April 29th is the 14th anniversary of the death of Mr. Bo Yang . His works are still selling well to this day. Among them, the hardcover version of "Bo Yang's Edition of Tongjian Chronicles" (all ten volumes) sells for as high as 1,499 yuan, but all 5,000 sets of the books were sold out in just 6 months. Oriental Publishing House has urgently printed 3,000 more sets; " Bo Yang's Vernacular Edition of Zizhi Tongjian ", which Bo Yang has written for ten years, will be reinstalled at the end of June.
On April 29, 2008, Bo Yang died of respiratory failure in Xindian Gengxin Hospital in Taiwan at the age of 89. In accordance with his last wish, his family scattered his ashes in the sea near Green Island. Two years later, under the escort of his wife and children, some of Bai Yang's ashes were buried in Fushouyuan Cemetery in Xinzheng, his hometown in Henan.
Bo Yang called his creative career as: ten years of novels, ten years of essays, ten years behind bars, five years of columns, and ten years of "Tongjian". In fact, the "Ten Years of Tongjian" is far more than ten years. Beginning in the 1980s, it took Bo Yang ten years to just translate "Tongjian" into vernacular Chinese. After cross-strait exchanges opened up, Bo Yang finally obtained a more precise map of China, and based on the latest geographical divisions in the mainland at that time, he translated "Tongjian" into vernacular. He revised the notes on current place names in "Tongjian", presided over the drawing of accurate historical maps of the events recorded in "Tongjian", and began to compile a new vernacular version of "Tongjian" in a new style; by the time the "Boyang Edition of Tongjian Chronicles" was completed, it was already the beginning of the 21st century. In Bo Yang's view, the translation and commentary of "Tongjian" is "another new literary career, and the study has become a prison cell." "Bo Yang's Edition of Tongjian Chronicles", as the final masterpiece of Bo Yang's "Tongjian" series, condenses all of Bo Yang's previous efforts on "Tongjian". "Bo Yang's Edition of Tongjian Chronicles" has therefore become the easiest vernacular reading book for contemporary readers to read and learn "Tongjian".
In Bo Yang's opinion, "Zizhi Tongjian" compiled by Sima Guang is one of the two best history books in China. "Without reading "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" carefully, it is simply impossible to understand China, understand Chinese people, understand Chinese politics, and look forward to China's future." The "Bo Yang Vernacular Version of Zi Zhi Tong Jian" translated by Bo Yang with ten years of hard work is not only a translation of ancient texts into modern vernacular, but also a re-creation based on loyalty to the original work. As Bo Yang said, "The long river of Chinese history is very majestic, tortuous and mighty. In the process of rewriting, I must 'go through' the recorded historical events carefully, not only reading and translating, but also thinking carefully, using modern democratic ideas to analyze the causes and consequences of historical events, injecting my personal views, so that readers can understand history and understand what is by reading this book. Feudal autocracy reveals the mentality and power of the ruling class. Mr. Sima Guang wrote this book for the emperor and his ministers, and I adapted this vernacular version for today's officials and common people, so that they can see what is the righteousness of the Chinese nation, what is the oppression of feudal autocracy, and the deceit and hypocrisy of evil people, and let readers learn historical lessons and life benefits. " Yangzi Evening News/Ziniu News reporter Huang Yanwen
proofreading Xu Heng
