[Reader’s Talk]
Author: Jiang Feng (Visiting Professor of the History Department of Peking University)
About half a year ago, my brother Jiang Li released a new work "Yang Liansheng's Biography". After reading it, I have been itching to write an book review . To be honest, as early as Jiang Li edited and published the late famous Chinese-American Sinologist and our grandfather Mr. Yang Liansheng's "Harvard Ink - Yang Liansheng's Poems and Prose Slips" (Commercial Press 2004 edition), "The Rich Family of the Eastern Han Dynasty" (Commercial Press) (The Commercial Press, 2011 edition), "Harvard Ink Collection (revised edition)" (The Commercial Press, 2013 edition), "Chinese Book Review" (The Commercial Press, 2016 edition), and "Liansheng Letters" (The Commercial Press, 2017 edition), I I have thought about writing book reviews many times. However, every time I was about to type on the keyboard, I always felt that it was not easy for my younger brother to write a review for a book compiled by his older brother. This is not easy, the main thing is "getting married". It is difficult to speak freely when there is a family relationship, and it is also difficult to defend and criticize. However, every time I think about the Chinese allusion of "rewarding the virtuous without avoiding relatives", I feel that there is no harm in writing a book review that I want to write and saying what I want to say.
Mr. Yang Liansheng (1950s) Pictures are selected from "The Biography of Yang Liansheng"
's status in the hearts of overseas scholars
In my impression, in the past 40 years, China Social Sciences Press, China Renmin University Press, CITIC Press , Hebei People's Publishing House, Guizhou People's Publishing House and Anhui Education Press have successively published single volumes of Mr. Yang Liansheng's works, but there has never been a publishing house like the Commercial Press that has edited and published Mr. Yang Liansheng's works. , so hard, so hard, so long. It must be said that a "time-honored" name in the publishing industry like the Commercial Press has a unique vision. Of course, the fact that the Commercial Press is able to do this is inseparable from the good academic and epistolary relationship established by my brother Jiang Li and the editors for more than ten years.
According to my personal opinion, after Mr. Yang Liansheng’s relevant works were published in mainland China, there were not many relevant book reviews. I speculate that one of the reasons for this situation is that Mr. Yang Liansheng has worked at Harvard University in the United States for many years. The years when there were no diplomatic relations between China and the United States were the years when Mr. Yang Liansheng's academic achievements were most glorious. However, the domestic academic circle has no way to understand it in depth, and it is difficult to evaluate it even now. The second is the academic “era”. Mr. Zhou Liang and Mr. Wu Yuxi, who studied with Mr. Yang Liansheng at Harvard University in the United States at that time, as well as some academic seniors who interacted with each other, have passed away one after another. There are no direct academic descendants of Mr. Yang Liansheng among the current scholars in mainland China. This is also presents some difficulties for comments. Thirdly, Mr. Yang Liansheng's academic research is relatively esoteric and remote, and he is good at "exploring the subtleties to identify the subtleties". He likes to explore all the details in case studies, which makes it difficult for later scholars to engage in academic competition with him on a single subject, and it is also very difficult to comment on it.
What is the status of Mr. Yang Liansheng’s Sinology research overseas? I remember that in the 1970s, when Mr. Yang Liansheng returned to China to visit relatives at the invitation of Premier Zhou Enlai, he once said this to his relatives: "In Japan, if a scholar engaged in Chinese history research does not know Yang Liansheng, he is not really engaged in China." "Study of history." At that time, when I was in junior high school, I thought this was a boast.
In the late 1980s, at the age of 29, I studied in Japan at my own expense. I remember one day in the 1990s, the famous American scholar Vogel gave a lecture at the International Cultural Center in Tokyo. Afterwards, as a reporter for the Chinese media "Overseas Students News", I wanted to interview him. He said: "I don't accept interviews overseas." I said to him in Chinese: "I am Yang Liansheng's grandson." He immediately smiled and used Chinese said: "Really? Then I will definitely accept your interview. Because I worked with Mr. Yang Liansheng at Harvard University."
I still remember that in the 1990s, I was studying for a master's degree at the Graduate School of Literature at Kyushu University in Japan, and I studied under Mr. Kawakatsu Mori, one of Japan’s “four major experts on Chinese history” at that time.In one research class, I accidentally mentioned that Mr. Yang Liansheng was my maternal grandfather. Mr. Kawakatsumori asked: "Really?" After receiving my affirmative answer, he stood up from his seat, walked to me, and said deeply Bowed deeply, and then said: "I made a special trip to Boston in the United States a few days ago to visit Mr. Yang Liansheng. Their family told me that Mr. Yang was ill and could not see guests. I didn't expect that I would see him in his research laboratory. Descendants of the respected Mr. Yang Liansheng. "
In 2016, I went to Xi'an to participate in the 120th anniversary celebration of Xi'an Jiaotong University. In the van heading to the event, Mr. Du Weiming, dean of the Institute for Advanced Humanities at Peking University, sat next to me. When I mentioned that I was the grandson of Mr. Yang Liansheng, Mr. Du Weiming, who was wearing the attire of a doctoral supervisor and professor, stood up and touched the roof of the car, bowed to me, and said, "I was taught by Mr. Yang Liansheng." "I am very happy to see you today."
The purpose of telling these past events is not to show off my kinship with Mr. Yang Liansheng, but to highlight Mr. Yang Liansheng's status in the minds of overseas scholars. This status should be established by Mr. Yang Liansheng's nearly half a century of academic research and knowledge, as well as his honest and kind-hearted character. From here, I also feel that Mr. Yang Liansheng still exists warmly in the overseas sinology community.
"Farewell Biography of Yang Liansheng" by Jiang Li The Commercial Press
Academic Career and "Circle of Friends"
This "Farewell Biography of Yang Liansheng" is written by my brother Jiang Li. Frankly speaking, I have a problem with the title of the book. The so-called "partial biography" should be a supplement to the "main biography". So far, there has been no "Yang Liansheng True Story". Someone once tried to write and copy 47 diaries of Mr. Yang Liansheng, but to no avail. Writing a "Farewell Biography" when there is no "Main Biography" certainly reflects the author's humility and his willingness to use it as a source of inspiration. However, I would also like to say that there will never be a "Farewell Biography" that can surpass this "Farewell Biography of Yang Liansheng" in the future. pass". Because of the author's kinship with Yang Liansheng, the author's possession of Yang Liansheng's letters, and the author's writing power and emotions, it is difficult for others to surpass them.
Teacher Han Shishan said in the preface to "The Farewell Biography of Yang Liansheng" that "Mr. Jiang's book may as well be called the chronicle style. It can be said to be a new style of Chinese traditional history books." I think this is also an exaggerated statement. Traditional Chinese history books pay attention to the "three bodies" - biography , chronological style, chronicle style . The "Twenty-Four Histories", as the pinnacle of "biography style", has already written the biographies of characters vividly and realistically. It is not easy for future generations to "open up a new life". What's more, in recent years, such as "Hu Shi's Circle" ( Shandong Pictorial Publishing House 2010 edition) and "Lu Xun's Circle" (Oriental Publishing House 2014 edition), all use this kind of "friendship test" writing method.
The valuable thing about "Yang Liansheng's Farewell Biography" is that the author has passed Mr. Yang Liansheng's "circle of friends" - the biography author and Hu Shi, Zhao Yuanren , Qian Mu , Xiao Gongquan , Miao Yue , He Bingdi , Yoshikawa Kojiro The academic exchanges between scholars at home and abroad not only outline Mr. Yang Liansheng's vivid image as a "first-class scholar in Western Sinology" and "an overseas media of Chinese culture" in an "accurate" manner, but also serve as a "legend" for these scholars at home and abroad. Don’t pass it on”. These are not known to ordinary people and cannot be obtained by ordinary efforts. Because of this, this book can be placed on your desk as a "tool book".
Looking through "The Biography of Yang Liansheng", you can not only see the academic career of the author, but also some of the author's emotions. For example, Mr. Yang Liansheng has a strong "Peking University complex", a faint "Japan complex", and a deep "hometown complex" - he wanted to study at Peking University in his early years; When Zhou Zuoren was the president of the fake Peking University, he rejected Zhou Zuoren. During his stay in the United States, he promised Hu Shi to come back to Peking University to teach in the future; one of his biggest wishes in his later years was to give an academic lecture at Peking University.He has many contacts with Japanese scholars, and has visited and lectured at the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University, both of which are important centers for studying Chinese history in Japan. He admires the sophistication of Japanese studies, but he feels dissatisfied in his heart. In his later years, Mr. Yang Liansheng's longing for his hometown became more and more profound, and he could not restrain himself from showing it when interacting with scholars at home and abroad. As someone who has studied, worked, and lived in Japan for 30 years, how can I use the word "sympathy" to describe this!
Perhaps due to different observation angles or different life experiences, my brother Jiang Li's writing about Mr. Yang Liansheng's later life seems to be lacking. Jiang Li and I once visited Mr. Ge Zhaoguang, a professor at Fudan University in Shanghai. When Mr. Ge was a visiting scholar at Harvard University in the United States, he read 47 of Yang Liansheng's diaries in detail, and wrote some articles one after another after returning to China. I remember Mr. Ge said something like this: "Mr. Yang Liansheng was crushed to death by the title of 'the first person in sinology '." He introduced to our brothers the various "be strong" that Mr. Yang Liansheng showed in his diary, and he must never lose. The mentality and actions given to Western Sinology researchers have resulted in mental depression and illness, and an unhappy spiritual life in later years. To be honest, later I went to Taipei to read "Yang Liansheng's Diary", and I paid more attention to Mr. Yang Liansheng's love of "making dumplings" in American life. Mr. Ge did not observe it in depth and detail, so I was not included in "Yang Liansheng's Biography". I feel a little sorry for Mr. Ge's opinion.
Lala Zaza wrote this article, which can no longer be called a "book review", but can barely be called a "book talk". I would like to say that "The Biography of Yang Liansheng" brings a "student craftsman" who has become unfamiliar in the Chinese academic world back into people's vision, thereby adding fuel and vitality to the overseas dissemination of Chinese culture, and it is worth reading.
" Guangming Daily " (December 16, 2018 version 05)
