Cheng Yinglong emphasized that "the way to study is to seek truth", so he attached great importance to historical materials. He described his historical training in college as "textual research and proofreading account for a large proportion". This early training in traditional history and his long-term experience in teaching and researching ancient history in China made him pay special attention to the role of historical materials in his research methods. He thought that "the purpose of textual research is to seek truth", praised Sima Guang's "one textual research in a mirror", "created China's realistic style of study in a certain sense", and affirmed that there was "a scientific spirit" in the Qing Dynasty's Park Studies. He argues that "learning history is a bit of an addiction to textual research", and any negligence and laziness in historical materials is absolutely intolerable. He has repeatedly warned students to resist the invasion of fame and fortune. With the motto of "The bench should be cold for ten years, and the articles should not be empty", he sat down quietly and read more basic history books in ancient China. In the first year, he asked graduate students to study Zi Tongzhi Jian word for word as a daily lesson, that is, to lay a solid foundation for studying the ancient history of China: by looking up the historical sources of Tong Jian, learn the catalogue version first; When comparing relevant historical materials, the proofreading method can also be slightly involved; While comparing and tracing back the historical materials, we can not only observe Sima Guang and Hu Sansheng's proficiency in the use of historical materials and textual research, but also know the doorway of textual research if they make occasional mistakes. The laws, regulations and historical figures involved in Tong Jian and Hu Zhu are essential basic knowledge for studying the history of China.
However, Yue's scholarship is not limited to the complicated world of historical materials. The new trend of thought since the May 4th Movement has promoted another aspect of his method of governing history, that is, attaching importance to theory and advocating understanding. He believes: "Historical materials are not equal to historiography. How much historical materials he has can't be said to be a historian. " "Talking about historical sites" shows that he attaches importance to theory in historical research. His emphasis on the cultivation of historical theory has a specific connotation. First of all, we must have the courage to pursue theory. He once pointed out that "superstitious belief in gods, ghosts and leaders is by no means a scientific attitude", and often quoted Zhang Zai's poem "Anyone who breaks obstacles" to advocate learning and thinking, not being trapped by predecessors and others, nor by himself. In his view, breaking barriers and emancipating the mind are the prerequisites for improving the cultivation of historical theory. Secondly, the pursuit of theory should not be endless. He believes that the theory is gradually improved with the development of things, the development and change of things are endless, and the perfection of the theory is endless. Therefore, "it is directly against Marxism to think that there is an unchanging theory". Third, his historical theory is not limited to historical materialism. "I love the stone of my mountain", the stone of other mountains in historical theory, includes all the theoretical heritages in the treasure house of human thought that are of reference value to historical research. He once recommended Toynbee's historical research and Dana's artistic philosophy to students. "At the end of the discussion, you must not get close to others", which is his requirement in historical research. He always evaluates the historical achievements of contemporary scholars and their students with or without new insights.
Cheng Ying-chung had a strong interest in China's classical literature since he was a child, and he was also engaged in literary creation in his youth. This hobby, accomplishment and experience made him pay special attention to the expression of words in his research methods. He admires and worships the famous historian Zhang Yinlin because of his "famous historical articles that people can read without quoting". His historical works, such as Historical Romance of Southern and Northern Dynasties, New Biography of Fan Zhongyan and New Biography of Sima Guang, have vivid images, clear and elegant words, and have a fascinating charm, which is a perfect combination of history and literature. But little known is that in order to pursue the expressiveness and elegance of historical works, he asked his daughter, who was still a junior high school student at that time, to read his manuscript of Historical Stories of the Southern and Northern Dynasties to see if the writing was popular and vivid, and the section of Cui Hao's death was submitted as many as 1 1 time. When he recruits graduate students, he must pass the composition exam before he can enter his school. The quality of articles is the most important parameter for admission or not. This practice is unique in the enrollment of graduate students majoring in history. The reason is just as he said: "It is inconceivable that a person who is disorganized in arts and sciences will be able to conduct scientific research with clear thinking and keen knowledge in the future."
In a word, Cheng Ying attaches importance to historical materials and does not advocate listing them. Inference, but also against rootless emptiness. He believes that historical research, whether macro or micro, should be concrete. He pointed out more than once that the study of history should start from the micro, and only by sorting out the micro can we accurately grasp and have a clear bird's eye view of the whole macro history. He believes that the combination of macro-theory and micro-research, dogmatism and research, and Zhuo Te's historical achievements and vivid written expression can and should be completed by an excellent historian. The great historian he recommended should have extensive and profound knowledge in historical materials, be able to grasp the universal or key topics in historical development, make new generalizations and summaries with new theoretical methods and refined and beautiful written expressions, and thus achieve outstanding achievements beyond the predecessors.
As a historian who has been engaged in normal teaching for a long time, Cheng Yinglong has his own views and characteristics on history teaching and student training. He once asked a question: Why are students not interested in history now? He believes that schools do not attach importance to history teaching, history textbooks in middle schools are poorly compiled, and history teachers lack professional training. These are the reasons why students don't love history class. The curriculum, history teaching and research of history department in colleges and universities directly affect the history teaching in middle schools. Therefore, he is particularly opposed to simplifying history research and teaching. "As a result of simplification, there will be a few tendons left in the extremely rich historical content. Without blood and meat, teenagers will not be interested." He is also opposed to attaching unchangeable theoretical labels to history research and history teaching. In his view, labeling "will not be convincing and will make students feel that history tastes like chewing wax". He advocates that history class can let students know about the past through narrators. For example, when it comes to Qin and Han Dynasties, we should talk about Qin Huang, Hanwu, Xiang Yu, Liu Bang, Chen Sheng and Guangwu. If we want to talk about the equal field system, we must talk about the civilized queen mother and Wei Xiaowen; If we want to talk about reform, we must talk about Wang Anshi and Sima Guang. Talking about the Battle of Feishui, we should not only talk about the nature of the war and the strength comparison between the two sides, but also talk about Fu Jian, Fu Rong, Xie An and Xie Shi ... Only through the teaching of characters can the history class become interesting and students learn from it, otherwise "it will probably not inspire the hearts of young people".
Professor Cheng Ying-Zhong has taken courses such as world history, general history of China, history of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, history of Song Dynasty, introduction to Chinese studies, historical philology of China and historical methodology. Many students say that listening to his lectures is like an artistic enjoyment. His history class not only has theoretical exploration and expansion, but also often points out the key points, compares Chinese and western, and points them out at the right time, so that students can feel its depth and breadth while suddenly realizing and enjoying it. When he lectures, his feelings are very involved, and sometimes his words are eloquent, which makes people stand up; Sometimes it is deep and deep, which makes people emotional; Or describing characters, or quoting poems, strategizing, elegant and elegant, bringing students into different realms. In the late 1970s, he taught the Chinese Department and the History Department a general history of China. The huge trapezoidal classroom was full of people, and the corridors and halls were temporarily added. His highest requirement for his history teaching is: "Every class is like writing a poem and completing a creation." In order to achieve this deep and charming teaching realm, for decades, he has been asking himself to write every sentence he wants to say in each class as a speech, even to go to the podium without a speech. How much creative efforts are needed! He once said with deep feelings: "The most important thing is to study in order to have a good history class. We should study harder than we did in college. We should study for cultivating people, for future builders, and for those who will surpass us in the future. " This high sense of responsibility and unremitting pursuit is the source of his continuous innovation in history teaching for decades. Since The National SouthWest Associated University graduated, Cheng Ying-chung has been keen on historical research, no matter what kind of environment he is in or what kind of work he is engaged in. After he was beaten to the right, he still silently accumulated academic knowledge. After 20 years of hard work, I have the opportunity to publish to the world my research results on the history of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties since the late 1970s. His research on the history of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, his ideological direction, academic views and research conclusions. At that time, there were unique leaders.
Firstly, this paper discusses the nature, characteristics and historical role of dock wall in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, which provides a real scene for understanding the living conditions of the people at that time.
Dock wall is the name of ancient military base, but people at that time, especially most northerners during the war, lived in dock wall. Scholars such as Chen Yinque, Tang, etc. all mentioned this phenomenon in their works, or discussed it incidentally. However, the first comprehensive and in-depth discussion of this phenomenon should be based on "On the Dock Wall in the North of China from the Beginning of the 4th Century to the End of the 5th Century" published by Cheng Ying-zhong in the Journal of Shanghai Normal University (No.1979).
From the perspective of studying social history, the record of dock wall is very important, but it is scattered in existing historical materials. As early as 1960s, Cheng Yinglong sorted out almost all the dock wall records that could be found at that time, and then conceived this masterpiece. This masterpiece about dock wall has the following characteristics: First, it summarizes the origin and development of dock wall in China at that time, which is a brief history of dock wall. Secondly, the composition of dock wall residents and their relations, military attributes, production and working conditions and other aspects were investigated in an all-round way, which proved that dock wall was the living place of most people in the north for a considerable period of time, which was very important for understanding the social outlook at that time. Thirdly, the function and position of dock wall at that time were discussed, and there were many wonderful and original opinions. For example, "the struggle with Hu rulers objectively promoted the sinicization of Hu people"; "After the Yongjia Rebellion, the advanced production of the Han nationality was preserved by the dock wall. Personally, I often think that the equal field system in the Northern Wei Dynasty is overestimated in output, which is probably incorrect. The production experience summarized in Qi Yaomin's Book actually marks the production level of dock wall, not the production level under the equal field system, and so on. In other articles, he also pointed out: "After Yongjia Rebellion, the most important force in northern China was the local force dominated by dock walls" (on the problems in the sinicization of Tuoba Department, published in Journal of East China Normal University, History of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties,1986); The real ruling place of the five lakes and sixteen countries is the landlord of the dock wall (the changing relationship between agricultural labor force and agricultural land system in the Three Kingdoms, the Jin and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, published by Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House 1995). These ideas were not published by predecessors at that time, and they were also very enlightening to future generations, opening up a research path to reveal the social structure through the living environment of predecessors.
Secondly, by investigating the specific situation of the implementation of the equal land system in the Northern Wei Dynasty, we can grasp the relationship between Hu and Han under the rule of ethnic minorities.
The system of land equalization in the Northern Wei Dynasty has always been a hot topic in historians, but most scholars pay attention to the study of the system itself. Cheng Yingzhong's research on the equal land system is unique, mainly focusing on the relationship between Hu and Han. His research reveals his unique views on the relationship between economic system including land system and ethnic relations, that is, economic interests drive the development trend of ethnic relations, and the most fundamental manifestation of ethnic relations is the status of ethnic groups in the economic system. Why did the Northern Wei Dynasty establish an equal land system? When exactly did the land equalization system be implemented in those areas? What is the relationship between land equalization and private land? Who will benefit? What impact did it have on the society at that time and later? Wait a minute. Cheng Ying-Zhong explained these problems with the interactive evolution of ethnic and political relations, thus providing a new perspective for understanding and explaining the land system at that time. The textual research of his "On the Objects and Regions of the Northern Wei Dynasty Implementing the Land Equalization System" (Academic Collection in Memory of Gu Jiegang published by Bashu Bookstore 1990) proves that: firstly, "the land equalization system is not applicable to Xianbei civilians", "It is certain that the Northern Wei Dynasty did not implement the land equalization system in Qiqi and Feng Jingen" and "in the Central Plains, there is nothing in the second land equalization system". Third, "the land equalization system is an important part of civil affairs", and civil affairs are mainly oriented to the Han nationality; Fourth, "the contradiction that Ling wants to solve is the struggle between the Northern Wei court and the Han dock wall owners against private households, which seems to be not suitable for solving the contradiction between Xianbei nobles and civilians"; The final conclusion is that "the land equalization system in the Northern Wei Dynasty was only implemented in the Central Plains, and it was only applicable to landlords, small and medium-sized landlords, yeomen and shadow appendages that were found out". That is to say, the land equalization system is the result of the development of ethnic contradictions, which adapts to the needs of the northern Wei Tuoba Xianbei regime to rule the Han people in the Central Plains, and also alleviates the contradiction between them and the Han landlord class represented by the dock wall owners to some extent, which also shows that the relationship between Hu and Han at that time contained multiple forms. At the same time, through the demonstration of this paper, the limitations of the Northern Wei Dynasty's land equalization system are also clarified.
Judging from the existing historical data about the system of equal land in the Northern Wei Dynasty, this argument can be completely self-contained. Although it can't be asserted that other statements of the Northern Wei equal land system are difficult to establish, they are not necessarily more reasonable than Cheng Yinglong's statement. The coexistence of different views will be more conducive to studying the truth close to history.
Thirdly, the social structure of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties was comprehensively analyzed and newly expounded by exploring the relationship between the name and reality of laborers.
Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties is an era of great turmoil, great differentiation and great change. Various social contradictions are intertwined and complicated, people's social status fluctuates and their identities are changeable, which represents an extremely complex social composition, and can never be simply attributed to the so-called contradictions between ruling and ruled, landlords and peasants. For example, "official" has always been considered as a general term for officials, and a big official is a big official, so even "official" is called. However, in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the connotation of officials was very complicated, including officials, soldiers and soldiers. The differences between the rich and the poor are constantly changing. So, under the official title, at what time and under what conditions did they present different identities? How do different identities change in the meantime? At that time, many appellations about identity, such as protege, guest, trilogy and scholar, all had the same situation as the evolution of official titles. Cheng Ying-chung was very interested in this and thought it was an excellent way to understand the truth of the social structure at that time. So he and his classmate Xiong, then vice director of the Institute of History of China Academy of Social Sciences, initiated this research. He wrote a series of articles, such as Shi Gan, Shi Li and Shi Xinmin, which were published in China Literature and History Series, as the starting point of case studies of various laborers in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.
"Xinmin" is a special identity under the political influence of the Northern Wei Dynasty. It was settlers who moved conquered people from all over the country to Pingcheng to engage in agricultural production. Because it is related to the discussion of ethnic relations and land system in the Northern Wei Dynasty, Cheng Ying-zhong has long brought it into his own field of vision and mentioned it many times in other articles. Shi Xinmin comprehensively summarized his views on this historical phenomenon. The article thinks that Xinmin is a special serf in essence. "When it is equal to the household of Li, Britain and monks, it needs the explicit release of the feudal state to become a civilian, which cannot be the same as the household. The so-called' dictation field' gives cattle and farm tools, but it is just tied to the land for productive labor and provides land rent and taxes for Tuoba. " Undoubtedly, this view is also outstanding in related research.
As a historian, his task is not only to reveal the truth of history through his own research, but also to make the truth of history known to as many people as possible. Only in this way can historiography play a greater role. Therefore, a historian with a sense of social responsibility and historical mission will certainly try to make his works concise and clear, and will also try to write popular history books. Cheng Yinglong's Historical Romance of the Southern and Northern Dynasties is a successful model.
The first draft of History of Southern and Northern Dynasties was completed in 1964. For political reasons, it was not published until 1979. However, the delay of 15 years did not make it lose the forefront of the knowledge field. The characteristics of this book are as follows: First of all, it covers all the main points of politics, economy, military affairs and culture in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, which can be said to be a popular brief history that comprehensively describes the history at that time. Second, the writing is concise, vivid and smooth. For example, it takes less than 2,000 words to describe the rise and fall of Nanqi, but it clearly describes the opportunity, political characteristics and historical position of Qi, and vividly depicts the deeds and mentality of Gao Qi Emperor Xiao Daocheng and Qi Ming Emperor Xiao Luan. The book is only 6.5438+0.2 million words, which is fascinating and can be read in one breath. Third, the lines are full of historical wisdom. This wisdom comes from both predecessors and the author himself. For example, when talking about the ineffectiveness of the left-wing method of the Liang Dynasty, he said: "Severe punishment and severe laws cannot stop the struggle for survival." For example, when referring to the religion of that period, he pointed out that "the real struggle has divided religion into' evil' and' positive'. The word' cult' is actually the curse of the ruling class on the rebellious thoughts of farmers. The opposition between' evil' and' righteousness' made Taoism thoroughly changed in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and so on. With the description of historical facts, these insights are imperceptibly printed in the readers' minds, which makes people enjoy the edification of wisdom while understanding history. Fourthly, in the narrative process, the author's brushwork is full of strong love and hate, and the praise of truth, goodness and beauty and the lashing of ugly and despicable behavior abound in the book. This kind of deep affection from the sense of justice and historical morality can turn the originally cold historical facts into a fire that awakens conscience and drives people to do good.
As soon as The History of Southern and Northern Dynasties came out, it became a household name in Beijing and won the praise of relevant experts. Zhou Yiliang thinks that every word is well-founded. Although the book was repeatedly printed, it was still out of stock, and won the National Excellent Book Award and the National Excellent Youth Reading Award successively, which became a model of universal reading in history at that time.