Here are six historical translations that have had a great impact on methodological levels. They open up other dimensions of how we look at history, and are often amazing: history can also be seen and written in this way.
In the past four decades, Western writings that have had a great influence in The field of Chinese history and even the field of humanities and social sciences are often not because of new discoveries in historical materials, but because the methods of observing and interpreting history are different. This corresponds to Yu Yingshi's statement: History is not only historical materials, history is the interpretation of historical materials. Historical data guarantees the authenticity of history, and the diversity of interpretation makes history indifferent to whether it is true or untrue, but the focus is on whether the explanation is valid or not.
Everyday Life in China Before the Mongol Invasion, by Xie Henai
Xie he was a leading figure in the Field of Sinology in France. His research on Chinese history focuses on economic and social history. Everyday Life in China Before the Mongol Invasion is one of a series of Books on everyday life in various countries in France.
Xie Henai selected the specific historical period of the last year of the Southern Song Dynasty (1227-1279) to depict daily life in China, describing the area of Hangzhou, when the metropolis was called Lin'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the largest and richest metropolis in the world.
Chinese culture reached its peak during the Song Dynasty. After The fall of Bieliang by the Jin, the Southern Song Dynasty rebuilt the metropolis of Lin'an with the abundant financial resources of Jiangnan. Fifty years before the city fell into The hands of the Mongols in 1276, Lin'an's prosperity reached its peak, representing the daily life of China before Western culture entered.
Xie Henai's materials are mainly derived from Song historical documents and notes, such as Wu Zimu's "Mengliang Record", the elaborate "Past Events of Wulin", and "Miscellaneous Knowledge of Yanxin", which greatly make up for the shortcomings of zhengshi. This book conducts a comprehensive and in-depth study of Lin'an, including the city, society, clothing, food, housing, life cycle, four seasons and the heavens and the earth, leisure time and other aspects, many of which have not been noticed by previous generations, such as fire and firefighting, transportation and supply.
Everyday Life in China Before the Mongol Invasion provides an example for the study of ancient cities.
Fifteen Years of The Wanli Calendar, by Huang Renyu
The fame of "Fifteen Years of Wanli" need not be said much, and it has even become a communication code for Ming history enthusiasts in "The Name of the People". And the embarrassment of the book at the beginning of the creation of the book is rarely mentioned.
Wang Xiaobo once criticized the "Fifteen Years of The Wanli Calendar" for "digital management" as a solution to the ills of ancient Chinese society as "too naïve". In fact, the impact of "Fifteen Years of Wanli" on the historians is not at the level of viewpoints, but in Huang Renyu's writing: from a seemingly unimportant year (1587), some "small things" that are often ignored by historians are narrated, and Huang Renyu, through the interpretation of these small things, pushed several important figures of the late Ming Dynasty, Wanli Emperor, Shen Shixing, Zhang Juzheng, Hai Rui, Qi Jiguang, and Li Yan to the forefront. Behind these people, there is a manifestation of the political and social ecology of the late ming dynasty as a whole.
The last paragraph of the Fifteen Years of the Wanli Dynasty reads: "When a country with a large population is limited by the simple and crude and immutable principles of Confucianism, and the law lacks creativity, the degree of its social development is bound to be limited." Even if the purpose is good, it cannot subsidize the inadequacy of technology. Whether or not he agrees with his views, this kind of writing that takes the year as the entry point, through the narrative of events and characters, combines the ideas behind the action, the laws of social constraints, and the actual effects of the operation of the system into one furnace, which is a great inspiration to later writers of history.
"The Death of Wang: The Fate of the Little People Behind the Big History", by Shi Jingqian
"The Death of Wang" is not only a masterpiece of American Chinese studies, but also a masterpiece of "microhistory". Microhistory mostly refers to the historical study of a person, an event, an organization or system, etc. Conclusions are often specific, partial and specific. Therefore, "The Death of Wang" does not provide grand conclusions, but points to An ordinary woman like Wang Who lived in Shandong, China in the 17th century.
In order to achieve the goal of "letting Chinese tell their own stories and observe China from within China", the author chose three sources as the source of this book. The first is the Tancheng County Chronicle compiled in 1673, the second is a personal memoir and note written by the gentleman Huang Liuhong in the 1890s, and the third is The more familiar Pu Songling's Liaozhai Zhiyi.
In order to help readers understand the fate of the small person of Wang Shi more closely, "The Death of Wang", the local literature, private records and legendary novels are studied side by side, and mutual reference is cross-referenced, local documents depict a large local historical context, private records provide many details, even including the price of goods at that time, and the contemporary "Liaozhai Zhiyi" is enough to make up or non-fiction stories, vividly presenting the mentality of the people at that time, the methods of coping with various events, and the gender order of society.
The variety of such sources and the vividness of the narrative techniques make the reader refreshed, and the historical writing can focus on "storytelling" and lose its rigor, which is the paradigm meaning of "The Death of Wang".
Calling the Soul: The Great Chinese Witchcraft Panic of 1768, by Kong Feili
Kong Feili almost relied on the book "Calling the Soul" to sit on the position of professor at Harvard University and was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Humanities.
The story of "Calling the Soul" takes place in the middle of the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, the most prosperous in the Qing Dynasty, just at the peak of the history of the "Kangqian Prosperous Era", a demonic wind swept through half of China, from the emperor to local officials to the terrified commoners, people of all walks of life were involved in this storm. Kong Feili did not simply look at this storm from the perspective of folk history or political history, he cleverly weaved this busy and uneventful half year into the social background of the middle of the Qing Dynasty, so as to try to understand some basic problems of traditional Chinese politics and Chinese society.
The so-called prosperous era of Kangqian is actually that the reproduction of the population has made it difficult for the traditional social structure to bear, and the direct consequence is the increase of displaced people. This is the breeding ground for rumors to be generated and spread. Rulers and auxiliaries of this period, that is, emperors and officials, could hardly trust each other. Officials did not want serious problems in the places they governed, and the emperor was afraid that officials would use deceitful means to deal with foreign kings. Only within this framework can we understand why the rumors that appeared in several places made it difficult for the Qianlong Emperor in Beijing to sleep and eat, and why the bureaucracy produced all kinds of true or false descriptions to maintain a stable image in the eyes of the emperor everywhere.
The valuable thing about "Calling Souls" is that it is complex and exquisite, and it locks in the universality and specialness of the entire imperial system with a storm.
Strangers at the Gate: Social Unrest in South China from 1839 to 1961, by Wei Feide
Wei Feide, together with Shi Jingqian and Kong Feili, is called the "Three Masters of Sinology" in the United States, and "Strangers at the Gate" is Wei Feide's famous work.
Stranger at the Gate refers to the British army that began to invade Guangdong in 1839, while the Gate refers to the Southern China region where the Chinese Empire and the West first clashed and played. What Weifeld wanted to explore was the relationship between the Taiping Rebellion, which was later called the largest civil war of mankind in the 19th century, and the First and Second Opium Wars.
By analyzing the anti-British resistance in Sanyuanli, Guangdong after the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Guangxi, and the dispute over the entry of Guangzhou during the Second Opium War, Wei Feide convincingly pointed out that it was the British invasion that changed the political and social ecology of South China. The Beijing government was no longer able to effectively control the rule of the south, and the invasion of foreign armies promoted the general establishment of the regimental training system and gave greater power to the local gentry, which, coupled with the economic decline of Guangdong after the five-port trade, stimulated class contradictions in south China, and the Taiping Rebellion occurred, and this turmoil that swept through half of China in turn promoted the rise of local gentry such as Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang.
South China was just a rehearsal for the turmoil that would later follow across China. From "Strangers at the Gate", we seem to be able to interpret how the political operation mechanism of late Qing China was formed, and how the change in social ecology challenged the beijing government with weakened control. The fall of the empire was not accidental, it had been doomed almost seventy years ago.
The Three Tones of History: The Boxers as Events, Experiences, and Myths, by Ke Wen
Ke Wen once wrote the famous "Discovering History in China", proposing to replace the mainstream "Western-centric view" with the "China-centric view", that is, to look at Chinese history and use China's internal standards, rather than the pre-set yardsticks set by the West such as "civilization" and "modernity".
The Three Notes of History is divided into three parts, leading the reader to approach the Boxers from three different paths. The first part is the Boxers as events, and the narrator is the historian; the second part is the Boxers as an experience, and the narrator is the people who personally experienced the Boxer Rebellion; the third part is the Boxers as myths, and the narrator is the myth-makers.
Corvin tells us about three different boxer histories. There are three different faces of the same history, so which one should we believe? For the same period of historical facts, showing different records and interpretations, the significance of "Three Tones of History" is to confirm the conclusion that "history has no truth to speak of". Cowan also raises a series of questions that give historians a headache in the book: What is history? Is the history told by historians credible? What is the significance of the historian's work? You see, in this book, Corvin challenges himself as a historian, and even history itself.