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I have been studying the history of the French Revolution with Mr. Zhang Zhilian since my master's degree, and I have been studying for my doctorate. Why do I care about the French Revolution? Mainly because I have experienced the Cultural Revolution, seen what happened at that time and read the history of the French Revolution, especially the Cultural Revolution and the Red Panic in the French Revolution, and I feel deja vu. I think this is very interesting. I think learning the history of the French Revolution may help us understand our real life.
The French Revolution is of epoch-making significance, which initiated a new era of democratization in world history. In fact, the French Revolution is still going on. Why? Because the goal of the French Revolution is to achieve political democratization in the world, as long as this goal is not achieved, the French Revolution will not end. There are many places worth studying in the French Revolution. Many topics of history, sociology, politics and law originated from the French Revolution, and many problems of modernity and modern civilization can also be traced back to the French Revolution. The French Revolution is also an important source of Marxism, which can be said to be the fourth source of Marxism.
The book "The Old System and the Great Revolution" is very classic. Published in 1856. Before that, some works about the history of the French Revolution had been published, but Tocqueville took a different approach. He did not do chronicle narration, but combined history itself with historical philosophy, thought and history to do such a study, which was a major innovation at that time.
This book is of great academic significance, and scholars in related fields all over the world are very concerned about it, especially in Europe and America. However, this book was introduced to China very late, or after the reform and opening up. This is probably related to the prevalence of ultra-left thoughts before the reform and opening up. Historians in the former Soviet Union criticized Tocqueville for being too right-wing and too old and aristocratic. He is indeed a liberal who opposes socialism. As my tutor Mr. Zhang Zhilian said in the preface, it took 135 years for this book to reach China, which really wronged this classic.
Recently, this book has attracted people's attention and is very popular. However, some people have complained that this book is boring to read and difficult to understand. Indeed, this book is very academic, and it may be a little troublesome for readers who don't specialize in the history of the French Revolution to understand it, so professional scholars need to do some guiding work.
Why do people pay special attention to this book now? Some people say that this book especially likes to talk about China. To tell the truth, when I first read this book, I was also very excited, feeling how this book is so close to our reality. Recently, I also attended a seminar on revolutionary issues, and found that there was an anxiety in the society, and I felt that where China was going now and what it would be like in a few years' time was very uncertain. Therefore, the enthusiastic reading of this book by China people today is not accidental, but reflects some demands of real social life. As a scholar, I can only give a brief introduction to this book from the perspective of history and politics. I hope this discussion can also provide some useful enlightenment for people to interpret it.
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Tocqueville is famous, but he doesn't write many books. Now it seems that there are three most important ones. The first book is Democracy in America (Volume I), published in 1840. Then, Memoirs of the Revolution 1848 was written shortly after the Revolution 1848, but it was not published until his death in 1893. Why couldn't it be published at that time? Because he scolded some people in the book, some celebrities in politics at that time, and the revolution failed, he felt that these people were responsible. Tocqueville is actually a man of temperament, and it is inevitable that he will swear when he is in a hurry, so it was not easy to publish it at that time. His third important book is The Old System and the Great Revolution, which directly studies the French Revolution.
Tocqueville paid attention to the problems of France all his life. Of course, he also has cosmopolitan concern beyond national boundaries, but he is a patriot first, loves his motherland very much and always thinks about the problems of France. However, he believes that it is not enough to study France only, but also to compare with other countries, mainly with the United States, Britain and Germany. But no matter what he studies, there is a central issue consciousness that runs through his thoughts and works, that is, "how to protect individual freedom rights in a modern society with political democratization."
Tocqueville is a very determined liberal. He comes from a noble family, so he pays special attention to and loves personal independence and freedom. However, he is not opposed to democracy, and he is quite positive about democracy, because he has long been keenly aware that democracy is the trend of the times, and democracy is indeed better and more in line with human nature than the undemocratic and unequal situation in feudal times, and moving towards democracy is a kind of progress. However, there is also a problem in moving towards democracy, that is, everyone is equal in a democratic society, which will put individual freedom in danger. He deeply felt this danger for the first time from the French Revolution. He found that there seems to be a contradiction between democracy and individual freedom in the United States, but this contradiction has been well solved, so he went to study the United States first.
On Democracy in the United States pointed out that the United States has been quite successful in building a democratic society, and freedom and equality have been well coordinated in the United States, and individual freedom has been effectively guaranteed. But he also feels that it may be very difficult to promote the experience of the new world in the old world. After returning to China, I witnessed the European revolution of 1848, mainly to promote the democratization of European society and solve the unfinished tasks of the French Revolution. However, this revolutionary experience confirmed his hunch that it is very, very difficult to establish American-style democracy in Europe. So he was a little pessimistic and frustrated, so that when writing his memoirs, he said a lot of harsh words to the revolutionaries of 1848.
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Finally, at the end of his life, Tocqueville wrote The Old System and the Great Revolution. In fact, this book is only the first part of his research plan on the history of the Great Revolution. Later, he wanted to continue writing until the collapse of Napoleon's empire. Unfortunately, every day is a holiday, so he failed to write the following part, leaving only some fragmentary notes, which were later incorporated into his complete works as the second volume of The Old System and the Great Revolution. I think his purpose in writing this book is to explore the historical reasons for the failure of the French democratic experiment in 1848. He believes that the root of the failure of the 1848 revolution is the French revolution that started in 1789, because the two revolutions are very consistent in political culture. In fact, the political culture of 1848 revolution, or the way of thinking and behavior of revolutionaries, is completely inherited from 1789 revolution, while 1789 revolution. So how did the political culture of the Great Revolution come from? He felt that he wanted to return to the old system before the Great Revolution, and the so-called "old system" was the autocratic political system called "absolute monarchy" that existed in France for hundreds of years before the Great Revolution, and the special social country created by this system.
Therefore, The Old System and the Great Revolution mainly discusses the origin of the French Revolution at the end of 18, especially the reasons for the rage and fantasy peculiar to the French Revolution. In fact, what Tocqueville wants to say is that the political culture of the French Revolution especially pursues the realization of equal values. In pursuit of equality, people do not hesitate to sacrifice personal freedom. This idea is also a statement put forward by Rousseau, which is almost angry. The French people especially hated inequality during the Great Revolution, and they did not hesitate to destroy freedom in order to eliminate inequality. This is indeed an important feature of French revolutionary political culture. An important discovery of Tocqueville is that this political culture evolved from the old French political culture. In this way, he pointed out the internal relationship between the old system and the Great Revolution for the first time. In the past, people thought that the French Revolution was a break with the old system and tradition, and had nothing to do with the old system civilization, but Tocqueville said no, there was continuity and strong continuity in it. This is a very important theoretical contribution of Tocqueville, from which he opened up new ideas for the study of the Great Revolution.
This idea is to answer several main questions about the French Revolution on the basis of combining history itself with historical philosophy or facts and thoughts: First, all countries have problems with the old system, not just France, so why did France destroy these things by violent revolution, and why did the revolution break out in France in the first place? Second, the period of Louis XVI was the most prosperous period of the dynasty. The revolution usually happened when the people were too poor to live, but the French Revolution broke out at the most prosperous time. What happened? Third, why do the French hate feudal privileges more than people in other countries, and why are the French so disgusted with feudal privileges? Fourthly, why did French literati become the main political figures of the country in the18th century? The same was true during the Enlightenment, when writers assumed political functions and had great political influence on society. The writer has neither political experience nor political training, but insists on interfering in politics, which leads to chaos in France, very radical, radical and romantic, and leads to the fantasy and serious damage of the French Revolution. Of course, there are other deeper problems, which we will not talk about for the time being.
Tocqueville's ability to ask these questions shows superb academic insight. Whether a scholar can ask good questions is often the key to a scholar's success. Tocqueville can ask these questions, which determines the immortality of Tocqueville's book. Because, as Meyer, the editor of this book, said, some books will be out of date soon, but some books are not out of date. They are immortal, such as Vico's The New Science, Montesquieu's On the Spirit of Law, and Tocqueville's The Old System and the Great Revolution. These books will always be young. Indeed, Tocqueville's questions transcended the times and surpassed the French. These things can happen in any country, because they reflect some common characteristics of human nature and some universal things in human social life, so they can have such a great response in today's China.
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I think Tocqueville's three questions are particularly relevant to our real life and help us to understand the real China.
The first question is put forward in the first chapter of the second book: Why didn't the revolution break out in the place where the medieval system was best preserved and the peasants suffered the most tyranny, but in the place where people felt the least about it?
Indeed, France abolished serfdom in the 13 and 14 centuries. However, due to the unbalanced development, the situation in Central and Eastern Europe shows a certain opposite development trend to that in Western Europe. After the abolition of serfdom in western Europe, the so-called "serfdom reprint" appeared in eastern Europe, and farmers lost their freedom and were oppressed more and more. France's neighboring countries in the east, such as Prussia, Austria, Poland, etc. By the end of 18, serfdom was still prevalent, and serfs had to work for slave owners for at least three days a week, in addition to paying other taxes. Their lives are miserable.
So Tocqueville asked why there was no revolution in the place where farmers were in such a miserable situation, but there was a revolution in France where farmers lived better. Tocqueville has some explanations for this problem, but I feel that his explanation is not in place. Of course, this can't depend entirely on him, because people at that time didn't study so deeply and some problems had not been touched. Tocqueville said that the old system was even more unbearable where tyranny was not too heavy. This seems to mean that people's inner or subjective feelings have a characteristic. When the oppression is heavy, people may feel uncomfortable because they are used to it. Once the oppression is light, people will have expectations and it is difficult to tolerate any oppression. There may be some truth in this statement, but it gives people the impression that it is somewhat empty and has weak explanatory power.