"When misfortune comes, happiness rests on it, and when good fortune comes, misfortune rests on it." This is what I have only realized since I was born (in 1920? Month? Day) until I am eighty-six today. My second birth——I have experienced several turbulent waves and life-and-death experiences in my life—I believe that my second birth was April 1, 1968, the day I was arrested and imprisoned for my writing. .Until 1977, after sitting for nine years and twenty-six days, he was released from prison. Many people asked me why I chose the day when I was imprisoned as my second birthday. There are many reasons. I just took "Bo Yang Edition Zi Zhi Tong Jian" this year (2006) to be republished by Beiyue Literature and Art Publishing House and shared with mainland China. As far as the meeting with readers is concerned, it is not only due to the disaster in prison, but also gave me a new starting point in my life.Because without this prison, no matter how much I shake my pen, I will at best be just a columnist who writes humorous essays like the recently critically ill and world-famous American Art Buchwald.Nine years and twenty-six days in prison made me devote myself to studying history, began my work on the long history of China, and also established my own critique of traditional Chinese historical views.Wouldn't it be enough for me to choose April 1, 1968, as my second birth?Mr. Tang Degang, the historian who supported me the most and was my good teacher, once said: "...if it hadn't been for the ten years that Jiang imprisoned him, how long would he have been able to speak his rhetoric?" (19 In 1999, Professor Tang Degang was the keynote speaker at the "International Symposium on Bo Yang's Thought and Literature" sponsored by the Asian Studies Center of the University of Hong Kong.) Professor Tang's words are really the highlight of my life.He even praised my "Bo Yang Version of Zi Zhi Tong Jian" and said: "Bo Yang, Bo Yang, this is your tablet in the history of cultural transformation!" The heart of gratitude and vigilance is indeed the endless support and applause on the stage of my life.

Language is a coordinate on a network of ideas.Using the language of our generation—modern language—the author Sima Guang, who completed the preface more than 900 years ago (in 1067 A.D., the sixth emperor of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Xu, gave the preface to Sima Guang) From three years to AD 959, the Chinese history of more than 1,360 years, I will retell it for readers. Apart from the evolution of language, I certainly cannot maintain the ideological and value standards of the feudal era.Of course, the new era has new coordinates, so besides "Chen Guang's Day", I have my "Bo Yang's Day".This is a very "self-righteous" feature of my set of translated books.

Today we have entered the computer age with advanced information, and our society has also entered an era of openness and diversity from an absolute single belief.The speed of evolution of language structure, ideology, values, thinking logic, etc. is faster than in the past.Today's young generation not only has a new language in the use of computers, but also develops graphic characters.In the ever-changing and ever-changing river of life, I believe that history is the accumulated asset of our human culture, and it belongs to the unchanging turbulent current, but the expression of language and characters will evolve with the times.I believe that there will be different versions in the future, and there will be historical evaluations of different characters, supplementing "Chen Guangyue" and "Bo Yangyue".

On the eve of publication, thinking of the turning point of my own life, the paradox of interdependence between misfortune and blessing, I have to put aside the current popular short-term operations, and learn to look at world affairs with a profound historical perspective, which is a precious book.