This is a good book for our family to boast about this year-
《History of Xia Jinyuan》
Let's put it this way, if you have nothing to do and want to find a new book to flip through, then recommend this one!
"History of Liaoxia Jin Yuan" not only has a solid and humble academic temperament, but also has a popular and peaceful readability, to put it simply, this book is extremely reliable at the intellectual level and has no understanding threshold, anyone can read it.
Another question is, "Why should I read the history of the Jin and Yuan Dynasty in Liaoxia"?
Almost from the end of the Ming Dynasty to the present day, as a regime established by ethnic minorities in the north, the Liaoxia Jin Yuan has been excluded from our mainstream historical narrative, and in the few literary and artistic works, their portrayal is also biased towards the negative.
Even if you are in the hometown of Liaoxia Jin Yuan, the northerners living here today will be full of exotic strangeness to this history.
This is the reason why Ashin takes the trouble to recommend this "History of the Jin and Yuan Dynasty of Liaoxia" to you, because it is a truly groundbreaking work of far-reaching significance.
The 56 ethnic groups on the mainland are connected by blood and share a common destiny, just like the pomegranate "a thousand houses are the same, and a thousand sons are the same", hugging each other tightly.
The dynasties established by the four ethnic minorities of Khitan, Dangxiang, Jurchen and Mongol are of great significance to our understanding of the formation of the current pluralistic and integrated pattern of the Chinese nation.
However, for a long time, the relevant narrative writing has been mainly done by Western scholars, the most famous is the Cambridge History of the Liaoxia Jin and Yuan Dynasty, and the only one written by Chinese scholars is the edition of the History of the Liaoxia Jin and Yuan Dynasty published by Ashin this year.
The Liaoxia, Jin, and Yuan dynasties were an important period of great integration, while the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were another important period of great integration in Chinese history.
Recently, CITIC Publishing Group and Jiantou Book Co., Ltd. invited Professor Zhang Fan from the Department of History of Peking University, Professor Luo Xin, a well-known expert in Yuan history, one of the authors of "History of Liaoxia, Jin and Yuan", Professor Luo Xin, an expert in the history of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties and ancient Chinese ethnic history, and Zheng Xiaoyou, a doctor of the Department of History of Peking University, an associate research librarian of the National Library and a historical writer.
Combined with the "History of Liaoxia Jin and Yuan", it shares the similarities and differences of the northern ethnic regimes from the Northern Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty, as well as the legacy left by these two eras to future generations.
1. Study the significance of these periods of Liaoxia and Jinyuan
Zheng Xiaoyou: The common denominator between Mr. Luo and Mr. Zhang's research is that they are mainly related to these eras of the northern ethnic regimes, of course, Mr. Luo is not limited to this, and Mr. Zhang is not limited to this, so what does Mr. Luo think of Mr. Zhang's "History of Liaoxia Jin Yuan"?
Luo Xin
Luo Xin: The book "History of Liaoxia Jin Yuan" is still relatively rare, and it has a little bit of textbook nature, which is relatively standardized and rigorous. Putting these dynasties aside has a certain ideological understanding in itself.
To be precise, the ruling circles of these dynasties did not speak Chinese. It's not that the people of these dynasties don't speak Chinese, the common people mainly speak Chinese, but the main figures in the ruling group don't speak Chinese.
Moreover, the Liaoxia Jin Yuan Dynasty was a continuous era, from the late Tang Dynasty to the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, for such a long time, the existence of such a group of such people is unique in Chinese history.
I am doing the history of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties are indeed a bit similar to the Liaoxia Jin and Yuan dynasties, because in that era, from the Western Jin Dynasty to the Sui and Tang dynasties, most of the people in the northern ruling group, at least their ancestors, did not speak Chinese.
At this point, the era I studied is still a bit similar to the era discussed by Mr. Zhang in their "History of the Jin Yuan Dynasty of Liaoxia". But the resemblance is only superficial. In terms of the depth of research and the richness and diversity of the materials, the further the era goes, the better, and the more the data goes forward, the less information remains.
Also, the ruling circles of the era I studied had to rely on Chinese even if they didn't speak Chinese. Why rely on Chinese? Although their spoken language is not Chinese, their written language is only Chinese, and what is left is Chinese literature.
Every language carries its own cultural traditions, its own cultural values, concepts and concepts, and Chinese records have been translated more than once, and translation will cause distortion or loss of information.
Therefore, the documents of the Northern Dynasties that I have studied do not necessarily express well the huge loss or distortion of the true information of that era.
It was very different in the era presented in the History of the Jin and Yuan Dynasty of Liaoxia, when the ruling group not only did not speak Chinese, but also did not even write Chinese.
This is not to say that they do not use Chinese at all, but they can do without it, which means that they have a script to express their own language, which is the case in the Liao, Xia, Jin, and Yuan dynasties, although there are still many Chinese documents, and there are also histories recorded in one or several other languages.
We know that people who do research like to see things in different languages and different transcripts, because they will show great differences, and the differences will allow you to break the information maze set up by a single word at once, so that you can at least get close to some kind of truth and see a big difference.
This is why the history of the Jin and Yuan dynasties of Liaoxia has received more attention.
Historiography should be like this, and the closer we are, the more and better we should study, and now China's historiography is developing in this direction.
I think "History of Liaoxia Jin Yuan" is still very valuable and interesting. Although the structure is influenced by the design of the book series of the year, it has a bit of a textbook flavor, but each author can still give full play to his or her own strengths.
If you want to know something about a specific era, the book "History of the Jin Yuan Dynasty of Liaoxia" can help with this, at least allow you to establish a basic knowledge framework.
Zheng Xiaoyou: Mr. Zhang Fan has a very important characteristic in the field of history, that is, he has a wide range of knowledge. As students, we also have a feeling that one of the great characteristics of Mr. Zhang is that he is connected, although he mainly studies the Yuan Dynasty, but he not only teaches general history courses, but also compiles general history textbooks.
And I know that Mr. Zhang Fan has read through the "Tongjian" and the 24 History, especially the 24 History, in fact, few scholars can do it. What kind of feeling did Mr. Zhang feel when he wrote the history of the Liao, Song, Xia, Jin, and Yuan dynasties from the perspective of general history, and what kind of influence did it have on your writing?
Zhang Fan
Zhang Fan: The Liaoxia and Jin Yuan dynasties were successive minority dynasties, and each one was stronger than the other, occupying some areas in the north of our country at the beginning, and then gradually extending to half of China, and finally the whole of China.
This change is very interesting, such a phenomenon also appeared hundreds of years ago, that is, during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties studied by Mr. Luo, but there were more regimes in that period, and it seemed a little chaotic.
From the perspective of general history, it is very interesting to learn Xi ancient Chinese history from the introduction of Yuan history, because you will find that these clues that China can penetrate, politics, economy, law, military, to the Yuan Dynasty have changed so much.
The Yuan Dynasty did not follow the original development logic in many aspects, but had a certain turn or delay, of course, the amplitude is not very large, and if you look at it from the perspective of the entire history, this direction will probably be able to turn back in the future.
The regimes of the Northern Dynasties of the Sixteen Kingdoms mentioned by Mr. Luo also have characteristics, although there are packaging factors, but the distance between them and the Han cultural tradition is relatively closer than that of these later ethnic groups.
In the Liaoxia Jin Yuan, the Liaoxia Jin is also closer than the Yuan Dynasty, and the Yuan Dynasty is actually more deviated from the traditional track for a period of time, but it is not far away.
If you study a problem, usually when you talk about the Yuan Dynasty, you will find that there are some places that you can't get by, probably because it didn't appear in the Yuan Dynasty, or it appeared in a very different form.
If you figure out the situation of the Yuan Dynasty, and then you look at the dynasties before and after, you will find many entry points worth studying, and you may have a clearer understanding of the development of this issue in ancient China.
Then, through understanding it, you will have a better understanding of the general development and evolution of the entire ancient Chinese history, and you will know how far it can change.
China's cultural tradition is very deep, although there are all kinds of neighboring ethnic groups or various exchanges and some conflicts, but you will find that in the end you still go along the original track, swinging back and forth or walking through.
So when is the swing larger? Once you understand the magnitude of its swing, you may have a different understanding of the development of history.
2. There are many forms under the subdivision of "nomads".
Zheng Xiaoyou: In the daily communication with each other, Mr. Luo and Mr. Zhang talked about the problems of their research times through each other, what reflections and influences did they bring to their own field of research?
Luo Xin: Here's one to name one. At that time, I was still studying for a PhD, writing a thesis on 16 countries, and chatting with Zhang Fan. He often said that you can't call it nomadism, "the real nomadism is our Mongolia", and he used the term "pure nomadism", saying that no other people can be considered pure nomadism.
His words often spin in my head, and I often think of them.
I will analyze this sentence and turn it into another expression: the nomadism we talk about today is subdivided in many forms, presenting a rich diversity, and the differences in the economic life forms of different groups of people greatly affect their political culture, social relations, and group structure.
Then I read books like Thomas Barfield's Dangerous Frontier. This book divides the ancient Chinese northerners into three types, all of which are related to nomadism in general terms, but he says that what can really be called nomadism, the so-called typical nomadism, is only in the grasslands, especially in the Mobei grasslands, such as the Mongols, which belong to the steppe nomadism.
The nomadic groups that often appeared in Chinese history were actually close to the Great Wall, such as Xianbei, Wuhuan, and Khitan, which are of this type. The other type is found in the northwest region or the edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, such as the Qiang people and the Di people (the Di people are actually mainly planted, not very nomadic, although they also herd sheep).
Barfield also demarcated a category, that is, the northeast forest zone, such as the Manchus who established the Qing Dynasty, this group of people mainly lived in the forest, basically did not graze, except for a little reindeer, mainly by hunting or fishing.
Wang Mingke, a teacher from the Department of History of Peking University, has been influenced a lot by Barfield, why do you say "the nomad's choice"? That is, nomads can choose different nomadic lifestyles.
I understand that nomads are in turn chosen by the geographical environment, for example, people in the forest area, you can only live that kind of nomadic life, if you are in the savannah, then there is nothing to hunt, you can only herd sheep. Those people in the valleys on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau can only engage in alpine nomadism.
Different nomadic lifestyles determine their different political and social structures. Mr. Wang Mingke's book takes this idea to the extreme.
I noticed this problem, more than 20 years ago, I heard Mr. Zhang say that the nomadism of the Mongols is different from the nomadism of other people, and it is different from the nomadism of the Khitan and Xianbei.
忽必烈画像
Zhang Fan: What impressed me deeply about Mr. Luo's research, or what had a great impact on me, was his research on the Hu regimes of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern Dynasties, as well as some of them extended to the Tang Dynasty, which broke my original idealized impression of the ethnic minorities in the Middle Ages.
This is what I mean by "not like ethnic minorities", in fact, no, they are still ethnic minorities, but in that period, on the one hand, because there were too few materials, the materials left were relatively limited, mainly a few official histories, and in addition, there were not many.
On the other hand, there was a lot of whitewashing and processing when historians recorded a dynasty. For example, he wrote a lot of characters from minority regimes, and they all seemed to be polite, and they were indeed polite, but there were also elements of whitewashing and post-processing, and it cannot be considered that they were completely true.
On the contrary, in our Yuan Dynasty, because after the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty revised the "History of the Yuan" very quickly, and it was completed in less than a year.
In addition, due to the abundance of materials in the Yuan Dynasty, in addition to the official history, there are many other materials, and there are some official documents, archives and so on, which can retain some of the original appearance of this era.
Therefore, when we look at these historical materials, we feel that the Yuan Dynasty is like a minority group, and the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern Dynasties are not very similar; of course, it is true that the national characteristics of the Yuan Dynasty will be stronger in comparison, but the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern Dynasties are not like the image we read in the official history, as if they are similar to the Han people, which is not the case.
These ethnic groups have their own inheritances, political concepts, and traditions, some of which are relatively close to the political traditions of the Central Plains, and some of which have their own characteristics. In general, the study of ancient ethnic minorities should pay full attention to this aspect.
3. The fate of specific people is linked to the times
Zheng Xiaoyou: What does Mr. Zhang think of Mr. Luo's recent works, such as "The Long Rest of My Life" written by the palace maid of the Northern Wei Dynasty, if you write about the characters of the Yuan Dynasty, will you pay tribute to Mr. Luo?
Zhang Fan: The book "The Long Rest of My Life" written by Mr. Luo can be regarded as opening up a new kind of research in the field of research related to the northern peoples and the Northern dynasties, at least a new perspective of observation or work.
In fact, history is made up of people, and many of the problems I studied in the past have nothing to do with people, and I feel that I have built a framework, but there is still this part of flesh and blood under this framework, in fact, sometimes it is more interesting, and if there is no such part, this framework will not work at all.
Northern Wei Statue
Moreover, the fate of specific people is linked to the times. It is true that most of the time people are bumped by the times, and there is no way to control their own destiny, and many problems of the times can be seen from the bumpy process. In fact, we have a lot to do in this area, and we don't necessarily need experts, and all kinds of enthusiasts are doing a lot now.
At the same time, for the people who are not paid attention to, ignored and forgotten in history, sometimes a little clue will be revealed outside, and the investigation of them is the work that historians should do.
I have also written a few articles about the character myself, and in the process of writing, I have to imagine what he would think, many things are not shown in the historical materials, I analyzed them, and I think he did this for what motives and purposes.
Some time ago, when I went to give a lecture, I told the story of a low-level official in the Yuan Dynasty. He lived in today's Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, and entered the ranks of "civil servants" very early.
Yuan Yongle Palace mural (detail)
He started as a "temporary worker", and as soon as he became a "temporary worker," he had a problem: In a murder case, he was bribed to take care of others, and he wanted to take care of the criminal suspect a little, but when he was found to have taken bribes, he was fired immediately, and the "civil servant" could not do it.
Later, he thought of various methods, and mixed into the "civil servant" team, and after struggle, when it was finally time to be promoted, he was reported to have a record of taking bribes and was fired again.
Then he complained, saying that it was inappropriate to dismiss me in this way, because the regulations on the dismissal of "civil servants" who took bribes were aimed at "civil servants" with official positions, and I was a "temporary worker" and I did not take your salary, so I made a mistake, and you cannot deprive me of my right to become a "civil servant" again.
He also really had some friends who helped him appeal to the provincial level, and the governor replied that it seemed to be like this, and resumed his work.
He started struggling again, and when it was time to escalate, he was reported again.
It is the supervision system that accepts the report, and the people in the supervision system say very seriously that the political atmosphere in our country is not good, and this kind of corruption should still be dealt with strictly, although he is a "temporary worker", but he has done this kind of thing at the beginning of his work, and I am afraid that sooner or later there will be problems, so it is not right for the province to deal with it then.
The supervision system of the Yuan Dynasty was very strong, it was an independent system, and it directly said to the local government, if you report to the top, you will say that my opinion is like this, let the central government introduce a method, such "temporary workers" can still be fired for bribery, and they will never be hired.
Yuan blue and white glaze red open light openwork lid jar
The local government really reported the matter to the central government, and the central officials looked at it for a long time and said okay, the supervision system was right, but the person fell to the bottom again.
This is just the information reflected in the literature, it does not have many stories, but it can be seen that the fate of this person's life is related to the system and policy at that time, the power struggle between different institutions, and the contradictions between various systems, so it caused his final result.
These are all stories seen in very ordinary historical materials, and I think these have to be discovered. There are many problems that can be found and many themes that can be written, and I believe that there will be no fewer stories in other dynasties, such as the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, and the Song Dynasty, and there will definitely be many more than Japan and South Korea, and we have a lot to do.
4. The "Sinicization" and "Anti-Sinicization" of Minority Regimes
Zheng Xiaoyou: Finally, I would like to talk about a relatively traditional issue, that is, the sinicization and anti-sinicization of these minority regimes, which is a common problem faced by them. I hope that the two teachers will talk about it from different times of their own research.
Luo Xin: When we talk about sinicization, there is a presupposition, that is, we think that everyone should become "Han", but in fact, it can be said that the word "sinicization", as well as the words "Han culture" and "Han people", did not exist at all in the Wei and Jin dynasties, and it did not appear until the late Northern Dynasties.
At that time, which country you were from, for example, from the Wei State, you were the "Wei people", and the Jin Dynasty was the "Jin people", and you belonged to the country or dynasty where you were located.
It is true that in the later period of the Northern Dynasties, there was a kind of "Han" that is close to our today's meaning, because there was no Han State at that time, there was no Han Dynasty, but there was actually a kind of person called "Han people". But the "person" of "Han people" is very similar to the pronunciation of "er" in ancient times, and the son's son, so it is actually written as "Han'er".
There is no doubt that calling these people "Han'er" has a derogatory connotation, and later some people did not want to write "Han'er", so they wrote it as "Hanren", because they have the same pronunciation and can be changed.
Northern Wei Dynasty, "Emperor and Empress Ritual Buddha"
It is true that this word appeared, but what kind of people did this word refer to in the beginning? It mainly refers to the Northern Dynasties, including those who spoke Chinese in the Northern Dynasties and their ancestors also spoke Chinese, as well as those whose ancestors did not speak Chinese, but later followed Emperor Xiaowen to Luoyang, and slowly spoke Chinese, and even began to live like Han people, like locals, and this kind of people are also called Han people.
In the Tang Dynasty, the usage of "Han people" was very common, and it corresponded to "Hu". In this sense, "Han" represents an imaginary cultural form similar to that of the Han Dynasty and the Wei and Jin dynasties.
The Northern Wei Dynasty established by the Tuoba clan gradually learned Xi from the Southern Dynasties at the beginning, and when Emperor Xiaowen was even more Xi and comprehensive Xi, a bit like what we call "total westernization" today, giving up all the things on the grassland in the past, saying that it was too earthy, and I didn't want that thing. In this sense, "sinicization" is okay.
But we have to note another point,There's no fixed standard for sinicization.,There's not even a clear direction.。 One of the directions of Emperor Xiaowen's reform was to restore the Han and Wei dynasties, but in fact, he mainly studied Xi the Southern Dynasties.
If the sinicization of the Northern Dynasties was successful, if the word sinicization is used in this sense, it will be considered a complete success in the Sui and Tang dynasties, right? However, the cultural form of the Tang Dynasty and the cultural form of the Han Dynasty were separated by 400 years, and there is a huge difference between them.
If a person from the Tang Dynasty travels back to the Han Dynasty, he not only can't understand the rules and regulations, he can't understand how the people of the Han Dynasty lived, and he can't even understand their speech, because the language has also changed - after 400 years, it has become Middle Chinese, which is very different from the Chinese of the Han Dynasty.
"Diagram of Steps"
We need to be especially wary of the argument that we need to keep tradition unchanged, because tradition cannot remain the same, tradition is always changing, changing in every era, sometimes very fast.
For example, since modern times, China has undergone drastic changes since 1840, and sometimes it seems that nothing has changed after a few hundred years, but in fact it is changing, only slowly.
From the end of the Han Dynasty to the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, these 400 years were a period of rapid changes, and it can be said that the things that the Han Dynasty people were proud of, what clothes and etiquette, none of them were the same as they were, they all changed.
In the past 400 years, of course, not only the regimes established by the so-called ethnic minorities, but also the regimes established by the so-called Han Chinese, they have all been actively promoting historical changes, and this change is very drastic.
So in this sense, we must pay attention when we say "sinicization", it is not in one direction, and there is no fixed standard called "Han".
The mind may be moving in one direction, but in fact it is moving in another, a new direction. Great changes took place in both the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and finally a Sui and Tang culture was formed, which was very different from the traditional Han and Wei cultures.
In this sense, we should be wary of the word "sinicization" because it is too general and easy to misuse.
Zhang Fan: Sinicization is an old proposition, and it's okay to use it to simply describe a phenomenon, but sometimes it's problematic to overunderstand it.
To put it simply, it was the minority regimes that entered the Central Plains and ruled the Central Plains, and some even ruled the Han people in the south. For these ordinary people, it is necessary to adopt a set of management models and discourse systems of the Central Plains, so these rulers have to move closer to Han culture, this phenomenon must exist, otherwise they will not be able to rule, and they will have to move closer to this side.
Now the question is to what extent can they get closer, extreme like Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, he decided not to want their own culture, but this is actually very rare, it is an exception.
The general northern peoples were unwilling to do this, and finally passively integrated into the Han Chinese, which was not what they wanted to see.
There is a difference in the degree and enthusiasm of these regimes in accepting the culture of the conquered areas, some are more active, some are not very active, but they are unwilling and have no choice, otherwise they will not be able to rule the place, they will not be able to manage, and in the end the big end will always slowly move closer to this culture, and now we are talking about going in the direction of integration.
A corner of Professor Zhang Fan's study
For example, the Yuan Dynasty,I also used the word sinicization in the book.,I put forward a word called "sinicization sluggishness".,The Yuan Dynasty was relatively passive.,Reluctantly moved closer to this side.,But it's still closer.,And in the end, it's almost close.。
In the early Yuan Dynasty, these Mongols were not very good at Chinese, and it was very difficult to communicate with the Han Chinese, so they had to be interpreted, but in the later period, it was obvious that they could communicate in Chinese, and many began to practice calligraphy, and it became a trend.
If the Yuan Dynasty is given some more time, its acceptance of Han culture will also reach a relatively high level, but there is no time, because according to the dynastic cycle law, the time will come.
The Yuan Dynasty was not well integrated in the early stage of culture, and the contradictions and accumulated problems were more serious than those of other dynasties, so it perished in 100 years.
If there is a two or three hundred years, it can also be integrated, this is the general trend, because in such a large country, more than 90% of it is Han people, if you don't understand and accept these things of the Han people, it is impossible to rule, and you will definitely go in this direction.
After the cultural integration, although some groups have integrated into the Han people, some have left and returned to the grassland, but in any case, the social culture (although we still call it Han culture) is not the same as the original.
Like the Ming Dynasty and the Song Dynasty are still quite different, of course, the mainstream things in traditional culture are almost the same, Cheng Zhu Lixue is about the same, opera novels continue to prosper and develop, and novels appear in literature, and these general directions have not changed.
But some places have changed, for example, the Ming Dynasty is obvious that the Han regime in the Song Dynasty no longer regards itself as the center of the world, because the Song Dynasty can't beat the Liao Jin, you have to sit on an equal footing with the Liao, and you once called the Jin Dynasty, you can't say that you are the center; but after the rule of the Yuan Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty replaced the Yuan Dynasty, everyone thought that we were the center of the world, and this consciousness was very strong, and in the end they resolutely refused to negotiate with the Qing Dynasty, and this is also the reason why they couldn't get down this level.
Through the 100 years of the Yuan Dynasty, its entire social outlook is different.
I don't think any of these can be understood simply with sinicization.。 We say that it is integrated into the Han culture, and it is indeed integrated into a part, or even most of it, but after the integration, the Han culture has also changed.
The main thing is to look at it holistically, and not simply understand it as in the past, and it is not right to see this process as a one-sided assimilation.
This article is a compilation and condensement, the copyright belongs to CITIC Press, please indicate the source for reprinting
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