Just when the Sino-British Science Cooperation Museum was running smoothly, "The Fifteenth Year of Wanli" was published as a whole book without being serialized in newspapers and periodicals.

The original author of this book, Mr. Huang Renyu, had just joined the Chinese Expeditionary Force as a captain and staff officer. He originally studied mechanical and electrical engineering at Nankai University, but transferred to the Central Military Academy after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War. It is not strange for mechanical and electrical engineering majors to transfer to the military, after all, the national crisis is at the head, and joining the army to serve the country is the choice of many enthusiastic young people.

But what is even more bizarre is that in the 50s, Huang Renyu, who was already 34 years old, picked up books again and entered the University of Michigan in the United States, majoring in journalism, and then switched to history after a short time. With no new books published for more than a decade, Huang was dismissed from his professorship at New York University at the age of 62.

The year after he was dismissed, Huang Renyu's "The Fifteenth Year of Wanli" was published, which won the National Book Award and the nomination of a good book in the history category in one fell swoop, and was selected as a textbook by many universities in the United States, which is equivalent to slapping New York University's face again and again.

Huang Renyu resisted Japan at home, went to Burma as an expeditionary force, and fought in the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. He had seen illiterate peasant soldiers, worked with Sun Liren and other high-ranking generals, and fought with Lin Shuai in the northeast, witnessed the apparent strength and rapid decline of the national army, and personally observed the composition of the people up and down the entire Republic of China.

Huang Renyu said in his memoirs that what he wanted to write most was the history of the Republic of China, but he couldn't write it at all.

The book "The Fifteenth Year of Wanli" is not so much about the Ming Dynasty, but rather about Huang Renyu's reflection on the politics, economy, and culture of the Republic of China under the pretense of using the people and events of the Ming Dynasty.

At the heart of the book is two words: reflection.

……

Guilin.

Li Siguang stood at the door of Chen Yinke's house, and Mrs. Chen's wife Tang Yun opened the door and said, "It turned out to be Professor Li, please come in!" ”

"Siguang is here, sit down!" Chen Yinke came to the living room.

Li Siguang hugged his fists and said: "I heard that Lao Chen is leaving, so I specially came to say goodbye in advance." ”

"It's still early, I don't even know where to go." Chen Yinke said with a smile.

Chen Yinke came to settle in Guilin last year, and his wife is from Guilin. Originally, he planned to move to Lizhuang to do research, but because he was sick and tired, and secondly, Guangxi University tried his best to stay, Chen Yinke lived in Guilin for a year.

Now that Guangxi University is already conducting its final exams, Chen Yinke plans to leave during the summer vacation, but he has not yet decided where to go. The Institute of History and Languages of the Academia Sinica invited him to Lizhuang, the eighth brother invited him to Leshan, and an old friend invited him to Chengdu.

Li Siguang took out a copy of "The Fifteenth Year of Wanli" and said to Chen Yinke with a smile: "Lao Chen, this is my farewell gift, sent from Sichuan by a friend." ”

"The fifteenth year of Wanli?" Chen Yinke glanced at the cover and thought about it recalling, "There haven't been any major events this year, how can Zhou Mingcheng use the fifteenth year of Wanli as the title of the book?" ”

"You can keep it for yourself and read it slowly, I heard that this book is highly rated in Sichuan." Li Siguang said with a smile.

The personal relationship between the two is very good, and Chen Yinke is a professor at Guangxi University, which was recommended and invited by Li Siguang. They chatted all afternoon, and it wasn't until dinner that Li Siguang said goodbye and left Chen Yinke's house.

Chen Yinke's illness has basically recovered, but his body is still a little weak. He lay on the bedside and opened "The Fifteenth Year of Wanli", and after reading it for 20 minutes, he was a little impatient, and subconsciously felt contempt and disgust for this book.

Chen Yinke's method of governing history at this time belonged to the collective of the Chinese Qianjia School and the Western Ranke historiography. He not only criticized the Qianjia school for examining evidence for the sake of evidence, but also habitually used the Qianjia school's method of examining evidence, and carried out historical research in accordance with the theory of Ranke's historiography.

It just so happens that "The Fifteenth Year of Wanli" embodies the "Great Historical View", and the "Great Historical View" comes from the "Annals School", which in turn was founded in the trend of opposing the "Ranke Historiography".

To put it bluntly, "The Fifteenth Year of Wanli" and Chen Yinke's eight characters do not coincide, and the historical theories of the two sides are very different, and they are even each other's enemies academically.

In Chen Yinke's view, "The Fifteenth Year of Wanli" is too plain and more suitable as a history primer. And even as an introductory book, "The Fifteenth Year of Wanli" is not up to par, because the subjective color of this book is too strong. The Ranke historiography that Chen Yinke respects just requires that no value judgment be made about history, and it is against all subjective studies of history.

Fortunately, Zhou Hexuan did not write "Those Things in the Ming Dynasty", otherwise it would be more plain and subjective, and Chen Yinke would never have insisted on watching it for three minutes.

In the first chapter of "The Fifteenth Year of Wanli", Chen Yinke read it with a critical attitude. Although he insisted on academic freedom and did not like to engage in academic factional disputes, he belonged to the "Ranke historiography" school after all, and Zhou Hexuan was regarded as the founder of the "yearbook school" as early as ten years ago, and he must not be accustomed to Zhou Hexuan's historiographical works.

The first chapter is about the Wanli Emperor, describing the reform of the court from the perspective of the Wanli Emperor. Many of the contents belong to the author's subjective speculation, which is extremely unrigorous for Chen Yinke.

The second chapter is written about Shoufu Shen Shixing, and there are also various subjective conjectures, but Chen Yinke gradually sees something interesting.

Looking at the third chapter again, Chen Yinke's face couldn't help but smile, the creative intention of this book was indeed as he expected. Instead of continuing to look down, he turned back to the first chapter and re-read it, understanding the author's hidden strokes and looking for any historical citation errors.

Thanks to Zhou Hexuan's careful revision for a few months, otherwise, with Huang Renyu's original work, Chen Yinke would have easily found the wrong point.

His wife Tang Jun urged him to sleep several times, but Chen Yinke couldn't bear to release the book, and it was the next morning when he finished reading the book. After breakfast, Chen Yinke fell asleep with his head covered, and woke up in the afternoon to continue reading.

"The Fifteenth Year of Wanli" is indeed a subjective conjecture from the perspective of historical figures, but the whole book selects many characters such as Emperor Wanli, Shen Shixing, Hai Rui, and Qi Jiguang. Each character's identity, stance, and focus are different, and these together vividly reflect an era.

In particular, the discussion of the social economy of the Ming Dynasty in the book made Chen Yinke refreshed. Here, Zhou Hexuan deleted the "number theory" in the original work, because this theory was too far-fetched, mechanical, and one-sided, and instead argued from the perspective of political system and culture.

It was another evening, and Chen Yinke put down the "Fifteenth Year of Wanli" in his hand.

Chen Yinke belongs to the top historians, and he can find very clearly that "The Fifteenth Year of Wanli" is alluding to the Republic of China everywhere. This is extremely difficult for the average reader, but it is extremely easy for Chen Yinke.

Who is Chen Yinke?

In the historical network of later generations, when writing about the Three Kingdoms, it is necessary to mention the "eunuch group" and "scholar group", and when writing about the Sui and Tang dynasties, it is necessary to mention the "Guanlong group", these concepts were all put forward by Chen Yinke during the Republic of China. He is very good at analyzing and summarizing historical political factions, and is also very sensitive to the culture and economy of previous dynasties, and "The Fifteenth Year of Wanli" brings the politics, economy, and culture of the Ming Dynasty to life.

When Chen Yinke read through "The Fifteenth Year of Wanli" for the fifth time, he not only focused on the Republic of China, but also set his eyes on China from the Tang and Song dynasties to the Ming and Qing dynasties.

At the end of the book, the author's intentions are exposed, and he summarizes the reasons for China's backwardness and discusses the future direction of China's development. The "fifteenth year of Wanli" of the four seas is alluding to the Republic of China at this time, and the Republic of China at this time is even more unbearable than the "fifteenth year of Wanli".

"In the fifteenth year of Wanli, Ding Hai was the next year, on the surface, it seemed that the four seas were leveling, and there was nothing to remember, but in fact, our Ming Empire had come to the end of its development." ——This sentence is linked to the previous analysis of the society of the Ming Dynasty, and then to the social situation of the Republic of China, which is undoubtedly saying: "The Republic of China has come to the end of its development. ”

After reading this book, Chen Yinke no longer thought about whether the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression could be won, but thought hard about the future of Chinese society.

After putting down the banknotes and sitting upright for a long time, Chen Yinke began to write a comment: "Reading Mr. Zhou's Wanli Fifteenth Year Feeling".