Wang Ju PAIAN | Yi Zhongtian is banned, what exactly is historical nihilism?

1. Works by Yi Zhongtian Removed: From Schools to Xinhua Bookstore

Some time ago, the education department of Shandong Province notified primary and secondary schools to remove Yi Zhongtian’s books from their libraries, and it seems that Zhejiang Province followed suit . I was a bit surprised when this happened. Why? Because Yi Zhongtian is a scholar who studies ancient history . He became popular because he participated in CCTV’s “Lecture Room” in his early years, “Yi Zhongtian on the Three Kingdoms”, and later, after gaining fame, he lectured on “Yi Zhongtian’s Reading of the Figures of the Han Dynasty”, and “The Hundred Schools of Thought in the Pre-Qin Period”, which actually focused on the field of ancient history . We all know that ancient times are relatively far from the present, and the further away, the fewer taboos, and the more freedom there is .

So, if even lecturing on ancient history can cause problems, then I think this is quite strange . Later, I asked some friends in China, and they inquired on the street, and Xinhua Bookstore also received a notice that Yi Zhongtian’s books also had to be removed . It seems that this matter of Yi Zhongtian is not limited to primary and secondary schools, and the entire works of Yi Zhongtian in mainland China may face the danger of being completely removed .

2. Reasons for Removal: Is it “Vulgar Content” or “Historical Nihilism”?

Then I asked some friends in the publishing industry why Yi Zhongtian’s books were removed . They gave two reasons: the first said the content was vulgar . That is, in the recommended catalog for primary and secondary schools, Yi Zhongtian mainly has a book called “Stories of Chinese Classics”, which talks about ancient classics like “Analects” and “Zhuangzi” . In order to make it easier for primary and secondary school students to read, some illustrations were added, and it was said that these illustrations were vulgar . For example, Liu Bang, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, wrote, “I can’t do anything, I can only pick up girls, so I became the founding emperor”, which is a bit reminiscent of Mao Zedong; and when soaking his feet, he said, “Hey, this girl is not bad” . He uses this modern way to interpret ancient people, which is considered vulgar content .

The second reason is that he is a historical nihilist . Later, I specifically looked for his article “Stories of Chinese Classics”, and I read it. This is actually true, for example, he talks about freedom in Zhuangzi, and also connects it with modern liberalism from a certain angle, digging out the modern factors in Chinese traditional thought, and also castigating some of the authoritarian thinking in Chinese history, that’s all . Of course, he also talked about Adam and Eve. If this is historical nihilism, it can only be said that the boundaries of historical nihilism have expanded again .

3. Definition of Historical Nihilism: Two Guidelines by Ge Jianxiong

From this news, I was thinking that many people may not know what historical nihilism is, and what exactly does this historical nihilism negate? Why is the Communist Party so afraid of historical nihilism? Today, we will spend some time talking about the story and logic behind this .

Last year, a professor from Fudan University named Ge Jianxiong gave a lecture at a university, “How Should We Treat History” . He gave two definitions of historical nihilism:

The first is to deny national history and national culture. For example, if you talk about history, we in China talk about “five thousand years of history of Xia, Shang and Zhou”, if you say that there are only 3700 years, and that Xia does not exist, this is called historical nihilism. For example, now other countries have basically figured it out based on molecular biology that humans came out of Africa 50,000 or 100,000 years ago. But you see that many historical museums in China are still talking about Peking Man and the cavemen. In fact, Peking Man has nothing to do with the current Chinese people in terms of blood relationship, but you see that they are still talking about it, why? This is to talk about the origin of national history, which can be traced back to Peking Man, and this branch of China is different from people in other places. If you deny this, this is called denying national history and national culture.
The second aspect, he said, is to oppose the Communist Party of China through history. This is a bit interesting, isn’t it? How can you oppose the Communist Party of China through history? Then we have to talk about it.

4. Historical Materialism and the Logical Construction of the CCP’s Legitimacy

The opposite of historical nihilism is actually called historical materialism . Everyone knows that historical materialism is one of the three major theoretical cornerstones of Marxism . Historical materialism is actually the application of Marx’s material determines consciousness, productive forces determine production relations, superstructure and material base, these three major relationships in the field of history . Marx believed that human history is not transferred by human will, the beginning is primitive society, through slave society, feudal society, capitalist society, and then to communist society . If communist society cannot be automatically realized in this process, it must be achieved through violent revolution, the working class unites to kill the capitalists, and finally realizes communism to liberate all mankind, this is his thought .

Then this is his most core view of historical materialism. When this historical materialism was spread to China, the theoretical experts of Chinese history – Guo Moruo, Fan Wenlan, Jian Bozan, these people, sinicized Marx’s theory of historical materialism . How is the theory constructed in this process of sinicization?

That is to talk about the Opium War, the beginning of modern Chinese history in 1840, China gradually became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.
In this process, from the Humen smoke, to the Jintian Uprising, to the Reform Movement of 1898, to the Treaty of Shimonoseki, to the Boxer Rebellion, and then to the Xinhai Revolution.
In this process, the peasant class and the bourgeoisie opposed feudal society and foreign imperialist powers in revolutions time and time again.
But because of their own limitations, they all failed. Why? Because there was no Communist Party of China at that time. If there was a Communist Party of China at that time, the Jintian Uprising would have succeeded.
Later, the October Revolution sounded a cannon, and brought Marxism to China. In 1921, the Communist Party of China was established, and from then on, the Chinese revolution went from victory to victory. The eight-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was led by the Communist Party of China, and the Kuomintang’s frontal battlefield did not resist. In the end, the Kuomintang lost its leadership, and you were defeated in the process of our civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and history chose the Communist Party of China.

This is the narrative logic of historical materialism of the entire modern Chinese history .

5. Politicized History: “Tools for Demonstrating” Ruling Legitimacy

Ge Jianxiong said that if you remove any link, you will deny the final conclusion . What is Ge Jianxiong’s theory? Ge Jianxiong’s theory says that history in Chinese history has never been history, but is all about discussing the legitimacy of rule .

For example, the Qing Dynasty, when the Qing army entered Beijing, as a minority ethnic group ruling the Central Plains, it had to discuss its own legitimacy . It constructed another set of theories, that is, the Ming Dynasty was destroyed by Li Zicheng, and then the Qing Dynasty seized the world from Li Zicheng, and it was avenging the Ming Dynasty . In other words, it actually constructed its legitimacy in this way. Of course, it’s all fake, if you really want to avenge the Ming Dynasty, then there was still the Southern Ming Dynasty at that time, why didn’t you negotiate with the Southern Ming Dynasty and help the Southern Ming Dynasty return to Beijing?

So these are all fake, just an excuse. So Ge Jianxiong’s point is that in history, the history of Chinese dynasties has never been history, but is for discussing the legitimacy of rule . It is the same now, the most important function of modern Chinese history is to discuss the legitimacy of the Communist Party of China’s seizure of power . He also said in an interview later, “I just poked a hole in the window paper, what’s so strange about you? Why are you making such a fuss?”

So you know that in modern Chinese history, these histories have never been history, they are all politics . If you are not careful, if you re-evaluate something, it is not a historical issue, but a political issue.

6. The Origin of Historical Nihilism: Awakening After the Changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

So when did the term historical nihilism come from? It was from 1989 . Why did it start to appear in 1989? Because a very important thing happened: the disintegration of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe . The disintegration of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe brought a very big problem, that is, historical determinism and historical materialism faced a problem of being falsified in real society .

In the past, Marxism argued that communism would be realized, although it has not been realized, but it will be realized in the future (to be realized), after all, it is a vision . But suddenly the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe collapsed and fell, then does historical materialism still exist? Impossible, right, it has been falsified . The reason why communism is a belief is that it cannot be falsified. Once it is falsified, communism cannot become a belief .

The disintegration of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe posed a major challenge to historical materialism . After it was spread to China, the Communist Party of China woke up, and it had to argue why the Soviet Union collapsed. It found that there were two important factors:

Khrushchev denied Stalin. What was the result of this? From denying Stalin to denying the legitimacy of the entire Soviet Union’s rule.
Gorbachev launched “New Thinking” after taking office. Many heroic figures in the historical field, after investigation, were not what they seemed. In the end, everyone felt that the legitimacy of the entire Soviet Union’s seizure of power did not exist.

So from that time on, the CCP began to propose opposing historical nihilism, that is, the historical narrative of the CCP’s modern history cannot be moved or questioned .

7. Forbidden Case: Yuan Weishi and “Towards Republic”

For example, there are several cases in history:

Yuan Weishi Incident: He published an article in “Ice Point Weekly” disclosing historical facts. For example, the reason why the Anglo-French forces attacked Beijing was because the Qing government did not respect diplomatic common sense and attacked diplomatic missions. For example, his evaluation of the Boxer Rebellion, he believed that the Boxer Rebellion was a mob, not a progressive force. After this article was published, because it denied the narrative of “anti-imperialist and anti-feudal peasant uprising”, Yuan Weishi was criticized.
TV series “Towards Republic”: The TV series portrays Empress Dowager Cixi, Yuan Shikai, and Li Hongzhang quite well. And in the CCP’s narrative, they are representatives of conservatism and reaction. If Cixi and Yuan Shikai are not bad people, there is no reason for Sun Yat-sen to carry out a revolution; if there is no reason for Sun Yat-sen’s revolution, there is even less reason for your Communist Party’s proletarian revolution. This is called “if the skin is gone, where will the hair be attached”.

8. Core Red Line: Old Mao, the First Thirty Years, and the Heroes and Martyrs Law

So you see, what has historical nihilism negated? It is the negation of the legitimacy of the Communist Party’s revolution and rule .

About Mao Zedong: Li Zhisui, Mao Zedong’s personal doctor, wrote a book, in which the portrayal of Old Mao is basically a rogue image. This book was listed as the number one forbidden book. Why? Because history chose the CCP, and also chose Mao Zedong. If Old Mao’s image is subverted, then the legitimacy of governance will be gone.
Two Thirty Years: Xi proposed that the current thirty years cannot be used to negate the first thirty years, nor can the first thirty years be used to negate the current thirty years. In fact, these two thirty years negate each other, but he cannot negate Old Mao, and if he negates Old Mao, the legitimacy of governance will be gone.
Heroes and Martyrs Protection Law: For example, to examine whether Qiu Shaoyun and Huang Jiguang meet the physiological structure. If you deny Qiu Shaoyun, you are denying the legitimacy and justness of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. Therefore, it is necessary to protect history by legal means, and anyone who dares to question history is equivalent to questioning the legitimacy of the Communist Party’s revolution.

9. Real Dilemma: The Conflict Between Revolutionary Narrative and Ruling Narrative

Although the Communist Party now opposes historical nihilism, its theoretical construction actually has major flaws . In the process of governance, especially after the reform and opening up, a large number of private enterprises have been introduced. If the past set of Marxist labor value theory is promoted again, reality will conflict with theory .

For example, if Terry Gou exploits workers, if the working class organizes to fight him, wouldn’t that be justified? But in reality, if you go to the Anyuan Coal Mine to form a trade union, you will definitely be arrested.
For example, peasant uprisings are not mentioned much now. Because if the peasants also mention “officials force the people to rebel”, can they also get theoretical support? This is not allowed.

So the current historical materialism is being patched up, mainly to oppose historical nihilism .

10. Conclusion: From Traditional Society to Modern Society

What Ge Jianxiong said, I think, is also a high-level black . Because his meaning is that the Communist Party of China is just an ordinary dynasty in Chinese history, and he poked a hole in this window paper.

Then what I want to say is, what is the biggest difference between our modern regime and traditional society? The biggest difference is that the legitimacy of rule has changed . The legitimacy of rule in the past was demonstrated by fabricating history, but the legitimacy of the regime in modern society is produced by the election of citizens’ votes, so it no longer needs to fabricate history .

Because it is “sovereignty in the people”, which is different from the past “sovereignty in heaven” . From this perspective, today’s Chinese society, including the Communist Party of China, is a member of traditional society, it is not a modern society . So when can history truly become an academic field without forbidden areas? Then it is necessary to let Chinese society change from a traditional society to a modern society, to become a society where sovereignty is in the people, and everyone demonstrates the legitimacy of rule through voting .