Secret Archives of Chinese Civilization: Another Face of Our History

Author: Li Yangquan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: In ancient times, entertainers were not like today's celebrities who could travel around. Of course, their fame would not be as great as today's superstars. The main reason is that our media has been too weak for a long time. However, they were able to achieve fame and recognition through their exceptional skills. And this fame and recognition were recorded by people, becoming a fragmented yet uniquely interesting ancient entertainment industry. Stories about them were always scattered. So, let's take a look at these scattered and entertainment-related figures...
The emperor's homosexuality, the commoner's toilet, cruel punishments, bloody dining tables, colorful underwear, the "guardian sand" of virgins, imaginative sexuality, wars changed by details, the turbulent world, mysterious medical skills, using lamb hindquarters to fill the holes after a beating—all history is contemporary history. What is called history is that these people and events have passed, but they are basically the same as us in many aspects today. Especially for everyone being ordinary people (whether great men or ordinary people, emperors or commoners, beauties or old women, loyal ministers or treacherous ones), their various details in real life—eating, drinking, defecating, entertainment, love, hatred, joy, anger, beating, cursing, or interesting and ugly, or special or casual—truly resonate with our own daily habits. Even, the occurrence, development, change, and disappearance of many major historical events, if one truly sees through the clouds, their roots are actually rooted in this. Thus, through the ages, it is still amusing to read and at the same time inspires, reflects, and makes one think. China boasts of its history. However, these aspects of history that are either interesting or ugly, which are extremely attractive and worth reading and understanding, due to various reasons, were never seen in almost any middle or high school textbooks, reference books, bookstores, or libraries—contemporary historical works and historical readings.
Orthodox history books always prefer to maintain a serious demeanor, only discussing those that can be placed on the negotiation table—those that are dignified and honorable. Even the language they use is diplomatic and formal. It seems quite serious and scientific, but it is not necessarily 100% the truth. Perhaps it is even derived from those life details that historians often overlook—interesting or ugly. Moreover, Bo Yang once said: "These official histories compiled only after a dynasty falls are just a collection of biographies, and these biographies mostly rely on one-sided accounts from the person's epitaph, memoirs, family chronicles, etc." Mr. Lu Xun and others also had similar views. Most of us have never seen ancient history, only knowing a little about it through existing history books. Since orthodox history books write in that way, why can't we write differently, appropriately supplementing or even occasionally correcting them? Since there are orthodox history books, why not have folk or individual historical books? Huang Renyu's series of outstanding works can be considered folk or individual efforts. Then, can't we organize, collect, describe, and narrate history from a newer, fresher, more interesting, and less explored perspective? Wouldn't that be wonderful?
Li Yangquan's newly published China's Secret Archives of Civilization—Another Face of Our History is just such an interesting and valuable historical book. From his unique perspective, he divides the five thousand years of China's vast civilization history into nine chapters (Cultural Entertainment, Daily Life, Sex and Marriage, Crime and Punishment, Medicine, Education, War, Business, and the Jianghu). This casual division makes it a worthwhile book to explore in the form of Chinese history.
The author uses numerous little-known details and humorous language to present Chinese history to us in a completely new way. This may help everyone see another face of history.
Clouds change, and the ocean shifts. The footsteps of history, both interesting and ugly, special and casual, fill all the details of past lives. History should never be boring; it can be serious in textbooks, but it cannot and cannot be like this in all writings. In this book, the author uses the perspective of "seeing the familiar as strange" to "torture" the interesting or ugly aspects of the Chinese people. These civilizations created by our ancestors may be the most humanized part of our history.
With little commentary, the author allows "facts" to speak with knowledge and interest. Although some quoted texts (so-called "wild history") may not meet the historian's "truth" standards, it doesn't hinder us from taking them as true for now. Who can say that orthodox history textbooks are free of problems? The content of this book is rich, the knowledge is vast, the writing is concise, and the narration is vivid—it is truly "extensive hunting and selective extraction," "thickly accumulated and fully expressed," making it extremely worth reading and understanding.
Dredging through the vast sea of history, exploring the pearls of knowledge, sitting patiently on the cold bench, and sharpening a sword for ten years—what kind of spirit and will is required! To complete such a magnificent work, the author read a vast amount of "official history," "wild history," novels, poetry selections, short essays, notes, specialized readings, charts and treatises, translated documents, as well as many folk anecdotes, old legends, colloquial sayings, and underworld jargon. He also conducted meticulous compilation and fluent writing—how could this be achieved in just "three years of spare time" (as the author humbly states in the preface of the book)! Impressive.