2020 is coming to an end, and the world outside of us is still complex.
How to have a certain self in a world full of uncertainty; how to have "the knowledge and qualities that a modern civilized person must know" in a modern pluralistic society?
Reading Fang Long's books will definitely bring you harvest.
Hendrik Willem Van Loon (born 1882), Dutch-American, distinguished scholar, writer, historian and geographer.
He has written in history, culture, civilization, science and other aspects, and is a great popularizer of culture.
His works have been translated and published in more than 20 countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, France, Sweden, Japan, and China.
Fang Long studied at Cornell University in the United States and Munich University in Germany in his youth, and obtained a doctorate, Fang Long repeatedly drifted before and after going to college, working as a teacher, editor, reporter and announcer, and also learned speaking skills from popular theater.
He was beautifully written and knowledgeable, including insightful insights. Through his handwriting, boring knowledge can also be light and playful, easy to understand. His works are almost universally best-selling, influencing generations.
The famous writer Uddhav once said:
Fang Long's pen has a charm, boring scientific common sense through his writing, whether adults or children, people who read his books feel tired.
More importantly, he combines the progress of human civilization with the development of science and technology. He was a pioneer in the popularization of cultural ideas and a master of propagating science in literary and artistic techniques.
"Fang Long Full Translation Illustrated Collector's Edition" selects Fang Long's five most representative books" "The Story of Mankind", "The Art of Mankind", "The Story of Invention", "The Story of the Earth" and "Tolerance". There are both macroscopic displays of the origins of the world and narration of the development of human civilization.
Witty and relaxed style, vivid and smooth text, in-depth and simple narration, it will be your "best primer on general history".
The Story of Man
So far, humans are the last creatures on Earth to emerge, but they were the first to conquer nature with wisdom.
In this work, Fang Long uses vivid and fluent words to present the history of the development of human civilization for thousands of years in front of the reader.
Its story begins in ancient times, including the origins of Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations, the splendor of the Greek and Roman eras, and the development and evolution of medieval societies along the lines of the rise of religion, from the rise of cities and the Renaissance to the world's changes and national revolutions.
In retrospecting the historical clues of some major countries, it also tells the stories of some important historical figures and comments on their merits.
Fang Long's insights on many issues in the history of human civilization are very unique, and he uses vivid and fluent words to tell the most basic knowledge and the most wonderful connotations in the history of human civilization, and presents the history of the development of human civilization for thousands of years in front of the reader.
The glorious history we once had has given us strength and courage, so that we are no longer afraid of the difficulties in life.
The Story of Mankind was published in November 1921, and Fang Long became famous and famous all over the world.
The Story of Man was once adopted as a history textbook by american secondary schools. It is worth mentioning that the highest honor award it won is not in the history category, but in the most famous children's literature award in the United States, the "Newbury Award".
Newbury's award-winning works have a very high literary standard, and are a reference model for American teenagers to learn to read and write. The jury apparently concluded that its literary achievements were even higher than those of other candidates.
The Story of Invention
In order to survive, human beings used their wisdom to invent the first clothes, the first rope, the first bridge, the first bowl...
These inconspicuous inventions have greatly extended human hands, feet, mouths, eyes, ears and other body organs, so that the infinite power contained in the human body has been exerted.
"The Story of Invention" is a brief history of human invention, but also a brief history of human struggle.
Human beings go from simple inventions to inventing machinery, building houses, building airplanes... This book provides a scientific and vivid explanation of the production of these miracles.
The protagonists of this book go deep into every corner, explore all the unknowns, and for everything, they will delve into the meaning of everything that wisdom can reach.
They do not blindly follow anyone or anything but the truths that have been verified, which are the cornerstone of further human exploration.
The Art of Man
Art originates from human nature, is born with human beings, and as long as there are human beings, art is like a shadow.
The Art of Man is neither a textbook of art nor a treatise on art, but introduces esoteric things to those who wander outside the doors of art through fresh, understandable and personal descriptions.
The book covers architecture, sculpture, painting, music, drama, as well as literature, dance, costumes, arts and crafts and almost all other art fields, Fang Long with its profound historical knowledge, easily mastered such a rich and complex content.
Different from other similar books, Fang Long insists on putting art into the political, economic, social and other activities of mankind to be discussed, reflecting his consistent insistence on observing and narrating the essence of human civilization from the perspective of all mankind.
Therefore, while comprehensively and clearly understanding the development process of human art, the reader can have an insight into the human society on which the development of art depends.
The Story of the Earth
"The Story of the Earth" (first translation of "Fanglong Geography") is Fanglong's masterpiece on human geography.
In "The Story of the Earth", Fang Long broke the conventional way of writing geography books.
It not only briefly introduces the basic geographical knowledge, but also tells the historical evolution of various countries from the perspective of geography, and analyzes the impact of geography on the historical evolution of countries and the formation of population personality. The concept of "human geography" is vividly interpreted.
Why do Danes like quiet study, while Spaniards are keen on the expanse?
Why has Japan expanded wildly in recent times, while Switzerland, which is equally small, remained neutral, and is it really related to national geography?
The answers to these questions can be found in Tales of the Earth.
Fang Long did not list pale numbers, did not pile up esoteric nouns, but took people as the focus to explore the fate of human survival.
Of all the books Fang Long has written, The Story of the Earth is the one with the widest readership. In the year of publication, it has consistently topped the list of non-fiction works in the United States.
English, German, Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, Portuguese and other editions were subsequently released, and sales cannot be counted, which is regarded as a "miracle" in the history of human publishing.
"Tolerance"
In many of Fang Long's works, a theme that has always run through can be summed up as the word "tolerance", which is not based on ignorant unprincipled avoidance, but a kind of wisdom tolerance.
"Tolerance" can be called a must-read classic for understanding Western civilization, and it has been selling well for nearly a hundred years. It is the most classic and popular reading of tolerance and free thought.
Based on major events and important figures in history, Fang Long recounts the history of the development of human thought, explores the root cause of "intolerance" in the human spirit for thousands of years, advocates freedom of thought, advocates tolerance, and condemns conservatism, despotism and persecution.
The antagonism and integration, persecution and counter-persecution in the history of religion have always been complex and sensitive issues. With his sharp vision, Fang Long looks for the deep roots behind the conflict between different religious sects.
In the end, he saw that the historical reformers, under the pretext of the "Reformation", carried out cruel persecution of all ideological innovations that were not conducive to their own development, and this spiritual intolerance led to the mistakes made by their "enemies".
With the help of Fang Long's "tolerant" eyes, it is not difficult for us to establish a clear outline of the development of religious history and even all spiritual and cultural phenomena.
It is said that the famous French writer Montaigne once told a story where Socrates was, and Socrates did not say "Athenians", but replied that he was "world people".
Montaigne lamented that Socrates was socrates after all, "seeing the universe as his homeland, throwing his knowledge into the whole of mankind, and interacting with all mankind." ”
At the end of the year, we feel more and more "the clash of civilizations and the reconstruction of world order", perhaps re-reading the works of Fang Long, the "science master" who can tell the most stories, listening to him tell the origin of the world and the development of human civilization, and using his wisdom to point out the direction for our lives.