What is the main content of Fei Zhengqing's America, China and China: Tradition and Change?

Fei Zhengqing is the most prestigious China observer in the world. During World War II, he studied, traveled and taught in China. 1955- 1973 Fei Zhengqing used to be the director of the Center for East Asian Studies at Harvard University and the Higginson Chair in the History Department of Harvard University. Many influential China experts in the United States today come from their families. On the eve of the formal establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, his "America and China" was placed on the desk of the top leaders of the two countries.

Understanding reality can't ignore history. Only by deeply understanding history can we correctly grasp reality. Fei Zhengqing started with understanding China's historical tradition, revealed the essence of China's traditional society, and then understood China's revolutionary process and Sino-US relations. He placed Sino-US relations in the history of the world and analyzed the root causes of contradictions and conflicts between China and the United States. He believes that the development model of human history is not unitary, but pluralistic. In the process of diversification, different countries and nationalities should strengthen their systems, cultures and psychology.

This book can let you know how a foreigner understands the history of China and the different development paths between China and the United States caused by the huge differences in history, which can arouse readers' deep thinking about history and culture.

China in Fei Zhengqing: Tradition and Change

China: Tradition and Transformation, World Knowledge Publishing House, 200 1 Edition. The writer is Fei Zhengqing, the world's most prestigious observer of China, director of the Center for East Asian Studies at Harvard University and professor of Higginson history.

The book has 435,000 words. Fei, with his unique master demeanor and humorous style, tells the history from Banpo and Longshan civilizations to the Chinese nation and China for thousands of years since 1980s. It took me three days to read a whole book, just like the spring breeze. In the process of reading, you can feel the wisdom contained in Fei's "kind and bitter words" without advice. Every time I smile, I feel the happiness that others can't bring me.

The author jumps out of the strange circle of "destiny" and "Wang De's end" and analyzes this historical cycle from the personal, economic and political factors of the rulers. For example, when the author discusses the politics of the Western Han Dynasty in the fourth quarter of the fourth chapter, he points out:

In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, prosperous times often appeared, because entrepreneurs formed a short and pithy ruling group, and they eliminated the remaining forces in the war, so most of the national wealth flowed into the state treasury. The country develops in peace, so the population increases rapidly, and the national treasury has enough money and food.

But everything has ups and downs. When the imperial court had money and food, it began to build palaces, post roads, canals and city walls. In order to maintain military victory, the defense system is often too extensive and unsustainable. There are more and more people who are relatives of the country and high officials, and all of them are addicted to the luxurious life of debauchery. ..... expenditure is increasing and income is relatively decreasing, so that all generations will encounter financial difficulties within 100 years after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

At this time, economic and political reforms will appear, sometimes playing a temporary role. The corruption of officials is becoming more and more serious, which leads to the decline of administrative efficiency and the increasingly fierce party struggle. Those who have second thoughts on the court are more independent politically and economically, and more and more unscrupulous. In order to make up the fiscal deficit, the government has to increase taxes, which often makes the people overwhelmed. Due to the emptiness of the national treasury, the canal embankment was in disrepair for a long time, and the government was unable to help the victims when the harvest failed. As a result, hunger was rampant, so bandits were everywhere and finally a peasant uprising broke out. Unable to pay salaries, the border defense began to collapse. Military and political dignitaries from all over the country rallied in succession, and the court collapsed in this way. After that, the parties scuffled and a new round of dynasty reincarnation began.

This gloomy description is of great significance to today's social reality.

I have always felt that we are in a sense of self-superiority, but I have never found a suitable verbal expression. After reading Fei's China: Tradition and Change, it seems that his "Han cultural centralism" is what I want to say. The "great rejuvenation of the nation" that we are proud of may have this factor, and when we often compete with others, we always forget to applaud our 5,000-year history and culture, which is a high sense of cultural superiority.

Cultural centralism of Han nationality

China's country and culture are closely linked. In this way, due to a high sense of cultural superiority, even though China was conquered by foreign countries because of being defeated by barbarians militarily, it was always in an invincible position in culture and became the final winner. At the same time, China people's hatred of alien rule also led to their general rejection of foreign things, and then gradually developed into an introverted mentality of indifference and hatred to the outside world. China's hatred and contempt for the outside world and his narrow vision of focusing on his own affairs gradually evolved into a kind of ethnocentrism from the early Qing Dynasty. Seeing this, readers will naturally think of how China should maintain and carry forward its traditional culture while breaking the narrow ethnocentrism today when cultural competition is not dominant. This is undoubtedly worth pondering.

Of course, China people can't just act on the advice of bystanders or outsiders. The key is to stand firm and follow your own path. However, as Bakhtin's dialogue theory points out, only when the subject looks back at his "residual horizon" from the perspective of "the other" can he grasp the "transcendence" of the subject. Self-confidence comes from understanding others' opinions and evaluations of themselves. At the same time, "all statements about the other party are self-statements", and the evaluation of the other party more or less reflects some characteristics of the other party. For example, Fei's China: Tradition and Change actually provides a periscope for us to observe and understand western thoughts. "Reading history is a wise move", believe my husband!