Sanlian Bookstore recently invited Mr. Yan Chongnian, a well-known expert in Qing history and an old author and friend of Sanlian, to have a dialogue with Song Zhijun, general manager of Sanlian Bookstore, entitled "My Research on Qing History".
During the dialogue, Yan Chongnian talked about his own experience and experience on how he embarked on the road of Qing history research, the relationship between academic research secondary school and doctoral degree, and the topic of being a person and governing learning. This is also the first time that Mr. Yan Chongnian has systematically reviewed his own research on Qing history in a lecture.
Yan Chongnian has been engaged in the study of Qing history for more than a century, and has been a researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences for a long time. In recent years, he has published works such as "Yan Chongnian's Historical Essays", "Forest Empire" and "Imperial Kiln Millennium" in Sanlian Bookstore, which not only has solid academic achievements, but also has a high popularity.
Studying Qing History: "Careful Beginnings and Good Endings"
Regarding how he embarked on the road of studying Qing history, Yan Chongnian said that he was originally interested in pre-Qin history, and later experienced the guidance of Yang Xiangkui and Bai Shouyi, two famous scholars, before embarking on the road of Qing history research.
Yan Chongnian said that he was influenced by Professor Yang Zhao of the Department of History of Beijing Normal University, and after graduation, he was interested in pre-Qin history, studied for three years, and wrote some articles to show Yang Xiangkui, director of the Qing History Research Office of the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. On the one hand, Yang Xiangkui encouraged Yan Chongnian and recognized his research, and on the other hand, he also told Yan Chongnian to take advantage of his residence in Beijing and make full use of the Ming and Qing court archives in Beijing to study the history of the Qing Dynasty, which few people had set foot in at that time.
Yan Chongnian recalled that he was greatly stimulated by listening to Mr. Yang Xiangkui's opinions, and seriously thought about what he should do for a month before he made up his mind to engage in Qing history research. Even though this was the case in 1963, Yan Chongnian still remembers it vividly – spending a month thinking and more than 60 years of research, an experience that Yan calls "careful beginnings and good finishes", and he encourages today's young people to treat their careers in this way.
After making up his mind to engage in the study of Qing history, Yan Chongnian first took Kangxi as the starting point, but he never felt that he could understand the essentials and did not understand the basic problems of the Eight Banners system and the Manchus. In confusion, Mr. Bai Shouyi told Yan Chongnian that the study of Qing history should start from the root, that is, to study the history of the founding of the Qing Dynasty. As a result, Yan Chongnian embarked on the path of studying Nurhachi.
Yan Chongnian said that over the next two decades, he devoted himself to the study of Nurhachi, exhausting all the materials about Nurhachi – materials from the Ming Dynasty in China, materials from the Qing Dynasty in China, materials from the Korean Dynasty, materials from Japan, materials in Chinese, and materials in Manchu, and wrote his research on Nurhachi on this basis. After the first decade, in 1973, he wrote a paper on Nurhachi and showed it to Mr. Bai Shouyi, who encouraged him to write a biography of Nurhachi. So he worked hard for another ten years, and finally published "The Biography of Nurhachi" in 1983.
The Biography of Nurhachi, which took 20 years to write, is the world's first academic biography to systematically study Nurhachi. This book has not only been valued by the domestic academic circles, but also by the American and Japanese academic circles, which has established Mr. Yan Chongnian's academic status in the field of Qing history research around the world.
Academic Research Tips "About-Broad-Communication"
After Yan Chongnian reviewed his experience in the study of Qing history, Song Zhijun mentioned that Mr. Yan Chongnian also studied Manchu and Beijing history, and asked Yan Chongnian to talk about the relationship between academic research secondary school and doctoral degree.
Yan Chongnian said based on his own experience that the Bo should be built on the basis of specialization, and the Bo and the specialist should be intersecting. In the early 80s of the 20th century, Yan Chongnian, who worked at the Institute of History of the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, needed to write a paper on the history of Beijing. Combined with his own accumulation of the founding history of the Qing Dynasty, he selected Yuan Chonghuan as the research object. Because Yuan Chonghuan happened to be at the intersection of Ming history, Qing history, and Beijing history, it was convenient for him to carry out research on the basis of what he already had. Yan Chongnian said that since then, many of his studies have been based on the combination of Ming history, Qing history, and Beijing history, such as the study of Ming and Qing emperors, the study of the Forbidden City, the study of Manchu culture, and so on, and the "Yan Chongnian Historical Essays" published by Joint Publishing in 2023 contains 97 articles in the five major fields of Ming history, Qing history, Forbidden City history, Beijing history, and Manchu studies.
Yan Chongnian also said that he was based on the study of the founding history of the Qing Dynasty, and finally understood the entire Qing history, and the key behind it was to pursue "covenant-bo-communication". Grasp a small point solidly, then absorb a large amount of materials, after precipitation, accumulation, rise to a realm, and finally what remains is the essence. He believes that only by engaging in a career for a long time can we achieve "covenant-doctor-communication", and there are too many people who cannot do their work because they give up halfway.
Treat the cause with "respect, sincerity, lightness and quietness"
Mr. Yan Chongnian, who has been engaged in historical research for more than 60 years, told a story about first-hand historical materials, which just reflects his attitude towards his career.
There is a royal palace on the outskirts of Beijing, and its historical owner has long been unknown. The local people want to develop tourism, and they want to ask Yan Chongnian to "vouch" for the palace and determine that the owner of the palace is a historical celebrity. At that time, in order to determine who the owner of the palace was, Yan Chongnian finally confirmed that the owner of the palace was not a historical celebrity through the Manchu historical materials of the National Palace Museum in Taipei and the First Historical Archives of China, and avoided a mistake of Zhang Guan Li Dai. This shows Mr. Yan Chongnian's rigorous attitude towards historical research.
In the lecture, Yan Chongnian summarized his attitude towards the cause as "respect, sincerity, lightness, and quietness". He put "respect" in the first place, he said, "Respect is love, if you don't treat your profession with respect, you can't enter the door." The second is "sincerity", history is to demand truth, and "sincerity" is the basis for seeking truth. The third is "light", you must be indifferent to fame and fortune in order to become an expert in your field. Finally, there is "quiet", only "quiet" can make a field long-lasting. He encouraged young people to calm down and do things, after decades of accumulation, no matter how stupid they are, they will make a little achievement, "this is true in all walks of life".
At the end of the conversation, Yan Chongnian said that he was 90 years old, and although his physical strength was not as good as when he was younger, he worked every day, seven days a week. A few years ago, he discovered that the ancestors of the Manchus belonged to the "forest culture" rather than the "grassland culture", and wrote the book "Forest Empire", and last year, he published 45 books in different publishing houses, and he hopes to "live endlessly, struggle will not stop", and share more achievements with everyone.