After reading In the impetuous Internet age, reading emphasizes "eating fast food", and no one reads too long text.There is one of the principles of memory: Paid knowledge is not easy to forget, and the higher the price, the better it will be remembered.After all, surfing the Internet is different from reading books in your hands. Good books have to be bought and read.In a country where ISBNs have become a scarce resource, publishers have to calculate costs and profits, and always prefer to publish thicker bestsellers.The brochures that were not annoying before the 1990s are now rare, because their cost performance is often only suitable for readers rather than merchants.

From time to time, a friend asks me: Which general history is the most convenient to read and understand the history of China over the past five thousand years?As far as my reading experience is concerned, excluding the classical Chinese tomes such as "Historical Records" and "Gangjian Yizhilu", among the new general history of China that I have read, there are 10 volumes edited by Mr. Fan Wenlan and Cai Meibiao, and Bai Shouyi There are 22 volumes edited by Mr. Jian Bozan, and Mr. Jian Bozan's "Outline of Chinese History" has two volumes, both of which were published after 1949. They have more or less the characteristics of "taking history with theory"; in contrast, Lu Si The general history works of Mr. Mian, Qian Mu, and Huang Xianfan are relatively concise and concise, and rarely have political imprints.

Mr. Lv Simian (1884-1957), courtesy name Chengzhi, was born in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, and was born in a scholarly family.He inherited his family education when he was young, and entered the county school for the first time. The old school has a deep foundation, and he is basically self-taught, and has not received new university education. Since 1926, he has been a professor of the Chinese Department of Shanghai Guanghua University, and later a professor and head of the History Department.According to today's official education system that only emphasizes academic qualifications and not talents, he does not even have the qualifications to teach.During the Republic of China era, the academic center was Peking University. Given his academic status and influence, it was not a problem for him to teach there. However, he chose to stay at the private Guanghua University (merged into East China Normal University in the 1950s) until his death.Mr. Lu's academic qualifications and academic interests were not in tune with the academic elites with Western education background at that time, and one of the reasons may be that he adhered to the tradition of "private education" and did not want to set foot in government-run public universities.

Mr. Lu is a well-rounded talent. In his lifetime, he wrote two general histories of China, four histories of dating, five specialized histories and a large number of historiographical notes, with a total of eight or nine million words.This original book is divided into two volumes, "the first volume takes cultural phenomena as the title, and the second volume is linked according to the times."In the first volume, he refined the "Eight Books" style of "Historical Records", decomposed them into eighteen categories, and discussed them separately.The second volume starts from the origin of the nation and the ancient society, and narrates the historical events of the past dynasties in chronological order until the Republic of China, creating the creation.With the history of humanities as the latitude and the history of politics as the classic, the expression is clear, the discussion is vigorous, and the history of more than 5,000 years of China is condensed into one book, which only uses 380,000 words, and its skill is extraordinary.

What kind of perspective and stand should be used to review and examine history?I think at least two points should be achieved: first, have a macro perspective first, and then have a micro perspective, travel through time and space at any time, and constantly adjust the focal length; to five hundred years later.The writing of general history requires a vision that travels through time and space and a high-level historical knowledge, otherwise it will be difficult to manage a large amount of historical materials.Lu Zhu not only inherited the historical tradition since Sima Qian, but also adopted the academic vision opened up by Liang Qichao's "new historiography" in the late Qing Dynasty. He regarded Chinese history as the history of a nation-state and observed and studied it in the time and space of world history. The sharp angle of view has been adjusted to keep an appropriate distance from politics.

The part I am most interested in reading is Mr. Lu's view of history based on the background of old learning and the height of new learning.The original book expanded from the private domain to the public domain, starting from the social life of the early people, from marriage, clan system, political system, class, property to official system, election, taxation, military system, criminal law, from industry, currency to food, clothing, housing and transportation, From education, Chinese to academics and religion, it analyzes the evolution of social system, economy and culture.The ordering of the chapters and the expression of the content are detailed and have an inherent historical logic relationship.

The rigor of Mr. Lu's scholarship lies not only in his macro vision, but also in his attention to historical details.He divided the history of China into three major periods in terms of economic system: "Before the history, it is the first period. After the history, it ends at the end of Xinshi, which is the second period. From the death of Xinshi to the present, it is the third period." .From now on, it will be the beginning of the fourth period." He noted: "During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, two trends of thought had emerged in society: one was Confucianism, which advocated the equalization of land rights, and its specific method was to restore the well field system. The other was Legalism, which advocated capital restraint, and its specific method was, It is (a) government-run for major undertakings; (b) large-scale commercial and private lending, which are also interfered by the public." In terms of ruling technology (government techniques), the legalists knew that "the creation of new taxes should use indirect methods. Avoid taking directly from the farmer"."Add a little price to the salt and iron related to the daily use of the people, and the country's income will already be quite a lot."The legalist Sang Hongyang of the Han Dynasty’s policy of official sales of salt and iron and the equalization of the policy, “The purpose of raising funds was achieved, but the purpose of correcting the social economy was not achieved. The policies implemented by the Han Dynasty, such as reducing land rent and emphasizing agriculture Suppression of merchants, etc., was even less effective. It was not until the end of the Han Dynasty, when Wang Mang came out, that he combined the ideas of Confucianism and Legalism to carry out a major reform.” (Chapter 41 Property)

Mr. Lu believes: "Wang Mang's failure is not the failure of Wang Mang alone, but the failure of social reformers since the pre-Qin period." The equalization of land rights movement in the Jin Dynasty, such as the household adjustment system in the Jin Dynasty, the land equalization order in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and the rent and mediocrity adjustment method in the Tang Dynasty.In the Song Dynasty Wang Anshi's reform, the focus has shifted to grain prices. Although the implementation of the Green Crop Law had good intentions, in the era when commodity exchange and civil society were not yet fully developed, power could not be supervised, and the reform eventually became a wasteful government.He concluded:

In the past dynasties in China, social thought has always advocated equalization of the rich and the poor. This is one of the reasons why it is easy to accept socialism in modern times.However, although its purpose is good, the method it advocates is not good.This is due to the fact that scholars of all dynasties have been deeply influenced by traditional ideas, but have too little observation of reality.In China, the authority in the ideological world is undoubtedly Confucianism.Confucianism's understanding of social and economic development is not as profound as that of Legalism, so it only advocates the equalization of land rights and ignores the role of capital. (Chapter 41 Property)

This discussion is quite fair, affirming the historical status of the reformers, but compared with the "history of the struggle between Confucianism and Legalism" created for political needs during the "Cultural Revolution", I don't know how clever it is. When analyzing the evolution of the property system from public ownership to private ownership, Mr. Lu pointed out that "there are two ways for human beings to unite: one is to work together without dividing each other, and the other is to separate each other's boundaries. Both separate each other's boundaries , but want to enjoy the results of other people's labor, then you have to choose between (A) trading and (B) plundering. In ancient times, the method of plundering was more common than trading. In ancient times Among all kinds of societies, in terms of culture, agricultural society is the highest; in terms of wealth, agricultural society is also the strongest, but it is easy to be conquered.”After the conquerors established their rule, they had to consider the sustainability of their rule (or exploitation), and not interfere with the original social organization at will, or even assimilate into a more advanced social culture than themselves:

(1) The exploiter must also leave room for the exploited, so that the resources they exploit can be preserved for a long time. (2) The purpose of exploitation is to enjoy pleasure, so it is lazy. It is enough to achieve the purpose of exploitation. Why interfere with other people's internal affairs? (3) In fact, the power of the exploiters may be limited, and the internal affairs of the exploited may not allow them to interfere arbitrarily. (4) Moreover, when two societies meet, the force may be superior to the less evolved society, while the organization must be strengthened by the more deeply evolved society.Therefore, in terms of military affairs, or societies with more advanced evolution are conquered by societies with lesser evolution; in terms of culture, societies with lesser evolution are always assimilated by societies with more advanced evolution. (Chapter 41 Property) Regarding the evolution of civilization from the feudal era to the capitalist era, Mr. Lu believes: The root of feudal society was plundering each other by force.Everyone plunders each other by force, and everyone's life and property cannot be guaranteed.This is too dangerous.Therefore, with the gradual progress of society, the matter of plundering by force must always be strictly prohibited.In this day and age, if a rich person gives money, it depends on whether he is willing or not.So to have money is to have power.The bold warrior must bow before the cunning and miserly miser.This is the root of the transformation of feudal society and capitalist society.In all fairness: the cruelty of capitalism is a matter of accumulation.When it first emerged, it was much fairer and gentler than force, and it was naturally welcomed by people. (Chapter 40 Classes) Before the industrial civilization spread eastward, China's agricultural civilization was once a strong civilization.Mr. Lu pointed out that after the nomads invaded, they were assimilated by Chinese culture; after the Buddhist culture, which is also an agricultural civilization, was imported into China, "it failed to Indianize the life of the Chinese people, but Buddhism itself changed to adapt to the Our life has changed"; "Although China has been in constant contact with the outside world, it has received very little foreign influence"; "The civilization of modern Europe and the West can change the basis of life, so that our way of life has to be completely changed. Once there is a change, the difficulties we have to deal with begin from then on. But the hope of a brighter future and great happiness rests on this big change.” (Chapter 32 Negotiations between China and the West in the early stage) The change of lifestyle is the most radical change. These expressions reveal the historical necessity of industrial civilization replacing agricultural civilization and becoming the mainstream civilization. The relationship between culture and system is a topic of long-standing debate.Regarding the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Revolution, which transformed Western religions into local religions, Mr. Lu analyzed that the reason for its failure was "not military but political." "If you look deeper, its failure can also be said to be cultural."He pointed out: "Social revolution and political revolution are not easy to go hand in hand at the same time, and social revolution, especially for social organizations, requires a deep understanding of the cause and effect, which cannot be helped by the simple and destructive equalization of the rich and the poor. "(Chapter 33 The Restoration Movement of the Han Nationality) Mr. Lu's analysis is very precise. The Chinese people's misunderstanding of revolution in modern times is precisely because they confuse the difference between political revolution and social revolution and make the two go hand in hand. The closer the history is to the reality, the harder it is to judge. When analyzing the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Mr. Lu not only mentioned the power struggle background of the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898, but also pointed out the old-fashioned and ignorant culture: "As long as the Chinese are united, foreigners can be The thought of "returning to the old days of retreat" is an important reason for the obscurantist xenophobic movement.The reason why the revolution surpassed the improvement is: "Since Xiaoqin returned to Luan, xenophobia has turned into fawning on the outside world; those who resisted the reform before have turned into a new policy to perfuse the people. In the court, luxury and lust, Above the imperial court, the mediocrity is as usual. The Manchu government cannot be maintained so far, and the Chinese people have no choice but to seek a political solution on their own.” (Chapter 35 The Fall of the Qing Dynasty) Decaying politics, lagging reforms and foreign-friendly diplomacy eventually led to the outbreak of revolution and the overthrow of the dynasty. All of the above are just a little experience in reading, and cannot fully describe the profoundness of Mr. Lu. Mr. Yan Gengwang called Chen Yinke, Qian Mu, Chen Yuan, and Lu Simian together as the "Four Great Masters" of historiography. The other three schools were well-known, but Mr. Lu was lonely. . During the revolution in 1949, Mr. Qian left Xiangjiang and refused to cooperate with the new regime; Mr. Chen (Yin Ke) stayed in Yangcheng halfway and became a representative of the non-mainstream; Mr. Chen (Yuan) stayed in Beijing to regret his mistakes and became the new mainstream Accepted.From this point of view, fame can be obtained "positively" or "reversely", and intentional or unintentional "political correctness" or "incorrectness" are enough to make a name for yourself. "Learn literary and martial arts, and be with the emperor's family", Chinese scholar-bureaucrats have always had the urge to be "the emperor's teacher". When rulers want to do something good or bad, they often ask historians for advice as if they "learn history as a mirror".In fact, in the mind of the master, most of these people are spare "two-legged bookcases" or poets who sing praises.If academics cannot keep a distance from politics, scholars can easily become politicians. Mr. Lu devoted his whole life to academics and insisted on being a hermit in the academic world, which is especially commendable. Zhang Xuecheng of the Qing Dynasty pointed out in his famous book "Wen Shi Tong Yi": "Those who can have historical knowledge must have historical morality." In the general history, not only can one get a glimpse of the author's historical ethics and historical knowledge, but also gain insight into the cycle of the rise and fall of Chinese dynasties, so that future generations can learn from it, and don't make future generations regret it.

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