of modern historyThe Great Misunderstanding: Echoes of History
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The Historical Wisdom of the Chinese: Three Misconceptions Explained in Modern History Whether in the fields of cooking, agriculture, or history, the Chinese always seem to be exceptional.
Especially in history, China's historian system and historical records are considered to be the most complete and largest in the world, and the lessons of history have also been regarded as the most important thing by the rulers of the past dynasties.
However, there are three misconceptions about recent history. These misunderstandings reflect people's one-sided understanding of history, and also affect our correct understanding and application of modern history.
This article will attempt to explain these misconceptions in the hope of helping us gain a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of recent history.
In modern Chinese history, three main research perspectives are usually adopted: 1China's modern history since 1840 has been a history of challenges and survival.
This perspective dominates the academic world, and the core of its theme is "national independence, salvation and survival". This theme is like a torch that passes from class to class and becomes our dominant narrative.
From childhood to adulthood, we have learned these mainstream historical stories, from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement led by the peasant class, to the Westernization Movement led by the feudal landlord class, the Wuxu Reform and the Constitution of the late Qing Dynasty, to the Xinhai Revolution initiated by the bourgeoisie, and later the May Fourth Movement and the rise of the proletariat, etc., all of which ended in failure.
However, after a series of turmoil and struggles, finally in 1949, a new page was turned in history.
China's modern history since 1840 is a history of responding to the impact of the West, learning from the West, and integrating into modern civilization. In Western academic circles, Fairbank's "shock-response" model was one of the mainstream perspectives in the study of modern Chinese history.
He believes that China's response to the onslaught of Western civilization is the main theme of China's modern history. In the Chinese academic community, this paradigm has had a wide impact. Skeptics of this model, however, point out that it ignores China's own initiative.
They believe that in the face of Western shocks, China is not only reactive, but on the contrary, has a strong will to learn from the West. The representative of this view is the ** scholar Jiang Tinghuang.
In his 1938 book Modern History of China, he emphasized that in order for China to survive, it must be "Westernized", that is, to learn Western artifacts, systems, and ideas.
China is working hard to revise for the history exam, constantly improving its study methods, and striving to achieve satisfactory results. However, most of the existing historical works do not cover the full range of perspectives.
In order to re-understand China since 1840, Mr. Wang Renbo's new book China Since 1840 provides a new perspective of public law. From the perspective of public law, modern Chinese history focuses on the primary issues of modernization—the nature and structure of the state, the ownership of power, and the relationship between people.
In contrast, the mainstream historical paradigm focuses primarily on the modernization of artifacts and the tools of the powerful state. From the perspective of public law, what is the real question of history, not the truth of history or the laws of history.
For example, even if the laws of history are mastered, the mistakes of the past can still be repeated. The modernity of the first and second parts of "China since 1840", the Chineseness of the law, and the three major transformation dilemmas faced by China since 1840.
These three dilemmas can be summed up as the difficulties that China faces on the road to modernization. This process is like filling a new wine in an old bottle, which will make the original flavor of the wine lose, and this is the problem that China's reform faces.
As a result, the road ahead is narrower than we think.