Mao HaijianBorn in 1954, he is currently a member of the Academic Committee of the Simian Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, a professor and doctoral supervisor of the Department of History, the dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, the dean of the Simian Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, and a distinguished professor of the University of Macau. In his early years, he studied under the historian Professor Chen Xulu. He graduated from the Department of History of Sun Yat-sen University with a bachelor's degree in history, and graduated from the Department of History of East China Normal University with a master's degree in modern Chinese history in February 1980. From 1982 to 1999, he worked as an assistant researcher in the Encyclopedia Editing Office of the Academy of Military Sciences and an assistant researcher, associate researcher and researcher at the Institute of Modern History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. His research interests include modern Chinese history, politics and diplomacy. He is the author of "Zhang Zhidong Archives Reading Notes: The Other Side of the Wuxu Reform", "The History of the Wuxu Reform", "The Collapse of the *: Re-study of the Opium War", "The Scale of Modern Times: Military and Diplomacy of the Two Opium Wars", "The Complete History of the Qing Dynasty", Volume VII, "Still the Old Moonlight", etc., as well as publishing many articles in professional academic journals.
My friend Professor Gao Shihua wrote several times and asked me to participate in the written discussion of "Research on the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression". He also knew that I was personally far away from the subject and had not done any special research, but his insistence made me feel that these things seemed unavoidable. It's really "reluctant" for him, and for me, it can only be a layman's "nonsense". The reader accidentally touches it, so let's treat it as a "casual statement".
Although I am a layman, I still pay more attention to "Research on the War of Resistance Against Japan". There are two reasons for this, the first is that Gao Shihua is hosting (I will talk about it separately later), and the second is that this highly political topic is now made into a highly academic journal.
In my personal experience, relatively recent matters should be studied in the fields of political science, law, sociology, and international relations theory, which have a relatively large tendency. The Historical Society is more troublesome because its most basic principle is the principle of neutrality, avoiding excessive tendencies. The topic of "War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression" has both a narrow and a broad sense. In a narrow sense, it refers to the resistance of the Chinese people to Japanese aggression from 1931 to 1945; Broadly speaking, it can be extended to the Sino-Japanese War that began in 1894, to Japan's mainland policy since the Meiji era and China's diplomatic strategy during the same period, and then to the economic and social and cultural activities of various circles in Japan that have "special purposes" in China and the reaction ...... of all circles in ChinaWhether in a narrow or broad sense, since the Meiji era, Japan has done many very bad things to China (of course, there are good ones), causing China to suffer huge losses in many fields such as land, finance, economy, society, and personal destiny, changing China's path, and causing many Chinese and their families to suffer misfortune. These are the reasons for the natural expansion of the national sentiment of the Chinese people.
However, what history pursues is not the correctness of righteousness, but the truth of facts. Exposure and criticism are important, but the facts on which such exposure and criticism are based are constructed by historians. Historians should be clear about their own responsibilities, proceed from the basis of historical materials, proceed from the reconstruction of historical facts, do not increase or decrease, do not decorate or beautify, and do not proceed from the premise of speculation, and build solid and weighty stones. This is our academic responsibility and the narrative of history. As for how these stones are built into an impregnable Great Wall, it is a matter for political scientists, international relations scholars, economists, sociologists, cultural scholars, and historians do not seem to have to devote much energy to it. For too long, we have seen a lack of solid foundation beneath the righteous indignation of high-mindedness. The numbers are general, the facts are vague, and relatively few historians are willing to do these most basic things. I am glad that "Research on the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression" seems to have begun to pay attention to these and is promoting them. Although academia and politics are inseparable, it seems that academic journals need more rationality in academic research and less tone in political propaganda.
In today's academic development, all research cannot be one-sided. We need to pay attention to our own research, but also to the research of other countries, especially the research of political and academic opponents. In other words, historians are most concerned about historical materials, and in addition to Chinese historical materials, they should pay special attention to Japanese, English and other language historical materials. Scholars in this field should consciously realize the importance of foreign language Chinese and strengthen training in this field.
In terms of historical narrative, Chinese historical materials need to be verified with Japanese and multilingual historical materials before they can be found to be solid; From the perspective of academic controversy, those who can criticize the other party's point of view, who are not good people, can open up the loopholes of the other party's historical materials, and can do good things. Therefore, those who are good at speaking can use a variety of historical materials, and those who are good at fighting can go to the foundation of the other party's historical materials. Scholars studying this field should consciously strengthen their own training in historiography, especially in reading historical materials.
It will only use the historical materials of a country, and it cannot become a masterpiece in the sense of research; Although there are historical materials, if you do not have the ability to read historical materials, or even read the historical materials incorrectly, you can only become a bad work in the sense of research. It is the responsibility of the Journal of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression to help young scholars realize their shortcomings and to promote and help their academic accomplishment and academic ability.
It should also be noted that the crimes committed by Japan against China and other Asian countries are national crimes. Legally speaking, morally speaking, there is no period for prosecution. Historians' study of Japan's national evils is fully academically justified. However, seventy years have passed since the war, and most Japanese have not committed war crimes. The narrative of history does not emphasize those sensational factors, but uses more solid and reliable research results, so that today's people (Chinese and Japanese) can naturally experience that kind of history after reading it. In this sense, the efficacy of historiography can be maximized.
The above-mentioned historical narration is the general historiographical spirit of historians. The truth should be understood by everyone, and it is okay to really talk about it, but it is okay not to say it.
Finally, I would like to explain that the reason why I am writing this article is to congratulate and hope my friend Professor Gao Shihua.
Today's evaluation system of universities and academic institutions mainly depends on the publication, especially the level of journals and publishing institutions in which it is published. This is helpless, and it is not entirely unreasonable. Under this evaluation system, many scholars, especially young scholars, regard publication as the ultimate goal, and produce a large number of new topics and works with no value in research. It is the editors of academic journals and academic publishing houses who should restrain this vicious current. They have the function of righteousness. From the perspective of academic history, the role of editors has been very important. However, the academic community is mixed, and so is the editorial community. Some bad editors use their publishing rights to make a profit; There are also some journals and publishing houses, in the name of publishing subsidies, midwifery has even spawned a large number of academic freaks. As a result, today, the academic ** and academic works that scholars see are few good and many bad, and they are full of complaints. It's also a good thing for me, I haven't met a bad editor until now, although I often receive emails from "** packaged, through" and "core journals". But the examples I hear of bad editors often leave me breathless. Because of this, when I see a friend from the academic world becoming an editor, I will definitely pay attention to it and congratulate it. There is a real need for good editors in the academic world these days!
Therefore, I congratulate the "Research on the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression" on the great progress it has made in the past few years, and I hope that Professor Gao Shihua and my colleagues in "The Study of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression" can be good editors, publish more good manuscripts, send more good manuscripts to young people, and resist the huge social evil current with their meager personal strength. If more editors and newsrooms are like this, then it is possible that the academic world will be clear. In the following two paragraphs, I also ask all readers, especially the authors and editors, not to treat them as "casual talks". This article was originally published in the Journal of Anti-Japanese War Studies, No. 1, 2016, and was written by Professor Mao Haijian in Hengqin on March 5, 2016.