Ge Lixiong
During the Shanghai Book Fair, Professor Ge Jianxiong was a guest at "Tencent Academy" and gave a lecture on "Reading History and Reading the World", starting with Mr. Hong Ye, an important scholar in the Republic of China, and the Harvard-Yenching Society, reviewing the experience and inheritance of cultural exchanges and academic exchanges between the East and the West.
Point 1: China's history is basically in the service of politics, including the traditional 24 histories.
Point 2: Attaching importance to history, the positive aspect is to warn people not to do bad things and to be responsible for history. But on the other hand, it also prompted certain emperors and regimes to falsify history and falsify it in their favor.
Point 3: Why should we actively revise history? It is often said that the purpose is to sum up the lessons of history, but in fact, the main purpose is to prove the rationality of the whole dynasty.
The following is the content of Ge Jianxiong's lecture organized by Tencent Culture: (excerpt)
Idealism is more reverent of history than materialism
Traditional Chinese historiography is well developed on the one hand, but exaggerated on the other. The history of China is basically in the service of politics, including the traditional 24 histories.
Why does China always attach importance to history?
Two reasons:
On the one hand, the ancient Chinese were idealistic and believed that death would still affect future generations, so they were very afraid of leaving a stigma in history.
On the other hand, historians regard the recording of history as their own authority, and how Confucius uses every word in the "Spring and Autumn Period" has an important impact, if this word is condemnation, it is more serious than a sword and axe, and if this word is praise, it is more glorious than the crown and yellow robe of the monarch.
There is a story that Cui Zhu, a powerful minister of the Qi State, killed the monarch Zhuang Gong.
The historian writes straight: Cui Zhu kills Zhuang Gong. Cui Shu killed the historian.
The second historian wrote: Cui Zhu killed Zhuang Gong. He was killed again.
The third historian still writes that he was still killed.
The fourth historian still wrote.
When Cui Shu was about to kill him, he heard that a "Southern Shi Clan" learned that he had killed three historians in a row, and he was holding a brochure and rushed to come day and night, preparing to be the fifth historian under the knife, so he had no choice but to stop killing historians. Why are history books so important? Because people think that history books should be passed on to future generations, even if you die, you will still be condemned, and your children and grandchildren will bear your sins, so they are especially reverent of history. The positive aspect of attaching importance to history is to warn people not to do bad things and to be responsible for history. But on the other hand, it also prompted certain emperors and regimes to falsify history and falsify it in their favor.
As you may know, people starved to death during natural disasters in three years, Liu Shaoqi said:
"So many people starved to death will be written in the history books. ”
It shows that Liu Shaoqi is still in awe of history, while Chairman Mao is thoroughly materialistic, and he is not afraid.
If he encounters an ordinary emperor, he will go to the other extreme and tamper with history because he is afraid of the stain on the history books. Therefore, every time after the change of dynasty and the establishment of a new dynasty, we will immediately start to revise history. Twenty-four histories, except for the first few histories that are personally cultivated, almost all of the later ones are officially repaired, and even if they are personal histories, they must be officially approved.
Revising history is a special means of justifying the regime
Why are you so active in revising history?
It is often said that it is to sum up the lessons of history, but in fact, the main purpose is to prove the rationality of the world. The Qing Dynasty wrote the history of the Ming Dynasty very skillfully, the Qing Dynasty historians did not write Emperor Chongzhen as corrupt, did not write about Emperor Chongzhen's bad, but wrote, Chongzhen is also good, very diligent, and finally said that it was his own responsibility when he died: "It is my responsibility for the minister to raise troops against me, and I am sorry for my ancestors." What is the reason why the Qing Dynasty historian wrote about Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty in this way? He wanted to tell the people of the Ming Dynasty that there was not necessarily anything wrong with your dynasty by revising history, but God already hates you, and the destiny of heaven belongs to me, and in today's words, this is "the irresistible law of history."
The Qing Dynasty revised history, also praised loyal ministers, condemned traitors, and listed Shi Kefa and others who swore to defend the Ming Dynasty as loyal ministers, while Wu Sangui was a rebel.
Such a statement convinced the ministers left behind in the Ming Dynasty, and my Qing Dynasty fully affirmed you, but God handed over the mandate of heaven to me, and I couldn't resist it, and I had no choice, so this history is reasonable.
On the one hand, such historical books have left us a lot of historical materials, but on the other hand, they have also created incorrect historical concepts. Therefore, in modern times, an important issue in the academic world is how to introduce international advanced research methods, get rid of the historical concept of serving the dynasty, get rid of the concept of dynastic cycle, and get rid of the historical concept influenced by specific values.
At that time, Western historical training and the introduction of values played a great role, so in China's later period, especially during the reform and opening up, some of the more authoritative scholars in history were trained in Western historiography, and some had studied Xi in Japan.
Japan is a bridge between Western learning and China
Japanese culture came from the West, and many of China's social sciences and humanities came from Japan, and most of our modern vocabulary came from Japan, and the Japanese used Chinese characters to translate Western humanities and social sciences vocabulary, and then China imported them.
This word is our Chinese character, but the meaning is determined by the Japanese, for example, "revolution", we have the word "revolution" in the "Book of Books", but the "revolution" in the "Book of Books" is not the "revolution" we talk about today, the Japanese are these two words to translate revolution, and our current "revolution" is based on the Japanese translation.
Another example is "economy", ancient China has the word "economy", in the ancient text "economic world" is the meaning of "governing the country and leveling the world", but Japan uses the word "economy" to translate the Western economy, and the Chinese have introduced these two words into modern Chinese. Words such as "Communist Party" and "cadre" are derived from Japanese.
The scholars of the previous generation have received either Anglo-American or Japanese education, and it is necessary to admit that Western historical concepts and methods of historical research have played a great role in modern China.
On the one hand, the Harvard-Yenching Institute sponsors Chinese students to study and Xi in the West, and on the other hand, it sponsors Western researchers to study in China, which plays an important role in the cultural and academic exchanges between China and the West.