再祭明亡甲申年——重温毛泽东的“我们决不当李自成”

Re-commemorating the Demise of the Ming Dynasty at the Year of Jiashen——Review of Mao Zedong's Words: "We will never be Li Zicheng"

明末甲申年,作为失败者的崇祯和作为胜利者的李自成的命运都是悲剧性的,二者零和式的内耗成就了满人入主中原的勃勃雄心。由于第二次国共合作及全面抗战的达成,1945年,中国抗战取得了胜利。这两段具有惊人相似之处的历史,却有着迥异的结局。在满汉民族矛盾上升为主要矛盾的时候,明末农民军没有和崇祯达成民族统一战线,这是导致李自成和崇祯悲剧的关键原因。重温并比较这两段历史,其中关于民族统一战线、地缘政治和"关外问题"的经验和教训,将给未来中国以指导和启示。

At the year of Jiashen when Ming Dynasty came to its end, the defeated emperor Chongzhen and the winning rebel Li Zicheng both had a tragic destiny. Their fights were like a zero-sum game, which enabled the Manchu to realize its ambition of taking over the Central Plains. Because the Kuomintang government and the Communist Party of China agreed to cooperate again in fully resisting the Japanese invaders, China finally won a victory in this war in 1945. However, these two periods of history have different outcomes in spite of their astonishing similarities. When the Han-Manchu ethnic conflict had became the main social conflict in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, the peasants' army failed to form a national united front with emperor Chongzhen. This is the key reason for Li Zicheng's and Chongzhen's tragedies. Reviewing and comparing the experience and lessons of these two historical periods, especially those concerning the national united front, geopolitics and the issues about areas outside the Shanhaiguan Pass, can give guidance and insights to China's future development.