Wang Zhonghan's Collected Essays on the History of the Qing Dynasty (Complete Four Volumes)

Author: Wang Zhonghan
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-11-22
Features: At the age of three, I had not yet begun to learn, and only knew how to babble. At the age of ten, I started school, and my first teacher ordered me to recite the "Analects" and "Mencius," without any explanation. The phrase "Learn and practice it often" and the like were incomprehensible to me. As I grew older, I first studied under Master Tang Ziyu, writing out the "Book of Songs" and the "Zuo Zhuan" in one and a half years. Although the teacher added some explanations, it was not entirely satisfactory. Later, I studied under Master Xia Fengjiao (who passed the imperial examination and was selected as a local scholar), who taught me the "Book of Documents · Yu Gong": "Yu divided the nine provinces, followed the mountains and rivers, and assigned land and tribute accordingly," and so on. He recited it with a swaying head and a joyful expression, but I was completely lost. At the age of fourteen, the local scholar Master Xi Mengzhen (whose profession was) gave lectures at the Yingbin Academy. I went there to receive instruction. I recited several chapters from the "Book of Rites," including "Tang Gong · Qu Li · Xue Ji," and for each chapter, the teacher analyzed the theme, ensuring that the students understood it. He also taught dozens of classical Chinese texts, emphasizing that the selected texts from Zeng Guofan's "Miscellaneous Selections from Classics and Histories" should focus on practical governance, which was far superior to the selection of texts in Yao Nai's "Compendium of Classical Chinese Prose" that emphasized literary style. That winter, I followed Master Xi to Changsha with his fifth son, Lu Si (Qitong, later a professor at the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Wuhan University), and his brothers aged seven, eight, and ten (Qiqian, Qizhi, and Qiji). We left our hometown, traveled far to Changsha, and enrolled in Yali High School, graduating after six years. In the summer of 1934, I enrolled in the Department of History at Yanjing University in Beijing and later entered the graduate school of the Department of History, completing a total of six years. During these six years, I had the opportunity to study under the great masters Hong Weilian (Ye), Deng Wenru (Zicheng), Gu Jiegang (Yi, as his courtesy name), and Zhang Mengqu (Er Tian), gaining a glimpse into the methods of writing, academic research, practical governance, and the principles of governance, as well as their personal conduct, friendships, respect for teachers, and dedication to knowledge. After graduation, I stayed at the Department of History at Yanjing University as an assistant, teaching two courses: "History of the Qing Dynasty" and "History of the Ming Dynasty." At that time, Japan and the United States declared war without a declaration of war, and Yanjing University was forced to close and disperse. The following year, I traveled south from Beijing and Tianjin, returning to my hometown in southern Hunan to care for my mother (my father had passed away earlier). Upon arriving in Chengdu, my travel funds were exhausted, and I temporarily stayed at Peking University (which reopened the following year after being closed in Beijing). I worked as a lecturer and secretary for the Department of History. At the same time, the great master Chen Yinque also came to our school to teach, and I had the opportunity to learn from him. Over three years, I read the "Four Books" extensively and wrote an article titled "A Study of the Annotations to the 'Records of the Three Kingdoms'" (about 45,000 words), which was published in the fifth volume of the "Journal of Chinese Culture Research," edited by my teacher Wen You at the five universities in Chengdu in 1945. Before returning to China from studying in the United States in 1948, I wrote an article titled "A Study of the Author of 'You Xian Cu'" (in English), which was supervised and polished by Master Hong and published in the first and second combined issue of the "Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies" in the same year. This was the second article I wrote after "A Study of the Annotations to the 'Records of the Three Kingdoms'" that was not related to the Qing Dynasty. From then on, I resolved to specialize in the history of the Qing Dynasty, refusing to write on topics unrelated to it, except for these two articles. In terms of Qing Dynasty historical topics, my first published articles were "A Study of the Succession Dispute of the Shengzong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty" and "A Record of the Western Expedition of Yinzhen," both published in issues 46 and 48 of the "Yanjing Review." Because I disagreed with the views of the great Qing historian Meng Xins (Sen) in his article "A Study of the Succession of the Shengzong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty," the articles I wrote were well-supported by historical materials and had clear arguments, attracting significant attention and praise from the academic community. The completion of this article coincided with the beginning of my marriage to my wife, Tu Yinsong. To my surprise, Master Hong Weilian, who was living in the United States at the time, read my article "A Study of the Succession Dispute" and wrote to me, saying, "Reading 'A Study of the Succession Dispute of the Shengzong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty' made me clap my hands in admiration! My younger brother has made progress in both compilation and academic research, which greatly comforts me. I hope that the beauty of your wife in the new family can help you focus on academic pursuits." Master Hong pointed out that my wife encouraged me to study hard after our marriage. Not only that, but during the early years of the founding of the country, the reorganization of academic departments led to my transfer to the Research Department of the Central University for Nationalities, and later to the Department of History, specializing in ethnic history, where I remain to this day. Meanwhile, my wife, for the education of our three children, preferred to stay at Peking University Hospital as a nurse, later becoming an internist and the director of the outpatient department for two or three decades, rather than moving to the hospital with me, allowing me to commute between the two schools on bicycles every week for thirty-two years. What is particularly remarkable is that in the summer of 1957, I was mistakenly labeled a "rightist," and my wife, as always, bore the mental burden and meticulously raised our children. During the ten-year chaos, my wife, who was naturally frail, was also sent to the "Five Seven Work School" in Jiangxi for two years of labor. Through the harsh cold and scorching heat, day and night, she struggled in the mud and mire, developing high blood pressure and asthma, and her physical strength greatly diminished. Unable to bear the situation, she reluctantly retired at the age of 58 in 1975, despite repeated requests from Peking University to stay. At that time, I was borrowed by Zhonghua Book Company to participate in the collation and annotation of a 7 to 8 million-word "Draft of the History of the Qing Dynasty," and later I independently proofread nearly 5 million words of the "Biographies of the Qing Dynasty." I worked from early morning to late evening, with no time to take care of my wife. Eight years later, the whole family moved into the newly built professorial building at the Central University for Nationalities, with a living room and three bedrooms, abundant sunlight. My wife spent her days reading books and newspapers, and in two years, her asthma improved, and her high blood pressure was largely controlled. For fifteen years, we maintained our usual routines, and the whole family remained healthy and content. My collection of articles on the Qing Dynasty, titled "Miscellaneous Studies on the Qing Dynasty," was submitted to the People's Publishing House in 1957. After the "Great," it was already determined that I would be mistakenly labeled a "rightist," making it unlikely that the book would be published. Fortunately, according to the regulations of the Beijing Municipal Committee, all professors labeled as "rightists" had to be officially approved by the committee before being considered as such. While my "rightist" status was pending approval, my "Miscellaneous Studies" was published, which was truly a stroke of luck in misfortune. The book was reprinted by Zhonghua Book Company in September 1963. According to my friend Deng Suiyu, it was also reprinted at least once in Hong Kong and Taiwan. For the next twenty years, until I was completely exonerated, I never published another article. During that time, I copied books and collected documents for the government, passing the idle time by randomly flipping through books. I once even thought to myself that I would never have the chance to write and publish articles again in this life. In the words of the time, I could only "act with a lowered tail" and live out my days. Who would have thought that in 1976, Chairman Mao Zedong passed away, and Comrade Deng Xiaoping took over, announcing that all "rightists" who had been expanded and mistakenly labeled since the mid-1950s, during the "ten-year chaos," would be completely exonerated. My "rightist" label was completely removed, and I could once again work diligently, writing without stopping. Moreover, I privately resolved to write one or two more articles each year to make up for the loss of twenty years without writing. In the first half of 1978, I wrote two articles: one titled "An Initial Exploration of the Nature of Qing Dynasty Banner Land" (published in issue 4 of the "Journal of History and Literature," edited by Zhonghua Book Company), about 15,000 words, and another titled "A Brief Interpretation of the Manchu Inscription in the Taiping Temple in Shenyang" (first published in the "Journal of the Central University for Nationalities," later included in the "Proceedings of the International Academic Conference on Ming and Qing History," edited by Nankai University in Tianjin), about 20,000 words. Shortly after its publication, the Italian professor of Manchu studies at the University of Venice, Dr. Stally, translated it into German and compiled it with his own work "A Draft of the History of the Sibo People" into a special issue titled "The History of the Sibo People," which was published publicly. Later, I successively published three more articles: "A Discussion on the Calculation of Land Grants in the Old Manchu Archives," "Four Types of Manchu and Han Land Contracts from the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong Dynasties," and "The National and Religious Policies of the Qing Dynasty." The last article was published in the "Social Sciences in China" (issue 1, 1992, People's Publishing House of Social Sciences). The following year, it was translated into English and published in the English version of the same journal. In the years that followed, I also wrote three more articles: "A Study of the Edict of the Shengzong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty," "Yinzhen and the Records of the General of Farthest Distance," and "The Issue of the Western Expedition of Nian Gengyao." From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, I successively published two collections of articles: "New Studies on the Qing Dynasty" (Liaoning University Press in Shenyang, July 1990) and "Continued Studies on the Qing Dynasty" (Huashi Publishing House in Taipei, March 1993). Some of the articles in these two collections were revisions and further explorations of the issues related to the succession of the Yongzheng Emperor that I had previously published. In the late 1990s, I was once again favored by the academic community and published a book titled "A Study of Wang Zhonghan" (Zhejiang People's Publishing House in Hangzhou, January 1999), co-published with nearly 20 contemporary humanistic and social scientists. In the same year, in May, the Central University for Nationalities Press published another collection of my selected academic works titled "Selected Academic Works of Wang Zhonghan" as part of their academic series. Last winter, my classmates persuaded me to publish another collection. At my age, I felt that my creativity had dried up and that my strength was insufficient. Every time I wrote an article, it took more than half a month to write over 10,000 words, and I often relied on my classmates for help. Generally, I would look at the ceiling, writing only 4,000 to 5,000 words, and shorter ones were limited to 1,000 words. However, Comrade Jiang Jiang of Liaoning University Press in Shenyang heard about it and invited me to write a book, which was scheduled for publication that year. Thanks to the great help of my classmates Xiaoqiang Chen, Tianbi Qiao, Yongjun Di, Qiao Jiang, and Lianzhi Zhao, the book "Supplementary Studies on the Qing Dynasty" was published in February 2001. The book was especially honored to have my dear friend Yuanbai (Qigong) write the title for it, for which I am deeply grateful. The word count of "Supplementary Studies" is roughly the same as the previous three studies, but the average word count of each article is about 10,000 to 20,000 words, which is just enough to show that my energy has greatly declined, and I am filled with regret. Recently, the editorial department of Zhonghua Book Company asked me to write a collection of articles on the Qing Dynasty titled "A Collection of Wang Zhonghan's Studies on the Qing Dynasty," with no limit on the word count, including both published and unpublished articles. As everyone in the academic community knows, Zhonghua Book Company is a world-renowned publishing house in China that specializes in high-level ancient Chinese publications. Even if the author voluntarily pays to have their own works published, if the quality of the work does not meet the requirements, it will not be considered for publication. Who am I? An old man from the suburbs, with white hair and missing teeth, ignorant and lacking knowledge, not good at writing. Although I have occasionally written short and simple articles over the past few decades, they are merely filling the ranks, attached at the end of the great works of the virtuous, and are not worth mentioning in the world of literature. However, I dare not to completely refuse the kind request of the leaders of the book company and Mr. Cui! Therefore, I have compiled nearly 200 articles, over 3 million words, published and unpublished, into a collection, slightly categorized into five sections: 1. Early Qing, 2. Kangxi and Qianlong Periods, 3. Late Qing, 4. Others (before the Ming Dynasty), and 5. Appendices. Among these sections, the majority of the articles are on the Kangxi and Qianlong periods, followed by the early Qing period, and then the late Qing period. The appendices are mostly self-introspective pieces. The collection of articles was a difficult task, and I am deeply grateful to my classmates Ding Yizhuang, Xian Zhu, Nianci Yao, Dazhabu, Xiaomeng Liu, Lianzhi Zhao, Delong Jiang, Qiao Jiang, Yongjun Di, and Zhiyan Peng for their great efforts in searching for my articles scattered in various publications, which was truly a labor of love. Looking back over the past 60 years, I have successively published four collections of articles: "Miscellaneous Studies on the Qing Dynasty," which was titled by my teacher Deng Wenru (Zicheng), and the three subsequent collections, "New Studies," "Continued Studies," and "Supplementary Studies," were all titled by the renowned calligrapher Yuanbai (Qigong). Recently, the editorial department of Zhonghua Book Company in Beijing published another complete collection of my articles titled "A Collection of Wang Zhonghan's Studies on the Qing Dynasty," and Liaoning University Press published my fifth collection, "Supplementary Studies on the Qing Dynasty," with the title written by my dear friend Yuanbai's younger brother, Qixiang. The book was praised as "a pair of contemporary masterpieces." The articles in this "Collection of Wang Zhonghan's Studies on the Qing Dynasty" include those I have published and unpublished over the years. Although I dare not claim to have made any breakthroughs or discoveries that surpass the works of contemporary scholars, there are occasionally some insights that may be of reference or benefit. However, I cherish these works as if they were my own, and I cannot bear to discard them as if they were a chicken's head and ribs.