Mr Fei Zhengqing, an American scholar, is the most famous China observer in the world. Before his death, he had been leading the American academic research on China and wrote a lot of famous academic works on the history of China. Mr. Fei Zhengqing's works are rich in knowledge, but not limited to traditional historical narrative methods. With "accurate and vivid writing, handy narration and meticulous observation", they have played an objective reference role in China's current modernization process, and have had an immeasurable and far-reaching impact on the world's understanding of China and China.
The Great China Revolution is one of Mr. Fei Zhengqing's major works. With a historian's impartial attitude towards history, he jumped out of the narrow circle of regional politics, carefully restored and deconstructed the process of China's modern history from the perspective of "universal instrument", and carefully combed and cleaned up the relationship between China's tradition and reality through vertical and horizontal historical comparison. In Mr. Fei Zhengqing's works, history has gone beyond the monotonous record in the traditional sense and turned into profound historical analysis and subtle personal feelings. Through Mr. Fei's interpretation, we can get rid of the historical appearance, directly grasp the essence of China's modern history, and have a profound perceptual understanding of the process of China revolution.
History is first and foremost a process of mutual infiltration, and each stage is a continuation of the previous stage, and it will never be an isolated existence. It is from the characteristics of China's traditional culture that Mr. Fei Zhengqing traces back to the source in order to deeply understand various internal and external factors in the process of China's revolution. Mr Fei realized that China was a feudal country with a long history of autocracy, deep-rooted autocracy consciousness and developed autocracy culture. There is a long-term cultural superiority of "China is superior to the state" and a complex and self-operated patriarchal bureaucratic inertia system. This culture is embodied in an introverted "implosion". "For understandable reasons, it is unwilling to change its social values, culture and system. Therefore, the China Revolution is not a fixed concept, but a gradual process in which traditional culture falls apart and western advanced values and lifestyles gradually permeate.
For narrative needs, Mr. Fei Zhengqing divided the process of China revolution into four parts.
The first part is "Late Chinese Empire: Growth and Transformation (1800-1895)", which is the beginning of China's modern humiliating history and the germination and development period of China's modern revolution.
China has claimed to be a "China Power" since ancient times. The Chinese Empire has no real diplomatic relations at all, and the so-called diplomatic relations are only for the purpose of "proclaiming my holy religion" and "scattering my weeds", but for the skill of "softening the distance" and "softening the heart". It is a process of educating barbaric peoples, and there is no diplomatic consciousness of equality and justice at all. It was with this mentality that the Chinese Empire faced the uninvited western powers at the beginning, but the artillery fire of the Opium War soon shattered the imperial dream of the Manchu government as a "great country in China". By the end of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the history of China's modern revolution had reached a critical moment, and people had to face this grim reality painfully. At this critical moment of life and death, any fantasy about traditional culture seems so unrealistic. From the argument that "learning from the middle school is the body and learning from the west is the use" to re-examining their own cultural traditions, they finally came to a conclusion: old bottles can't be filled with new wine, and China must fundamentally change itself in order to regain its foothold in the world's national forest, and a new revolution is brewing.
Mr Fei Zhengqing's explanation of the Opium War was severely criticized by Professor Tang Degang, a historian in China. Regarding the Opium War, the Great China Revolution expressed the following views: "The Opium War meant that China refused to participate in the international family on the basis of diplomatic equality and trade reciprocity, which led to the use of force by Britain." His view that the root cause of the Opium War was not opium obviously cannot be justified. In this way, the responsibility of the Opium War has become a muddled account, trying to be ignored lightly, which is suspected of shirking the responsibility of western powers. Taking opium to engage in "reciprocal trade" with a sovereign country is nonsense in itself. Here, Professor Tang Degang asked, if opium is used for "reciprocal trade" with the United States, will the United States agree? This is undoubtedly the failure of this book.
Looking at overseas history books, there is a very interesting phenomenon, that is, the evaluation of Li Hongzhang can be said to be unanimous and flattering each other. In fact, putting aside national sentiment and political prejudice and interpreting Li Hongzhang from an outsider's perspective, the so-called "controlling foreign countries" is only the only countermeasure a sober politician can take in the face of western powers. "It's just tinkering and playing politics in a hopeless environment", which is weak country diplomacy without diplomacy, just to survive and balance in the cracks between powers. At the same time, we should also see that Li Hongzhang obviously has an old politician's bureaucratic habit of pretending to be a snake and scorpion, and "controlling foreign countries with foreign countries" is one of the instincts of the bureaucratic class to survive and protect themselves. It is ironic that it has become an effective diplomatic means to deal with foreigners in diplomacy. It is an irreversible historical fate for Li Hongzhang to become a tragic historical figure, because he defended an anachronistic and shaky reactionary patriarchal regime, and his failure was only the final result of fierce internal contradictions in traditional society.
The second and third parts of the Great China Revolution are The Changes of Imperial Order in the Late Qing Dynasty (1895-191year) and The Republic of China (1912-/kl) respectively. The former describes the grim situation faced by China after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the final demise of the Manchu Empire and the beginning of the modern revolution in China. The latter deeply reflected and analyzed the problems faced by China Revolution and the process of China Revolution. There were two parallel processes at the beginning of China's modern revolution, namely, the political warlord scuffle, the national struggle and the cultural enlightenment marked by the May 4th Movement. Fei Zhengqing spoke highly of the popularization of vernacular Chinese, which he thought marked the popularization of culture and the removal of the biggest barrier set by ignorant policies, and had a very far-reaching historical significance for the transformation of traditional culture. However, since China has been in a patriarchal society for a long time, it has lacked a liberal tradition since ancient times. The western democratic tradition is somewhat out of reach for China's social reality. What China's social soil needs is not American-style democracy, but a strong government. The autocratic politics and backwardness of Russia and China make the two countries emulate each other in some aspects. Therefore, the Russian October Revolution became a realistic reference for the China Revolution to a great extent.
Mao Zedong is undoubtedly a peasant leader full of traditional cultural wisdom. He is far-sighted, and has a profound understanding of China's social formation. Mao Zedong himself was not affected by the beautiful European wind and rain. He paid more attention to the actual effect of China revolution. Mao Zedong is keenly aware that in a big rural country like China, only farmers are the most indomitable revolutionaries. Therefore, the "mass line" has become a major breakthrough in Mao Zedong's practice and the greatest political contingency in his life. In fact, the so-called "democracy" in Mao Zedong's eyes is just a populist democracy for most farmers. The essence of this democracy is only one step away from the foolish policy of "having a solid stomach and a guilty conscience" in traditional society. Mao Zedong's organizational principle has not been divorced from the feudal patriarchal mode of operation, but his simple organization and enthusiasm are also the easiest to arouse farmers' enthusiasm for a "utopian" society, which is the average level of farmers.
In contrast, the Kuomintang is a mixed bag. Its interior is rotten and dirty. Chiang Kai-shek himself is not a qualified politician. He has neither the courage of dictatorship nor the appetite for democracy. More importantly, he did not fundamentally solve the practical problems of farmers. Was it accidental that the Kuomintang finally fell? It is precisely because of his unique personal charm and superhuman political courage that Mao Zedong became the most realistic choice in the modern history of China.
The last part of the Great China Revolution is "People's Republic of China (PRC) (1949-1985)", and Mr. Fei Zhengqing carefully cleaned up and interpreted this period of China's contemporary history. "Everything that happened in the China Revolution was nothing more than a return to the structure of the old empire, just using modern technology and popular patriotism." Because of this premise, the "new intellectuals" Mao Zedong needs are actually social tools after ideological unification, and they have no independent personality. It was after "the most precious and scarce talents in China lost their vitality" and "in such an atmosphere of condemnation and anti-intellectualism" that the weakness of rule by man was gradually exposed. The Great Leap Forward and the Ten-year Cultural Revolution are the inevitable results of individual totalitarianism. They reveal from all aspects that China is still just a traditional empire wrapped in a modern coat, and at the same time show that the cultural transformation is by no means a one-off event, but a long-term and complicated social project.
The reality in the early days of New China shows that it is obviously the opposite to develop urban culture by treating farmers. "China's political life has been dragged to the level of strict and ignorant farmers because it includes farmers." Based on the above facts, Mr. Fei Zhengqing made the following comments on Mao Zedong: "He is a peasant hero who lacks the knowledge, humility and endurance to build China's modernization. Mao Zedong was so absorbed in his latest peasant uprising tradition that he didn't understand that China should study the outside world and China himself as hard as his predecessor during the May 4th Movement. ..... In short, he is a great traditional figure belonging to the unified dynasty. " This is not only an evaluation of Mao Zedong himself, but also a summary of that era.
Mr. Fei Zhengqing understands the current situation in China and is optimistic about the future of China. "China's population has never been so large today, and it still needs a central authority to maintain unity; Managing so many people can only rely on a widely accepted belief system, government agencies must be composed of well-trained elites, and local authorities represent the country in rural areas. " Mr. Fei Zhengqing is delighted to see that China's remarkable achievements in politics, economy and culture after the reform and opening up are leading this ancient country to a free country, which is an irresistible trend of the times.
China's political history has always been a "make or break" political history. Every political change in the dynasty is also a new beginning of history. It never obliterates the achievements of the previous dynasty, rather than sublating it on the basis of criticism. This authoritarian ideological means is terrible and its harm is immeasurable. Mr. Fei Zhengqing's exposition of the modern history of China is, first of all, a fair interpretation of China's revolutionary process in various stages from a fair standpoint. His success lies in his deep reflection on the modernization process of China Revolution based on the traditional culture of China and taking into account the long-term national conditions of China, which is very valuable as an American historian.
As Mr. Fei Zhengqing said: "Any new China's worldview must be applicable to all mankind, not regional or national." So does the role of history. The history of China's revolution has never belonged only to China, but a mirror of the history of world civilization, which is a precious cultural wealth of all mankind.
Fei Zhengqing's works confirm an old saying of traditional China from a new angle: A historian is a universal instrument!