Zhou Sicheng in the office of the Department of History of Tsinghua University (Southern People Weekly reporter Liang Chen/Photo)
If classified according to the current fashionable MBTI personality, the young historian Zhou Sicheng belongs to a typical i person. He has a quiet personality, likes to be alone, and self-diagnoses as a "social phobia" patient. In his office in Tsinghua Garden, he reads, thinks, drinks tea, and writes alone. In the past month or two, he has "intensively" participated in several new book publicity activities, shouting for his book ("Wang Anshi's "Strong Debate": Common Sense and Sophistry in Chinese Politics in the 11th Century", June 2024), more for the books of friends in the circle, and the spirit is very "depleting". "If you can, it's better not to have any of them."
In 2021, his historical non-fiction work "Sandu: History of the Siege of the Golden Siege of Mongolia" won the first prize of the first Wenjing History Writing Award, allowing this young scholar who has been quietly deeply engaged in the cold and niche history of the Mongolian Yuan, military history and ethnic history to enter the vision of the general cultural public.
"The Three Capitals" takes the three-stage siege of Mongolia to destroy the Jin as the main line, telling the history of the Jin Dynasty's exile and retreat in the last years. The book first won high praise in the Mengyuan and Yuan historians and military history enthusiasts, and then slowly overflowed the "circle".
Its novel-like plot, rich and diverse historical materials, delicate and moving details, and vivid characters have gradually attracted more and more non-war history lovers, and even "the most unlikely readers" like me—women who dislike war and stay away from military themes, and after the Central Plains refugees who fled south in the late Northern Song Dynasty, a person from Hangzhou who grew up listening to the old events of the Southern Song Dynasty and watching the kneeling statues of Qin Hui and his wife in the Yuewang Temple by the West Lake.
For the first time, I had a strong desire to break through the imperceptible historical concept of the Central Plains-Han nationality as the orthodoxy and center, and to understand the era of ethnic integration in the East Asian continent in which Song, Liao, Western Xia, Jin, and Mongolia regimes coexisted.
The tragic epic before the cliff mountain – between scholarship and writing
The title of the book comes from the historical event of the Spring and Autumn Period - during the reign of Confucius, during the reign of the Lu State, Confucius, who followed the Zhou rites and destroyed the private towns of the three families of the Lu State, Ji Sun, Uncle Sun and Meng Sun, who were known as the "Three Huan". In the book, the "three capitals" refer to the three cities of Zhongdu (now Beijing), Nanjing (now Kaifeng, Henan, called Bianjing during the Northern Song Dynasty) and Caizhou during the Jin Dynasty.
The inspiration and conception of the book come from the many ideas and feelings that Zhou Sicheng accumulated in his heart when he read the history of the Mengyuan Dynasty for many years, especially when he read the historical materials of the Jin Yuan Dynasty. Most of these historical materials come from the hands of scholars and doctors who died in Jin, and they recorded a large number of people and events related to the Jin Dynasty, especially many old people and past events at the time of the fall of Jin:
There are three generations of emperors such as King Wei Shao, Xuan and Wai who are talented and mediocre but still struggle to survive the defeat, the "little sister" of the princess of the Jin Dynasty who was forced to marry her relatives when the capital was besieged, the brave and fierce legendary monk Wanyan Chen, and the well-known literati Liu Qi, Yuan Haowen and Wang Ruoxu justified their historical "stains" when Nanjing fell and shirked each other's responsibilities for the Rashomon incident. And after the city of Nanjing was broken, because the Mongolia people only need craftsmen and do not want the people, many people pretended to be craftsmen for their lives......
After the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020, there was a time when Zhou Sicheng was at home with his family, and people couldn't go out or enter. Immersed in the atmosphere of a siege and hearing all kinds of absurd and bizarre things, he finally settled down and devoted himself to this historical tragedy that has been in his heart for a long time.
In the frontispiece of the Persian chant of the breached Constantinople, the story begins with a bow banquet hosted by the Jin Dynasty for the envoys of the Southern Song Dynasty - from 1211 to 1234 AD, large and small field battles, three hard-fought and fallen capital cities of the late Jin Dynasty, one climax after another. In the turbulent war, the emperors, ministers, and generals struggled to support, and the literati fought between integrity and desire to survive.
"Generally speaking, pure professional scholars write historical non-fiction, and there will be a heavier academic atmosphere in their writing." Historical writer Liu Bo commented, "But you can feel his professional skills in his works, and at the same time, there is a kind of freedom beyond the academic atmosphere." ”
Liu Bo's masterpiece is the "historical trilogy" on the theme of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. As one of the earliest writers in China, he witnessed the rise of historical nonfiction writing from cold to hot.
"Mr. Zhou's language is very good, it is a very pure and advanced literary language." "Moreover, there is a fit between the language he uses and the subjects he writes about." The text of "The Three Capitals" itself has a strong, devastating sense of epicness, and his language is very solemn, with that sense of depression and frustration. ”
Before "The Three Capitals", Zhou Sicheng's first historical nonfiction work was "The Wrath of the Great Khan: A Short History of the Yuan Dynasty's Conquest of Japan". At that time, he was a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at Peking University, and was writing a doctoral dissertation on military etiquette and military law in the Mongol and Yuan Empire (later published as Discipline, Punishment, and Conquest). In order to breathe a sigh of relief and "spice up", he was invited by a publishing organization to write "The Wrath of the Great Khan" at the same time
"The Wrath of the Great Khan" tells the story of a bizarre but little-received domestic history in the early Yuan Dynasty - Kublai Khan, who ran for the position of Great Khan of the Mongolia Empire, twice sent troops to conquer Japan in 1274 and 1281, but was frustrated by a storm at sea and finally returned without success. This gave birth to the myth of "gods and Buddhas protecting the country" in the history of the Japan nation, and the storm that blocked the Yuan army became the origin of the name of the "kamikaze" of the Japan Air Force's suicide attack special forces during World War II.
The repercussions after the publication of "The Wrath of the Great Khan" made him feel a little joy. "Because writing essays is so boring, but later I found out that what I wrote was read and liked by readers, even if it was just one or two, which was a great encouragement for me."
"Today's scholarship is highly specialized. For example, if I publish a paper on a certain kind of punishment or legislation in the laws of the Yuan Dynasty, among the more than 100 Yuan history researchers in the country, only three or four people who are very interested in this topic will read it. It can be said that most of my essays were written for these three or four people. ”
More importantly, it allowed him to regain his initial enthusiasm for history, and the emotions and mentality of being an ordinary person in the face of living people and events in historical records, rather than just a paper production machine - "As soon as I read a certain historical material, I will think about whether I can squeeze out a C journal (paper) that can be sent to "XX Research". ”
"Jun Sandu" has received many affirmations and praises from Zhou Sicheng's academic peers, including well-known predecessors such as Luo Xin and Zhang Fan, and academic rising stars such as Li Shuo. On the other hand, despite many innovations or even zero breakthroughs in subject matter, field, and historical writing, it still cannot be classified as an "academic work"—realistically speaking, it cannot bring authors the benefits of evaluating titles, awards, and applying for social science projects.
For many years on the fringes of the academic circle, Zhou Sicheng has been reading, researching, and writing according to his own interests and rhythm. After being transferred to the School of Humanities at Tsinghua University around 2021, he began to feel the pressure of being a "green pepper". Even if the school does not have hard requirements for KPIs, in a top domestic university like Qingbei, the atmosphere is "self-volume" - "everyone has high requirements for themselves, and they secretly compete with each other." ”
"I have to face this seriously now." He confessed that according to the norms of the current academic system, he constantly produces papers in the strict sense, "that is, papers with a lot of notes, a lot of materials, and a more rational and emotionless language." "However, on the other hand, my own pursuit is to write a history with my own characteristics and follow my own path of historical research."
After the success of "The Three Capitals", many friends and colleagues suggested that Zhou Sicheng continue to make efforts on similar themes and continue to write the history of the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty "after Yashan". But he has little interest: "I still want to try new ones, I don't want to repeat myself." In June 2024, he unexpectedly published a "little book" that had nothing to do with his previous professional field, "Wang Anshi's "Strong Debate": Common Sense and Sophistry in Chinese Politics in the Eleventh Century.
Whether it is the title, the subject matter and field covered, the explanatory framework and theories used, or the long bibliography, it is indicated that this is a work that meets academic standards. But outside of academics, there is an extremely restrained and intellectual cold humor throughout the text, which makes the reader often can't help but laugh, and then the heart wells up with an indescribable faint bitterness.
At present, Zhou Sicheng is making a new writing attempt - to write a lecture on a course on legal history that he held at Tsinghua University, "I also want to write something similar to historical writing and historical non-fiction." ”
"It is very rare for a writer like him to be so well educated, have strong writing skills, and have his own unique awareness of problems." Huang Yikun, a senior publisher and founder of Beijing Xingjiao Culture, said. Due to his work, Huang Yikun has come into contact with many young and middle-aged liberal arts scholars in colleges and universities, most of whom are trapped in papers, professional titles, and "promotion or departure", and are unable to write what they are really interested in; And an author who has published several historical bestsellers has still not been able to solve the problem of job titles.
"Personally, I hope that a university like Qingbei can give a little more space to young teachers like Zhou Sicheng."
In 1281, Kublai Khan made his second conquest of Japan, and the Mongolian soldiers tried to dislodge the Japanese samurai who attacked the ships at night (Visual China/Photo)
The "Upper Edge" of Rim Walking
Zhou Sicheng is a native of Changsha, Hunan. He has been a book lover since he was a child, and often tiptoes to read books on his father's bookshelf. One of the happiest things in my childhood was to follow my father to Huangni Street in old Changsha every weekend to go shopping for books. At that time, Huangni Street was a well-known book wholesale and retail market throughout the country, and the entire street was densely packed with the fronts of small bookstores. He picks and chooses, buys what he sees, and happily carries it home. At that time, he liked to read historical stories, as well as biographies of Alexander the Great and Napoleon.
Because he failed the college entrance examination, he accidentally went to the Chinese department. The biggest gain from studying Chinese was in writing - he read a lot of literature and met some writers he liked very much, such as Hesse, Ryunosuke Wasagawa, Zweig, etc. It was Dostoevsky who gave him the strongest spiritual shock. During his evening self-study, he read passages from "The Brothers Karamazov" by the Inquisitors, and secretly wept in his seat. "At that age, at that stage of growth, I happened to meet such a writer, which was a kind of fate." He sighed.
By the time he graduated, Zhou Sicheng had already wanted to switch to history. He was sent to the Institute of Ancient Books of Beijing Normal University, mainly to do research on classical documents of the Yuan Dynasty. In reading the literature, he gradually fell in love with this era of multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, and multi-religious rule of the northern peoples.
As a powerful empire established by the northern ethnic groups in Chinese history, the Yuan Dynasty lacked the mature and complete historical record system of the traditional Central Plains Dynasty, nor did it have a group of high-ranking officials and doctors who left private records such as daily records and current political records. "For example, in the history books of the Yuan Dynasty, you don't know where he came from, and you don't know why he disappeared - suddenly he disappeared from a certain year."
"But it gives you a historical perspective, and it's no longer just the perspective of a group of Han doctors who obediently read Confucian scriptures, then take the imperial examination to become a big official, and realize their Confucian ambitions in the court. It has a variety of people's perspectives, such as the "Secret History of the Yuan Dynasty" written by the Mongolians themselves, before the Yuan Dynasty, no steppe nomads wrote from their own perspectives and languages about what they observed the world, what social relations were, what marriage was, and what a warrior should be. The histories of the Northern Wei, Liao, and Jin before the Yuan Dynasty were almost all written by the Central Plains historians. ”
When Genghis Khan's "Golden Family" swept across Eurasia in the 13th century, the giant empire was also embroiled by people of many other races and faiths. "Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and all sorts of other people, like Marco Polo, Europeans, all left a lot of accounts of how they lived and thought in this same era." "These records make up for the lack of historical materials on high-level politics in the Yuan Dynasty to a considerable extent, making this era richer, or more humane."
When he graduated with a master's degree in 2009, Zhou Sicheng did not study for a doctorate and went to work at the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau. Staying in the school, he wanted to take a walk outside the walls. "At that time, I was still very enthusiastic about learning, but I didn't have much enthusiasm for the college system."
In this semi-academic institution directly under the central government, his main work was to participate in the compilation project of the new edition of the complete works of Marx and Engels (historical research edition). Previously, the old domestic version of the complete works of Marne was imported from the Soviet Union in the fifties and sixties of the last century and translated from Russian, while this new complete work is a comprehensive revision of the old version directly based on the original works of the two thinkers in German, French, English, and so on.
In the project team, he was mainly involved in the compilation of Marx's manuscripts on political economy, including the French version of Das Kapital, which Marx himself revised. In order to correctly understand and grasp the original meaning, he read a large number of classical works of political economy, including the ideas and theories of Ricardo, Smith, Say, Sismonti and others. Marx's encyclopedic pedigree of thought and treatises also forced him to study European history, philosophy and social sciences from the 19th to the 20th centuries to a greater or lesser extent.
His involvement in multidisciplinary fields has subtly influenced his perspective and thinking framework. For a long time, the main research method of Chinese historiography was still to follow the path of the Qianjia school: focusing on research, exhausting historical materials, distinguishing the source, authenticity and reliability of documents, and then using historical materials to restore historical events and systems. "But if you get into more social science, you're going to get a very different way of thinking and inspiration, and you're better at discovering that a lot of the material isn't necessarily what it's trying to say on the surface."
About 1430, Genghis Khan in battle. Collection of the National Library of France (Visual China/Photo)
This is somewhat reflected in his "Wang Anshi's "Strong Debate" Examination". In the book, Max · Weber's political science, Western psychology, psychoanalytic methods, etc., are naturally integrated into his historical research methods and frameworks, without the rigid patchwork of grafting Western theories that are common in some "interdisciplinary studies" today.
Walking on the edge of the mainstream academic circle for nearly ten years, without getting stuck in a Ph.D., post-Ph.D., and entering a university, Zhou Sicheng's road back to the ivory tower has many twists and turns, but there are also a lot of unexpected gains, which he uses a Buddhist word to define - "increase the upper edge".
Another unique skill point of Zhou Sicheng that many academic peers envy and admire is his unique talent in language.
As an undergraduate, he taught himself French, German, Japanese, and Russian in order to read the original works of his favorite authors; In graduate school, he taught himself Italy and Spain. While at the Central Compilation Bureau, because of his interest in the history of the Mongol Yuan, he taught himself Arabic, Persian, Mongolian, and then Latin, Tibetan, and Uyghur.
How can a person learn and master more than 10 foreign languages as an adult?
He believes that this is not a question of talent, but of interest and fate — whether you are genuinely interested in the history behind a language, the world of literature, and whether you are willing to pay a lot of time and other costs for it, "Many smarter people don't. ”
This opened the door for him to explore the magical continent of Central Asia in the footsteps of the 14th-century Arab traveler Ibn ·Battuta, and listen to the history and destiny of the "Golden Family" in Persian as the Rasht, the prime minister and scholar of the Ilkhanate, recounted in Persian...... In "The Three Capitals", in order to find the whereabouts of the princess of the Jin Dynasty who was forced to marry far away, he found a record of Genghis Khan's "Four Queens and Princess Hatun" in Rasht's "Historical Collection" - "We know that she is not beautiful, but because her father is a great monarch, she has gained status and respect." ”
These are not only precious historical materials, but also make him feel the double pleasure of intellect and art. Like Rasht, he was a very literate Muslim cultural elite, so he would write a verse in Arabic or quote a few passages from the Qur'an or the Hadith in his history books. They will all be written very much like literary works. ”
Wang Anshi (Visual China/Photo)
A thrilling political debate
"Wang Anshi's "Strong Debate" Examination" is what Zhou Sicheng obtained when he read various "leftovers" in the political history of the Northern Song Dynasty.
This is a unique and atypical academic work. With the title of "strong debate" by the Northern Song Dynasty reformer Wang Anshi, and the political debate in the court during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, it makes an onion-peeling analysis of the debate between the reformers and the anti-reformers, and tries to answer an important question—why the seemingly active, open, and frequent exchange of ideas in the late Northern Song Dynasty failed to lead to successful political change.
A young scholar commented: "This book is not large, but it has the idea of four or two thousand pounds. ”
"It's probably a quasi-academic work, not a very typical academic book." Zhou Sicheng said, "As long as the reader likes it, whether he is a scholar who studies the history of the Song Dynasty, or is interested in history itself, even if he is interested in Wang Anshi himself, and he has a little gain after reading it, I think it is very good." ”
"He's a little bit ambitious in this book." Liu Bo had reservations about Zhou Sicheng's self-effacement. "He tried to put forward his own opinions and interpretations on major issues in the history of Chinese political thought, such as 'how to restrain imperial power', a central proposition in the field of ancient thought, and even attempted to penetrate the entire history of Chinese political thought."
When he worked at the Central Compilation Bureau, Zhou Sicheng spent 50 minutes commuting on the subway every morning. It's the time of day when he's in a better state of mind, and he doesn't want to waste time scrolling on his phone, but it doesn't seem to be a good fit for overly deep reading. So he used it to read large historical books such as "Zizhi Tongjian" and "Continuation of Zizhi Tongjian", and read one or two volumes every day. "Reading classical Chinese on the subway requires a little concentration, so that you can forget the noise of the people around you, or the sound of watching short videos. At the same time, it doesn't matter if you read a chronicle and don't need to read every paragraph to think coherently, and it doesn't matter if you are interrupted in the middle and skip a sentence or two. ”
In the past seven or eight years, he read the "Zizhi Tongjian" twice on the subway, and the "General Dictionary" and "Literature General Examination" each once. When reading one of the most important historical materials about the Northern Song Dynasty, the scholar of Mongolian and Yuan history felt a strong contrast—compared with the scarce and sparse records of high-level politics in the Yuan Dynasty, the political history of the Northern Song Dynasty is unprecedentedly rich, "including its administrative operations, information circulation, and so on, all kinds of records have been preserved, especially the records of the high-ranking officials who served as governors, such as the princes and ministers, and the political affairs of the imperial court." ”
What touched him the most was that after the implementation of the reform of the law during the Song Dynasty Shenzong, Wang Anshi, Zhang Dan, Lu Huiqing and others who advocated the reform of the law, and Sima Guang, Wen Yanbo, Lu Gongshu and others who opposed the reform, the two factions had such a full opportunity to meet and exchange ideas inside and outside the court. Every time he read that Wang Anshi was "quarrelling" with other ministers, he would write a rough reading notebook. In the past few years, the entries about Wang Anshi's "strong debate" and Song Shenzong's "governing techniques" are the ones he wrote the most.
At that time, Zhou Sicheng's personal interest had shifted from military history to curiosity about intellectual history, because "history is to the end, it still has to go deep into the hearts and emotions of people in that era." When reading the works on the history of political thought written by Xiao Gongquan, Liu Zehua and other predecessors, he also felt a little unsatisfied—most of these intellectual histories are to sort out and evaluate what ideas and theories put forward by a certain person or school in a certain document that are different from those of their predecessors, and what kind of status they have in the context of intellectual history, such as the thought of "Guanzi", the thought of Chen Liang and Ye Shi, and the thought of Li Zhen......
"But I am interested in what impact so many political ideas accumulated in China over thousands of years, such as the concepts of 'people', 'Huayi', and 'Mandate of Heaven', have on the actual political operation of the Chinese: and what role did they play in the political decision-making of the time?" Did those emperors and officials really act according to those political ideas? Or is it just a superficial discourse to argue for their own purpose? If they were predetermined, what was the relationship between these goals and the political ideology they held? ”
The "Xining Reform" provided him with an excellent window into the political decision-making process of the court, in this golden age of "emperor and scholar ruling the world", which is rare in Chinese history, the emperor went out of the inner court and directly communicated with the ministers, acting like the speaker of a Western parliament, personally presiding over political debates between different factions.
In that star-studded historical era, he also saw the shortcomings of the so-called "Northern Song Dynasty Heavenly Troupe", a group of scholars and politicians, and the inevitability of this political debate towards turmoil and failure. "Their debates look heated, but the ideological level of the political debates is not very high."
"People like Wang Anshi, Sima Guang, and Su Shi are all outstanding writers, thinkers, and politicians. But looking at it today, their limitations are very obvious. When it comes to real challenges, there are a lot of people who are more than they can do. ”
Sima Guang (Visual China/Photo)
The ideological resources and institutional framework behind the "party struggle" are limited
Southern People Weekly: When it comes to the Northern Song Dynasty, everyone will feel very sorry that there is a rare political atmosphere of "the emperor and the scholar rule together", especially Emperor Shenzong, who likes to be reasonable, and also has the self-confidence to go out of the inner court, which is different from the vast majority of emperors in other eras. He also encouraged ministers to use political debate to determine national policy. The elites of the two factions also had full and heated debates, and Wang Anshi in particular was known for his "strong debate."
However, we have also seen that the politics of the Northern Song Dynasty finally fell into a serious "party struggle", and both the old and new parties lacked the necessary tolerance. Why did such a thorough political debate lead to such a bad result, instead of reaching a consensus?
Zhou Sicheng: Today, when we talk about the political history of the Song Dynasty, we generally talk about "party struggle". We often think of "partisanship" as a competition between different interest groups or different policy tendencies, and of course there will be intertwined interpersonal relationships between them, such as the same year, fellow villagers, or marital relationships. But beyond that, is there a deeper framework of ideas that is troubling them, or a deeper mechanism that prevents them from reaching consensus through debate and exchange?
I have made such an attempt to discuss it, and there is no very clear conclusion yet. I myself am inclined to think that they use history as a canon, like to quote historical events from the side, and use the moralized words of Confucianism to talk about politics, and some originally good ideological resources, such as "people-oriented" and reverence for the "Mandate of Heaven", have become games and tools in political debate. This may be the dilemma of Confucianism itself under the absolute monarchy, or it may reflect the limitations of the ideological resources at the political disposal of scholars.
If it is in a world of peace, a period when there is no need to make a big move to carry out reforms, it may be able to sustain itself, and there is an inertia to move forward slowly. Once it is necessary to face the challenges of reform and war, and even to change its political (structure) itself and all levels of society, the ideological resources that can be provided for such a major move are very limited, or in other words, they can only provide some superficial concepts. These concepts can be used by anyone for their own benefit. This forced them to fall into this split, an ideological agitation that was fruitless and difficult to reach an ideological consensus. However, they could not find a conceptual breakthrough that could change the situation.
Southern People Weekly: Can we say that this political debate about reform came too soon? If we look at the political debates and decision-making in the West, parliamentary politics in the United Kingdom has come a long way.
Zhou Sicheng: Because the parliament itself was formed in a very complex historical situation, it was composed of the aristocracy, the church, the new bourgeoisie, and the merchants, which were very different from the royal power, so their political debate or common will was actually a process of constant confrontation, compromise, and adjustment. However, scholars were essentially a group of intellectuals attached to the imperial power, and they were very homogeneous to each other, so what was their way out?
I think that once an incident like the "Xining Reform" is encountered, or once it is encountered in the late Northern Song Dynasty, it is really necessary to rise up to change the situation and solve the fundamental problems of redundant troops, redundant officials, and redundant expenses, it is difficult to have the ideological resources that can allow them to smoothly implement reforms, or to reach an institutional framework that can reach a consensus.
Southern People Weekly: It's quite sad to say, these two factions that are incompatible with each other are actually a group of very outstanding figures, at least the leading Wang Anshi, Sima Guang, Su brothers and others, whether it is personal morality, or idealism, knowledge and talent, how did they get into this situation?
Zhou Sicheng: I sometimes think that if they were people like Zhang Juzheng in the Ming Dynasty, or Liu Yan in the Tang Dynasty (reporter's note: Tang Dynasty economic reformer, financial planner, who contributed to the economic recovery and development of the Tang Dynasty after the "Anshi Rebellion"), a more pragmatic politician who dealt with problems from a utilitarian or technical point of view, might be better, but people like Wang Anshi, Sima Guang, and Su Shi were all great Confucians, university scholars, and great moralists, and they brought a lot of moral sense into politics. And moral intuition has no way of convincing each other. As I said later in my book, Wang Anshi thinks that it is not right for local tyrants to plunder the people, so the state must come forward to solve this matter; Sima Guang believes that the state is a "necessary evil", and it is better not to give the state or officials more opportunities to oppress the people, the more opportunities you give, the more severe the oppression.
The political presuppositions or basic moral senses between the two are not the same, and there is no chance of consensus in itself. They thought they could, because they felt that everyone grew up reading Confucian classics, that they all became officials through the imperial examination, and that they all had the experience of going from the local government to the central government. In practice, however, there was no way to reconcile their sense of morality, because Confucianism and the political system of imperial China could not give a way out.
Therefore, I think it is probably inevitable that they will end up in a "partisan struggle", resort to power struggles, and choose to take advantage of the flaws of human nature rather than a sense of morality.
Southern People Weekly reporter Xu Linling
Editor-in-charge: Zhou Jianping