Hopeless Cycle

With the explorative attitude of scientific principle, this paper carried out a research in thehistory view of the modern historical narratology and gave an evaluation multidimentionallly,i.e. from the perspective of literature, historiography, philosophy, politics, culture, sociology,psychology, narratology and aesthetics. It consists of four parts, which discuss the fourdimensions: conception of time, conception of space, power theory and rule theory.The first chapter " advancement view and historical circulation" mainly discusses theconception of time. The past time is the nature of history. Thus, the research on conception oftime is an ontological study of history view. It reflects different history views that how thehistorical narratology treats and deals with time. According to the different understanding oftime, conception of time can be divided into two types, which are advancement and circulation.The historical narration of peasant uprising emphasizes particularly on the former, while theone of kings and ministers stresses the latter. This chapter includes two sections. The firstsection " conception of time and its narrative attribute" discusses the conception of time ofadvancement and its presence in the historical narration of peasant uprising. And this section issubdivided into two parts, in which the first part talks about the interrelationship within thehistorical narration of peasant uprising basing on the conception of time of advancement, andthe second one sums up the narrative attributes in the historical narration of peasant uprisingfrom the aspects of beginning, ending and relationship between characters. The second section" conception of time of circulation " discusses conception of time of circulation and itspresence in the historical narration of kings and ministers. This section is also be subdividedinto two parts, in which the first part talks about the interrelationship within the historicalnarration of kings and ministers basing on the conception of time of circulation, while thesecond part sums up the narrative attributes in the historical narration of kings and ministersfrom the aspects of thinking patterns, aesthetic styles and historical narratology.The second chapter " China of culture and country of nations " mainly discusses theconception of space. As the important latitude of world history, time and space are closelyrelated to each other, relying on each other and cannot go without either of them, being aninseparable unity in the same reference frame. In this chapter, two different conceptions ofspace, " China of culture " and " country of nations ", which are corresponding to theconception of time of advancement and circulation, will be discussed. This chapter includesthree sections. The first section " country of nations " and power horizon, talks about thehistorical conception of " country of nations " and the presence of its power horizon in thepeasant uprising. The second section " China of culture " and culture determinism, discussesthe historical conception of " China of culture " and the presence of its cultural consciousnessin historical narration of kings and ministers. The third section "multiculturalism ofConfucianism and Taoism ", which is the extending of the second section, briefly discussesseveral main types of Chinese traditional cultures and their presence in historical narration ofkings and ministers, and also mentions the enlistment of power as one type rooting fromLegalism.The third chapter " interclass contend and humanistic consciousness ", is mainly abouthistorical power theory. The historical conception of interclass contends emphasizes theinterclass contend and believes it is the power, which promote the advancement of history,while the traditional historical conception holds that the history has no advancement but acirculation of "reforming " and "confusions ". However, the traditional conception stressespeople's consciousness of responsibility in this circulation and in this way, the action ofexploiting the humanity from Confucianism promoted the developing of history unconsciously.The historical narration of peasant uprising insists on the historical conception of interclasscontend, while the historical narration of kings and ministers appears the tendency ofhumanism. Reviewing the hundred-year history of this debate, this paper brings up the opinionthat with the variance of historical narration from peasant uprising to kings and ministers, theliteral presence also experienced a process from hierarchy to humanism, and sums up thepresence of humanistic consciousness in the historical narration of kings and ministers from thedimensions of truthful, sympathetic and beautiful.The fourth chapter "historical consciousness and nature of history ", is mainly abouthistorical rule theory. The classical historical conception still holds the belief that there arechangeless universal rules. Due to historical novelists' high recognition of the historical rules,the topic of peasant uprising becomes quite popular, the kings and ministers are uglified, andthe leaders of the peasant uprising are idealized. And what is closely related to that, is thedeeply infatuation of the historical inevitability and the nature of history in the historicalnarration of peasant uprising. Because of the writers' over-emphasis on the reality of nature,fantasy space is squeezed and confined by them. Therefore, between the truth in history and art,the historical narration of peasant uprising stresses more the former. However, the historicalnarration of kings and ministers appeared at the end of 1980s seems to be doubtful to thehistorical rules to some extent. Different from the emphasis on the nature of history,inevitability and truth in history in historical narration of peasant uprising, the historicalnarration of kings and ministers puts more emphasis on the historical consciousness, historicalcontingency and truth in art.