Research on the Diplomatic Thought of Wu Tingfang

Author: Yue Qianhou
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-12-13
Features: This book is not Gu Weijun's panoramic "painting" or "photography," nor is it a simple judgment of the right or wrong in Gu Weijun's life. The fundamental value of history lies in providing experiences and lessons from success and failure, especially lessons from failure, as unsuccessful actions are a crucial part of the human evolution process. The French Annales School historian Marc Bloch pointed out, "For a long time, historians have been like judges in the underworld, arbitrarily praising or condemning the dead," to satisfy people's desire to judge what is good and what is evil as if they were 'gods.' Hollow condemnation, followed by hollow reversals, has given history a capricious appearance. To absolutize the relative standards of a person, a party, or an era and use them to judge historical figures has led to absurd conclusions. He reminds people that it is easier to praise or condemn predecessors than to understand them, and that exploring the causal relationships of historical events is more difficult than making simple qualitative judgments. "Understanding is the guiding light of historical research," he argues. Without a specific historical context, it is inevitable that any historical phenomenon will be difficult to understand. To glimpse the thoughts of predecessors, one must set aside one's own thoughts; to express one's own views, one simply needs to state them, without becoming so engrossed in one's own perspective that one forgets the possibilities of the time. In these senses, we can only learn more from the past by understanding it, analyzing it, and interpreting it, which is where the success of historical research lies. Bloch called this a "glorious victory of the spirit over matter." The theoretical basis for the main theme of this book stems from this. It does not focus on recreating Gu Weijun's life history or judging right and wrong, but on explaining and analyzing his thoughts and actions, personality traits, and political attitudes in specific historical contexts. Through this explanation and analysis, it reveals the basic trends of the political situation, diplomacy, and international politics of the Republic of China era, reflecting the interactive relationships between politics, diplomacy, and war in their historical evolution, and showcasing the image of the professional diplomats of that generation. This book cannot solve all the questions raised by Gu Weijun himself, but it will strive to provide material that can be provided for these questions. The research focus of this book will determine the problems it attempts to solve and the trends of breakthroughs in this field.