"Integration of Literature and History" Shi Jingqian dies
Shi Jingqian is known for his research on the history of Ming and Qing Dynasties in China, and enjoys a high reputation in the Western Sinology community.
His works are equivalent, and his representative works include "In Search of Modern China", "Kangxi and Cao Yin: The Career of a Royal Favorite", "Kangxi: Reconstructing the Inner World of a Chinese Emperor", "The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom", "The Question of Hu Ruowang", and "Ricci" "The Memory Palace", "Yongzheng Dynasty: The Righteousness of the Yongzheng Dynasty", "The Kingdom of Great Khans: China in the Eyes of the West", "Wang's Death: The Fate of the Little People Behind the Big History", "Dream of the Former Dynasty: Zhang Dai's Glamour and Desolation" and so on. In 2004, Shi Jingqian was elected president of the American Historical Association. In 2010, he was awarded the Jefferson Chair.
Among them, Shi Jingqian's most well-known work is "In Search of Modern China". For Shi Jingqian, if the West wants to understand China, especially why the East and the West have moved on different paths in modernization, they cannot avoid how China from the late Ming Dynasty to the modern age form.
The first volume of "In Search of Modern China" starts from the demise of the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty's monarchy, and sees how the Tianfu system of the Ming Dynasty affected the people's livelihood in the Qing Dynasty; the second volume starts from the decline and fall of the Qing Empire, and walks all the way through the chaotic Republic of China until the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. ;
The second volume begins with the division of the Communist Party of China and the Korean War in 1949, and ends with the revival of Neo-Confucianism in Chinese politics, showing the evolution of Chinese politics, economy, and diplomacy over the past 70 years.
Shi Jingqian, whose real name is Jonathan Spencer, was born in 1936 in Surrey, southwest London, England.
In 1956, he entered the Clare College of Cambridge University to study British history, during which he won the Myron Scholarship and the opportunity to study at Yale University in the United States. After graduating from Cambridge University in 1959, he went to Yale University to study modern Chinese history under the tutelage of Sinologist Professor Rui Mary.
Mary Rui is an expert in the study of modern Chinese history and Chinese literature. Her husband, Rui Woshou, is also an accomplished scholar of Buddhist studies. The two have visited China to study and have a deep understanding of Chinese religion, politics and history.
During his studies at Yale, Shi Jing also received the guidance of Mr. Fang Zhaoying, an expert in Chinese history. Rui Marie felt that although she had been in China for a while, she did not have enough experience, so she asked Shi Jingqian to study with Fang Zhaoying and his wife. Fang Zhaoying and Du Lianzhe have been invited to the United States since the 1930s to participate in the Qing Dynasty Biography Writing Project and compile the Biography of Celebrities in the Qing Dynasty.
The Chinese name Shi Jingqian was chosen for him by Fang Zhaoying, which means "Jing" Yangtai "Shi" company horse "Qian", among which "Shi" is also the Chinese transliteration of his surname Spence.
His wife, Jin Anping, was born in Tainan, Taiwan. She is also a disciple of Fang Zhaoying. She also teaches in the History Department of Yale University, specializing in the history of Chinese thought.
In 1965, Shi Jingqian received a Ph.D. in history from Yale, and his graduation thesis "Cao Yin and Kangxi: The Career of a Royal Favorite" won the Potter Dissertation Award. He also received an exceptional opportunity to teach at Yale University. Professor, History Department and Director of the Center for East Asian Studies, retired from Yale University in 2008.
In 2009, he was invited to give the "Fu Sinian Lecture" at the Institute of History and Linguistics, Academia Sinica, Taiwan.
Shi Jingqian devoted his life to Chinese studies.
He once said: "On the map of the whole world, China is an important and charismatic existence. Westerners need to spend a long time digesting and analyzing the information they have obtained. There is no such thing as one can understand at a glance. The more ambiguous and multi-faceted the view of the world, the closer it is to the most elusive truth."
Shi Jingqian's research on China has extended from the late Ming Dynasty to the contemporary era, and Qing history is the starting point and focus of his research.
In a cross-cultural context, he observes Chinese history from a unique perspective. Through rigorous research, he focuses on the study of characters. He is good at historical writing in the way of "storytelling", and introduces his research results to readers.
Shi Jingqian's narrative techniques are mostly extended from personal biographies, highlighting the Chinese social, political and economic characteristics of the era, making him stand out among many Western Chinese historians, setting a model for the "narrative turn" of Chinese history, and achieving a "combination of literature and history". One" boundary.
Shi Jingqian is one of the few authors in the United States who can make professional historiography a bestseller, and has had a great impact on the dissemination of Chinese historical knowledge in the English -speaking West. Shi Jingqian's works are often included in New York Times bestsellers, making him the most popular spokesperson for Chinese history in the Western world.
Xu Zhuoyun , a professor at the University of Pittsburgh in the United States, said: "Give him a phone book, and he can make up stories from the first page to the last."
Historian Wang Rongzu , a former chair professor at the National Central University , described it this way: "Shi Jingqian doesn't like the theory of post-learning. His book has no theory at all, and there are no difficult terms, but his vivid narrative can fully cater to the history of the academic community. The voice of "Revival of Narrative" made him a new force after the regeneration of historical narrative."
In addition to the history of Ming and Qing Dynasties, he also made great contributions to the research on the history of Western Sinology. Almost at the beginning of his studies, he devoted himself to searching and combing the history of Western Sinology, and excavated a large number of valuable historical materials.
Shi Jingqian, who has studied Chinese history for half his life, has a different view on the beginning of modern Chinese history from that of Chinese historians, and he believes that history textbooks for primary and secondary schools should be revised.
He said: "When I taught Chinese and Chinese history and culture in the West , I found a flaw in the textbooks compiled by the Chinese , that is, when they talked about China's modern history , they always started from the humiliation and aggression that China suffered in the 19th century. 40 years ago, when I started teaching Chinese history, I thought it was very unreasonable. If we want to study Chinese history better, we should start with China in the 17th and 18th centuries. Because China at that time showed a better way in the world. Confident attitude."
Shi Jingqian also has considerable influence and attention in the intellectual circles of mainland China.
As early as the late 1980s, Shi Jingqian was invited to give a series of lectures at Peking University entitled "Cultural Similarity and Cultural Utilization: The Image of China in the Global Dialogue of the World".
Since then, he has come to China for more exchanges and held various academic speeches. Since the end of 2001, Shanghai Far East Publishing House began to translate and introduce Shi Jingqian's series of works.
In recent years, Guangxi Normal University Press has successively retranslated and republished some of Shi Jingqian's works.
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