History narrative in contemporary scientific vision "non -fiction" issues

Source: "Chinese Social Sciences Digest" 2022, No. 8 P80 -P81

Author: Meng Zhongjie unit: Department of History of East China Normal University, Socialist History and Literature Institute, the original title "Non -Fiction" in the History narrative in contemporary science: controversial, new solution and practice ", from" Exploration and Follower and Practice " Fighting "" 2022 issue, Zhang Yunhua Picks

The discussion about "non -fiction" is very meaningful, and it helps to do further discipline reflection in history. In various historical narratives, the historic community's understanding of historical narratives as a subject of discipline may be the most unique and extremely complicated. In short, in the past two hundred years, the understanding of historians has formed a spectral form. The left and right ends of the spectrum are "fiction" and "authenticity", and there are types of false and reality with various combinations in the middle.

The historical writers of the Enlightenment era look at historian narratives with a "essential truth". In the 18th and 19th centuries, when the concept of "history" was given a new connotation, and the meaning of the historian as the main body was affirmed, the "authenticity" understanding of historiological narrative realized the transformation. In the opinion of IMMANUEL KANT, "human efforts" can neither reflect "instincts" like animals, nor can they "march according to a planned plan" like "a rational world citizen", so enlightenment historians The imagined "planned history" cannot be simply rely on "discovery", but must be measured with "a certain reasonable purpose." As a result, the subjectivity of the historian was prominent. In the subsequent historical era, a historian narrative for the objective world but was profoundly laid on subjective construction. Lanks and their disciples, on the one hand, promoted the standard practice and teaching of the law of "truth" such as "truthful"; on the other hand Focus entity. Such a "historic" discipline self -awareness was later accepted by most historians and separated the "authenticity" in this sense from other "non -fiction" historical narratives to allow history The family has become an authoritative spokesman for "the real" real "in the past." To this day, historical works will not be labeled "NONFICTION".

If the "essence of true truth" in the Enlightenment era constitutes a pole about the understanding of historius narrative, and the "authenticity" historical writing principle of the default historians under the concept of historicism has become the most time and most of the 19-20 century and most of the 19-20 century. The universal concept of the country and region, then the historic narrative "fictional" understanding of historic narratives from historical philosophers such as Hayden White in the 1970s was another pole of the spectrum. White equates historiological narrative with all historical narratives, paying attention to the language structure, rhetoric means, plot settings and interpretation strategies. He completely disagreed with the pure "history of history", but proposed the inherent political attributes of "Doing History". Under this revelation, the micro -research of historical narratives is full of wind. Frank Ankersmit further proposed that historical narratives in history are synonymous with historical explanations. It not only contains all relevant statements, but also shows the unique perspective of the past, and expresses it through metaphors. As a result, "in historical compilation, there is no past as the basis of narrative, and there is no translation rules that support historical narratives."

In the three -level analysis of historical cognition, historius narrative is attributed to "History 3", that is, on the basis of "History 1" (all past), it is evaluated by "History 2" (the result of conscious selection). Here, historical narratives are regarded as a result of a kind of subject cognition, but their main functions have at least two major boundaries: one is to allow "reasonable imaginations", but not "non -real", which is the same as "non -fictional fiction" such as historical novels such as historical novels. "Types of historical narratives are separated; the second is to allow personal emotions, but the" great mission "that must serve the public interpretation is different from historical narratives such as memoirs.

How can there be such a colorful spectrum on the nature of historic narrative? The author believes that the complex relevance of historiography between discipline construction and scientific theory has been inseparable in modern times.

At the far left of the spectrum, the view that emphasizes the non -fictional narrative of historical narrative stems from the classic scientific theory -Newtonian mechanics. This theory believes that scientific research can discover and explain the world.

Similarly, in the enlightenment history (the writing belongs to humanism -rhetoric history), the color of "conforming to the theory" is very strong, that is, it is believed that historical research can be "discovered" a true history that conforms to the past. On the one hand, the historical events or historical phenomena after research have been given a determined positioning of time and space. On the other hand, if a series of historical events can be connected, it constitutes a causal chain that has been self -consistent before and after. Then, the "wave" state of real history will be tapped, forming the "a series of great monarchs to constitute human history in Human history pursued by Hume. Event Chain.

On the right of the enlightenment history, the historic school basically continues the fundamental concept of alignment to science. It not only enhances historical facts into a certain kind of knowledge, so that history can be transformed from "art" to "science", which can condense into a complete set of scientific research and training mechanisms to achieve the goal of professionalization; it is also a series of " The story "Die Geschichte" (Geschichten "(Geschichten) is summarized, that is, historical narratives that have philosophical connotations and have meaning to the future. Here, a small difference in the basic theorem of Newtonian lithology has appeared in the basic theorem of Newtonian towering, and the position of the observer began to affect the so -called "material movement trajectory" in their eyes. As a result, whether the predictions brought by historical scientific sense have the scientific sense of accuracy, which has become a topic of controversy in the past century. Pushing the role of observer to the extreme is the other end of the spectrum, the so -called postmodern history on the far right. It is closely related to the development of scientific theory in the 20th century, especially the theory of relativity. The theory of relativity has changed the absolute outlook on time and space, and especially emphasizes that in high -speed exercise, the time and space of the material are relatively existing. Its coordinates depend on the angle of the observer. As a result, the law of material movement and its predictability are related to the reference department.

Some of the views on the left and the right of historicist schools are always trying to reconcile the outlook on historius narrative that is too personalized and too absolutely. However, these harmonious efforts are more argued at the level of highlighting the particularity of historians. It has maintained a certain distance from the essence of history as a "science" since the 19th century. However, in my opinion, when the self -understanding of "science" also changes, the "scientific" identity of historiography seems to be able to get new understanding and discussion.

As we all know, contemporary science theory has shifted from Newtonian mechanics to quantum mechanics when discussing the low -speed movement of the micro -world. At the same time, when discussing low -speed exercises in the macro world, contemporary science theory must adhere to the basic position of Newtonian mechanics. Furthermore, the theory of relativity must be used when discussing the high -speed exercise of micro -or macro -world.

As a result, we observe the complex understanding of the scientific world in the historical narrative of history, and we will draw a few conclusions.

First, although the macro and micro -definition in scientific theory cannot be copied directly into historius research, its core concept is still worth learning, especially when we use the overall movement of human society as a macro world, individual historical events or or individual historical events Phenomenon (including historical writing) is analyzed as a micro world.

Second, in the macro world, Newton's mechanical decision -making analysis framework is effective for history. On the one hand, it determines major historical nodes (particles), and on the other hand, it also provides basic cognition of development (wave). At the following point, the idea of ​​relativity can be supplemented, that is, in the so -called "general trend" indeed stand and the predictions generated, the development law of human society is only a "high probability" phenomenon, not in the sense of theory " Reappearing "is not a complete authenticity.

Third, in the micro -world, the uncertainty theory of quantum mechanics has enlightenment. It not only pointed out the personal position of historical writers may affect the degree of "authenticity" of historical facts, but also helps us understand the "zero probability", "low probability" of a single historical event or phenomenon in the long river of history, or even There are many situations such as "unable to calculate the probability" (the two pixels of the waves) -. therefore, there will be divergent or incompetent results in the so -called historical forecasting.

Fourth, only when the observation results of the macro world and the micro -world can carry out the "authenticity" or "non -fiction" narrative in the past in the sense of the "science" paradigm.

Here, for the academic training issues of "younger generation of professional historians" proposed by Bolk, combined with the above -mentioned new understanding of the "non -fiction" of the above -mentioned historical narrative, new generation of history researchers should continue to maintain a scientific theory for scientific theory Open cognition, courage to contact and try the challenges of various interdisciplinary research.

To this end, the historical sciences of humanities should pay close attention to theoretical evolution in the fields of social sciences, natural sciences, etc., and try to expand the research horizons through various discipline combinations, and reflect on their own lack of cognition in a timely manner. As China now calls "strategic scientists", the new era also needs more "strategic historians". They are good at combining the two worlds of macro and micro, which can provide a instructive life significance for human society.

Unlike Bolhh, what I think of is here, how can historian researchers actively cope with the public's historical understanding? The so -called "non -fiction" controversy in historic narratives, the spread in the public domain is often manifested as a form of "historical nihilism", such as specially denying general, negating the trend with details, and negating the whole with partially, etc. In the end, the new generation of the new generation of historical sciences should also improve the practical ability of spreading historical cognition in the public. Only in this way, in terms of fictional or non -fictional, authenticity, or non -authenticity, can the inherent attributes that are unique and in line with the current status of scientific development can be formed.

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