Section 62 recalled our journey to London to see Prof. Quirk and after that I was determined to simplify his huge works, i.e. writing out based on much accumulation, for those who wanted to grasp the strong advantage of Quirk’s grammar but could not read the huge works.
On July 25 2012, I finally finished reading the huge works by Quirk once again, and making electronic notes and began to write. On Oct 26 the whole draft was completed and on May 8, 2013 revision and proofreading were done, whose name was “Brand-new College English Grammar”. On May 9 it was sent to FLTRP (Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press). On June 3, 2015, we came back to Beijing from Vienna, contacted two women editors and went to their office. Later I wrote “Lecture on Brand-new English Grammar” in English and in Aug of 2017 also sent to FLTRP. I communicated with the two women editors frequently but discovered that their attitude became colder and colder. It was stranded, which made me downhearted. I estimated that these two manuscripts would be contributed to the World Wide Web, which I was most willing do because WWW has been helping me to do my research and writing, I should be a man trying my best to repay.
Except for editing the new version for “English Course for Computer Majors” and “English Course for Financial Majors”, I found it too difficult to edit new books in English because the whole book market had been encountering powerful shock, turning into a recession. All the large and small bookstores round the CUMT (China University of Mining and Technology) had gone bankrupt.
I could not continue my writing books in English and I had been teaching myself studies of Chinese ancient civilization, reading some classics of sinology in dribs and drabs, writing some articles in the blog, but not systematically. I was willing to do a big topic of Chinese history, to read official history books and improve the reading speed of classical Chinese. First get ready to read “Historical Records” written by Sima Qian, but I discovered that Mr. Sima Guang’s “History as a Mirror” was extracted from all the history books, including “Historical Records” to the period of the eve of the foundation of North Song Dynasty”. Actually Sima Guang’s “History as a Mirror” was the record of the long Chinese history from King Weilie of East Zhou 23 years (403 BC) to the later Zhou dynasty of the Five Dynasties, i.e. expedition to Huainan (AD 959), covering 16 dynasties, 1362 years and generalizing 19 history books. If you read Sima Guang’s “History as a Mirror”, you don’t need to read “Historical Records” by Sima Qian, “the Book of Han Dynasty”, “New Book of Five Dynasties’ History” and etc. 19 history books. Therefore, I began to read “History as a Mirror” on Sept 20, 2014. On the eve of June 27 2016 before we started off to America I had just finished reading it, and the reading lasted one year and 9 months.
Next, I had to find another subsequent history book similar to “History as a Mirror”. Mr. Bi Yuan, the scholar of Qing Dynasty, wrote the book of “Continuation of History as a Mirror” which was the seamless connection with Sima Guang’s, having 220 volumes. In fact, the book was completed collectively and Mr. Liang Qichao sang a high praise on it, saying that the Bi’s book was the best of all other books titling “Continuation of History as a Mirror”. “Continuation of History as a Mirror” linked up “History as a Mirror”, starting from Emperor Taizu of Song, Zhao Kuangyin, the first year of Jianlong (AD960) until Yuan Shun Emperor, i.e. the last emperor of the Yuan Dynasty of the national unified regime, Zhizheng 28 years (AD1368), altogether 411 years, which was a comparatively complete chronicles, including History Books of Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan dynasties. Read “History as a Mirror” and “Continuation of History as a Mirror” and you finish reading 23 history books. “Continuation of History as a Mirror” took me one and half years. In Dec of 2016 I came from America and began to write. In Nov of 2017, I finished 98 pieces of writing of “Concise General History of China for Public”. In Nov 2017, I began to read “History of Ming Dynasty” and “Draft History of Qing” until Sept of 2018.
The method I adopted during my reading was to copy and paste electronic notes at the same time. After a period of reading I began to write and when needed I reviewed the original texts. I tried my best to calm down, filter contexts, not leak any major events, present succession processes, focus on important history people, take care of latest archaeological discoveries and update historical facts. I cited a few historical records in order that the readers could learn the language from the ancient famous historians. I paid attention not only to the knowledge but also to the readers’ interest, examining and distinguishing unofficial history and historical romance from popular literary works inconsistent with historical facts. I tried to control the length of each piece, about 5000 Chinese characters on average, in order that the public are courageous to read them. I finished reading four large original history works, equal to 25 history books. On Sept 25, 2018, Tuesday, 180 pieces of “Concise General History of China for Public” had been completed, experiencing just 4 years.
“Concise General History of China for Public” emphasized on political and military figures of various historical periods, but also on the famous non-power figures of cultures and sciences. After every historical period was written, I did not forget to arrange some pieces about the ideologists, litterateurs, scientists and their rich cultural achievements.
When I was reading the original history works I collected characters and idioms I was not familiar with and arranged them according to the order of Chinese Pinyin. I would continue this work in later reading, which can help me to remember and apply them. Perhaps it could help other readers later and I would also contribute them to the WWW.
Some pieces of “Concise General History of China for Public” were appearing in the room of my QQ one after another, which could stimulate my proofreading. The wish to publish it by a publishing house is hopeless. In the future I would get ready to spend some money asking a professional typesetting staff to do layout design, including other manuscripts and my memoir“As a Tree with the Passage of Time”.. I would contribute them to the WWW altogether, and my family, relatives and next generations.
Nov 24, 2018 Fenghuayuan, Xuzhou
Proofreading on Jan 2019 in Xuzhou
Uploading on Aug. 11 2023 in Xuzhou
