Examining Antiquity and Following the Times
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Summary
Part Two, Historical Commentary, discusses the significance of Mao Zedong's commentary on the Twenty-Four Histories, the basic categories of ancient Chinese historical theory, the characteristics of ancient Chinese historians' thought, and the lessons left to later generations by figures such as Sima Qian and Emperor Taizong of Tang.
Part Three, Historiographical Commentary, surveys the broad trajectory of Chinese historiography over the seventy years since the founding of New China, examines representative works of historiographical theory and major theoretical issues in Chinese historiography, and comments on the features of contemporary historical works and the works of historians.
Part Four, Reflections on Scholarship, presents the author's personal views on historical research and the development of the discipline of history, addressing from the standpoint of scholarship such questions as history and theory, truth-seeking and practical engagement, studying the past and responding to the present, the times and historiography, historical materialism and the construction of a historiographical discourse system, and global vision and Chinese characteristics.
Editor's review
As an authoritative scholar in the field of historiography, Qu Lindong combines a broad historical vision with fine conceptual analysis. His reinterpretations of propositions such as Sima Qian's "comprehending the changes from antiquity to the present," Liu Zhiji's "times shift and circumstances change," and Zhang Xuecheng's "the Six Classics are all history" are not merely retrospectives on historiography but profound reflections on how contemporary scholarship can carry forward tradition and respond to its own era. His prose is plain yet weighty, tightly reasoned, and beneath its seemingly gentle narrative lies a sustained interrogation of the nature of historiography.
The book's value lies in going beyond mere historiographical methodology to touch on a fundamental wisdom of survival and development in Chinese culture. For readers, it is not only a professional tour of Chinese historiographical thought but also an exercise in thinking about how traditional Chinese culture confronts "change" and "constancy." In an age of accelerating knowledge renewal and mounting tension between tradition and modernity, the conceptual framework offered here has distinctive reference value.
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Scholars and university faculty and students with research interests in Chinese historiography and historiographical theory
- Readers seeking a deeper understanding of the philosophy of "holding fast to constancy" and "adapting to change" in traditional Chinese culture
- Researchers in the humanities and social sciences concerned with academic tradition and contemporary transformation
- Deep readers who enjoy intellectually substantial academic works with rigorous argumentation
Not a good fit for
- Casual readers seeking light stories or popular history
- Readers lacking the patience or foundation for specialized historiographical concepts and academic argument
Reading tips
- It is advisable to begin with the "Introduction" and "Preface" to grasp the author's core questions and the book's overall framework
- Readers may draw on their own background knowledge and need not understand every historical allusion at once; the priority is to follow the thread of thought
- The discussions of "examining the past" and "responding to the times" can be considered in light of one's own field or contemporary issues
About the publisher
The Commercial Press is a publisher known for classic works and academic publishing, with titles spanning Eastern philosophy, foreign literature, world history, social culture, and applied psychology. Its list includes classical commentaries such as Zhu Xi's Collected Commentaries on the Analects and Wang Bi's Commentary on the Zhouyi, as well as modern annotated translations like Zhuangzi with Modern Notes and Translation. In foreign literature it offers War and Peace and Crime and Punishment, while in world history it carries Braudel's The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. Applied psychology is represented by Irvin D. Yalom's Existential Psychotherapy, and ethical texts include a Greek-Chinese-English edition of the Nicomachean Ethics. Its authors and translators include Zhu Xi, Wang Bi, Yalom, Braudel, and translators such as Huang Zheng, Zhang Yiling, Shen Dongyu, and Tang Jialong, balancing the editing of original texts with academic translation.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 出版前言
- 自序
- 第一辑 民族与文化
- 探索民族间的心灵沟通——深入研究中国历史上历史文化认同的传统
- 从史学发展看炎黄文化的民族凝聚力
- 略说撰写多民族历史传统的阶段性特征
- 历史的长城 心中的长城
- 文化自觉与社会发展
- 弘扬中华民族优秀传统文化
- 第二辑 历史评论
- 天人古今与时势理道——中国古代历史观念的几个重要问题
- 中国古代史家的通识与智慧
- 中国古代史学家思想的几个特点——再论古代史学家与中国思想史
- 司马迁留给后人的启示
- “公事之闲，宜寻典籍”——关于唐太宗与李大亮及荀悦《汉纪》
- 怎样看待古代史官的作用——略说刘知幾《史通》的史官论
- 阮元的为政、为学、为人——读陈康祺《郎潜纪闻》书后
- 让后人懂得什么是历史
- 第三辑 史学评论
- 成就、反思与新的前景——新中国史学七十年发展大势
- 历史学和民俗学的理论互补与学科建设
- 宋人笔记的史学意识
- 深入研究中国历史教育史
- 资料·会通·见识——读杨翼骧先生《学忍堂文集》
- 古风新韵——评蒋广学《〈中国思想家评传丛书〉读稿札记》
- 第四辑 治学漫谈
- 谈谈历史研究中的几个关系
- 论“稽古”与“随时”——中国古代史家关于古今关系及其本质的认识
- 历史研究须处理好古今关系
- 与时代互动是史学发展的动力
- 论史学的求真与经世
- 在思考历史中汲取智慧
- 探索中国史学的理论研究话语体系
- 唯物史观与学科话语体系建构
- 世界眼光与中国特色
- 第五辑 序与跋
- 《史学遗产六讲》前言
- 《资治通鉴介绍》再版前言
- 序《陇史新探》
- 序《魏晋隋唐间的河东裴氏》
- 明代史家怎样看待历史——《明代历史理论研究》代序
- 天意与自然——《怪异的叙事：南北朝正史“五行”“符瑞”诸志研究》代序
- 《中国简明史学史》后记
- 《我的史学人生》题记
- 《我的史学人生》后记
- 《瞿林东文集》总序
- 跋
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About the author
Qu Lindong was born in December 1937 in Feidong, Anhui Province. He is a senior liberal arts professor and doctoral supervisor at Beijing Normal University. He has long been engaged in teaching and research in historical theory and the history of Chinese historiography, and served as director of the Center for Historiography Theory and History of Historiography, a key research institute of the Ministry of Education. His works include An Outline of the History of Chinese Historiography and Studies in Tang Dynasty Historiography; he also edited multiple works, including Ancient Chinese Historical Theory, and published the ten-volume Collected Works of Qu Lindong in 2017. His book Inquiring into the Past and Following the Times is a work of history reading that reflects his scholarly approach of grounding himself in historiographical tradition while attending to the issues of the times, and it has had a positive influence in popularizing historical theory and guiding readers to understand the course of Chinese historiography.
