History is not only historical materials, but also historical knowledge and view of history.

History plays a vital role in the development of Chinese civilization. Most other ethnic groups outside the Central Plains have no tradition of recording history, so many civilizations, especially grassland civilization, cannot systematically summarize and sort out the achievements of existing civilizations, and have basically maintained the same level of development for thousands of years without obvious progress. Compared with most neighboring nationalities, Chinese civilization pays attention to summing up historical experience and lessons, and has formed relatively unique and developed civilization achievements. However, the achievements of China's traditional historiography are also very limited. Having the largest historical data library does not necessarily produce great history. China's ancient politicians did learn a lot from history, so the forces that threatened imperial power in past dynasties, such as the separatist forces of princes, powerful ministers and consorts, decreased from generation to generation, and the stability of imperial power improved from generation to generation. But at the level of social governance, the achievements of Chinese people are relatively limited. Although they have the richest ancient historical materials in human history, after experiencing the ideological peak in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, historians in China have been simply integrating and processing complex historical memories according to the same idea of "loyalty to good and evil". Therefore, for thousands of years, Confucian scholars in China have always believed that the reason why China was not well governed was because people were not ancient and refused to listen to Confucius. If everyone honestly implements the Tao of Confucius and Mencius, the world of Yao and Shun will reappear immediately. The conclusion that ordinary subjects get from rich historical materials is even simpler: all success is due to the emperor's listening to the words of loyal ministers, and all failure is due to the emperor's listening to the words of treacherous court officials, so as long as you are close to sages and far away from villains, the world will naturally be peaceful. This ability to sum up history led to the chaos control cycle from Qin Shihuang to 1840.

Therefore, history is not only historical materials, but also historical knowledge and viewpoints, in other words, the understanding and ability to analyze and summarize. Reading history makes people wise, which is not entirely correct. Studying history may not always have a positive effect, but it may have a negative effect in many cases. In modern society, more and more people find that he is bound by distant memories of the past and entangled in some childhood complexes that he can't figure out, causing serious mental illness and mental pain.

Therefore, more and more people go to psychological doctors, and one way of psychological treatment is to awaken sleeping memories. Although some traumatic experiences are seemingly forgotten by us, in fact, they may have been deeply affecting our lives. Therefore, sometimes what the psychotherapist needs to do is to let the client return to the scene at that time, face the same thing again, look at and analyze it from a rational point of view, and correctly guide the client out of the shadow. The same is sometimes true of historical research. The first purpose of historical research is to restore the historical truth. Truth is the foundation of everything. Without truth, history will only lead a person astray. On the basis of the truth, sort it out with logic and learn from the historical truth. Just as there are not many people with good reflective habits and abilities, there are not many countries and nations with qualified historical reflective abilities. But in order to avoid falling in the same place all the time, we must learn and sum up the experience and lessons. From this perspective, history is a subject of great significance, and it is indispensable for a country and a nation.