About the author:
Wang Zengyu: Researcher, Institute of History, China Academy of Social Sciences; Professor, Department of History, Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Doctoral supervisor. President of China Song History Research Association. 1962 graduated from the history department of Peking University. His works include: Continued Notes on Ezhou Jincuo, A New Biography of Yue Fei, A Preliminary Study of Military System in Song Dynasty, Class Structure in Song Dynasty, Essays, etc.
On April 25th, 2002, the author asserted in the article "Editors Addiction and Advertising Fever" in China Reading Newspaper: "According to the academic ability of historians in their 70s and 60s, no one has the strength to penetrate the ancient history from pre-Qin to Qing Dynasty, so how can they be the editors of most ancient general history and special history?" This assertion is certainly no secret to historians. Due to abnormal external reasons, people of this age group are generally ignorant for more than ten years, and their academic ability is naturally limited. The author's purpose in saying this sentence is nothing more than to remind laymen, especially those in the media and administration, not to be fooled, not to make noise blindly, and not to make false advertisements that are not worthy of the name.
By chance, I met the color version of General History of China published by Haiyan Publishing House, signed as "General Counsel of Bai Shouyi, edited by Dai Yi and Gong Shuduo, edited by China Historical Society". I have never met the two editors, but I have heard of their knowledge and know that they have no academic ability to check the quality of the whole book. So I try to know who the author is. I haven't found it for a long time, and I dare not guess at random. Whether to list eight editors as authors. Since I can't find the real author, I read the Song part of my bank, and I only think that four words are outrageous. I remember that the author once privately commented on a certain gentleman in four sentences: "First, fame, second, profit, third, unwillingness to contribute, fourth, unwillingness to be responsible." At this point, the author understands that the two editors are obviously in the same stream as this gentleman and take pleasure in commenting on editors.
A year later, some middle-aged scholars who participated in the review of this book described the situation to me. According to them, in fact, Renmin University, an editor-in-chief, had no idea about the publication of this book, but the publishing house temporarily found some people who had no history training, copied down the existing general history and pieced it together into a book. But they all think this book is full of mistakes. At this point, I fully understand that this book is the crystallization of the cooperation between the short editor and Mr. Nanguo.
I am borrowing the third edition of this book in July 2002, adding a striking new honor: "This book recently won the 12th China Book Award". Only when I began to write an article did I browse the book.
This book draws a lot of figure paintings, but the painters obviously don't have costumes and weapons of different times, and they have different historical knowledge. No matter which era, most of them are Ming Dynasty costumes. The title of page 233 of volume/kloc-0 of this book is "Hua Tuo Scraping Bone to Treat Poison", and the painting next to it is undoubtedly based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. There is no record of this in volume 82 of the History of the Later Han Dynasty, volume 29 of the History of the Three Kingdoms and Hua Tuo's Biography, while volume 36 of the History of the Three Kingdoms and Guan Yu's Biography do record that he "scraped bones and detoxified", but there is no doctor's name. Romance of the Three Kingdoms, though unique by novelists, is not history.
Volume II 10 Page Portrait of Zhang Fei, Duke Huan of Shu, modeled after the image in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, with dark face, stirrup, prancing horse and snake spear in hand, giving people a brave and invincible image of an ancient hero. However, Volume 36 of The Three Kingdoms, Biography of Guan Yu and Biography of Zhang Fei only said that Guan Yu was bearded. As for Guan Yu's red face, lying silkworm eyebrow, phoenix eye, Zhang Fei's black face, leopard head and leopard eye, Hu Yan beard, etc., all belong to the artistic fiction of later novelists. The painter obviously didn't know that the stirrup had not been invented at least in the Three Kingdoms. As for Zhang Ba snake spear, Qinglong crescent moon blade and other weapons, he was also a cold weapon maker of novelists in the late Yuan and Ming Dynasties. From the archaeological point of view, the bronze weapons of Shang and Zhou dynasties can still be preserved, but the iron weapons of later generations are easy to rot. According to historical records, in Dangyang, Zhang Fei "broke the bridge with his eyes open and his spears crossed", which blocked Cao Cao's pursuers. According to the shape of the spears in the stone reliefs of Xiaotangshan and Yinan in the Eastern Han Dynasty, it is similar to the spears in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, but it should not be a snake spear. The earliest weapon map handed down from ancient times is Jason Wu Tongjian in the Northern Song Dynasty at the latest, and there is no snake spear weapon. Sword has a kind of "moon-shielding knife", which should be the originator of the so-called "crescent knife" in later generations. It is said in the history books that Yue Fei stabbed the Black Wind King with an iron gun when he was a young official, but it is hard to know whether it was the snake spear mentioned by later generations.
Perhaps the funniest part is the Song Dynasty. On page 26 of the third volume, there is a title called "Cao Bin, a Confucian general", which is a new invention that the author has never heard of. However, in the History of Song Dynasty (Volume 258) and Biography of Cao Bin, there is no record that he likes reading Confucian classics. Where does the word "Confucianism" come from?
On the 30th page, I specially recorded my marriage with Mu and introduced it to readers as a history of faith. In fact, the late senior scholars Yu Jiaxi and Nie Chongqi have made textual research. The historical materials handed down by Yang Jiajiang are very limited. Yang Ye is a brave general, but his position is only equivalent to the deputy commander of a war zone today. His wife changed her name to She's and made up a bizarre story about She Taijun's century-long expedition. There has never been a Guinness World Record for centenarians in human history. Yang Yanlang was Yang Yi's son, but twenty-six years after Yang Yi's death, he was superstitious about Taoism and lied that the legendary Taoist emperor Zhao was his ancestor. Yang's sons are Yang and his wife Murong. In history, there is no generation of Mu, and there is no way to make the gods cry.
On page 37, there is a saying that "the system of grace began in the Song Dynasty", in which it is said that grace began in the eighth year of Song Zhenzong Dazhong Xiangfu. I want to ask the two editors here. According to your knowledge, when should the historical grace system begin?
There is The Legend of Liang Hongyu on page 93, in which the so-called "Liang Hongyu" is specially depicted. One of the editors' teachers and the author's teacher, Mr Deng Guangming, has verified that Han Shizhong's wife, Liang's history book, is unknown, and was invented by the descendants of the Redjade Department. I wonder if the editor-in-chief has read the teacher's Chronicle of Han Shizhong? You might as well compare the "legend" in the famous works with Mr. Deng's textual research. How many historical facts have you synthesized?
Pages 94 to 97 are the deeds of Yue Fei, most of which are legends. What mother-in-law tattoos, wind and waves pavilions and the like are not found in the historical records of the Song Dynasty. The examples he wrote, such as returning my rivers and mountains, are also a false trust in future generations. "Make a scene in Zhuxian Town" copied all the fictional stories of Yue legend and drew eight hammers, which were called "the martial arts of Jin" according to Yue. It is worth noting that Wu Shu, the marshal of the rulers in history, never surnamed Jin. This book is not only printed with the heads of four generals of Zhongxing in the Southern Song Dynasty, but also painted him as a beard in Peking Opera, which is contradictory.
Some simple examples above show that this book often mistakes legends for history, and even legends are unfounded. For example, Cao Bin is a general of Confucianism, but he is actually talking nonsense. Legend and history must be strictly distinguished, but this is the enlightenment common sense of modern historiography. It can be seen that the author did not step into the threshold of modern historiography, but boldly created at will, making irresponsible remarks and misleading readers. Therefore, it should not be wronged to call it Mr. Nan Guo's generation. Of course, if we want to investigate the responsibility, it must be two famous editors. Isn't it shameful to publish such a work?
I once met Mr. Lin Ganquan, former director of the Institute of History of China Academy of Social Sciences, and talked about this book. At that time, Mr. Lin Ganquan was warmly invited as the director to preside over the revision of this book. Naturally, he cares about it. Later, when he talked to the author on the phone, there was no recording. Now, the author's talk can be roughly summarized as follows:
First, the fictional story of Yue has become a faithful history, so this book is not inferior in general. To put it mildly, it's vulgar, and to put it bluntly, it's below the level of wearing open-backed pants. Becoming the editor-in-chief of two "famous professors" cannot but become a scandal in the history circle of Chinese mainland.
Second, this book uses the name of China Historical Society. Is the China Historical Society a store run by the editor? The result, of course, was ugly and became a scandal of the China Historical Society.
Third, are the judges of the China Book Prize free? Since the evaluation of this book has naturally become a scandal of the China Book Award, and it is a triple embarrassment.
Fourth, one of the three styles of work of the * * * production party is criticism and self-criticism. As the editor-in-chief of party member, should we make a decent review in public?
There are many bad styles of writing in Jin Fang's historiography circle, but the author thinks twice. The worst ones are the wind of following the trend, the wind of short editing, the wind of fame and gain, the wind of plagiarism, and the wind of following the trend will inevitably occupy the first place. In the normal academic environment, people should scoff at it and regard it as an abandoned child. Instead, they won the 12th China Book Award, played the trumpet for it, mobilized manpower to repair it, carried the sedan chair for it, and talked about covering up the ugly. People can't help asking, how did this strange thing happen? Marxism emphasizes the inevitability of things. What is the inevitability of such an accidental scandal? It's not him, but the wind of short cover editing and the wind of following suit complement each other! This is a mirror of the serious decline of academic ethics in the field of history.
Although ancient times was a hierarchical society, decent ancients emphasized the self-discipline of "making friends without flattery and profanity". According to the new society envisioned by Marx, of course, the people are above and the public servants are below. Flattering the people is not a bad thing, but in the reality that many things are too powerful, the new ethical relationship regulated by Marx is often upside down. Many ancient literati, even modern intellectuals like Chen Yinque, attach great importance to the word "sublime". But it seems to keep pace with the times, and the word "sublime" can hardly occupy its due position in the field of modern history. It is the philosophy of many people to follow the trend and seek benefits.
Therefore, an editor-in-chief put forward a shocking invention, that is, "compiling history in a prosperous time", which not only caused a sensation in the media, but will undoubtedly spread a colorful page in the future history of modern historiography in China. But I also want to take this opportunity to ask this editor a very simple question, what is a prosperous time, and what standards should it have? Management history for many years, even the concept of prosperity is not clear.
God rewarded those who helped him, and the achievements in the history of prosperity were richly rewarded. A Mongolian friend made a long-distance call to the author after learning about it, and advised me to do what I can and pay attention to the act of wasting people's fat and paste casually. I was really moved by this, so I wrote an article "Two Views on the Compilation of Qing History" in Wen Wei Po on June 2003 1, kindly advising an editor not to be stingy with people's ointment. However, not long after, a group of experts from Taiwan Province Province were invited to discuss the scheme and give everyone a five-star hotel for high-end consumption. Of course, the wealth of their counterparts in Taiwan Province Province is not comparable to that of the mainland, but they express the view that the reception is so luxurious that it is enough for them to go out and stay in a three-star hotel. Of course, no one can deny that Chinese mainland's national wealth has increased greatly in recent years. However, China is still a poor country, and it is not easy or even embarrassing for most families to spend even 100 yuan at a time. What qualifications and reasons do you have? You should be so generous and profligate. Don't you lose heart in the face of most people who are not rich in the whole society? Is this an example set by party member for the world? On October 28th, 2003/KLOC-0, the Beijing Morning Post reported that Wang, a student from Tsinghua University, had been subsidizing poor students in Xiangxi in various ways for three consecutive years. A local girl "had to put down her beloved schoolbag" just because she was short of three yuan. I would like to suggest that the editor-in-chief read this report and compare it with myself. Don't know how to feel.
As the world goes from bad to worse, people do more and more bad things and compare with each other, which inevitably leads to another serious social and moral problem, that is, people are getting thicker and thicker, or at best, they are shameless. What you were ashamed to say in the past can now be said with confidence; Things that used to be ashamed to act can now be done in public. According to many middle-aged scholars who participated in the seminar on the revision of this book, an editor-in-chief also attended the meeting. Facing a group of younger generations, he was still condescending and pale. Maybe, in a sense, he has a point. Since he is the payer, it's like the capitalist hired a group of helpers to modify it for me. But academia is still academia after all. I once asked myself, if I had compiled this book myself, I'm afraid I would be ashamed to meet people in a year or so.
It is said that although an editor-in-chief has few personal monographs, he has edited more than 100 books, which may create a short Guinness World Record. Speaking of role models, people often say that the power of role models is infinite. What example did the editor-in-chief set for later scholars? Is it an example of getting something for nothing (remember that in my middle school politics class, the important teaching is that getting something for nothing is shameful, which is the first education of Marxism)? Being a short edition editor has reason to be irresponsible for quality. Is this an example? Is it an example of stealing the name of the China Historical Society and swindling in the international arena? Should this example be passed down from generation to generation in academic circles and carried forward?
Finally, I might as well mention an old thing. Many years ago, my teacher, of course, Mr. Zhang, a teacher of the editor-in-chief, went to Shandong with the editor-in-chief to participate in the defense of graduate thesis. Of course, Mr. Zhang is famous for his profound knowledge and rigorous research on history, and everyone in the circle respects him. The editor-in-chief made a speech there. Although he is eloquent and has talked about history for several years, he is full of fallacies. Teacher Zhang has seldom criticized people, but this time because he didn't pretend to understand, he couldn't help but comment: "This person has no knowledge. Judging from the topics he selected for graduate students, he asked others to do the Sikuquanshu. Did he finish it by himself? I haven't finished reading how to guide others? " Hearing the teacher's comments, I couldn't help feeling: "It's not surprising. No matter how big the world is and how high the knowledge is, even the most talented scholars can say that they know very little in a sense. Knowing is knowing, not knowing is not knowing. If you don't know, you will think you know, otherwise you will inevitably become a liar. "
According to China's tradition of respecting teachers, I wonder if the editor-in-chief will feel a little ashamed of his teacher's criticism. In response to my public review, some people say that the so-called self-criticism is just talk. How many people in life can do sincere self-review? I said, this judgment need not be made too early. Let's wait and see how party member, who was born and raised in * * *, can practice the Party's purpose and style, and recover its bad influence on historians, China Historical Society and society.
Postscript: This article was originally published in The Historian Teahouse 1 series, and the content about winning the China Book Prize was deleted. It is obviously academic rubbish, but with the golden packaging compiled by the China Historical Society, it won the China Book Award, which also shows how far academic corruption has progressed. If some people who take the lead in academic corruption are respected as grandmasters and guided by them to the "new trend of the times", where will China's academics slide? Only in this way can I be forced to make this decision, and right and wrong should be discussed.
The original article "An editor-in-chief put forward a great invention that shocked the world, that is, compiling history in prosperous times" was changed to "An editor-in-chief took over the so-called compiling history in prosperous times from ancient scholars". According to my computer software of some ancient books, there are more than 2,800 "prosperous times", but none of them are "prosperous times to compile history". It can be seen that "compiling history in prosperous times" is not the saliva of the ancients, but a patent of the editor-in-chief, and the changes here are inappropriate.