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ШАГОВ АНДРЕЙ ЕВГЕНЬЕВИЧ - кандидат исторических наук, доцент, начальник управления научно-исследовательского Института военной истории Военной академии Генерального штаба Министерства обороны Российской Федерации, член-корреспондент Российской академии естественных наук (3411208»@mail.ru).
SHAGOV, ANDREY E. - Ph.D. in History, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of the Research Institute of Military History of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (3411208»@mail.ru)/
УДК 94(510):332.142 DOI: 10.24412/2308-264X-2022-4-192-200
ЛЯНЬ ЖОЮЙ
КРУПНОЕ ДОСТИЖЕНИЕ В ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯХ ПО ИСТОРИИ ОКРУЖАЮЩЕЙ СРЕДЫ - ОБЗОР МНОГОТОМНОЙ «ЭКОЛОГИЧЕСКОЙ ИСТОРИИ КИТАЯ»
Ключевые слова: экологическая история Китая; общая история; теория распада.
Изданная под общей редакцией профессора Дай Цзяньбина шеститомная «Экологическая история Китая» [1], составленная Китайским центром истории окружающей среды Хэбэйского педагогического университета, является одним из первых исследовательских достижений в отечественных исследованиях общей истории окружающей среды Китая. Ее появление имеет большое значение, так как не только ярко очерчивает взаимодействие человека и природы на протяжении всего пути развития китайской нации, но и в определенной степени восполняет недостатки в формировании дисциплины китайской экологической истории. Кроме того, это также подчеркивает стремление коллектива авторов многотомника создать систему академического дискурса в этом отношении. Это исследование рассматривает проблему с трех сторон. Во-первых, с точки зрения структуры повествования и теоретических инноваций книга органично сочетает изучение естественных изменений окружающей среды с эволюцией китайской цивилизации, подчеркивая особенности традиционной китайской историографии и создавая новую повествовательную и теоретическую основу изучения предмета. Такая попытка расширяет теоретические горизонты исторических исследований. Во-вторых, с точки зрения использования исторических материалов и методологии, книга опирается на широкий спектр исторических источников и использует междисциплинарные подходы исследования, всестороннего анализа и углубленного тематического исследования. В-третьих, это исследование указывает на недостатки историографии с точки зрения стиля, направленности и специфики работы с источниками.
LIANG, RUOYU
A MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT IN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY RESEARCH - A REVIEW ON THE MULTI-VOLUME
«ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF CHINA»
Key words: Environmental history of China; general history; decay theory
Under the general editorship of Professor Dai Jianbing, the six-volume Environmental History of China [1 ], compiled by the Chinese Environmental History Center of Hebei Normal University, is an early exploratory achievement in domestic study on the general environmental history of China. Its publication is of great significance, as it not only vividly delineates the interaction between human beings and nature over the entire course of Chinese nation, and makes up the shortcomings in the discipline construction of the Chinese environmental history to a certain extent; and beyond that, it also highlights the writers' pursuit of establishing an academic discourse system in this regard. From three aspects this research reviews the work: firstly, from the perspective of narrative structure and theoretical innovation, the book organically combines natural environmental changes with the evolution of Chinese civilization, highlighting the characteristics of traditional Chinese historiography and constructing a new narrative and theoretical framework. Such endeavor has broadened the theoretical horizons for historical research. Secondly, from the perspective of the use of historical materials and methodology, the book has a wide range of historical sources and adopts a multidisciplinary study, comprehensive analysis and case study approach; Thirdly, this research points out the shortcomings of the book in terms of style, orientation and citation of sources.
As Carl Marx once pointed out, "we know just one and the only science, the science of history. History can be examined in two ways; it can be categorized into natural history and human history, which, however, are closely intertwined; as long as man exists, natural history and human history constrain each other." The interaction between man and nature has been present over the entire process of civilization,
while Chinese thinking on the natural environment dated back as early as the Three Dynasties (Xia, Shang and Zhou), and its rich content has been recorded in history books of all dynasties. The modern study of environmental history, however, is a new branch of history that emerged in the late twentieth century as a result of the growing prominence of environmental issues and the dilemmas of historiography. The discipline, assigned with the important mission of expanding the boundaries of historiography, was closely related to the political consciousness of reality.
As an emerging academic concept, "environmental history" was formally introduced in China a little later than that in the West, and there is inevitably a large gap between it and mature independent disciplines. In an attempt to establish Chinese environmental history research into an independent disciplinary system, Chinese scholars have been actively exploring the theories. At the time being, domestic environmental history research has made substantial achievements in the domain of historical geography, history of environmental change, ecological history, history of agriculture and forestry and other related fields. Nevertheless, due to the immaturity of their own theoretical concepts, there are notable limitations in the mode of history writing and narrative, in more specific terms, there are more studies focusing on thematic, regional, and short-time studies, while few on the overall, comprehensive, and diachronic general history studies. As Professor Wang Lihua pointed out, "At present, the research on specific disciplines of Chinese environmental history has not offered holistic and systematic explanations on the complex historical relationship between the Chinese nation and the environment in which it is located." It is axiomatic that the wanting in general history research has become the most notable shortcoming, which requires improvement in the construction of the discipline and the discourse of environmental history in China.
In addition, the competition in today's world can boil down to competition among nations and ethnic groups, while "China is a populous country formed by the union of most ethnic groups." From this perspective, the systematic compilation of a general history of China's environment and the holistic construction of a discourse and theoretical system for Chinese are not only a natural consequence of the development of the historical discipline, also a political demand to build up a sense of "Chinese national community" of diversity but unity.
On the other hand, of all the previous studies on the general history of China's environment, the main works that live up to the name, excluding a few thematic studies summarized under the name of general history, are The Retreat of the Elephant: An Environmental History of China by Mark Elvin and Environmental History of China: From Prehistory to Modern Times by Robert B. Marks. These two works depict the history of environmental changes of China over 4,000 years from a long-time perspective. As pioneers in the study of general environmental history, their narrative methods and philosophy of these two works provide valuable reference to subsequent studies.
Against this backdrop, the six volumes of Environmental History of China, compiled by the Environmental History Research Center of Hebei Normal University, will be printed by the Higher Education Press from June 2020 to June2022. The chief editor, Dai Jianbing, deputy chief editor, Liu Xiangyang, and the sub-volume editors are Zhang Cuilian for the volume of pre-Qin period, Wang Wentao for the volume of Qin and Han Dynasties, Gu Changyou for the volume of Tang and Song Dynasties, Sun Bing for the volume of Ming and Qing Dynasties, Xu Jianping for the volume of modern period and Zhang Tongle for the volume of contemporary times. This works, with over 600,000 words, brings together the greatest achievements of previous studies, systematically expounds the development of the entire Chinese environmental history, and outlines the magnificent picture of the interaction between man and nature in the evolution of Chinese civilization. It also endeavors to establish a new theoretical framework and research field, showcasing the profound learning and national recognition of the scholars. As Professor Dai Jianbing states in the preface, "The utmost purpose of compiling a general history of China's environment is to comprehensively and explicitly define the overall Chinese history of the synergistic evolution of man and nature over thousands of years."
I. Innovation in narrative structure
As a general history of the environment, the construction of a complete narrative system is all the more critical. With respect to the aforementioned two general history works, Mark Elvin takes the migration process of a specific species of elephants as an entry point; from the three aspects of patterns, exceptions and concepts, it depicts the overall picture of environmental changes in China, local specificities, environmental thinking and the relationship between man and land, which is of high
readability and profound research depth. Moreover, Robert B. Marks goes beyond the political divide among Chinese dynasties but selects the approximate time of natural environmental changes as a criterion for defining the study period. As the writer says in his preface, "While political divide is not spatially formed but a product of human ideology. The world's ecosystems, in fact, transcend human political divide and hence, environmental history prefers a global description that transcends the nation or state unit and its historical phasing."It is self-evident that Robert B. Marks attempts to "cross political boundaries" and "transcend nation-states" so as to explore the universal laws of environmental change; endeavors of such fully demonstrates the universalism pursued by Western scholars. Some scholars have even divorced such social concepts as state and nation from environmental history studies but to examine the pure history of natural evolution. For instance, in Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth Century, a major work in this domain, John Robert McNeill divides environmental history into four major spheres as per the surface of the Earth, elaborating the lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere respectively from the bottom up.
Albeit the validity of "beyond nation-state" or "purely naturalistic" narrative approaches, the role of humans and society as the main subjects of environmental history narratives, in fact, has been somewhat deliberately undermined, rendering it difficult to present the full picture of historiography. This is mainly reflected in two aspects: on the one hand, environmental history research should include both the natural environment and the human and social environment. "The very first premise of all human history is undoubtedly the existence of sentient individuals. The first fact to be recognized, therefore, is the corporeal organization of these individuals and the resulting relationship of the individual with the rest of nature." Besides, the merits of the environment are relative to the human feeling of existence, hence, the study of history as a humanistic discipline should not be divorced from the status of the human subject. On the other hand, from the perspective of the constructing power of politics on the natural environment, the vast and closed geographical environment of China constitutes a complete geographic unit, the uneven water and heat distribution influence by the monsoonal climate entails a clear division between agricultural and pastoral areas. The natural endowments have enabled the establishment of a strong centralized government to meet the needs of national defense and the construction of large water conservancy projects, developed the traditional notion of "man by his efforts can conquer nature", and eventually, gave birth population of great size. All the efforts have laid foundation regarding the human base for the central government to transform the natural environment on a large scale.
Thus, the formation and evolution of political civilization and environmental change are inextricably entwined and mutually constrained. The notion of "crossing political boundaries" and "transcending nation-states" is a likely idealistic advocation by scholars under the impact of economic globalization, which is equipped with objectivity and scientific validity though, it is difficult to reveal the full historical picture of China's environmental changes, and should not be the only doctrine to embrace during the compilation efforts of world environmental history. As Professor Mark Elvin commentes on the study of Chinese environmental history: "Any society has its own administrative practices and
traditions, which is not something that outsiders should judge at length......In some places, administrative
boundaries have been introduced into academia. But what matters important is the possibility of good and equal horizontal communication and cooperation between different disciplines. In the domain of environmental history, we probably understand better than other fields how everything ultimately interacts with each other." The depth of the mind and insight of the man is thus evident.
In view of the above, writers of Environmental History of China have divvied up the book into six sub-volumes: pre-Qin period, Qin and Han dynasties, Wei, Jin, Tang and Song dynasties, Ming and Qing dynasties, and modern and contemporary times. With the rise and fall of national fortunes and political changes in each dynasty, there were overwhelming changes in politics, economy, culture, and human's ability to transform nature from the pre-Qin period to the Qin and Han dynasties, the Tang and Song dynasties, the Ming and Qing dynasties, and even to modern times. As Professor Dai Jianbing comments in the general preface, "The compilers of this work aim to go beyond the traditional paradigm of writing dynastic and sectional histories of ancient Chinese history but attempts to incorporate the core features of the civilization evolution and the laws of environmental change in different periods of history as the criteria for dividing the volumes." This staging approach respects both the evolutionary features of Chinese political civilization and the innate laws of environmental change, while also highlights the value
of general historical works in constructing national identity and overcoming the tendency toward onesided objectivist narratives.
II. Innovation in theory and viewpoints
As a pioneering attempt to compile a general history of the environment, Environmental History of China not only audaciously innovates in its narrative structure, also summarizes, reflects on and surpasses the achievements of its predecessors in many perspectives. Its layout, argumentative model, and theoretical exploration are all highly distinctive.
On the one hand, with regard to the structure of each volume, the writers adhere to the "human-oriented" philosophy and focus on the main narrative of "human-nature interaction", organically integrating the evolution of the natural environment and human social development. In this process, the "historical coupling point" of mutual influence between the two sides is focal point to reveal and the entry point as well for arranging the structure of each chapter. The Environmental History of China takes the human environment as the main subject, starting its discussion from the major intersections between man and nature, such as climate change, plant and animal changes, water environment changes, agriculture and industrial economic development, natural disasters, and diseases etc., to delineate the overall conflicts and balances between the two, and based on the discussion, it proceeds with exploring the future direction of mankind to achieve its own permanent survival. Such thematic narrative arrangement is in line with the mainstream paradigm of international environmental history, which not only facilitates the drawing on previous achievements, but contributes to providing a clear and organized account of complicated environmental issues.
On the other hand, since the evolution of natural environment and human society has its own internal laws, the writers also uphold the "human-orientated" philosophy, constructing a wave-like argumentation on how environmental issues arise, how they affect human society, and how human society respond to the environment.
Apart from the features of each volume, each sub-volume has conducted in-depth theoretical explorations while detailing the development of the entire environmental history and the complex historical relationships of human-earth interactions. To name a few important ones, Professor Zhang Cuilian employs the concept of pre-Qin period in a broad sense in The Environmental History of China -Pre-Qin Volume and traces the study period all the way back to the 3 million years ago, i.e., the Paleolithic period. In the first two chapters, the writers take a diachronic perspective, conjoining the historical records of physical phenomena with the results of archaeological and natural science research, and synthesize the history of environmental spontaneous changes since the Quaternary period, especially in the area included in the geographical concept of China, such as how the climate demonstrated periodic changes of cold, warm, dry, and wet, how fauna developed, became extinct, and migrated, and how vegetation evolved. From the third chapter onward, the writers begin to incorporate the role of humans into the grand narrative of environmental change, exploring the interaction between humans and nature, seminal impacts of human activities on nature, and the causal links between environmental and climatic change and the rise and fall of human civilization. In Chapter five, from the perspective of primitive peoples' choice and adaptation to the environment, the authors discuss at great length the formation of settlements and cities, the construction of water facilities, the flourishing of primitive religions, and the shaping of the environment by warfare. In addition, the authors offer their own original view on the interrelationship between human and the environment in cities: "In a more naturalistic social form, the relationship between human and nature is one of dependence. Natural resource is an important factor influencing the mobility of human and the development of settlements, provided that the relationship between human and nature is harmonious, it will offer a solid foundation for social development. In the event that human do not pay heed to saving resources and exploit nature excessively, the tense relationship between the two entities will backfire on the social environment and even inflict the intensification of internal conflicts to the point of social system collapse."
In the volume of pre-Qin period, Professor Zhang Cuilian organically combines the ecosystems of climate, topography, animals, vegetation, soil, and water with human ideology and political behavior, achieving to a certain extent the integration and unification of the three levels, namely, ecological history, the history of natural concepts, and the history of environmental politics. The other five volumes also take these major themes as the focal point, elaborating them in a continuous and expanded manner, but with a different priority on the content and perspectives based on the differences of the human-nature interactions
and the general trend of China's political and economic development in different eras. Whereas the authors of each volume do not seek a uniform approach in terms of the important theoretical issues, such as the concept of environmental history, decay theory, and environmental determinism, instead, they thoroughly express their own views on the basis of overall non-contradiction, demonstrating a distinct and diverse vision. Such conduct and viewpoint reflect the authors' deliberation on the emerging discipline of environmental history, whereby nature and society intersect.
Underpinned by the previous studies, each volume presents a myriad of new ideas and approaches. For example, there is a long-standing tendency of "decay narratives" in Chinese and foreign environmental history, especially deeming the vulgarization of human beings as the destroyers of nature. In this regard, Professor Dai Jianbing states in the general preface, "This process includes not only decay also the harmony, with a particular focus on delving the structural coupling points and the local knowledge of decay and harmony, finding the manifestation of ecological surplus and ecological deficit, and summarizing the coupling points and disorder points of human activities and ecological carrying capacity." Hinged on his profound understanding of the laws of society and nature, Professor Dai Jianbing strategically points out that the goal and direction of the current study of environmental history in China is "to explore the inner mechanism of the way for human beings to live in harmony with nature and achieve sustainable development".This significantly reflects the authors' noble orientation of environmental history as a new academic discipline and their realistic pursuit of building a harmonious society.
For another instance, in Environmental History of China: the Volume from Wei Jin Dynasties to Song Yuan Dynasties, Professor Gu Gengyou breaks through the limitations of dynasties and regions, bridging the over ,1000 years from the Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Song and Yuan period, explores the interaction between human beings and the ecological environment over a long period of time, and summarizes two points of consensus in the discipline today, namely, "Firstly, environmental history is an interdisciplinary study, and secondly, the research of environmental history is all about the interaction between human beings and the ecological environment in history". Professor Gu Gengyou has conjoined climatology, economics, religion, and ethnology etc., to analyze and summarize the features of regime separation and unification, ethnic conflict and integration, the development of the South and the southward shift of the economic center, and the prosperity, decline, and interaction between Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism from the period of the Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Song and Yuan dynasty. He expounds the tremendous impact of the climatic environment on the changing cycles of the Tang dynasty's flourishing and declining, and the impact on the formation of today's multi-national countries and the economic and geographical distribution. In addition, he examines the relationship between agriculture, handicrafts, and the environment, maintaining that human economic production is "more dependent on the natural environment than the destruction they exert". This view is both a new reflection on the relationship between human and nature in ancient times, and a powerful rebuttal to the decay narrative.
In his Environmental History of China: Volumes on Ming and Qing Dynasties, Professor Sun Bing proposes that "the history of environmental change is by no means the entire environmental history. If we merely focus on environmental change but overlook other issues, environmental history would fall into the dilemma of rigidity and staleness." And hence, according to Professor Sun Bing, "the research perspective should be 'both dynamic and static', when exploring environmental conditions, we should not only pay attention to "changes" but to "the constants" as well, so that we may grasp the dialectical relationship between the two under different spatial and temporal conditions". This is essentially a reflection and development on the perspective of the previous environmental history research.
Professor Sun Bing also corrects the stereotype of the "decay" theory from three aspects: "Firstly, we should avoid mechanical determinism or excessive linkage theory, and it is not appropriate to relate any natural calamity to human intervention in the environment; secondly, we should eschew the sheer naturalism, after all, it is not appropriate to blindly worship the "pure nature" without any intervention; thirdly, we should prevent drawing simple quantitative comparisons, it is not advisable to overlook the differences in the number of historical materials but directly draw quantitative comparisons." Such "humanistic" approach not only manifests a deep humanistic concern, also corrects misconceptions such as "decay theory" and "pure naturalism". Furthermore, Professor Zhang Tongle, in his Environmental History of China: Volume on Contemporary Times, assesses the environmental impact caused by natural
disasters, arguing that "natural disaster can happen in normal times, yet its cause shall be deliberately identified and thoroughly analyzed, instead of being simply attributed to environmental degradation inflicted by human activities." These views offer us a chance to understand more deeply the nature of the relationship between human and nature in China, and that most natural disasters are not the result of an alienation of the relationship between the two. It is self-evident that since ancient times, Chinese people have revered the nature by living in harmony with it and responding to its will, and we have no cultural tradition of conquering or being hostile to the nature. The traditional concepts provide a Chinese solution for the construction of environmentalist theories in today's world.
In addition, the perspectives in the Environmental History of China merit attention as well, in particular on a few real-life issues with a more scientific and applied nature. For example, in the Volume on Modern Times, Professor Xu Jianping, on the strength of his years of profound academic work in the fields of water environment research, environmental protection and environmental thought, makes his original assertion on the utility of modern environmental governance: "despite that China's modern environment has gone through from a process of deterioration to prevention and control, the overall environmental problems, however, have become increasingly severe". The fifth chapter centered on water environment changes, carries out an in-depth analysis on the interaction between the urban economy and the water environment, in more specific terms, it scrutinizes the water and drought disasters, the construction and utility of the Shunzhi Water Conservancy Commission and the North China Water Conservancy Commission, so as to explore the causes and lessons of the increasing severity of environmental problems in modern times. It is safe to say the research on modern environmental protection and water environment management in the Volume on Modern Times represents the highest achievement on this issue in current academic domain.
In the advent of founding of People's Republic of China, the environmental history has been a weak point in academic research. Given this fact, the special Volume on Contemporary Times is incorporated in the Environmental History of China to provide an in-depth discussion on environmental issues after the founding of P. R. China. Such endeavor has filled the gaps in previous studies in China. Professor Zhang Tongle centers on the contradictory development of "over-exploitation of data, rapid economic growth, continuous ecological deterioration, and increasing environmental protection efforts in the course of modernization", and discusses in detail a series of environmental degradation phenomena that have occurred since the founding of the country. It also offers an objective analysis and assessment on the specific environmental impacts of historical events, such as "eliminating four pests", "Great Leap Forward", "Great Iron and Steel Refining Movement" and the "Cultural Revolution". The courage to face the sensitive issues is more than admirable, which also corrects the fallacy of the so-called "Chinese decay theory" in the West and serves to correct the bias and clarify the root of the problem. By doing so, readers may have an objective understanding of the environmental issues in this history. In addition, the Volume carries out a detailed discussion on the development of environmental thought and environmental protection in China, combining with the knowledge of biology and ecology, it objectively assesses the achievements and shortcomings of the previous knowledge and countermeasures in the history, and shed a light on the way to the construction of an environmentally friendly society, and to the development of Chinese civilization in some degree.
In addition, the environmental thought embodied in Environmental History of China is astonishingly profound. Comparing to Robert. B. Marks's brief description on the environmental thought of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism during the pre-Qin period in Chapter , Section , "Ancient Chinese Ideas on Nature and the Environment", of Environmental History of China: From Prehistory to Modern Times, and Mark Elvin's stress on the environmental thought of Xie Lingyun and Xie Zhaozhe in Chapter , "Concepts", of The Retreat of the Elephant: An Environmental History of China, authors of Environmental History of China appear to be more systematic and in-depth, and includes the plain reverence for nature in the pre-Qin period, the oneness of all things and the unity of heaven and man in the Qin and Han Dynasties, the advocation of conformity to nature and respect for life; and the thinking of scholars in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the tripod of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism in the Tang and Song Dynasties; the spread Western learning in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the flourishing of modern scientism. Over the long course of history, the environmental thinking of Chinese scholars, from spontaneous to conscious, has established a whole set of thought and practice system nowadays. Its
development course, essentially, an embodiment of the overall development of Chinese intellectual history.
III. Innovation on information and methods
In addition to the innovation on content and viewpoints, the expansion of materials and the breakthrough of research methods are also significant academic manifestations of the book. The common feature of all the volumes is the richness and breadth of the cited literature in terms of their sources. Compared with Robert B. Marks' inadequate local Chinese materials, domestic scholars are more advantageous in acquiring and deploying local materials. The length of each volume is roughly 300,000 words, yet the references listed, and the Chinese and foreign works cited are abundant. In the volume on pre-Qin period, the writer has cited many ancient literatures such as Yu Gong, the earliest work of regional human geography in the world, which is a chapter in Shang Shu, and the Canal Book, a chapter of The Records of the Grand Historian. Besides, records of natural disasters such as solar and lunar eclipses, celestial phases, wind, rain, snow, drought, and earthquakes recorded in Zuo Zhuan, Discourses of the States, and The Book of Songs were also included. What merit attention, due to the scarcity of primary sources in the pre-Qin period, the writer has drawn on a number of newly discovered archaeological sources, both in the form of excavated textual materials, such as oracle bone inscriptions and gold inscriptions carved during the Yin dynasty for the purpose of seeking rain, and in the form of physical materials, such as the remains of rice and Yin dynasty carriage pits.
The volume on Qin and Han dynasties are also rich in historical sources, such as the Geography and Ditching Record, two chapters of the Book of Han and the County and State Records of the Book of Later Han, as well as archaeological materials such as the brick with lotus picking portrait of the Eastern Han Dynasty and bamboo slips of the Qin Dynasty unearthed at Shuihudi. In addition to the employ of authentic historical sources, the volumes on the Wei and Jin dynasties, the Song and Yuan dynasties and the Ming and Qing dynasties also contain a wealth of references to the local records, as well as the specialized ancient texts such as the Commentary on the Waterways Classic and Important Methods to Condition the People 's Living. All the various sources reflect the solid historical foundation of the book. The modern volume contains a great number of unpublished archival materials, including the Beijing Municipal Archives collection of North China, Shunzhi Water Conservancy Commission archives, as well as some modern newspapers and magazines, like Yangtze River Water Conservancy Quarterly, Hebei Industrial Bulletin and so on. Regarding the sixth modern volume, it is based on unpublished archival materials from the Hebei Provincial Archives, the Shijiazhuang Municipal Archives, the Shijiazhuang Urban Development Bureau, and the compilation of published materials from the Central Literature Research Office of the Communist Party of China.
In addition to the traditional historical domain, the works' references range from climatology, geology, soil science, zoology, botany, demography, epidemiology, hydrology, legends, and reliable historical information contained in poetry. Of particular note, the wealth of poetic references is particularly striking. For example, the volume on Qin and Han dynasties cited Sima Xiangru's "Shanglin Fu" and Zhang Heng's "Xijing Fu" to depict the flourishing of fish farming in the Han Dynasty; the work also cited Hengmen, Airs of the States, The Book of Songs, such as the verse "must it be bream to if one wants to eat fresh fish? And must it be carp if one wants to eat fresh fish?" to illustrate the point that "the river fish must have been one of the important sources of fish consumption in the capital city." It is roughly estimated that in that 200,000-word volume on Qin and Han dynasties, it contains over fifty references to poems and songs, which marks one of the important features of the book. Although the employ of poetry and song has been common in historiography all long, as Chen Yinke had put forward the idea of "mutual verification between poetry and history," the use of poetic materials in such an extensive manner demonstrates the profound inclusiveness and historical aesthetics of the emerging academic discipline of environmental history.
The collection of rich and reliable materials is indispensable, while the research methodology is also crucial for the quality of historical works. The methodological approach of Environmental History of China is highlighted by two aspects, i.e., interdisciplinary research and the combination of comprehensive analysis and case studies. Interdisciplinarity is an important feature of environmental history research, which usually engages numerous methods. However, it is anything but impractical for scholars majoring in history to master all the knowledge fields involved in environmental history. Given this fact, the writers of each volume took initiative to seek multidisciplinary cooperation while maintaining the historical
narrative as the focal point. For example, the two editors, Xu Qinghai and Zhao Baohua, are both experts in environmental studies and flora and fauna studies from the College of Life Sciences of Hebei Normal University. They incorporated such technical indicators as spore powder, ancient soil, lake deposits, stalagmites, glaciers, snow lines, deserts, sea surface rise and fall, and ancient vegetation to quantitatively analyze the historical facts of climate change in cold, warm, dry, and wet conditions, plant and animal changes. Based on an exhaustive analysis of ancient documents and archaeological data, the chief editor of each volume "combined and integrated the research results of many disciplines, such as physical geography, human geography, geology, biology, anthropology, ethnology, and folklore, and strived to observe environmental changes through a historical perspective and to discover historical patterns through an environmental perspective with an updated view." As Professor Bao Maohong stressed, "Despite of the distinctions among each discipline and the increasing widening tendency with the differentiation of disciplines, by no means are these differences and barriers insurmountable, in fact, they can be interpenetrated. The conclusion drawn from interdisciplinary studies are not the same as sticking to merely one discipline."
The conjoining of comprehensive analysis with case studies is another feature of the book. China is a vast country with a quite long history, and the issues involved in environmental history are extremely complex and diverse. And therefore, in an effort to write a general environmental history, it is essential to grasp the core of environmental changes from a macroscopic perspective, yet microscopic analysis is of particular significance. As the theory of interference limit differences suggests, proposed by Professor Lan Yong, two kinds of differences, namely, regional and temporal ones, more often than not, result in the inconsistence in the emergence of environmental thresholds in each region. That is, the impact of even the same environmental changes in regions or time may vary considerably." As a result, it demands for specific analysis on "small habitats" on a case-by-case basis, in addition to comprehensive analysis. For example, in the concluding remarks of the pre-Qin volume, the rise and fall of Yinxu was incorporated as an example of a microcosm of environmental change in the pre-Qin period. In the eighth chapter of the Volume on Qin and Han, the natural disasters in the city of Luoyang in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the floods and droughts in Hebei were examined to explore the specific interaction between humans and nature in the "small habitat" in the context of disaster environment. In short, each volume attempts to combine comprehensive research with case studies to build a vivid historical picture.
III. Minor blemishes: the Shortcomings of Environmental History of China
As a first attempt to compile a general history of the environment by Chinese scholars, this work is a holistic and systematic explanation of the complex historical relationship between the Chinese nation and its environment. Without any doubt, it is anything but possible to include everything a sheer one book. The following may be the shortcomings, if there is any room for further improvement.
Firstly, the style division and content coordination are wanting of further improvement. From Wei Jin Dynasties to Song Yuan Dynasties, it spans over 1,000 years in time, suggesting a period of significant environmental and social change, yet it has been placed in one single volume. The practice may attribute to an uneven emphasis on the main points of the discussion in each chapter. Additionally, due to the distinct cognitive logic and thinking pattern of the editors, there is room for further coordination among sub-volumes in terms of content and arguments.
Secondly, in a few chapters, the narrative is somewhat prone to "natural science", for instance, the narrative of climate change in Chapter inclines to depart from the historical narrative due to its innate attribute of natural science. In view of this phenomenon, integrating vivid historical discourse to further highlight the dominance of historiography is thereof an important part of "shifting from a 'natural science'-oriented environmental history to a genuine 'humanistic' environmental history.
Thirdly, archival materials that are not published need to be further explored. Albeit the rich sources of all volumes, there is an inevitably slight deficiency in the employ of unpublished archives after the Ming and Qing dynasties. For example, the use of archival materials in the Ming and Qing volumes is somewhat wanting, the only reference is the first historical archives of the memorials in the Yongzheng, Qianlong, and Daoguang's reign. Whereas most of the unpublished archival materials used in the Modern volume was drawn from the Beijing Municipal Archives, which does not subsume a comprehensive area and scope. Provided that the scope of unpublished archives can be expanded, it should be more instrumental to further exploration of environmental issues.
Fourthly, theoretical innovation is slightly inadequate. As to a general history work, the construction of a theoretical system is all the more indispensable. Go through the entire work, one may notice that the narrative system is quite sound, yet the theoretical reflection is slightly insufficient. As a matter of fact, there are many innovative ideas scattered in each volume, also in-depth theoretical reflections in the general preface and the introductions of each volume, but at the end of the work, the theoretical summary of the whole book is not manifested. Theoretical innovation is, as a matter of course, rather difficult, which requires unremitting efforts and attempts on scholars' part in the time to come.
As one of the trail-blazing works in the study of environmental history, the academic and practical significance of Environmental History of China is self-evident. It not only represents the concerted efforts of the Chinese environmental history community over the years, but the diligent endeavors of the editorial board of Hebei Normal University. Despite of the inevitable minor shortcomings, the flaws do not devalue its innate significance. In general, it is an important attempt by Chinese scholars to compile, in a systematic manner, a general history of the environment from their own and their own country's characteristics, and it makes considerable contributions to the narrative framework and theoretical innovation, making up effectively for the discipline of environmental history in China, and promoting the disciplinary system and the construction of the historiographical discourse system. In this regard, this work is by all means a superb work of general history of high standard.
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Экологическая история Китая / под ред. Дай Цзяньбина. В 6 т. - Пекин: Высшее образование Китая, 2020-2022.
Т.1. Доциньская эпоха (Период палеолита - 221 год до н.э.). - Пекин: Высшее образование Китая,
2021. - 268 с.
Т.2. Эпохи Цинь и Хань (221 г. до н.э. - 220 г. н.э.). - Пекин: Высшее образование Китая, 2022. - 350 с. Т.3. От эпохи Шести династий до империи Юань (220-1368 гг.). - Пекин: Высшее образование Китая,
2022. - 400 с.
Т.4. Династии Мин и Цин (1368-1912 гг.). - Пекин: Высшее образование Китая, 2021. - 326 с. Т.5. Период Нового времени (1912-1949 гг.). - Пекин: Высшее образование Китая, 2020. - 320 с. Т.6. Период Новейшего времени (с 1949 г.). - Пекин: Высшее образование Китая, 2021. - 370 с.
Environmental History of China / ed. Give Jianbing. In 6 volumes - Beijing: China's Higher Education, 2020-2022.
T.1. Pre-qin era. - Beijing: China Higher Education, 2021. - 268 p.
T.2. Qin and Han eras (221 BC - 220 AD). - Beijing: China Higher Education, 2022. - 350 p.
T.3. From the era of the Six Dynasties to the Yuan Empire (220-1368). - Beijing: China Higher Education,
2022. - 400 p.
T.4. Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1912). - Beijing: China Higher Education, 2021. - 326 p. T.5. The period of the New time (1912-1949). - Beijing: China Higher Education, 2020. - 320 p. T.6. The period of modern times (since 1949). - Beijing: China Higher Education, 2021. - 370 p.
ЛЯНЬ ЖОЮЙ - кандидат исторических наук, старший преподаватель, кафедра новой и новейшей истории Института изучения марксизма Хэбэйского университета экономики и бизнеса (info@helri.com).
LIANG RUOYU - Ph.D. in History, Senior Lecturer, School of Marxism, Hebei University of Economics and Business
