In fact, Professor Ge is not opposed to recreating historical figures in literary and artistic works. He emphasized that literary and artistic works do not undertake the task of making people learn real history.
There is no doubt about it. Let all China people vote for the most familiar ancient history of China. Nine times out of ten, it's three countries. Of course, the reason is not the familiar reading of the history of the Three Kingdoms, but the well-known Romance of the Three Kingdoms and its adapted film and television works. But I'm afraid no one will say that they learned the real history of the Three Kingdoms from The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
King Stuart in history was not scolded to death by Zhuge Liang alive.
But we have to ask again, is the reflection completely true? I'm afraid not. We acknowledge the existence of historical objective facts, but we have to use historical texts to understand these objective facts. The existence of historical texts is often ignored by us, as if it is a transparent glass, through which we can clearly see what happened in the past.
In fact, this glass is not a complete and practical display of past facts. When we focus on the glass, we will find that the previously clear scenery suddenly becomes blurred. For historical research, even the official history, there may be many places hidden and misinterpreted by researchers.
Why does 0 1 have a "false history"
Of course, historical researchers regard respecting historical facts as their first priority, but in reality there are always some researchers who intentionally or unintentionally conceal and misinterpret some historical facts. There are about three reasons.
First, it is to achieve a certain purpose. It can also be said that the conclusion is first, make every effort to come to such a conclusion in the study. For example, the internal version of the Atlas of Chinese History pieced together the territories of different periods into "extremely prosperous territories" to show that China has always had a vast territory; At any time, the boundaries of the imperial dynasties in the Central Plains should be drawn outside the Great Wall, at least more than the Great Wall, in order to refute the Soviet point of view in the Sino-Soviet debate in the 1960s and prove that the Great Wall was never the boundary of China.
Second, it conforms to a certain theory or doctrine. This may lead to choosing only materials that can prove the "theory" held, and turning a blind eye to the refuted materials. Previous scholars set the population at that time at 50-60 million according to the registered population of Ming Dynasty. With such a low figure, it is not difficult to find the problem with a little attention. The "fact" of long-term population stagnation in the middle and late Ming Dynasty was just used to prove the end of feudal society, the corruption and incompetence of the ruling class and the cruel exploitation of farmers. It can even be seen as evidence that the country is closed to the outside world and the seeds of capitalism are suppressed. It is no wonder that until today, some people have ignored the results of our study that the population of the Ming Dynasty has exceeded 200 million.
Paintings by Master Chou Ying in Suzhou Town, Paintings of Ming Dynasty
Third, emphasize serving politics or safeguarding the so-called "national interests." For some facts or conclusions, you can admit that you are right privately or internally, and you know that you are untenable. But it is said that if it is published truthfully, it will harm the country and affect politics, so we must continue to lie. Or take the internal version of Atlas of Chinese History as an example. At that time, if someone suggested narrowing the territory according to historical materials, it would be suspected of "betraying the country" and it would be "patriotism" to advocate as much as possible.
This kind of "patriotism" in historical research can be applied to almost every aspect. For example, as early as 1942, Mr. Tan Qixiang published "On the so-called important geographical discovery of Xu Xiake in Ding Wenjiang", pointing out that Ding Wenjiang's statement that Xu Xiake first discovered that the Yangtze River was the Jinsha River was wrong, because 1 century published "Geography of the Han Dynasty" recorded the rope water (the name of the Jinsha River at that time) and knew that it came from a distant country.
Xu Xiake (1587- 164 1), whose real name was Hongzu and Zhenzhi, was a geographer, traveler and writer in Ming Dynasty. After 30 years' investigation, he finished the 600,000-word book "Xu Xiake's Travels".
This article was published in "Commemorating the 300th Anniversary of Xu Xiake's Death" of Zhejiang University. This is not a unique book, it was reprinted in the 1950s. However, until 1980s, articles or reports published in the most important newspapers and periodicals in China still called "the discovery of the positive source of the Yangtze River" Xu's "outstanding contribution". The author's reason is probably that since Xu Xiake is a great man in the history of China, it is natural to promote the Xu family's patriotism. What does it matter whether this statement is right or not?
Although these reasons lead to concealment and misinterpretation in historical research, historical researchers have only one purpose, that is, to explore the laws of human social development and change on the basis of restoring historical facts. Without real history as an argument, how can historical laws be established?
But at the same time, we have to admit that absolutely true history can never be obtained. The study of the past can only be completed through the records left. If you don't record it, it will be lost in the past time. Even if records are left, these records may decrease with the passage of time, such as being lost in natural disasters or wars.
Can we learn about "real history"
Although absolute truth cannot be obtained, it does not mean that history is meaningless. True history is still the eternal pursuit of historians, because without truth, historiography has no value and cannot be regarded as science.
If we understand the truth as relative and accessible, then it is feasible to pursue the truth, and we will make continuous progress and bring us closer to the truth. Whether Qin Shihuang had a mole on his face is indeed a historical fact. If someone has really worked out a result, it is not a bad thing, but not knowing this obviously has no influence on determining his historical contribution. It is untrue to say that he doesn't know it.
Does Qin Shihuang have moles on his face?
The pursuit of truth is a process of constantly correcting mistakes. In the process of exploration, it is likely that there will be wrong judgments, or false historical materials will be wrongly believed, or they will be restricted by related disciplines. But once found, we should return to the right direction without hesitation, which is the truth-seeking of history.
How can we understand "real history"? This is not an easy task, because the history that everyone knows is only a small fragment in the long river of history. However, after all, there is a way to follow.
The first step to understand history is to read historical materials. For historical materials, it is of course very important to read through the text. In the past, the difference in sentence meaning was caused by the wording and sentence-making of historical materials.
For example, Li Bai's famous sentence "Thinking at a Quiet Night": "The foot of the bed is bright, is there frost? . Looking up, I found that it was moonlight, sinking again, and I suddenly thought of home. " The word "bed" in the poem used to be generally interpreted as "sleeping bed", but how can you "look up" and "bow your head" when sleeping in bed? Obviously, this statement is unreasonable. In fact, the bed in ancient times not only refers to bedding, but also refers to stool and chair in Shuo Wen Jie Zi, which was a kind of stool introduced from the western regions to the Central Plains in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Recently, some people interpret the bed in this poem as a field, citing Li Bai's "Long March" and "When you, my love, ride a bamboo horse, run in circles and throw your childhood" as evidence, and think that it is made by the poet who visited the garden at night, which also makes sense.
Another example is "The Analects of Confucius and the hard-working townships", which says that "the stable burned down and the son retired, and said,' Is it harmful?' Don't ask the horse. (Confucius' stable caught fire, and when he retired from the DPRK, he learned that he had hurt someone. Some people think that this reflects Confucius' humanistic view, but in the Tang Dynasty, Han Yu thought that the last sentence should be broken into: "Hey:' Hurt the people? "Ask the horse." This becomes a problem between man and horse, because Confucius is a great saint. "Are saints good for people and bad for horses?" (Ji Weng's Leisure Record in Tang Dynasty) Some people also broke this sentence:' Hurt the people? No. Ask the horse. "Is also a similar meaning. Different interpretations of the original document will undoubtedly lead to different conclusions.
But at the same time, we should also pay attention to the fact that most of the historical documents we see today have been copied, reprinted or even altered and supplemented by future generations, so the current books may not be the original works.
For example, we used to study Laozi and his thoughts according to the handed down book Tao Te Ching, but in 1973, two kinds of silk notes of Laozi were unearthed from the No.3 Han Tomb in Mawangdui, Changsha. The most striking difference is that Tao Te Ching is in front and Tao Jing is behind. 1993, three earlier bamboo slips of Laozi were unearthed from the Chu Tomb at Guodian 1 in Jingmen, Hubei Province. There is a great difference between characters and handed down, and many expressions are not available in handed down versions.
Lao Zi, a silk book unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb.
After reading the text, there is still a question of authenticity. The information handed down, which survived and which perished, is very accidental. There are few left, a considerable part of which are forged and tampered with, and some are selective. In particular, the materials representing official positions, after finishing and cutting, are no longer original materials. And even the original data, such as the diaries of the ancients, need to be identified. Some of our predecessors' diaries were written for ourselves, and quite a few were written for others. They are going to publish it before they die. This is the habit of literati since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and its authenticity will be greatly reduced.
The most famous diary is of course ...
The picture shows Chiang Kai-shek's diary after the September 18th Incident.
For example, the famous Diary of a Full Moon is the diary of Li Ciming, a celebrity in the late Qing Dynasty. It started in the fourth year of Xianfeng (1854) and ended in the fifteenth year of Guangxu (1889). It was photocopied and published by the Commercial Press in 1920, with a total of 5 1 volume. Li Ciming's diary was often copied by others and spread widely. Mr. Lu Xun once sharply criticized the Diary of Yue Maotang: "I don't think I can learn from Li See's kindness, but I always see some affectation, as if I had been cheated." ("How to Write Three Leisure Collections") was ridiculed as "really stupid and smelly" ("Gai Hua's Diary of Collection Continuation").
Understanding history is not just a matter of reading a history book. Most of the historical truth can't be seen directly from the history books, but we need to see the historical truth through these words.
Since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, especially in the Ming Dynasty, the government has commended chastity women on a large scale. According to rough statistics, there were only a few chaste women recorded in the previous official Biography of Women, generally only a few dozen people, while the Biography of Women in the Ming Dynasty earned as much as 30 1 person at once, and the editor also said that "there were more than 10,000 people writing local chronicles and county chronicles."
In the Qing dynasty, it was a dime a dozen. According to "Preface to the Biography of Women in Qing Dynasty", "There are thousands of people in the Ritual Department who honor their wives, daughters, wives, martyrs and unmarried women, and at the annual meeting. Enemy at the Gates, it is difficult to fight for millions. " The editors selected 688 people. Does this really mean that there were many virtuous women at that time?
In fact, it just shows that such people are very limited, otherwise, what is the need for the government to vigorously commend them? Why not praise men for getting married in time? Because as long as the economy allows, men will get married in time and do not need government recognition.
According to the research on confession in the criminal science archives of Qing Dynasty (the document that the local governor reported the criminal case that led to the victim's death to the Ministry of Punishment), due to the lack of economic resources, there are fewer women than men in the total population. Although it is not encouraged to remarry, it is still a very common phenomenon, especially in the middle and lower classes of society.
In addition, to understand history, we should not only use words, but also pay attention to information outside words, including field investigation. Although some historical phenomena have disappeared or just left some traces, the big geographical environment will not change.
When I first read Historical Records and Hanshu, I always had doubts about the division of the Western Regions into 36 or 48 countries. Except Wusun and Dawan in the west, which have large areas and large populations, other countries are extremely small, with only a few thousand or hundreds of people. Why are you divided into so many countries? Why can't even these countries be controlled by many dynasties in the future?
Once I went to Xinjiang, I took a small plane from Urumqi across the Tianshan Mountains and flew to Kashgar in southern Xinjiang. Looking down from the plane, Xinjiang is like a huge sand table, with a khaki desert between the ochre mountains and oases scattered sparsely in the middle. Later, when I came back by car, I often went out early in the morning. The car kept driving on the endless Gobi for eight or nine hours before an oasis appeared. At other times, I can't see a village all day. Beyond the oasis, there are endless Gobi and desert. Today, there are mechanical means of transportation, such as cars. In ancient times, only manpower and animal power were used as means of transportation. How could people in one oasis rule another oasis?
For these countries, unless they are invaded by foreign enemies and seek protection, it is meaningless to combine into a larger political entity or unify into a country, which is basically harmful. Because to implement effective rule, it is necessary to send personnel, deliver news, collect taxes and exchange materials, which is difficult or costly. This is the fundamental reason why it is divided into 36 countries and 48 countries.
So until the late Qing Dynasty, when Xinjiang was established as a province, only the Sui and Tang Dynasties established a formal administrative region in eastern Xinjiang, and several separatist regimes in sixteen countries established several counties. If you have never been to Xinjiang, you won't have a personal experience of this situation in history.
Seeking the meaning of "true history"
Historical researchers should pursue true history, because truth is the basis of historiography. But do ordinary people who are not professionals also want real history? If we want to know some truth from history, do we have to reflect? Isn't there a lot to learn from the romance of the Three Kingdoms and the adaptation of film and television dramas?
In the CCTV version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao, played by Mr. Bao An, performed brilliantly.
Of course, we don't have to read the History of the Three Kingdoms, but it is very necessary to maintain a basic "truth-seeking" attitude towards history. Historical research can provide laws for other disciplines or be used for publicity and education, and history can also provide information for solving practical problems, including background, experience and so on. The value of the latter is most valued by some people, and history should be made to serve reality. When we ask about the value of history to ourselves, we are actually asking how history can bring us benefits in practice.
In fact, the direct effect of historical research on reality is quite limited. Although we often quote "there is nothing new under the sun", history will not repeat itself, and no historical experience can be fully applied to reality. Even some truths we have learned from historical stories are not universally applicable, but will be established in a certain context. In other words, historical facts are the cornerstone of those truths. The truth without the support of "real history" is undoubtedly a castle in the air, and it is still unknown whether it will eventually evolve into a dogma.
It is difficult to seek "true history", and we may be surrounded by "false history". Whether you can tell the truth from the false is also an extremely important part of your personal historical accomplishment.
Today's activities
Today, Ge was specially invited by Peking University Forum to talk about history.
Click to read the original text and enter the live broadcast room in advance.
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