On the first day of attending the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, another party representative sitting next to Meng Man was a professor at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, an academician specializing in electromagnetics.

2025/07/0312:32:39 history 1549

On the first day of participating in the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, another party representative sitting next to Meng Man was a professor at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, an academician specializing in electromagnetics . Facing party representatives from completely different fields, both the old professor and Mengman were full of interest in each other's fields.

Monman has been doing the popularization of history for many years and has a high reputation among the public. "What's going on with electromagnetics?" During the meeting, Meng Man asked the old professor next door for advice. The old professor was very patient with Meng Man. "I tried very hard to tell me what electromagnetics is going on. I talked to me all night. I was a liberal arts student and didn't understand it, but the academician spoke very enthusiastically." Meng Man said with a smile.

This old academician reminded Meng Man of his former math teacher. One year when I was taking the train, the math teacher was popularizing calculus for the people in the car along the way, which made the people in the car laugh. At that time, Meng Man thought to himself, why is this person so pedantic? What calculus is talking about when taking the train? Many years later, Mengman became a teacher herself, and she suddenly became "very particularly understanding" of this math teacher.

"Teachers naturally need students, and they especially hope to teach them everything they know and learn." Meng Man's parents are both teachers. Her wish when she was a child was to be a teacher. Later, she became a teacher and did the job she had dreamed of since childhood. This made her work look full and uplifting, always full of energy, and full of energy.

The public is familiar with Mengman, and it starts with the "Baijia Forum". That was 15 years ago, she was less than 32 years old, and came to this stage through the introduction of a senior scholar, and had no idea about the popular influence she was about to have. She has loved listening to stories since she was a child and also likes to tell stories. When the program team told her that the program's philosophy was to "build a bridge between scholars and the public", "I felt that it was consistent with my philosophy."

On the first day of attending the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, another party representative sitting next to Meng Man was a professor at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, an academician specializing in electromagnetics. - DayDayNews

Meng Man is a professor at the School of History and Culture of the Central University for Nationalities and a part-time vice chairman of the All-China Women's Federation. He mainly studies political and military history of the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties and the history of ancient Chinese women. He has taught many series such as Wu Zetian on CCTV's "Hundred Schools of Life" program. (Data photo/photo)

Mengman admitted that she is not a scholar like her doctoral supervisor Rong Xinjiang . She felt that Rong Xinjiang enjoyed the pleasure of constantly digging deeper into the fun of learning, and she preferred to be like running a horse on the grassland. "Maybe it's because I have a little ethnic descent." Meng Man told the Southern Weekend reporter.

In life, Mengman also likes to run on the grass, " elk 's nature", she uses this word to describe herself. She likes to run freely, "Don't tie me up", and also studies academic issues, "I especially like new things and share them with others." Her main focus is the history of the Sui and Tang dynasties.

If Rong Xinjiang's knowledge is dedicated to digging deeper, then Mengman actually represents another aspect of historians. "I think people need to do both. If no one digs into depth, your breadth will not be good at planting crops." Meng Man said, and if a person is always galloping, "then he may have to calm down and do research."

She always agrees with the side of history towards the masses. "As long as you start to accept this idea, you can do mass communication. Because there are communication at different levels, communication presented in the form of TV series, and you go to the museum to talk about a cultural relic like this. Even if you are doing the most professional research, you have such a string in your heart - this thing is not something for self-entertainment, but with its social performance, you can do this work better and better." Meng Man said.

Because I have agreed with the concept of "Hundred Schools of Life" from the beginning, Mengman is like a fish in water on this platform, and the more I speak, the more I feel that it is a classroom. How can teachers not like the classroom?"

This time, Mengman is concerned about the issue of "mutual learning between civilizations and telling good Chinese stories." In addition to studying the history of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, women's history is also her research field.From the perspective of women's history research, Meng Man put forward his view on "mutual learning of civilizations": "On the one hand, it is to tell stories that everyone can understand, such as women's stories, because human women have some common destiny, such as her aphasy state, and her tragedy, which is common. On the other hand, it is to tell different stories, just like we chat, what you were like when you were a child, what I was like when I was a child, and what we were like when we were a child, we actually wanted to talk about some different information. It turns out that you lived like that Life, and I live like this. I started chatting like this. In the common context, there are so many differences between us. I think this may be established in women's research and the entire cultural exchange perspective. "

makes the study of Sui and Tang history come alive

Southern Weekend: In the past five years, have there been some new research directions in the field of Sui and Tang history, or new developments in previous research contexts?

Meng Man: The research starting point of the history of the Sui and Tang Dynasties was very high. In the 1930s and 1940s, Mr. Chen Yinke and his generation did fruitful work and laid the foundation for the history of the Sui and Tang Dynasties. From a framework perspective, I don’t think there is any major breakthrough in the absolute sense (afterwards). But I think over the past five years, maybe overall, we have obviously done better than in the past. The gentlemen in the 20th century laid the foundation for the research of institutional history, and then they also conducted special research on economic history and military history, all of which had very high achievements. I think these five years are actually an integration, a transition to a overall history. Including the institutional history in the traditional field of Sui and Tang history, it is now more integrated with political history. What does this combination mean? If there is only the system, it is a dead framework. If it were politics alone, it might be a storyteller. Any system must be combined with the politics of the time, so it is a living system, and there are now a relatively big breakthrough in this regard.

In addition, based on traditional historical materials and iconography - such as the research on the coordination between various murals, as well as the research on the coordination between various epitaphs and unearthed cultural relics, I think in these aspects, the history of the Sui and Tang Dynasties is advancing very steadily. Our research ability of these materials has been greatly improved compared to the original, which is very helpful for our current discipline integration research.

Now I can remember two good studies in recent years were made by young scholars. One is Lee Biyan's "Crisis and Reconstruction", which studies the vassal states. In the past, when we studied vassal states, we often did it one by one, for example, what Hebei looked like and what Weibo’s vassal states looked like. Now she has a more leap forward perspective and takes the vassal states as a holistic consideration. I think this is a good example of overall history. The other is the research on prefectures and counties conducted by Zhao Lulu - "Research on the Operation Mechanism of County-level Government Affairs in the Tang Dynasty". In the past, we thought it was a system history, but in fact, there are many new materials now, including the stele materials and literary materials I just mentioned. She brought the research on prefectures and counties to life.

There is another point. In terms of the history of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, I think the mass communication of history is actually done deeper than before. It turns out that when I talked about "Hundred Schools of Medicine", I might have relied more on the storyline of history, and I hope history is very interesting. But it is not enough to just consider interesting. I think as the level of cultural needs of our entire country and the people is improving, we may also make more in-depth discussions in addition to interesting things. For example, if we conduct Wu Zetian's research now, we may penetrate more historical things or reflective things than before.

Southern Weekend: mentions Wu Zetian's research, and in 2022, the new book "Wu Zetian's research" by scholar Meng Xianshi was published. Wu Zetian is also one of your research subjects. What do you think of Teacher Meng’s new research?

Meng Man: Teacher Meng is of course a sentimental person. He actually always hopes that history can have more philosophical thinking. I think this book still reflects this. Teacher Meng’s historical research is not only permeated with many thoughts on history, but also many thoughts on today.

Historical philosopher Crozzi said that all history is contemporary history. The contemporary attributes of history, including the psychological attributes of history, is an objective fact. Even if it was one or two thousand years ago, or even earlier, when people began to have historical consciousness, the same consciousness had already appeared. Teacher Meng is more opposed to a later generation's perspective and an hindsight perspective. Teacher Meng hopes that history can be seen in the true nature of history. A person is growing up. Even if her (Wu Zetian) ambition growth is step by step. The subsequent results should not be linked to more previous events. I agree with his many opinions, and in fact I have been doing this.

But I think we historian workers should maintain such a historical conscience - when we talk about history according to our own understanding, we should reflect the authenticity and objectivity of history as much as possible, rather than everyone who falls into the perspective of God, do hindsight, or make too many moral judgments. I think this is very important.

Southern Weekend: You just mentioned the study of living institutional history, Scholars in the field of Song History Deng Xiaonan have been mentioning the study of "living institutional history" in the past few years. The historical materials of Song history may be more convenient than those of Sui and Tang dynasties, so you will be more at ease in doing this research. In the field of history of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, what different problems will be encountered due to the differences in historical materials?

Monman: Indeed, the more you go, the more you will be, the more you will be limited by the materials in the early stages. But the current stele materials of the history of the Sui and Tang Dynasties are more than twice that of the documents that have passed down from generation to generation. Moreover, the materials of the stele and the documents of the past are very different. Because the historical documents are centered on official history, their main contents are nothing more than emperors, generals, talented men and beautiful women, that is, upper class or very outstanding figures in society. But the inscription can be extended downward, to which level? According to our current role, we call the middle class, even those above the middle class may have a monument to stay. This is a big expansion of materials, which of course makes us richer than what we have mastered. For example, in the era of Chen Yinke and others, they believed that the eunuchs from the Sui and Tang , the Sui and Tang , all came from Lingnan (because) the eunuchs from Lingnan. Now, based on more inscriptions, we will find that it is not. In fact, it is similar to later dynasties, and there are more areas closer to the capital.

Southern Weekend: You mentioned the importance of epitaph materials, but there are some epitaphs that have no unearthed information, and researchers cannot determine the authenticity. For example, scholar Xin Deyong thinks "The Tombstone of Li Xun" is a fake, and some scholars prefer to think it is true. What do you have on the authenticity of "The Tombstone of Li Xun"?

Mengman: I have not made such a judgment on a particular tombstone. I think the basis for various judgments may not be sufficient now, and I dare not say that it must be true or false. But as a historical material from the Middle Ages, we really hope that more information will be unearthed. Unearthed information is not only a problem with the tombstone, but also the unearthed behavior itself and the shape it buried actually contain a lot of historical information. So I hope that archaeology can have greater development, and I hope that there will be less things like tomb robbery, so that we can get more authentic information. We may have more basis for restoring history and pursuing the authenticity of history.

"The Chinese people's research results on Chinese history have surpassed the Western Sinology community"

Southern Weekend: In addition to the history of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, women's history is also a field that you focus on. What new research progress have you made in this field in the past five years?

Mengman: I am also part-time vice chairman of the All-China Women's Federation. Since I have accepted such a position, I must do my best to this position. My new book "Mengman Women's Poetry Class·Praise Woman" is a research on this aspect. "The Woman of Psychology" actually does not talk about women's poetry, but relies on poetry to talk about women.Women are a gaze in history. Sometimes they are writing about their own lives, and sometimes others are writing about their lives when they are gazing at her. But no matter what, women who have the ability to look at themselves in the mirror and express their feelings of looking at them are the few women in history who have left their mark.

It is more difficult to study the history of women, it has less material and is more secretive. For example, Wang Zhaojun is a good theme of history. So many people have quoted Wang Zhaojun, but what kind of character is Wang Zhaojun? Relying on people's gaze at her, Wang Zhaojun himself did not leave any materials. I hope to implement such women into specific historical coordinates, restore them to the era she lived in, and see why she took on such a role; after she took on the role, why this role caused such a great historical response. There are too many strange women in Chinese history. Why can you remember the last number of people (this)? What I want to talk about is some of these things, and what kind of interactive relationship is there between her and her era and the psychology of the Chinese people.

Southern Weekend: The study of Chinese women's history was initially done by Western Sinology, and then domestic scholars also slowly used this perspective to study it. At this stage, what are the interactions between Western Sinology and domestic female history research, and what are the differences?

Monman: The history of women is a new topic that emerged in the 20th century. In the earlier days, women were not included in history, and people did not recognize the historical role of women, so they did not need to consider them. In the 20th century, due to the improvement of women's status, women's roles in society were more important, so people began to pay attention to women. Because Western modernization comes first, it pays attention to it first.

But now, I think the Chinese people's research on Chinese history has surpassed the Western Sinology community. At present, Western Sinology is essentially declining, and it is difficult for them to produce results like they did 40 years ago and 30 years ago, while Chinese academics are continuing to grow, including the study of Chinese women's history. China's manpower, materials that can be excavated, and information that can be interpreted have actually far exceeded that of the Western historical community. This is the case in general.

But then again, "The stones from other mountains can be used to polish jade." Many times, information that we are familiar with and accustomed to is particularly worthy of study in the eyes of others. It is not so easy for us to think about in it. For example, when the West first paid attention to Chinese women, they would see the legs of Chinese women. Chinese people at the same time rarely took women's feet seriously. Why? I just don’t understand it, and I feel that I should be born like this. So I think cultural exchanges may be here.

"History Shapes People's Hearts"

Southern Weekend: For many years, you have been doing the popularization of history. What are your experiences in this regard?

Monman: Popular history, I think it is to highlight the social value of history. What exactly does history do? Does history just make people interesting, or does it make a scholar feel full of love, or explore the unknown world? I think the humanities, including history, actually have social value. It is shaping young people and the values ​​of a country.

Every year when recruiting new students, I will tell you what is the biggest problem you will encounter in your life? You will meet ordinary people, parents, grandparents constantly asking you: Which one is better, this Tang Xuanzong , Tang Taizong ? You can't say that just because you studied in a history major, you told them that this is an incomparable problem. You must respond to the simplest questions of the people, who is better or who is not good, or which TV series is true or false, you must respond to such questions. If you are very noble and you say this is not a professional problem, and this problem itself is wild fox Zen, then you will not be able to let history play its social role.

History, like all humanities, should naturally have this effect, and it should shape the human heart. Now we say that the country must have a soul. It not only has a body and a territory, but also has national beliefs and national spirit. I think history is very important in shaping the national spirit. Many of the values ​​we formed when we were young, such as loyalty, evil, good, and evil, were obtained through historical stories. For example, Yue Fei , what kind of person is he? Did we really go to read the historical materials at that time? No, we listen to stories, so I think historians should bear such a responsibility.

Southern Weekend: Have you encountered headaches in the work of popularizing history for so many years, and have you encountered more troublesome cases in weighing the professionalism of history and public acceptance?

Monman: Yes, I have encountered it. For example, when I was talking about "The Hundred Schools of Life", I said, "As we all know, 'The king and the horse share the world'..." I thought that "The king and the horse share the world" in the Eastern Jin was something that everyone in the world knew. Later, after this talk, the director asked me: "Teacher Meng, what does 'Wang and horse share the world'?" Then I thought, sometimes we are too self-righteous and we think many things do not need to be explained, but in fact, for the people, this is something that needs to be explained.

Then I will explain it. In fact, the process of your explanation is also a process of thinking and sorting out.

But then again, today's people are no longer the same as the people in ancient times. I think the taste of the people has been improving over the years, and the proportion of people who have been in college and have been educated is increasing. As well as urbanization, what people can accept is actually changing. I think we have to adapt to this change. For example, ten years ago, you might think that "the king and the horse share the world" is best not to tell the people about things like "the king and the horse share the world", because they may not like such complex things, but now I think the space we can talk about is expanding, and the depth we can talk about is deepening. We must adapt to the needs of China's development and the people's ever-increasing needs for culture. This is the progress of society.

Southern Weekend Reporter Wang Huazhen

history Category Latest News