Witnesses And Historians Research Paper
Witnesses and Historians
Chu Wang
Professor Lipman
04/27/10
WITNESSES AND HISTORIANS
Witnesses and historians are the two distinctive groups of people in recording important historical moments. Witnesses observe history by living through it. Historians observe history by gathering and analyzing witnesses ' accounts. Yet the major difference between witnesses and historians is the knowledge of what happened afterwards. Historians know more about the aftermath, and this awareness changes their view of what went before. Witnesses, on contrary, have a comparative advantage here: at a given historical moment, they do not know about the future. Thus their account seems less meticulous or anticipated but more natural and realistic.
Acknowledging …show more content…
In another words, witnesses like Fu Gui and his fellows see things historians can not find in any document. Both books describe what happened in Civil War, when Chiang Kai-shek assigned "non-Manchurians to key posts…in Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning" (Spence 495). Many officials he assigned "abused their powers" (Spence 495) and forced random people from the streets into troops. Yet the historical description stopped here, providing only a general frame of Civil War. Yu 's novel actively adds detailed images, psychological activities, and missing emotions into the historical contexts. Fu Gui was caught and sent to the front fighting against the Liberation Army. Ironically, Fu Gui and most soldiers around him did not lift their guns and fight fiercely for the unification of China. Instead, they abandoned their weapons and "piled onto the bags of rice" whenever "a plane appeared overhead" (66). After seeing the wounded soldiers being abandoned and screaming in "a combination of crying and laughter", Fu Gui and his companies questioned angrily and bitterly, "how we were supposed to fight this battle" (72). Under such circumstances, Nationalist soldiers had neither the willingness nor the energy to fight. The tiredness and desperation of soldiers directly contributed to the defeat of the Nationalist Army. Fu Gui 's experience teaches the readers something not presented in textbooks: Reading pure historic contexts is 'safer ' because readers do not need to strive for objectivity when the emotions of characters and individual experiences sway them into one way or the other. Readers catch more than numbers, facts and results in witnesses ' accounts. In the study of history, the results themselves are important, but the physical and mental conditions that lead to these results are also
Chu Wang
Professor Lipman
04/27/10
WITNESSES AND HISTORIANS
Witnesses and historians are the two distinctive groups of people in recording important historical moments. Witnesses observe history by living through it. Historians observe history by gathering and analyzing witnesses ' accounts. Yet the major difference between witnesses and historians is the knowledge of what happened afterwards. Historians know more about the aftermath, and this awareness changes their view of what went before. Witnesses, on contrary, have a comparative advantage here: at a given historical moment, they do not know about the future. Thus their account seems less meticulous or anticipated but more natural and realistic.
Acknowledging …show more content…
In another words, witnesses like Fu Gui and his fellows see things historians can not find in any document. Both books describe what happened in Civil War, when Chiang Kai-shek assigned "non-Manchurians to key posts…in Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning" (Spence 495). Many officials he assigned "abused their powers" (Spence 495) and forced random people from the streets into troops. Yet the historical description stopped here, providing only a general frame of Civil War. Yu 's novel actively adds detailed images, psychological activities, and missing emotions into the historical contexts. Fu Gui was caught and sent to the front fighting against the Liberation Army. Ironically, Fu Gui and most soldiers around him did not lift their guns and fight fiercely for the unification of China. Instead, they abandoned their weapons and "piled onto the bags of rice" whenever "a plane appeared overhead" (66). After seeing the wounded soldiers being abandoned and screaming in "a combination of crying and laughter", Fu Gui and his companies questioned angrily and bitterly, "how we were supposed to fight this battle" (72). Under such circumstances, Nationalist soldiers had neither the willingness nor the energy to fight. The tiredness and desperation of soldiers directly contributed to the defeat of the Nationalist Army. Fu Gui 's experience teaches the readers something not presented in textbooks: Reading pure historic contexts is 'safer ' because readers do not need to strive for objectivity when the emotions of characters and individual experiences sway them into one way or the other. Readers catch more than numbers, facts and results in witnesses ' accounts. In the study of history, the results themselves are important, but the physical and mental conditions that lead to these results are also