ShakoOutlook｜我与格鲁吉亚第一本《中国历史》 The Story of Writing the First Georgian Book about China’s History

The German philosopher George Hegel famously said, “The only thing that we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.”

“人类从历史中学到的唯一教训，就是人类无法从历史中学到任何教训。”（德国哲学家黑格尔）

Since childhood I was keen on history but after that when I read this phrase first time I realized how important it was. When I became student of political science program, I figured out that learning materials on Eastern Asia were very limited in Georgia. Even though I chose China Studies as a major, there were also very limited materials on China’s history. Day by day I faced many questions since ancient period until modern time, the questions were diverse and cover all aspects from military history to social-political conditions.

从小我就喜欢历史。黑格尔的这句话，让我认识到了历史的重要性。攻读政治学学位时，我发现格鲁吉亚研究东亚的资料十分有限。尽管我学的是中国学，格鲁吉亚关于中国历史的资料却非常少。日复一日，从古代到近代，从军事到社会政治，关于中国历史各式各样、五花八门的问题都亟待解答。

Georgia's first Georgian book about China's history

格鲁吉亚第一本《中国历史》

For example: how China and outside world influence each other? Why imperial court isolated the country from the global world? Why China did not establish colonies around the globe when it had opportunity? How the one of the biggest empire weakened in 19th century? Did the great wall really work? What did Chinese society do during the world wars? How Chinese political elite modernized country in the beginning of 1980s? The questions were dozens and me and my friends started searching for the answers.

举些例子，比如中国与世界上其他国家是什么关系？为什么中国古代要采取“闭关锁国”的政策？尽管曾有机会殖民其他国家，为什么却没这么做？19世纪的中国是怎样走向衰落的？修建长城真的能够抵御外敌吗？两次世界大战期间，中国扮演着怎样的角色？十九世纪八十年代初期，中国的政治精英阶层如何推动国家现代化？我和我的同仁一直致力于研究诸如此类的问题。

During this academic journey I found several authors who became an enlightener for us like: Joseph Needham, John King Fairbank, Bai Shouyi, Jonathan D. Spence and etc. Their books became a gate to understand China’s complicated history better.

研究期间，我找到了几位对研究中国历史非常有帮助的学者，例如中国科学院外籍院士、生物化学和科学史学家李约瑟，美国历史学家、哈佛大学教授费正清，中国历史学家、教育家、社会活动家白寿彝，美国中国史研究专家、汉学家史景迁等等。他们的书籍成为了我们敲开中国浩瀚历史大门的钥匙。

It was like labyrinth in the vast desert, but the journey was really amazing and interesting. Many details and puzzles became clear and understandable by helping them, then one brilliant idea came up with us, it would be amazing if we create an youth journal about China history.

研究探索的过程，宛如行走在广袤沙漠的迷宫之中，非常震撼、十分有趣。研读这些史学家的书籍时，许多细节和谜题都得到了解答。随之而来的是，脑海中接二连三的奇思妙想——如果能有本讲述中国历史的青少年刊物就好了！

Shako and his classmates who were learning Chinese at Renmin Univeristy for Contemporary China Study programme

尚可和他在中国人民大学当代中国研究项目中文班同学 

We needed Georgian materials to help future generations. Even though we started permanently publishing articles on our website “sinologia.ge”, it was not enough. Me and my colleague Otar Chigladze spent weeks in searching new materials to learn more and more.

我们想通过编译格鲁吉亚语的中国通史，来让下一代格鲁吉亚人了解中国。虽然我们定期在“sinologia.ge”网站上发表关于中国的文章，但这是不够的。我和我的同事奥塔尔·奇拉德兹（音译）需要耗时数周来挖掘研究新的史料。

I won another scholarship for my master program in 2018, I have already had some experience and knowledge to move forward and create something about China’s history but we were realistic and knew that it was “mission to impossible” for two or us. We needed to sinergize power, knowledge and resources to complete this task.

2018年，我获得了另一个硕士研究生项目的奖学金。也可以说，此前我就对中国历史有初步的了解和认知。但是，我们也清醒地意识到，两个人的力量远不可能完成编写《中国历史》的重任。我们需要整合学术力量和资源。

It was a summer of 2018, when me and Otar contacted Dr. Marine Jibladze (Professor, Sinologist from the Free University of Tbilisi) to share our ideas. Seems that it was good decision just because we found out that Dr. Jibladze also had a project idea to write a book about China’s history. We joined her and our project started moving.

2018年夏天，我和奥塔尔·奇拉德兹联系了第比利斯自由大学教授、汉学家玛琳娜•吉布拉泽博士，和她一起探讨了我们二人的想法。庆幸的是，大家想法不谋而合。吉布拉泽博士有一个关于撰写《中国历史》的项目。于是，我们加入了她的团队，并开始推进项目。

Shako (R) and Dr. Marine Jibladze (L), Professor, Sinologist from the Free University of Tbilisi

I always were interested in History but when you do professional and academic research u need to narrow down your scope, otherwise it is impossible to research everything. Despite my general interest on antique and medieval period, I am more interested in contemporary and modern period in Global history, cause it has a vital impact on our current political events and condition.The events from Qing dinasty and republican era were interesting and unresponsive in many ways, then I chose period of 1644-1949. Meantime, time has come and I moved to Beijing. To be honest, I was on correct place on correct time, during my research process the professors from Renmin University and other academics became consultants and advisor during this process.

虽然我对历史有十分浓厚的感兴趣，然而历史研究不可能面面俱到，要深入开展下去，需要不断细化研究方向。尽管大方向上，我研究的是世界古代史和中世纪史，但我其实对现当代史更感兴趣。这个历史阶段对现今国际政治格局有着深远影响。清朝和中华民国的历史很有意思，且鲜有人涉猎，所以我选择了撰写《中国历史》中从1644年到1949年的部分。与此同时，也到了我读第二个硕士研究生学位的时候。于是，我前往北京，开始了学术生涯。可以说是恰逢其时，在中国人民大学学习时遇到的教授和专家们，成为了我在《中国历史》研究过程中的学术顾问。

Shako and his professors from Renmin University

尚可和中国人民大学教授合影 

The process was an interesting and challenging at the same time, it was the first attempt to share Chinese historical events to Georgian audience so we tried to be comprehensive, describe not only military history, analysis socio-political gradation of Chinese society. I tried to cover almost all major important aspects during the 1644-1949 like: the crisis on Ming dynasty, ethnogenesis of jurchen tribes, the fall of Ming dynasty, political-administrative reforms of Qing Dynasty, expansion to the west (including war with dzungars and etc) contact with the outside world, military champaign in Xinjiang, Mongolia, Burma and etc.

整个过程充满挑战但十分充实。这是格鲁吉亚迄今为止第一部尝试向格鲁吉亚人阐述中国历史事件的书籍，书中不仅讲述了中国的军事历史，还涵盖了中国社会和政治的变迁。我撰写的部分，竭尽所能囊括了中国从1644年到1949年的重要历史事件。例如，明朝遭遇的危机，女真族的起源，明朝的衰落，清朝政治行政体系改革，清朝为统一西北地区进行的多次战争（包括清统一准噶尔之战）等等。

After consultation with experts I tried to analysis events from the global perspective, it would make clear how and why “century of humiliation” existed in Chinese historiography and collective memory. Chinese history looks like an ocean, it never ends but it also intellectually feeds you with knowledge. I really enjoyed to share the views of Chinese intellectuals about different aspects like Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, Zhang Zhidong and etc, explain the main reasons why mandate of heaven loose legitimacy in Qing dynasty, how Sun Zhongshan mobilized masses to establish Republic of China.

咨询专家后，我开始从国际关系的视角分析上述历史事件，开始逐渐明白中国主流学术界提出“百年国耻”的来由。中国历史浩若烟海，她从未停止向前的步伐，更给予了历史研究者不竭的研究素材。我由衷地喜欢和中国学者一起探讨对康有为、梁启超、张之洞等人的看法，讨论清王朝封建统治衰败的原因，以及孙中山怎样动员群众创建中华民国等问题。

Shako and his classmates from Renmin University

尚可和他在中国人民大学的同学 

Unfortunately, Georgians don’t know too much about how world wars effected on China, I tried to explain that Republic of China and brave Chinese soldiers (from KMT & CCP) were allies to the west against the “Axis of Evil” and we won together.

关于“两次世界大战对中国的影响”，格鲁吉亚人知之甚少。于是，我也尝试在书中解释英勇的中国人是怎样和西方“同盟国”伙伴一同抵抗“轴心国”的入侵。

The book about China's History in a Georigian bookstore

《中国历史》在格鲁吉亚书店 

It took almost three years to completed our joint projects, almost one year ago Dr. Jibladze notified me that our book published. We received many positive comments during the one year, our book became significant instrument to understand China. It was one but very big step to develop Sinology as an academic field in Georgia. We hope that it will not be our last projects, Georgian society needs to learn and understand “middle kingdom” better and we have to fulfil our academic duty!

整个项目用时近三年。大约一年前，吉布拉泽博士告诉我们，《中国历史》出版了！这一年来，《中国历史》广受好评，这本书也成为了格鲁吉亚人了解中国的重要途径。对格鲁吉亚汉学研究领域而言，这是非常重要的一步。我们希望能开展更多类似的项目，让格鲁吉亚人更好地了解中国，从而完成我们的学术使命！

特邀外籍专栏作者  Shalva Chikhladze

翻译 赖盈盈

编辑 陈大炜

编审 庞博 田旻佳