What is traditional historiography? What is its exact definition?

(xinshixue) refers to the new trend of historiography that began to sprout at the beginning of the 20th century and developed unprecedentedly in the 1950s and 1960s, which was aimed at opposing the traditional historiography represented by Ranke, and refers to the renewal of this "new historiography" in the past one or two decades. Opposition to the Ranke school of objectivist historiography, first advocated in the late 19th century German philosophers, such as Dilthey, Wendelban, etc., but really from the practice of historiography to advocate a new historiography, there are French scholars Simeon, Henri Belle, Georges Lefebvre, the United States scholars, Robinson, Beard and so on. Their *** same feature is to advocate the broad development of the field of historical research, cooperation with the social sciences, humanities branch, emphasizing the historian's interpretation, attaching importance to the relationship between historiography and reality that is, the function of historiography and so on. However, before the 1930s, the specific research results of the new historiography have not yet been seen.

What really made the theory and practice of the new historiography a trend was the French Annales School (see the article). 1929 the launch of the Annales de l'histoire économique et sociale, as its name suggests, was not only a sign of the birth of the Annales School, but also a sign of the birth of the new historiography. It signaled the new historiography's rejection of a narrow diplomatic and political history and its promotion of a "total history" concept. Bloch added the word "society" to the name of the Annales precisely because it encompassed the whole of history, "history is the history of the whole society". The first generation of scholars of the Annales school on the history of geography and feudal society, the second generation of scholars, such as Brodeur's study of the Mediterranean Sea, and the third generation of scholars, such as Ladieri's Mondavijo, are all masterpieces of the overall history. On this premise, the new historiography ontologically regards history as a science of man, of the human past, which means that it is a science and a special science. This determines that it recognizes the subjectivity and relativity of historical understanding in epistemology, but tries to avoid the interference of ideology and even the philosophy of history, and it strongly opposes the Toynbee-style macro-history and advocates the solid research from the first-hand materials. In terms of methodology, it advocates "problem historiography" on the one hand, that is to say, it first puts forward the problem, and then puts forward hypotheses and determines the research methodology around the problem; on the other hand, it advocates multidisciplinary cooperation, that is to say, it draws on the theories and methodologies of other neighboring disciplines, for example, the historiography of mentality, the quantitative historiography, the structural historiography, the historiography of geography, and the anthropology of history, and so on. The theories and methods of other neighboring disciplines, such as psychohistory, quantitative history, structural history, geohistory, historical anthropology, and so on, are all the products of this overall or integrated methodology. It should also be noted that Marxism's emphasis on theoretical generalization (e.g., the search for laws) and on class, the masses, and economic factors have increasingly influenced historical research, and form part of the new historiography.

But in the last decade or so, the new historiography, which has developed by breaking with Rank's dogma, is in danger of becoming a new dogma because of its over-emphasis on sociological methods of analysis and measurement. Some historians have begun to change course, and a "New Narrative History" has emerged: "The subject of historiography has shifted from the environment around people to the people in the environment; the problems of historical research have shifted from economics and demography to culture and emotion; the disciplines that influence historiography have shifted from sociology, economics, and demography to anthropology and psychology; and the subjects that influence historiography have changed from sociology, economics, and demography to anthropology and psychology. demography to anthropology and psychology; the object of historical study from the group to the individual; the way of explaining historical change from linear single-factor causation to interconnected multiple causation; the methodology from group measurement to individual sampling; the organization of historical material from analysis to description; and the nature and function of historiography from scientific to literary." (Lawrence Stone, "The Renaissance of Narrative History," cited in Historical Theory, 1989, No. 1, pp. 33-34) The resulting change from the dry history that results from numerical analysis and the dogmatic history that focuses on far-reaching structures at the expense of the living individual is a "new "old" historiography.

Traditional Historiography

I. Historian's Sentiment: One of the essential attributes of historiography is the concern for the future, for the historical future of human society. The Chinese forefathers developed a simple dialectical understanding of the relationship between the past and the future, namely, "to recognize the past and to examine the future" ("Yi - Department of Rhetoric"). This is one of the earliest sources of historical thought in ancient China. Sima Qian inherited and developed this idea when he wrote the Historical Records, and put forward the purpose of "recounting the past and thinking about the future", i.e., to recount the past in order to make people in the future think about it when they read the book. In the Book of Han, Sima Qian's biography, Yan said, "To make people in the future see their own aspirations." This is the meaning of the Grand Historian. What is Sima Qian's ambition? It is the result of "investigating the interstices of heaven and mankind, and understanding the changes of the past and present", and it is the result of "netting the old news of the world's release and loss, examining the behavior, and examining the reason for its success, failure, and rise and fall". This is precisely the greatness of Sima Qian's "becoming a family of words" (the above quotation from Sima Qian, see "Historical Records - Taishigong's Preface" and "Han Shu - Sima Qian's Biography"). Since then, this idea continues to develop, becoming a fine tradition of Chinese historiography, the so-called "more knowledge of the past, Yiyan to come" (Tang Gaozu "order Xiao Li and other repair six generations of history edict", "Tang big edicts collection" Volume 81), become a historian's *** knowledge and historiography of a basic task of the reflection. In this sense, historiography is a permanent companion to the historical progress of human society.

Two, historical wisdom. Historiography accompanies the development of social and historical progress, but also for this progress and play a great role. Tang Taizong emphasized that historiography has a great use, said "great, cover the history of the use also!" ("Edict on the Revision of the Book of Jin," Tang Da Zhao Ding Jie, vol. 81). This may be more of a political focus. Liu Zhiqi, starting from "Seeing the virtuous and thinking of the wise, seeing the unwise and introspecting," pointed out that historiography "is an urgent matter for the people, and an important way for the country" (Shitong Shi Guan Jianzhu). Wang Fuzhi on the importance of historiography, including the lessons learned from history and people's thinking and the norms of human behavior (see "reading the Tongjian theory - narrative four"). Gong Zizhen went on to say: "Out of history, people are on the road. Those who want to know, must first be history." ("Respect for history", see "Gong Dingan whole collection of class compilation" volume 5) he said "road", favoring the rise from the specific historical experience into historical wisdom. Here, actually contains "history" and "Tao" of the dialectical relationship between the idea: "history" refers to specific historical events, "Tao" refers to the laws and laws. The term "history" refers to specific historical events, while "Tao" refers to laws and regulations. People can recognize the law of social and historical development by recognizing the richness of historical events; if people want to master this law, they must first study and research history. From the viewpoint of development, the "time", "situation", "reason" and "way" repeatedly discussed in Chinese historiography all have the function of exploring the law. "All of them have the significance of exploring laws and regulations, and all of them shine with the light of wisdom. From a more specific level, whether it is about the understanding of nature, such as astronomy, geography, production activities, etc., or about the understanding of society, such as the people for the state, the rule of law, governance, legal system, indoctrination, and change of customs, etc., have accumulated a wealth of historical wisdom. Historical wisdom is relative to modern scientific knowledge, cognitive level and practical ability; however, people should not and cannot sever the connection between the two, just as people should not and cannot sever history, and the cognitive and practical activities of any person (as a social being) cannot but be enlightened by historical wisdom. We can fully believe that the light of historical wisdom will still radiate brilliantly in the future society.

Third, humanistic thinking. At the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the concept of "heavenly destiny" began to waver, and after the Spring and Autumn Period, the humanistic ideology continued to develop. Historians explored the relationship between heaven and man on the one hand, and the relationship between man and the times on the other. It was in the exploration of these two fields that Sima Qian really found or discovered the position of man in the movement of history. He established the central position of man in the development of history in the writing of the Records of the Grand Historian, and explained it on three levels: the first level is to record "the rise of the king's signs" and "the twelve books of the chronicles"; the second level is to record "the ministers who assisted and supported him"; the second level is to record "the ministers who supported and supported him"; and the second level is to record "the ministers who supported and supported him". The second level is to record the "ministers who assisted and whisked the troops and humerus" and "make thirty families"; the third level is to record the "Fuyi suave, established in the world" of the characters of all classes and "make seventy columns of biography The third level is to record "seventy biographies" of people of various classes who "support the righteous and suave, and make achievements in the world". In the specific expression, Sima Qian wrote the role of human activities in the historical movement from the following aspects: First, it describes the historical process with the development of personnel as a clue; second, it affirms the role of people in the turning point of history or major events; third, it points out the positive role of people's intellect in the process of history; fourth, it emphasizes that the appropriateness of the use of people has a bearing on the survival and safety of the country; fifth, it pays attention to the value of ordinary activities in social life, and so on. social life, and so on. Sima Qian's understanding and account of the role of man in the historical process inherited and developed the germ and tradition of humanistic thought in the pre-Qin period, and greatly enriched people's understanding of man's own power, wisdom, and role. In this sense, the book of the Records of the Grand Historian is the symbol of history becoming the history of man and historiography becoming the rational understanding of history by historians, which opened the tradition of humanistic thought in Chinese historiography, thus exerting a significant and far-reaching influence on the development of Chinese historiography. This is centrally reflected in the long-term accumulation of character-centered composite history books, and the inspirational and motivational role of many outstanding historical figures, which has become a prominent manifestation of the national spirit of the Chinese nation.

History has developed to the present day, people are discussing a new type of economic form facing mankind, namely, the knowledge economy. In this regard, although there are different understandings and elaboration, but in the basic point is to have *** knowledge, that is, high-tech industries - knowledge (intelligence) - people. The key is talent, human quality, human "full intellectualization". It is in this sense that it has been emphasized that "the era of knowledge economy is a truly people-oriented era". Some researchers have also pointed out that the basic knowledge requirements of the United Nations system and Western countries for researchers, policy makers and managers of high-tech industries can be summarized in six aspects, and the sixth aspect includes the knowledge of "history of the country" and "history of science and technology" (see Wu Jiqi). The sixth aspect includes knowledge of "national history" and "history of science and technology" (see Wu Jisong, "Knowledge Economy - New Trend of 21st Century Society", Beijing Science and Technology Publishing House, pp. 162-163). From Sima Qian's "study between heaven and mankind", establishing the central position of man in historical development, to the prediction of man's position in the knowledge economy today, history, after countless spiraling trajectories, has once again brought the idea and practice of "people-oriented" to one of the most prominent and important agendas. The idea and practice of "people-centeredness" has once again become one of the most prominent and important agenda.

In the future society, the fine tradition of human-centered thinking in traditional historiography will certainly give people new insights based on the integration with the real society.