Zhaoyin: A masterpiece that promotes the construction of global historical disciplines in my country

In the second half of the 20th century, with the development of economic globalization, the world has become more and more closely connected. As a result, some scholars start from their respective disciplines to try to respond academic response to this phenomenon, thus the study of various global issues. In this context, historians have also tried to understand globalization through the investigation of the historical changes in the past, and emphasize that the global history of interconnected worldwide in the world was born. The initial global history was written in the United States. First of all, William McNiel, Stavrianos and others advocated writing a western history and world history from the perspective of global or civilized interaction. History (1966) and other extensive works. Later, Alverd Crossby, Bruce Mazlish, Jerry Benteli, and others developed this new method of global history compilation into a new method of historical research. Since the 21st century, global history has developed rapidly around the world. In China, the Capital Normal University established the first domestic global historical research center in 2004 with Professor Liu Xincheng. China's global history research has also been developed with the discussion of the "Global History".

How to understand global history? How to study global history? The rise and preliminary development of global history requires historians to answer these basic theoretical questions. As a result, Patrick Manning's "World History Navigation" (2003) and Ke Jiaoyan's "What is Global History" (2008) appeared in the United States. However, the "global history" at this time is still a concept of "should". Related discussions are mainly focused on "what should be in global history", so it is limited for beginners of global history. Subsequently, there were several entry books that discussed the theory and methods of global history. For example, "History of Global History and Transnational History" (2013), Sebastian Conrad's "Introduction to Global History" (2013) and "What are the Global History" (2016). These works discussed based on the research results of global history in the West at that time, and largely solved the basic positioning of the concept of "global history" to a large extent, which played a promotion role in the disciplineization and popular popularization of global history in the West. However, the above works do not take into account the needs of teaching, the content lacks systematic design, and has not comprehensively sorted out various practices of global history research. These discussions have obvious Western perspectives, coupled with the differences in Chinese and Western language expression habits. , So that they are not entirely applicable to China's global history teaching.

Therefore, in China to develop global history research and build a global historical knowledge system and disciplinary system that conforms to China ’s national conditions, it also requires the efforts of Chinese scholars themselves. It is gratifying that the "Introduction to Global History" by Liu Wenming, a professor at the Global History Research Center of the Capital Normal University (the 2021 edition of Peking University Press), not only pays attention to overcoming the lack of the above Western writings, but also for the first time in the academic community in my country for the first time. It systematically expounds the theory and methods of global history, which is undoubtedly of great significance to promote domestic global history research and discipline construction.

In the past ten years, global history has developed preliminary development in China. Some universities and research institutes represented by the Capital Normal University have begun the construction of global historical disciplines. China's global history research from the perspective of overall, association, and interaction, examine the historical phenomenon of cross -state, cross -cultural or cross -region, try to break the limitations of national history and break the subject boundaries of world history and Chinese history, thereby making up for the other country's other history. With the lack of research in Chinese history. In this context, providing an entry work that provides a comprehensive system for domestic history and global history enthusiasts that introduce global history and conform to national conditions, which has become an important academic task in the development of global history in China. On the basis of the graduate course teaching of "Global History Theory and Methods" for more than ten years, Liu Wenming cooperated with some domestic global historians to launch the "Introduction to Global History". Domestic global history research and teaching and discipline construction provides a basic framework for global historical knowledge. In general, the book has the following characteristics.

The first is systemic. Since the beginning of the global history, due to the widespread participation of different countries and different academic scholars, it has led to different understanding of global history in different academic backgrounds, and even a contention for "what is global history". The "Introduction to Global History" is not entangled with conceptual discussions, but instead conducts a comprehensive investigation and sorting of diverse practice of existing global history research, and introduces global history research into several genres based on different attention themes and research paths. For example, the book introduces the cross -cultural interaction in world history, the California school that focuses on interaction comparison, the new global history and multinational history that emphasizes contemporary globalization, and pays attention to the empires and oceans that pay attention to as a networked interactive area. Different global historical theoretical genres, such as the changes in ecological environment and the background of the universe, provide readers with a spectrum of global history research.

Followed by cutting -edge. Global history has developed rapidly in the past 30 years. Various exploration practice and research methods have undergone changes from emergence to molding, which has made the initial works of Western history theory in the early years lagging behind or even "outdated". For example, some works have been explained by the theoretical explanations of new marine history and global micro history. Therefore, compared with similar Western works, "Introduction to Global History" reflects the latest global history research dynamics. The book has a theoretical summary based on the new research results of new fields and new trends such as multinational history, the history of the new empire, the history of the new marine, and the history of the global micro -history. It's practical again. Starting from the concept of global historical scholars in the early period of global compilation, it has gradually formed a "global perspective" and basic theory of "global perspective" and basic theories that examine the history from the overall view of the overall view, contact, and interactive view. However, when these concepts are applied to historical research, due to the differences in research themes, periods, regions, and situations, different research paths and methods will be shown, such as cross -cultural interaction, comparison, and networks. The "Introduction to the Global History" of these theories and methods is not to do pure theoretical discussion and abstraction, but to explain them in specific research cases, and clarify the analysis of existing global historical research results, so it has a very good Strong practicality makes scholars from different fields such as cultural exchanges, immigration history, environmental history, empire history, and marine history can be inspired by different fields.

Finally, it was explained from the perspective of China. Global history originated from the western trend of ideas and historians, and was translated into China. Therefore, the works of early theoretical and methods are basically from Western scholars, and these writings inevitably have Western perspectives. With the development of global history in China, Chinese scholars have discussed related theories and methods, and proposed to build a global history theory with Chinese characteristics. Introduction to Global History is an important step in this direction. Global history, as an emerging branch of the first -level discipline of world history, needs to build China's own theory like world history. Therefore, it is very important to discuss and build theoretical discussion and construction from the perspective of Chinese scholars from the perspective of China. The "Introduction to Global History", as the first system of domestic systems, elaborates on global historical theory, methods and research profiles, is self -evident to the construction of Chinese global historical disciplines.

In short, on the basis of many years of global history research and teaching, Professor Liu Wenming and his team systematically summarized the global history theory and methods from the perspective of China, and put forward his own opinions on global history research. The "Introduction to Global History" conducted a comprehensive analysis and elaboration of academic genres formed by different research and practice of global history, and provided readers with a panoramic view of the knowledge of global history research, making the outline of this emerging historical field clear and becoming a clear and becoming of the outline of the field of emerging history, becoming a clear, becoming a clear, becoming a clear, becoming a clear, becoming a clear, becoming a clear, becoming a clear, becoming a clear, becoming a clear, becoming a clear, becoming a clear, becoming a clear, becoming a clear, and a clear, becoming a clear, becoming a clear, and becoming a clear. A masterpiece of promoting the construction of global historical disciplines to a new level.

(The author is a professor at the Department of World History of the School of Humanities of Shanghai Normal University, Deputy Chairman of the Ancient History Committee of the Ancient Media History Research Association of the World Ancient Middle Ages)

Source: "China Social Sciences"

Cover picture source: CFP

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