为史学开出光焕之新景——纪念通儒吴天墀先生

Setting a New and Colorful Stage for Historiography in China——In Commemoration of Wu Tianchi as a Historian

吴天墀先生是胸怀天下的士人,却又有明显的四川地方特色。他素负经世之志,在国难时曾投笔从政,服务乡邦。这些经历给他带来很多生活的坎坷,也使他的学问更为通透。吴先生以西夏史研究著称,然其治学一向目光四射,他最关注的,是在釐清中国中古时代宏观演变的基础上,再现宋代和四川的历史。其既存成就,也主要体现在这三方面。三者的共性在于,既重视广土众民的国家里各区域、各民族发展的不平衡及其独自特性,更强调基层社会构建和民间的文化、经济网络对维系国家的重要作用———正是历代文化、社会、政治、经济、军事等多空间的关联互动,凸显了超越单一民族国家的中国那多元丰富的内涵。

As a historian, Wu Tianchi is both a man of the world and a scholar of his native land of Sichuan. He dropped his pen in the period of national crisis to serve his country and people, which adds to the uneven course of his life and contributes to the depth of his scholarship. Although best known for his research on the history of Western Xia period, he is interested in a number of historical facets, particularly the social transformation of ancient China, the Song Dynasty andthe history of Sichuan; most of his extant researches are related to these three subjects. His historical studies are characterized not only by a focus on the unbalance and uniqueness of regional and/or ethnical development, but also by an emphasis on the important role of basic social construction, including the network of folk cultures and economic life, in maintaining and supporting the existence of a nation. It is the continuous and multi-spatial interaction at cultural, social, political, economic, and military levels between different regions and ethnics that has sustained and enriched Chinese society far beyond the expectations of a nation state.