By Burton Watson
Columbia University Press, 1958. 276 pp. US$4.00
Reviewed by Lin Yu-sheng
This book aims to introduce to English-speaking readers the figure of Ssu-ma Ch'ien, to describe the form and content of his work, the Shih Chi or Records of the Historian, and to indicate something of its importance in Chinese culture. Dr. Watson wants to carryon the tradition of the prominent French sinologist Edouard Chavannes' study, Les Memoires Historique de Se-ma Ts'ien, a French translation of the first forty-seven chapters of the Shih Chi, with a lengthy introduction on the life, times, methods and sources of the historian. However, in view of the years which have elapsed since the appearance of Chavannes' study, the breadth of the subject and the possibility for varying interpretations which is always present in, the treatment of historical work at present, there is need for another study of which this book is a direct result.
The author outlines the beginnings of Chinese history as they are revealed in the Shih Chi and describes the age in which the historian lived and wrote. This is followed by a sketch of the commencement of Chinese historiography and a discussion of the form and make-up of the Shih Chi. Finally, the author attempted to outline the thought of the historian and to analyse some of the literary devices and points of style which have contributed to its popularity. He also presented translations of Ssu-ma Ch'ien's autobiography and the biography written of the grand historian by Pan Ku, and some selected passages from the Shih Chi, at the end of this volume.
The book is written with the air of vividness, lucidity and a comprehensive knowledge of Chinese historiography. Opinions expressed is generally sound. And versions selected from the Shih Chi are translated with accuracy and least distortion.
"It is impossible," remarks the author, "to deduce from all of Ssu-ma Ch'ien's scattered utterances a consistent system of thought. He seems rather to let himself be drawn along by his narrative, sighing in sympathy, moralizing or chiding as the mood strikes him, and proclaiming quite the opposite when another mood is upon him." However, Watson has traced four major elements of thought from Ssu-ma's work. First of all, the mind of Ssu-ma is dedicated to rationalism. The element of the miraculous and the supernatural is remarkably small in the Shih Chi comparing favorably not only with Christian and Buddhist historiography but even with that of the classical West. It is confined for the most part to those sections derived from older works such as the Tso Commentary, or the speeches and assertions of the magicians of Han times which Ssu-ma, though reporting them as they were, clearly condemned.
The second characteristic of Ssu-ma's writing is his electicism: He was obviously familiar with the various schools of philosophy in ancient China. In his days the Confucian Classics had just received official sanction as the basis of learning and it was still possible to select his ideas from a variety of sources without appearing heretical. In his preface to the biographies of the wandering knights, for example, Ssu-ma quotes from such diverse authors as Han Fei Tzu, Chuang Tzu Hsun Tzu and Kuan Tzu. But when Pan Ku wrote a new preface to this chapter in order to replace that of his predecessor's which he found offensive, he confined himself to quotations from the Analects and Mencius.
The third characteristic of Ssu-ma's thinking is his realism. It is striking when we contrast Ssu-ma's whole attitude toward the past with that of Pan Ku. He rejected the Taoist concept of history as a steady devolution from the ancient days of primal simplicity and naturalness. Again, though he paid high tribute to the Confucian golden ages, the days of the sage emperors Yao, Shun, Yu, T'ang and the founders of the Chou, he did not advocate any forced attempt to return to the ways of these times. On the contrary he felt that the men of his day had much to learn, not from these utopias of the far distant past, but from the troubled times of the late Chou and Ch'in that had just closed. In discussing the way in which the Ch'in rose to power, he insisted that his own age could learn much from the history of this period. "Why," he asks, "must one learn only from ancient times? ..... Take for your model the kings of later ages," he advises, "for they are near to us and the forms of their customs are like ours." Such a view of the past was probably rare in Ssu-ma's own day.
The last, perhaps the most important, mark of Ssu-ma's writing is his humanism. He assembled the old records and chronicles of the past, copied out their entries, related their tales and recorded their dates, allowing himself only a few short personal remarks set aside from the body of his narrative at the beginning or end of his chapters. Yet, in these brief remarks he comes through as one of the most warm and vivid personalities of Chinese historiography. He wrote of history as though he had lived through it, as indeed he must have done in his mind when he traveled about the country, viewed the landmark of the past and talked with others about historical events. He possessed so deep a love and sympathy for the past. He did not merely stand aside and record with cold detachment the lives of the men of the past, but himself participated in their triumphs and sorrows, as he revealed frequently his outbursts of emotion, his sighs of pity and admiration at the end of his chapters. No one was above his criticism, no one beneath his sympathy. It is this equality of warmth, intimacy, and humanity in his writing, more than anything else, perhaps, that has won for his work the admiration of so many generations of readers and assured in an imperishable position in the Chinese heritage.
"The Silent War in Tibet"
by Lowell Thomas, Jr.
Doubleday & Co., 1959. 284 pp. US$3.95
Reviewed by Wu Tzu-jen
When Lowell Thomas, Jr., and his famous author-lecturer-commentator father visited Tibet in 1949, most people of the world were but dimly aware of that country as a remote and inaccessible land nestling amidst the highest mountains man has ever known. To fans of American movies, it was synonymous with vague never-never land of peace and contentment named Shangri-La that had been reached by fearless actor Ronald Colman after a breathtaking struggle across wind and snow-swept mountain peaks.
But a scant year later, the whole world was made abruptly aware of Tibet as a country peopled by flesh-and-blood citizenry when the Chinese Communists came in force to impose their own peculiar brand of "liberation" on the land. For almost ten years the Tibetans endured, and in the process of enduring largely frustrated, the Chinese Communist "liberation" policies. In March of 1959 they erupted in full-scale and bloody revolt. Thomas's latest book, "The Silent War in Tibet," tells the story of the Chinese Communist occupation of Tibet and of the years of stubborn Tibetan resistance to that occupation. It is a story that has heretofore been suppressed by the Communists.
Following his 1949 trip to Tibet with his father, young Thomas felt compelled to publish a record of what the Tibetans had told of their hopes and fears, especially their fears of the already-menacing gestures of Red China. That was how Thomas's first book on Tibet, "Out of This World," came into being. His latest book is a tragic sequel to that first report, and one that, in Thomas's own words, "I wish I had never had to write. Isolated, with no one to turn to, Tibet fell to the invading armies of Mao Tse-tung, and the fears expressed to us in Lhasa became harsh realities."
The first blow fell a year after the Thomas party left Tibet, when Chinese Communist soldiers crossed the border and attacked Tibetan outposts. Mao's propaganda barrage at the time emphasized that the campaign was meant to save Tibet from the "Western imperialists." The Chinese Communists occupied Lhasa. Once conquered, a curtain of silence descended around Tibet, and the only news the outside world received was that emanating from Peiping's propaganda channels.
Through the sympathetic eyes of Lowell Thomas, Jr., the world is now given the story that the Chinese Communists did not tell He describes the Chinese Communist invasion of Tibet in 1950. He tells of the ways in which the Tibetans managed to outwit their "liberators" time and again, and to make of them objects of ridicule. He reviews past Tibetan history, including the establishment of the Dalai Lama as the spiritual and temporal leader of all Tibetans, and the attempts by the Chinese Communists to establish control through their own Communist puppet, the Panchen Lama. And he relates the thrilling tale of the Dalai Lama's escape from the Red-held capital of Lhasa, in March of 1959 and his arduous journey across dangerous mountain trails to eventual sanctuary in India.
It is evident that the Tibetans bitterly resisted the Communists from the beginning, and that they continue to resist even now. In Thomas's words, "The struggle has developed into a bitter war. Large-sized units are engaged in almost constant conflict. Entire armies can be lost in the vast and rugged terrain. Battles are waged at heights that make the breath come in tortured gasps. Modern planes and the latest automatic weapons are used, but so are chain mail and broadswords. The action has characteristics of the Crusades, of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, and of the most up-to-date military operations. It is a strange war. Victory or defeat have little meaning in it. Territory is occupied and retaken, but the consequences have little strategic value. Time also seems to have small importance, and presumably the fighting will continue indefinitely. Resistance to oppression is the root of the conflict."
Resistance to oppression is indeed the key. But this is not the way the Chinese Communists would have the world view the matter. Their ruthless suppression of the bloody revolt in the spring of 1959 was accompanied by a barrage of propaganda aimed at the outside world. They have made much of the "oppressive feudal way of life" imposed on the peasantry by the Tibetan overlords, of the "mass slavery" that has been in existence for centuries, of low status of women, and of the "joyous" manner in which the bitterly downtrodden people of Tibet greeted their "liberators." The truth of the matter is that the people of Tibet had enjoyed a way of life with which Tibetans of all walks of life were eminently satisfied. Slavery was never widespread in Tibet. Compared with women of other eastern races, the women of Tibet have traditionally held a remarkably high status. The Tibetans did not wish to be "liberated," and they strongly resisted all programs put forth by the Chinese Communists. Above all, they revered their religion, their monks, and their monasteries.
As Mr. Thomas points out, liberty to a Tibetan is not so much a political concept as a cultural concept. Most of all, the Tibetans want to be left alone to practice their own religion. They want the freedom to reject the gadgetry and the frenzy of modern civilization, and to preserve the traditional values of the Lamaist Buddhism. They are—or were, before the arrival of the Chinese Communists—self-sufficient in their little autonomous area. All they have wanted is to be left alone to enjoy the way of life they have lived for centuries.
But the Chinese Communists have shown a ruthless single-mindedness of purpose in their determination to impose communism on the Tibetans. The pattern of subjugation they are following in Tibet is the classic pattern of Communist domination. In Mr. Thomas's words, "They combined blandishment with repression. While outwardly purporting to respect Tibetan religion and institutions, they secretly worked to undermine both. Chinese colonists were brought in and given some of the best land. Leading Tibetans were sent to Peking for indoctrination. Military roads, airfields, and even whole towns were constructed with slave labor. Any opposition to the regime was suppressed, and all Tibetans were subjected to an intense propaganda campaign."
Mr. Thomas tells the story of Tibetan resistance to Red rule in a style that is both highly readable and interesting. He presents facts, and in the process makes propaganda claims of the Chinese Communists look ridiculous. Because of the one-sided picture of Tibetan life that has been presented to the world by the Communists in the past, his story is both timely and important.
While the Reds have ruthlessly crushed active large-scale manifestations of revolt in Tibet for the time being, it is evident that widespread resistance still goes on. Indeed, it is likely that this resistance will continue so long as a single Tibetan remains in the country. Realizing this, the Chinese Communists have embarked on a systematic program of extermination of the Tibetan race. They have used forced migration to remote areas in Sinkiang and other provinces of China, and they have used forced intermarriage between Tibetans and Chinese. Where this has failed, they are using sterilization of Tibetan males, and even mass murder of resistance elements.
With the Tibetan race thus facing the possibility of extinction, it is vitally important that the true facts behind the Tibetan story be presented to the world. Some day, the Chinese Communist leaders will be brought before the court of world justice to answer for their crimes in Tibet. When this occurs, it will be important to have events accurately depicted in the kind of historical detail Mr. Thomas has given us in his book, "The Silent War in Tibet."