Chapter 403 402 [Redefining World History]

After World War II, the old historiography gradually declined and was completely replaced by modern historiography. The "General History of the World" is a masterpiece of modern historiography, involving politics, economy, military, culture, education, religion, science and other aspects.

During the period of the Republic of China, both western and eastern historiography uniformly divided human history into "ancient-middle antiquity-modern", called the "rule of thirds".

However, according to this historical division, modern China began with the Opium War in 1840, hundreds of years later than the modern history of the West. This is so embarrassing, as if the Chinese were uncivilized before 1840.

There is serious Eurocentrism in the rule of thirds.

"General History of the World" abandons the existing "rule of thirds" principle, and uses 1500 AD as the dividing line to describe the isolated world before 1500 and the world with the rise of the West after 1500.

Of course, since the original author is an American, the book's narration of Chinese history is very problematic.

For example, "General History of the World" does not recognize the existence of the Xia Dynasty, and says that the Loess Plateau has no dense forests. These are obviously wrong views. According to geological research, the Loess Plateau thousands of years ago had dense vegetation and a large number of forests.

The most outrageous thing is that the "General History of the World" believes that the people of the Shang Dynasty were a small group of Mongolians (the concept of race, not Mongolians), who arose in the northwest prairie. By mastering the bronze smelting and chariot manufacturing technologies in the Middle East, Bringing military superiority, they invaded North China and conquered the local Neolithic tribes.

This is so nonsense, if Zhou Hexuan directly copied the original work without modification, it is estimated that this book will be sprayed to death by the people of the country.

Why did our well-known descendants of Yan and Huang become descendants of nomadic conquerors in the writings of Western historians?

During his stay in Nanjing, Zhou Hexuan lived in the teachers' dormitory of Central University. He first listed the outline of "General History of the World", then wrote the first few chapters, gave two academic lectures at Central University, and suddenly a Japanese came to visit.

The visitor was about 50 years old, with a thin body and a horse face. He bowed at ninety degrees when meeting each other: "Mr. Zhou, I, Kato Shigeru, have admired your name for a long time!"

Duan Xipeng said: "Mr. Zhou, this is Shigeru Kato, a Japanese expert on Chinese economic history, and the first person in Japan to study Chinese economic history."

"Hello, Mr. Kato." Zhou Hexuan smiled and shook hands with the other party.

Shigeru Kato is still very well-known in the field of historians, and it is impossible for Zhou Hexuan not to have heard of it. There were several Chinese historians during the Republic of China, all of whom were students of this person.

Shigeru Kato specializes in the study of the Chinese economy in the past dynasties, such as the field mu system in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, such as the town economy in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, such as the calculation of Fu in the Qin Dynasty, such as the commercial tax in the Song Dynasty, and the manor economy in the Tang Dynasty. He has made great contributions to the economic history of China. Shigeru Kato pioneered the basic historical method of studying the economic history of ancient China in later generations.

By the way, Shigeru Kato is a loyal supporter of the Emperor of Japan. His loyalty to the Emperor has nothing to do with politics, but more like a belief that runs in his blood. But regardless of politics or belief, Shigeru Kato did not engage in small tricks in academic research, unlike another Japanese historian, Konan Naito, who advocated the co-prosperity of Greater East Asia.

This is a relatively pure scholar.

Duan Xipeng said with a smile: "Mr. Kato is here for inspection this time. He is going to visit some small towns in the south of the Yangtze River. He just arrived in Nanjing yesterday."

Shigeru Kato explained: "I am going to visit the villages and towns markets in China. After the investigation in Jiangnan, I will go to Zhili, Shandong, Henan and other places."

"Mr. Kato is really rigorous in his studies." Zhou Hexuan praised sincerely.

The research on the economic history of Chinese cities and towns was pioneered by the historian Quan Hansheng, who published "A Survey of the History of Chinese Temple Markets" in 1934. And Shigeru Kato did not lag behind too long. In the same year, he published "Periodical Markets in Villages and Towns in the Qing Dynasty", and he also did pioneering research.

Shigeru Kato said: "China has a long history, and the economic history of China I have studied is just a drop in the ocean. The more I understand Chinese history, the more I can feel its charm, especially the ancient Chinese economic strategies, which still have a reference effect today. "

Zhou Hexuan is not an imperialist. He hates Japanese warmongers, but he has no prejudice against pure Japanese scholars. What's more, this Japanese scholar has also made great contributions to the development of Chinese historical research. He took the initiative to invite: "When Mr. Kato goes to the north for inspection, I can help you contact the local university so that you can collect historical materials."

"Thank you so much!" Shigeru Kato said happily.

Duan Xipeng glanced at the manuscript on the desk, and couldn't help but ask, "Mr. Zhou, have you started writing your world history textbook?"

"Well, I've written more than 10,000 words." Zhou Hexuan nodded.

"The speed is too fast," Duan Xipeng was extremely surprised, and asked, "Can I have a look?"

"Of course." Zhou Hexuan said.

Duan Xipeng first looked at the outline, and saw that the main body was divided into two parts - "The World Before 1500" and "The World After 1500". Subdivided into: "Humans Before Civilization", "Ancient Civilization in Eurasia", "Classical Civilization in Eurasia", "The End of Classical Civilization", "Medieval Civilization in Eurasia"...

The title that shocked Duan Xipeng the most was "Medieval Civilization in Eurasia". Because according to the current division of historiography, only Western civilization has the Middle Ages, and China does not have the Middle Ages.

Zhou Hexuan is trying to redefine the "rule of thirds in history"?

Shigeru Kato also came over to take a look, and when he finished reading the outline list, he was equally astonished, and didn't need to read the text at all.

Just based on the outline titles, one can tell that Zhou Hexuan's "General History of the World" is completely different from the current popular historical research methods, but similar to his other works.

But completely negating the "three divisions of history" is too shocking, and it is likely to attract collective condemnation and criticism from Western historians.

Shigeru Kato admired from the bottom of his heart: "Mr. Zhou's historical research is really admirable."

According to the principle of "three divisions of history", Japan's modern history is also very late, and it suffers the same discrimination as China. Zhou Hexuan's "General History of the World" will definitely be recognized by the Japanese historians, at least Shigeru Kato agrees with this approach very much.

Duan Xipeng carefully read the already written 10,000-character text, shook his head and smiled wryly: "Mr. Zhou, you are not writing a history textbook, you are obviously creating a monograph on world history."

No wonder Duan Xipeng was so surprised. The opening chapter of "Global History" redefines the nature of world history. There is a very clear and straightforward sentence: World history is not only the sum of the history of various regions of the world. If it is divided and divided again, it will change. its nature. Just as water, once broken down into its chemical components, is no longer water but hydrogen and oxygen.

This sentence expounds the "global view of history", which understands the history of all countries in the world as an organic unity that influences each other and is inseparable. This view is also of pioneering significance today.

Once this textbook is promoted in various universities in China, the academic views and academic vision of Chinese history students will definitely far exceed those of Western students.

History is not just for research, the so-called "reading history makes people wise". As long as you study and read "General History of the World", the concept of "globalization" in it can definitely expand the three views of people in the Republic of China, and even affect the country's development strategy and diplomatic activities.