My Reading History (Second Edition)

Hong ZichengPeking University Press · ChinaAug 2025

Rating 4.2
Word count
207K words
Chapters
96
ISBN
9787301283974

Tags

Documentary Literature IntellectualsReading JourneyPersonal Intellectual HistoryAcademic ReflectionNostalgiaIntellectual EnlightenmentDocumentary NarrativeSelf-ReflectionAesthetic TasteEra Details

Summary

A Personal History of Reading is Hong Zicheng's "reading history of one person"—his recollections, account, and reflections on years of reading. Free from the constraints of academic conventions and frameworks, Hong moves between personal experience, emotional currents, rational thought, and period detail, showing how his reading foundation, aesthetic taste, and scholarly thinking took shape. This highly personal "small narrative of a personal spiritual history" is a vivid supplement to and lively interpretation of the "grand narrative of literary history"—one might also call it another kind of literary-historical account with more of the texture of lived life. In this new edition, essays have been cut and added, reflecting another line of thinking or state of mind from the author's recent years.

Editor's review

This is Hong Zicheng's "reading history of one person." Free from the constraints of academic conventions and frameworks, it turns recollections, account, and reflections on years of reading into a highly personal "small narrative of a personal spiritual history." Moving between personal experience, emotional currents, rational thought, and period detail, the book shows how his reading foundation, aesthetic taste, and scholarly thinking gradually took shape. It can thus be seen as a vivid supplement to the "grand narrative of literary history" and also as a literary-historical account with more of the texture of lived life. The second edition cuts and adds essays, reflecting the author's new line of thinking and state of mind in recent years, so that this "reading history" itself carries a sense of continuing to grow. Its value lies not in offering a reading list or conclusions, but in letting readers see how a researcher cultivates judgment and taste amid his times and personal experience. In terms of reading setting, it suits quiet hours when one follows the author back through old readings, and it also suits literature students and scholars who wish to reflect on the origins of their own reading paths and academic tastes.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read in the order of the essays; when you reach a writer or work you know well, pause and compare it with your own reading memories.
  2. Jot down key moments in how the author's reading tastes formed, then look back after finishing to sort out your own reading trajectory.
  3. Read alongside textbooks on modern and contemporary literary history to see how the "small narrative of a personal spiritual history" supplements the "grand narrative of literary history."
  4. It need not be read all at once; it suits slow reading in quiet hours over several sessions, one or two essays at a time.

About the publisher

Peking University Press China · Founded in 1979

Peking University Press is a comprehensive university press whose publishing areas cover classical literature, popular science, social culture, world history, Western philosophy, and culture. Its catalogue contains 6,031 titles, with representative books including A Dream of Red Mansions, Relativity: The Special and General Theory (15th Edition) (with Einstein's classic papers on unified field theory and other topics), Elements, Conics, The Aristocratic Families of the Eastern Jin, The Philosophy of Mythology (Volume I), The Philosophy of Mythology (Volume II), and The Origin of Continents and Oceans. Representative authors include Cao Xueqin, Zhou Ruchang, Albert Einstein, Euclid, Apollonius, Tian Yuqing, Schelling, and Xian Gang. The press has developed distinctive strengths in classical Chinese literature and in the translation of Western philosophical classics, while also covering scientific classics and social and cultural studies. As public information is limited, this description is based only on the books in the catalogue and offers no further extrapolation.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 再版序
  3. 初版序
  4. 语文课外的书
  5. 我的“巴金阅读史”
  6. 一
  7. 二
  8. 三
  9. 四
  10. 巴金的精神遗产
  11. 历史承担的意义——“我的阅读史”之《郭小川全集》
  12. 一
  13. 二
  14. 三
  15. “怀疑”的智慧和文体——“我的阅读史”之契诃夫
  16. 重读将损失些什么
  17. “当代”的契诃夫图像
  18. 孤独的“无思想者”
  19. “怀疑”的智慧
  20. 不奢望，也就不会有苛求
  21. 批评的尊严——“我的阅读史”之丸山昇
  22. 一
  23. 二
  24. 三
  25. 四
  26. 五
  27. “幸存者”的证言——“我的阅读史”之《鼠疫》
  28. 《鼠疫》与“文革”叙述
  29. 历史创伤的“证言”
  30. “幸存者”的身份意识
  31. 危险的“感激之情”
  32. 有生命热度的学术——“我的阅读史”之乐黛云
  33. “罗网困陷”的体验
  34. “思想之源”的鲁迅
  35. “野蛮精悍之血”
  36. “我就是我”
  37. “边缘”阅读和写作——“我的阅读史”之黄子平
  38. 回到历史深处
  39. 阅读、写作的策略
  40. 燕园“三剑客”
  41. 在不确定中寻找位置——“我的阅读史”之戴锦华
  42. “不确定性”
  43. “无名的一代”
  44. “生为女人”
  45. “涉渡之舟”
  46. “学院知识分子”
  47. 文体的“两面性”
  48. 派别
  49. 一部小说的延伸阅读——“我的阅读史”之《日瓦戈医生》
  50. 1958，知道日瓦戈这个名字
  51. 1986，看了改编的电影
  52. 1987，读到了小说
  53. 1994，“生活”的概念
  54. 1998，海燕与“篷间雀”
  55. 2002·秋天的别列捷尔金诺
  56. 思想、语言的化约与清理——“我的阅读史”之《文艺战线两条路线斗争大事记》
  57. 《大事记》的编写
  58. 另外的大批判写作
  59. 怎样回到“过去”
  60. 精神和语言的“简化”
  61. 关于《切·格瓦拉》的通信
  62. “组织部”里的当代文学问题——“我的阅读史”之《组织部新来的青年人》
  63. 题解
  64. 文学史位置
  65. “风景”的禁忌
  66. 角色的转移
  67. 结构
  68. 白天/夜晚
  69. 文学组织与组织文学
  70. 1990年代：在责任与焦虑之间——《90年代学者散文选·导言》
  71. 文学的焦虑症
  72. “树木的礼赞”——“我的阅读史”之《牛汉诗文集》
  73. 一
  74. 二
  75. 三
  76. 四
  77. 五
  78. 两个王晓明？
  79. 《谢冕编年文集》：研讨会邀请函和开场白
  80. 一 会议邀请函
  81. 二 会议主持人的开场白
  82. 纪念三位诗人：商禽、张枣、许世旭
  83. 一 商禽：负伤的鸟
  84. 二 张枣：知音寻求者
  85. 三 许世旭：跨“界”的歌者
  86. 纪念三位诗人：纪弦、梁秉钧、牛汉
  87. 一 纪弦（2013年7月22日）
  88. 二 梁秉钧（2013年1月6日）
  89. 三 牛汉（2013年9月29日）
  90. 种种可能：周梦蝶和辛波斯卡
  91. 献给无限的少数人——大陆近年诗歌状况
  92. “为赞颂一切我所焚毁的……”——“我的阅读史”之结束语
  93. 附录
  94. 答张彦武先生问
  95. 穿越当代的文学史写作——洪子诚先生访谈录
  96. 读书的心情（代后记）

FAQ

Is this book a recommended reading list or a guide to reading methods? No. It is Hong Zicheng's recollections, account, and reflections on his own years of reading, a "small narrative of a personal spiritual history." Its focus is on showing how his reading foundation, aesthetic taste, and scholarly thinking formed, not on listing books or teaching specific reading methods. Readers should treat it as a memoir and reflective text.
What is the difference between the second edition and earlier versions? According to the materials, the second edition cuts and adds essays, reflecting another line of thinking or state of mind from the author's recent years. In other words, the new edition is not a simple reprint but has adjustments in contents; readers may note how the additions and cuts reflect changes in the author's recent concerns and thinking.
Can I read this book if I haven't read Hong Zicheng's scholarly works? Yes. The book frees itself from academic conventions and frameworks and unfolds through personal experience and emotional currents, without requiring specialized prior knowledge. Of course, if you have read some of his scholarly works, it will be easier to grasp the threads of how his scholarly thinking formed; but general readers can also read it as the personal recollections of a literary reader.
Is this book suitable for understanding the history of modern and contemporary Chinese literature? It can serve as a supplement, not a substitute. What it offers is a more vivid personal account, a lively supplement to the "grand narrative of literary history," letting one see reading experiences and period details beyond the framework of literary history. To gain a systematic understanding of modern and contemporary literary history, one still needs to read specialized histories and textbooks alongside it.

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About the author

Hong Zicheng Author · China · 1939

Hong Zicheng, born in April 1939 in Jieyang, Guangdong, is a professor in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Peking University and one of the important founders of the discipline of contemporary Chinese literature. After graduating from the department in 1961, he stayed on to teach and has long been engaged in the study of contemporary Chinese literature and modern Chinese poetry. He is the author of more than twenty works, including A History of Contemporary Chinese Literature, Questions and Methods, and A History of Contemporary Chinese New Poetry (co-authored). His History of Contemporary Chinese Literature and its revised edition have had wide influence; he also edited Selected Works of Contemporary Chinese Literature (revised edition) and Selected New Poems of the Past Century (two volumes), and wrote A Brief History of Chinese New Poetry over the Past Century, My Reading History, and Selected Academic Works of Hong Zicheng. His writing is known for solid historical sources and rigorous scholarship, spanning literary appreciation, modern poetry, and essays, and has had a profound influence on research and teaching in contemporary literature.