in the 2019 bound edition) are not limited by the ordinary examples of reference books, but focus on evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of a historical work from the perspective of the relationship between politics and historiography. Taking the three basic documents of the history of the Ming Dynasty as an example, Mr. Xiu revealed in detail and explicitly criticized the shortcomings of the official history books (similar evaluations also appear in entries such as "Qingshilu" and "Donghualu"). In response to the historical book "Ming Shilu" by the official revision of the dynasty, Mr. Ming cited the example of the three revisions of the "Taizu Shilu", pointing out the hidden points. "The first time Fang Xiaoxiao presided over the revision of the text, after Ming Chengzu seized the throne, he ordered it to be rebuilt because of its own disadvantages; Later, because the supervisor Li Jinglong and others were convicted, there were three cultivators such as Yao Guangxiao and Xia Yuanji. The purpose is to dismiss 'those who hinder the Yan'. Even so, the historical value of the "Ming Shilu" is still higher than that of the "Ming History". The "History of Ming" has been quite erroneous because "many hands have written and been revised for a long time", but its "real flaw lies in the deliberate concealment of historical facts". "For example, the ancestor of the Qing Dynasty, the Jurchen Department, entered the dynasty in the Ming Dynasty, paid tribute, attacked and re-awarded, and other activities, all of which are clear evidence that they were ministers of the Ming Dynasty after the Qing Dynasty. In order to show that their ancestors had never submitted to the Ming Dynasty, the Qing rulers did not hesitate to delete all the history of their ancestors for 300 years. "The activities of the Southern Ming imperial courts after the Qing Dynasty were also historical facts that were deliberately submerged in the book. The twenty-year history of the Southern Ming from the Hongguang Dynasty, the Longwu Dynasty, the Shaowu Dynasty, the Yongli Dynasty to the Kingdom of King Lu, the "History of Ming" is concealed, does not recognize the Southern Ming Emperor, but outlines its events in the biography of the kings. "In contrast, Mr. Wang's evaluation of the private author of "Guojie" is much more polite." The "Guoyu" is based on the actual record and does not blindly follow, and can directly state the historical facts hidden by the Ming Shi record or concealed by the Qing rulers, and does not hide it. "Since the publication of the "History of Ming", the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties and the founding of the prefecture and the Southern Ming has become a forbidden area, so it is the historical facts of the Wanli Later Ming and Later Jin contained in the book, which are beyond the reach of his book, and the historical value is very high." As for the shortcomings of "Guoqi", "it is mainly manifested in the fact that the narrative is too brief, and there are inconsistencies in the narrative, which is not in place; The superstitious overtones of the book are also more obvious", "but compared with the achievements of the whole book, these deficiencies are secondary after all".
Reflections on this relationship also run through his scholar case studies in the second half of his academic career. The article "Zhang Taiyan and Zhang Xuecheng" reveals that one of the academic topics that Zhang Taiyan focused on after his eastern crossing to Japan in 1906 was "how Chinese academia can develop without official constraints", and then in the article "Original Classic", Zhang Xuecheng was greatly criticized for "the history of the six classics". Mr. Zhang pointed out, "Zhang Xuecheng believes that the way of the world lies in the political canon of the previous kings, and the Six Classics, as the carrier or instrument of the political canon, are synonymous with 'history', thus incorporating historiography into the scope of official studies, and stipulating that the mission of historiography is to provide historical facts for the legitimacy of political rule." Zhang Xuecheng's emphasis on Fang Zhi's revision was also keenly seen by Zhang Taiyan as the intention of practicing the "unity of official and teacher, rule and education"; Zhang Xuecheng's exposition of Shi De is even more to teach people to cultivate the "heart technique" of respecting the monarch and guarding the way. The article "Kang Youwei's "Confucius Reform Examination" into the Ideological Purpose of the Submission" continues the previous meaning. Like Zhang Taiyan, Kang Youwei had a negative attitude towards the ideal of "the unity of governance and education, and the indifference of officials and teachers" in the "General Meaning of Literature and History"; However, unlike Zhang Taiyan's theory of "political education", Kang Youwei did not break the concept of the unity of politics and religion. "The praise and disapproval of the images of the Duke of Zhou and Confucius in the Reform Examination, as well as the thesis that 'Taoism is in power' scattered throughout the volumes, clearly show a courageous character and progressive spirit that defies political authority; however, the destination of his ideas is still to return to the ideal social and political structure of the Confucian tradition of 'unity of governance and religion.'" He reluctantly wrote that in the historical process since the end of the Qing Dynasty, the influence of Kang Youwei's theory of "parallel chi" is far greater than Zhang Taiyan's theory of "right situation". In his notebook reading Qian Xuantong's manuscript, he also wrote a special article on "How to Schedule Classes in Universities", focusing on Qian's "conscious implementation of the educational philosophy of freedom of thought, promotion of cultural revolution, and avoidance of ideological preaching" in the choice of curriculum.
The third is the teacher-student relationship in the interaction between scholars. He discussed academic history, focusing on the formation and transmutation of academic ideas from the perspective of literati interactions. When he lectured on the concept of Wulun and its modern changes in class, he said that most of the academic history of recent times involves the relationship between teachers and students. It is worth careful consideration of many mentors and friends, such as Huang Zongxi-Lv Liuliang, Kang Youwei-Liang Qichao, Luo Zhenyu-Wang Guowei, etc., and a different kind of academic intellectual history can be written by making friends or breaking off friendships. Unfortunately, his husband died early and this work was never seen in the world. However, he has left several wonderful cases in his published text, which is comforting.
Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, a pair of teachers and students, successively led the atmosphere of ideological and public opinion circles in the late Qing Dynasty and early People's Dynasty, and the academic circles discussed the differences between the two very well, often explaining the replacement of the old and the new, and "condensed liquid". Starting from the infighting in Zhenhua Company, a key incident in the failure of the royalist society's overseas business activities, he examined the attitude and actions of Kang Liang and the two people before and after the incident, indicating that one of the major factors of the differences between the two was their different views on industrial salvation. In the midst of the Zhenhua infighting incident and the overseas business activities of the Loyalists, Liang Qichao and Kang Youwei were generally in a state of non-cooperation (even "serious differences"). The preparation for the establishment of Guangxi Zhenhua Company, which prompted the intensification of internal strife in Zhenhua Company, was originally a concrete practice of Kang Youwei's viewpoint of "Material Salvation Theory". In Kang Youwei's eyes, material construction is "the most urgent way to save the country"; However, Liang Qichao disagreed with this, saying that the revitalization of industry must be based on the establishment of a constitutional political system, the cultivation of national morality, the preparation of the necessary organs, and the ability to enter national enterprises. He further believes that Kang Liang's differences "are essentially their different thinking and views on the issue of China's transformation, and their different choices on the path of modernization", "reflecting the differentiation and transformation within the group of intellectuals engaged in social practice, reflecting their different understandings of the historical mission they shoulder, the intellectual value they possess, and the destiny of the nation to which they belong."
He discussed Zhang Taiyan's evaluation of Zhang Xuecheng's theory that "the Six Classics are History", and also noted that the different understandings of Tan Xianzhang Taiyan's teachers and students of the "General Meaning of Literature and History" are actually a key factor affecting the relationship between the two. He believes that Tan Xian's deep admiration and high evaluation of Zhang Xuecheng are unparalleled among the late Qing scholars. "Tan Xian's understanding and interpretation of Zhang Xuecheng's theory of 'the Six Classics are History' mainly highlights that the inner spirit of Zhang's proposition is to mark the purpose of 'the unity of officials, teachers, governance and education', and respects this purpose as 'the theory of immortality' and 'teacher's theory', believing that this purpose can 'penetrate into the reason of the writings' and can penetrate the 'origin of the six arts'." And this is precisely the point that Zhang Taiyan's "Original Classic" article focuses on refuting. In the article "Someone and a Certain Sovereign on the Study of the Essence of the State" not long before writing the Original Classic, Zhang Taiyan had publicly criticized Tan Xian and refused to call the latter a teacher and call him by his first name. Zhang's move attracted Qian Chongshu's rebuke, saying that Zhang Taiyan easily erased the friendship between his former master and disciple and was a traitor who respected life and death. In his opinion, Zhang Taiyan's dissatisfaction with Tan Xian is a matter of great importance, and Qian Chongshu's criticism of Zhang is inappropriate.
The interpretation of the relationship between Zhang Taiyan and Qian Xuantong is the most subtle page of Mr. Chen's discussion of academic history from the teacher-student relationship (the article was first titled "Qian Xuantong and Zhang Taiyan Lecture in the North", published in "Book City" magazine in 2010; In 2014, the title was changed to "The Factor of Teacher Inheritance in Qian Xuantong's Thought", which was included as a "representative introduction" in the book "Wenku Qian Xuantong Volume of Modern Chinese Thinkers", with two more paragraphs at the beginning of the article). Qian Xuantong followed Zhang Taiyan in his early years to learn elementary school and the study of scripture and history, and there were significant differences in political and academic views with Zhang Taiyan during the New Culture Movement and later with Zhang Taiyan. However, Qian did not have the act of "Xie Benshi " like Zhou Zuoren, nor did he have expressions such as Lu Xun's "if the teacher is ridiculous, you might as well betray him", but from Zhang Taiyan's experience of lecturing in the north and the interaction between the two in his later years, "it can be seen that his respect for the teacher has become more and more sincere". Previous commentators either explained the spiritual inheritance of the two from Qian Xuantong's acceptance of Zhang Taiyan's theory of "six classics are history", or speculated from the utilitarian perspective that the new disciples and the master Shoucheng supported each other in order to maintain their academic status. He rejected both theories, and extracted from Qian Xuantong's diary manuscript a spiritual bond that has maintained the friendship between Zhang Qian's teachers and students for nearly 30 years. This bond is the "cultivation of ritual religion and abandonment of ritual law" that the two have discussed many times. Zhang Taiyan once warned his disciples, "Those who cultivate the Ming Rite Sect should be like Yan and Li, and they should not be pretended; Renounce the etiquette and become a prostitute, and do not engage in prostitution." Qian Xuantong deeply agreed with this, "Master Zhang insists that those who cultivate private virtue and abandon the etiquette are also the same, but those who cultivate the etiquette religion must be like Yan and Li, otherwise it is hypocritical; Abandoning the ritual law must be like Ji and Ruan, otherwise you will be exiled to debauchery and luxury." The two teachers and students had a lifelong attitude of cultivating the Ming Rite Sect and abandoning the Rite Law (Zhang still admonished Qian three months before his death), and Zhang Qian "was able to maintain a pure teacher-student friendship and start and end well, because they established the same outlook on life."
Since the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Dynasty, the negativization of tradition has intensified, and how individuals deal with themselves after disembedding from tradition, and where personal moral cultivation is going, has become the fundamental problem of individual settling down. That is, like Qian Xuantong and Lu Xun, who were disciples of Zhangmen, they both highly praised Ji Kang, Ruan Cheng and other famous scholars, but they had different choices on the question of "how to cultivate personal moral cultivation in the chaotic world to resist the habit of arrogance after breaking the discipline of secular etiquette and opposing all artificial constraints". He not only presents the image of Qian who "has his own boundaries that he refuses to cross" behind his "surprising speech and extreme thinking" and "always can be sincere and respectful and abide by the teacher's training" behind his mentors and friends, but also shows the deep understanding of the ethics of authenticity by a few thinkers in the process of entering the secular era in modern China.
The previous three sets of relationships are just a few small fragments of Mr. text. These fragments and the ideas of the gentleman in other texts are naturally to be tested by the present (the gentleman himself often updates his previous views), but the scholarly style of the gentleman is also worth cherishing. Mr. reduces social interaction (including entertaining academic activities) as much as possible, and reduces the invasion of utilitarian impetuosity; Correspondingly, immersed in the ancient manuscripts, "the good men who are friends with the world are not enough, and the people who are still discussing the ancients"; Then look high and write cautiously. He once excerpted Zhang Taiyan's "Say Lin" on the first page of an unpublished manuscript on the method of curing the scriptures, "Judging the name and truth, reinforcing evidence, abstaining from delusion, abiding by ordinary rules, breaking emotions, and eliminating Chinese words." He also used Zhong Changtong's "Changyan" to call the "three customs", "three despicables" and "three traitors" of the world's subordinates. Immersion and practicality, Mr. Zheng's purpose of learning and educating people. Only in this way, it can be said to be eye-catching learning.