Reading History Can Also Set the Mind at Peace

Wei Zheng, the famous minister of Emperor Taizong of Tang, once said: "Taking history as a mirror, one can know rise and fall; taking people as a mirror, one can know gain and loss." Wei Zheng was an elite of the ruling class; when he looked at history, he focused on the laws governing the rise and fall of dynasties. I am an ordinary person, and reading history has no such lofty purpose for me.

The Ming-dynasty poet Yang Shen wrote a poem, "Linjiang Xian · The Mighty Yangtze River Flows East," that suits my heart: "The mighty Yangtze flows east; its waves have washed away all the heroes. Right and wrong, success and failure—all vanish in a moment. The green mountains remain as ever; how many times the sunset has glowed red. On the islet, a white-haired fisherman and woodcutter, used to watching the autumn moon and the spring wind. A pot of muddy wine, a joyful meeting. How many affairs of ancient and modern times are all told in laughter and chat."

When I read history, it is a little like that white-haired fisherman on the islet, sipping a pot of plain wine (what I drink is a pot of plain boiled water), and watching how the heroes of ancient and modern times had their "right and wrong, success and failure all vanish in a moment." At the same time, in this reading I can, more or less, understand a little of the laws of social development; this also counts as "knowing rise and fall," as Wei Zheng put it.

Through understanding history, I can form a rough judgment of the era I am living in. Although, limited by all sorts of unavoidable reasons, I cannot publicly discuss some of my views, privately, over a pot of plain water, with one or two confidants, to laugh and chat over "how many affairs of ancient and modern times" is also enough to unburden the heart. Occasionally, when the mood takes me, I write a few records of the times for later generations to read, put them away, and wait for an opportunity to publish or bring them out; that is also no small joy in life.

The historian Mr. Tang Degang said that China, starting from the late Qing and early Republican period, entered a historical transition period. Mr. Tang put forward a famous "Historical Three Gorges Theory," holding that China's history would undergo a winding, turbulent transitional process of about two hundred years, like the eddies of the Three Gorges, and would not be smooth sailing. Only after passing through this winding transition period could one move from the old era to the new.

I deeply agree with this view. Innovation in the humanities can never be achieved overnight. As long as the common people are not displaced and their lives not drowned in suffering, there is no need to be too indignant at current affairs. A colossal ship of the nation, wanting to sail through the Three Gorges of history—how could one rush it? People like us, born in such a winding transition period, experiencing some social changes that satisfy us or dissatisfy us, is quite normal.

Sun Yat-sen never expected that Yuan Shikai would reverse history and bring about a feudal restoration; Yuan Shikai, who was set on becoming emperor, in turn never expected that reversing history would ultimately bring about his own ruin and disgrace. Such winding turns, occurring during the Three Gorges period of history, are not surprising.

Only by letting go of our own small self and standing in the perspective of a historian like Mr. Tang to look at everything that has happened in history, can we avoid being so emotionally agitated that we cannot control ourselves.

It is also precisely because of reading history that I learned that the Enlightenment thinker Voltaire, in the first place, was originally inspired by his longing for Chinese civilization, his recognition of our "naturalistic" traditional culture, and his hatred of the by-then thoroughly corrupt Christian culture.

By reading the accounts European missionaries wrote of what they saw in China, he discovered that there was a huge gap between medieval European civilization and Chinese civilization, which made medieval Europe far behind the Chinese Empire of the time; so he issued some ear-splitting calls, hoping that Europeans would carry out a series of reforms.

Of course, much of the "Chinese civilization" in Voltaire's mind was a utopian culture of his own imagination, which did not exist in the real land of China. But human society advances precisely, spurred on by the "ideal state" models built by countless idealists.

Europe after the Renaissance once led the world, and European new civilization in turn brought dawn to the Chinese. Today, many Chinese people's longing for European civilization is just like Voltaire's longing for Chinese civilization, containing many idealized elements; the Europe-America civilization of reality, as we observers see today, has its sordid side. This makes me believe that in future our China will surely produce a new civilization that differs both from European civilization and from China's traditional civilization.

The American sinologist Frederic Wakeman, author of *The Fall of Imperial China*, from an outsider's perspective, starting from the traditional Chinese four-class thought of "scholar, farmer, artisan, merchant," wrote China's feudal history, especially the history of the Ming and Qing, with a distinctive flavor. Reading such history broadens both our vision and our mind. How we were glorious in the past, and how we later fell behind and were beaten—as descendants of China, it is no bad thing to understand, from a bystander's standpoint, the history of our nation's rise and fall that others see, and to take a lesson from the stone of another hill.

We human beings live on this planet; if we do not understand our own history, we are inevitably missing something. People who know almost nothing of history are prone to long periods of depression and indignation. But a person who understands the history of human civilization is more likely to be calm and at peace.

Such a monumental work as *The Story of Civilization*, hailed as the "Shiji (Records of the Historian) of the twenty-first century," lays before us the resplendent developmental history of all human civilization. But, as the author Will Durant said, behind humanity's majestic edifices of civilization lies a great deal of blood and slaughter. Looking back over the developmental history of our human civilization helps us to reflect deeply on our own various pursuits.

Although history is not as full of witty words of wisdom as philosophy, everything that has happened in history is enough to enlighten our thinking. The ancients said that books are like medicine; good reading can cure stupidity. As someone of little wit and dullness, I wish, in this reading, to cure my own ignorance and set my heart at rest. Strive to flatter neither the powerful nor cling stubbornly to a one-sided view, and still less to follow others blindly. If I can do this, perhaps my body and mind may both be at peace!