On the surface, The History of China Literature in Cambridge is so conspicuous among many similar works because the compilation of this book includes many well-known scholars who study China literature in Western Sinology, including Sun Kangyi, Yu Wensuo 'an, Ai, Fu Junmai, Kang Dawei,, and so on. They wrote different chapters, which basically represented the highest achievement of Western Sinology in the study of China literature. But in my opinion, in addition to the reasons mentioned above, there is a deeper reason that makes this book so compelling. Considering the history of China literature, most chapters are interpretations of China's traditional classical literature, and rarely involve modern and contemporary literature, especially some chapters after 1949 have been deleted from the simplified version. We can say that this is the interpretation of China's traditional literature by western literary concepts. Compared with those who stick to a local concept and even take politics and ideology as the guiding ideology, The History of China Literature in Cambridge introduces not only a new writing method of literary history, but also the collision of ideas and the impact of ideas, which eventually leads to a new arrangement and combination of literary history patterns, which is expected to change the old paradigm of China literature research.
We might as well learn from another way of writing the history of literature, The History of Russian Literature (Volume I) by Russian scholar De Si mirsky. Mirsky is a famous literary historian, critic and scientist, as well as an important Russian political writer and social activist. He wrote books and articles in Russian and English, and was one of the most active figures in the literary and intellectual circles of western Europe and the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s. If we use a concept to summarize mirsky's view of literary history embodied in the History of Russian Literature, it may be "eclecticism", that is, the reconciliation or integration of several seemingly opposing aesthetic views and literary views. Mirsky wants to write a "pure" literary history, a "literary" literary history. Between the lines of this literary history, mirsky seems to have been deliberately excluding all kinds of "non-literary" factors. In the preface of the next volume, he stated his writing position like this: "Western Russian literature historians are used to telling their readers from the beginning that Russian literature is different from any other literature in the world, and it is more closely related to politics and social history. This is absolutely not true. The depoliticization of Russian literature, especially after 1905, is almost shocking if we consider the huge political disaster it witnessed. Even if contemporary Russian writers resort to the theme of "politics", they are still non-political; Even if they carry out propaganda, such as Mayakovski, this kind of propaganda is a means rather than an end in their hands. "
Compared with the two books mentioned above, this little red book is not inferior at all We even often say that it is a gobbledygook. In September 2009, the English version of Jung's Red Book was listed, which became a major event in the publishing industry that year. This wonderful book, 46 cm high and 3 1 cm wide, is similar to the newspaper layout, 4 16 pages thick and weighs 4 kg. Price 195 USD. It is the work of carl jung, a Swiss psychologist and founder of analytical psychology, and records personal dreams, ghosts and spiritual pursuits. Before it was published, only a few people had heard of and read this book. Because the content was too personal and personal, Jung told his family not to spread it before his death. Jung died in 196 1, and for the next 50 years, Jung's family still refused to publish the book. It was not until the new century that they began to realize that this book, which is full of Latin, German, Greek and many illustrations drawn by Jung himself, is of great benefit to the study of Rong Xue and decided to authorize its publication. The importance of this book to jung is self-evident. In the words of Shamdasani, an Indian scholar at Cambridge University, "The nineteen volumes of Jung's complete works are annotations of red books, which are the original materials of Jung's psychological image in his life." To some extent, The Little Red Book can be regarded as an autobiography exploring Jung's inner unconscious psychological activities. Jung's self-description and analysis of dreams and hallucinations from 19 13 to 1930 were recorded.