什么是历史事实?

What Are Historical Facts?

历史事实是史学理论最核心的概念之一,但其含义却长期含混不清。为了澄清什么是历史事实,首先,本文指出,与自然科学意义上的事实相比,历史事实具有不可知觉性、时间性和可拆分性。接着,本文进一步分析了历史事实与非历史事实的区别,并表明后见之明与历史事实之间存在密切的联系。最后,本文认为,历史学在三个层次上超越于历史事实:历史事实中蕴含着某种解释;历史著作不完全以历史事实论高下;历史的真实感有赖于历史事实之外的因素。

Historical fact is one of the most central concepts of theories of historiography, but its meaning has been vague for a long time. In order to clarify what are historical facts,first of all, this paper points out that historical facts are unperceptive, temporal and separable when compared with the facts in the sense of natural sciences. Then, this paper further analyzes the differences between historical facts and non-historical facts,and indicates that there is a close relationship between hindsights and historical facts.Finally,this paper argues that historiography transcends historical facts at three levels:historical facts contain some kind of interpretation; historical writings can’t be judged entirely on the basis of historical facts; sense of reality in historiography depends on factors other than historical facts.