Hysterical Nihilism: Chinese History is Whatever Xi Says It Was.

Historical Nihilism, History Wars, every government wants a set of myths to unite the nation and protect their position.

Historical Nihilism:

Historical Nihilism is defined in point six of “Communiqué on the Current State of the Ideological Sphere” (document number nine, 2013) as trying to undermine the history of the CCP and of New China.

Historical Nihilism, History Wars, At some point every government wants to construct a set of myths to unite the nation and protect their position. Can a solid foundation for nation building be built on lies ?

If you want to resolve any conflict, the first step is to establish the truth of a matter.

Post Apartheid Truth and Reconciliation:

In South Africa they called it the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It was hard.

In one of the more striking events in that process, former police officers chose to confess, publicly, to the killing of Steve Biko, describing in detail what had transpired.

If you want reconciliation, you need to start with an agreed set of historical facts.

Australian Truth Telling and Treaty.

Many Australians feel that different versions of Australian history, particularly with respect to indigenous peoples displacement and dispossession, has been inaccurate, and different depending on where and when you went to school. No one should fear the demand by Australian indigenous groups for “Truth Telling”, if it is part of a genuine path to reconciliation.

The demand for “Truth Telling” may not be easy to accommodate, and may risk being hijacked by different interest groups, but if enough people are committed to genuine search for truth, then a foundation for discussion can be created, and society can move forward.

Not Everyone Can Handle The Truth:

THE HISTORICAL NIHIL-LIST:

Screenshot: “Did Mao An Ying die because he made himself a target by insisting on making egg fried rice ? - RUMOUR DEBUNKED !”

涉党史十大谣言曝光！这些谣言太可恶 (link to video)

Top ten rumors about party history have been exposed! These rumors are disgusting.

In April 2021, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) launched a hotline to report historical nihilism, in July 2021, they issued 10 examples, some appear to be important propaganda sore points, others plain strange. The point, perhaps, is to make people fear small and large infringements, and avoid any possible deviation from the official political line, in any conversation, on line and perhaps in person.

In other words, to make the world believe a politically standardised truth, that never gets questioned.

According to the China Digital Times (Aug 16, 2021) these rumours to be debunked are:

1. Did Hu Qiaomu author “‘Snow — to the tune of Spring in Qin Garden”?

2. Did the Party center unseal Deng Yingchao’s diary to research its own history?

3. Did the Five Heroes of Langya Mountain slip (instead of jump) off the cliff?

4. Was Mao Anying martyred because he gave his position away while making egg fried rice?

5. Is Lei Feng’s Diary fake?

6. Was the Long March less than 25,000 li?

7. Did the Battle of Luding Bridge actually happen?

8. During World War II, did the Communist Party avoid confronting the Japanese army directly?

9. Zhou Bapi and Huang Shiren were good landlords. Was Land Reform a mistake?

10. America never planned to invade China. Was the Korean War not fought in self-defense?

I first heard about (no. 5) Lei Feng in the early 1990’s - Chinese people told me about the story of the fictitious do-gooder, Lei Feng. Kind of like one of Santa’s elves but with camera’s following his every action.

Not confronting the Japanese during WWII ? To the extent that (no. 8) is true, it definitely could be effective anti-CCP history, undermining their credibility.

America never planned to invade China ? (no. 10) also seems important since huge efforts in the last few years have been made to return and honour the remains of war dead and create major movies (Battle of Lake Changjin) to whip up anti US feeling and confidence that the US can be beaten militarily.

Recall that MacArthur lost the Korean liberation gig after suggesting the US should bomb China and get Chiang Kai Shek to attack from Taiwan.

The CCP are not interested in creating a shared understanding (with the US) of the tragedy of the Korean War to lay the basis for reconciliation, for them, the value of history is to:

• Protect their leadership position in China

• Make Chinese inside and outside China feel morally superior to people from other countries

• Generate negative energy and promote western historical nihilism - ie promote their view of history inside western countries to put decision makers on the back foot and generate support for the CCP among the public and elites in the west.

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Archaeological Efforts

Nothing is safe from the lie machine, even newly discovered historical information. In order to strengthen cultural self confidence, Chinese archaeologists are on a mission to find more discoveries to prove the superiority of Chinese culture. In a November 2020 speech, reprinted in multiple official channels, Xi spells out the purpose of archaeology:

一 考古发现展示了中华文明起源和发展的历史脉络。

Archaeological discoveries show the historical context of the origin and development of Chinese civilization.

One of Xi’s examples is quite interesting:

我国是东方人类的故乡，同非洲并列人类起源最早之地；北京猿人在50万年前就发明人工用火术，为全球最早之一；

China is the hometown of oriental human beings, juxtaposed with Africa as the earliest origin of human beings. 500 000 years ago, Peking Man, was the first group in the world to be able to make fire.

Whoa ! The leader of 20 % of the worlds population is saying that the CCP official line is that

1. The world scientific community is wrong, all of modern humanity does not emerge from Africa - Chinese are not descended from black people.

2. We now (apparently!) know for fact that Peking man was the first to make and control fire.

So if Chinese archaeologists have to pretend to believe these sorts of lies, how can they have an intelligent conversation with archaeologists outside China ?

二 考古发现展示了中华文明的灿烂成就。

Archaeological discoveries show the brilliant achievements of Chinese civilization.

Most archaeological studies do show production of things that were durable, and therefore well made. Items that were well preserved generally were valuable, beautiful and protected, often in tombs, buried without air or water to corrode or destroy them. They look great in museums, or in your own home if you can get your hands on them.

Mundane items also show us show ordinary people lived. But if our purpose is national glorification, what would happen if you unearthed a treasure trove of valuable cultural information like a mountain of desiccated male genitals ? 2000 years of eunuch history and their influence in managing the country’s administration may not meet todays criteria for “brilliant achievement” but it is interesting.

I guess you can bury or destroy whatever gets in the way of your narrative.

• Destroy Uyghur relics in Xinjiang

• Ensure no one knows about Kaifeng Jews

Just never talk about eunuchs or foot-binding

三 考古发现展示了中华文明对世界文明的重大贡献。

Archaeological discoveries show the great contribution of Chinese civilization to world civilization.

Frankly I’ve always thought that one of China’s greatest inventions was toilet paper. So long as Egyptian papyrus is not defined as paper, then China invented paper. In fact, many western people who are interested in China became so because of it’s differences, and it’s early development and it’s cultural and technological achievements.

Often we were gullible.

Zheng He’s voyages, from China across Asia and to East Africa and the craft that he used, were simply amazing. No embellishment is required for his adventures to enthrall. Yet 1421 was a best seller. No matter how good the truth, western readers were suckers for a grossly embellished story.

While people in the west eagerly lap up stories of how advanced and amazing China was, both the truth and the embellishments, we don’t see it as a competition, or part of a global struggle for dominance.

At all levels of propaganda, in party documents through to articles in WeChat pitched at relatively uneducated people, across the spectrum the message to Chinese people is:

• There is a theory (ideology ?) 西方中心主义 (western centralism) that the west is best, which constitutes a conspiracy to lie about Chinas history, to put China down.

• 西方伪史论 Western Pseudohistory Theory - Westerners have faked Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Babylonian history to make the west appear the centre of world history.

• Some of the wests great inventions were stolen from China by Jesuits and other groups, leaving China without this technology.

Xi instructs:

….不断增强民族凝聚力、民族自豪感。

(use archaeology to) continuously enhance national cohesion and national pride.

要向全世界讲好中国历史故事

We should tell the world a good story of Chinese history.

营造良好国际舆论氛围

Create a good atmosphere of international public opinion

There are two possibilities regarding the CCP’s strategy here:

1. The purpose is to use history and archaeology as a way of uniting Chinese people against a common enemy, everyone else. This can take place in the form of arguments between archaeological and historical experts, and filter through to animosity between ordinary people.

   When history is anything other than detective work, when facts don’t matter, you can’t have a conversation.

2. CCP are so out of touch with how people outside China think, that they believe their own lies, really think the world is trying to use history to “smear” China and that by insisting on creating a one sided (and often boring) version of Chinese history, they can bully us into pretending that there is a “good atmosphere of international public opinion”.

   Victory in this situation relies on non Chinese nodding along in bored agreement with whatever Chinese people say about history, not wanting to engage in serious discussion.

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The Attack On The West:

西方伪史论 Western Pseudohistory Theory is the start of the assault on Western history, and it was not surprising when researching this, I came across articles linked to “Moon Landings are Fake”, a reprise of the Soviet era attempt to persuade Russians and then others that NASA never made it to the moon. It’s at that level of stupidity, but much more frequently articulated.

Nobody is active defending western history, primarily because few are aware it is under attack, and most historians in western countries take the view that despite the challenges, history is supposed to be true, not used as a political weapon.

When it comes to appraising Chinese history, some like Robert Bickers in his book “Out Of China” have identified that history always was a battlefield for the CCP and that it will continue to be more so going forward. His is a balanced history, based on truth, with an eye to the lies and distortions that have been generated along the way.

History War Berserkers

History is written by the victors

So far very few are fighting back. When this changes, it will likely get ugly. My expectation is that measured pursuit of historical truth by experts will be ignored and media and political actors will counter attack based on skimming history books to select what suits the narrative they are trying to create.

Here are a few related directly to China that have potential to inflame passions and create negative energy all round. If using history to divide the living is the CCP’s goal, then this will work. If they thought it was something they could “win” then they are underestimating how many weak points there are, and how they could be twisted if no one is genuinely trying to establish fact.

Historical Argument “Opportunities”:

Opium War - what is it’s true significance relative to other rebellions ?

• Taiping rebellion (20-30 million dead)

• Hakka Wars (1 million dead)

• Opium Wars (less than 10 000 dead ?)

Boxer Rebellion （八国联军侵华战争） - who’s fault ? Dowager Empress and Boxers perhaps ?

Burning of the Summer palace - An attempt to punish the Qing royalty but not hurt ordinary Chinese by burning down Beijing ?

Impact of Imperialism in general - modernisation, economic growth, development of middle class

“Foreign” Dynasties (Qing, Mongol, Turkic) vs Han dynasties - who was best ?

Who is Chinese ? are Manchurians (Qing) foreigners to blame for Chinese decline ? or is the Northeast of China (where they came from) part of China ?

Is closing the country to protect bureaucratic elites from outside ideas and the rise of a merchant class is a historical problem for Chinese culture ?

• Xi Jin Ping closing China

• Ming dynasty burning of Zheng He’s ships to prevent social and political change within China¹.

Then there are the biggies:

Hukou restrictions (户口制度） vs South African apartheid system ? Same ?

Yan An Rectification - Cambodian Killing Fields Rehearsal ?

Did Pol Pot Learn Everything From the CCP ?

Great Leap Forward - Never really talked about, what if we tell the truth (famine, ecological degradation, impoverishment) ?

Cultural Revolution - currently being rebranded as a campaign where young city people volunteered to help poor people in the countryside, and had a barrel of fun. Xi Jin Ping liked staying with the peasants so much, he stayed for eight years. OR was it chaos and suffering manufactured by Mao using his cult of personality to stay in power ?

Xi Zhong Xun - Xi’s Dad. Was he actually the genius behind the reform period and special economic zones like Shenzhen - or did Deng Xiao Ping (remember him ?!) have a little bit to do with it ?

Covid 19 Origin - Wuhan or Fort Detrick or Italy ?

Collapse of Soviet Union - could it be this was not due to a lack of faith in Marxism, but due to the possibility that Marxism is nonsense ?

Colour Revolutions - created and fanned by the USA… could it be they are actually led by the local people ?

This is not to say we should be mindlessly assuming that the Chinese version of history is wrong, and go out of our way to disprove the CCP view. The above list of “Historical Argument Opportunities” are exactly that - possible differing views of historical events, provocatively framed in ways that will generate violent disagreement.

If the CCP think that they can dictate one view of history to the rest of the world, then either they want to fan hostility, or are naive about the willingness of the rest of the world to retaliate creatively and often without recourse to fact or evidence.

I’ll stick to facts, but watch this space, history will get more interesting in the future.

1. Professor of History, University of California, Davis, 1969–76 Jung Pang Lo’s Britannica entry on Zheng He “forgets” to describe the cessation of Chinese naval exploration. To do so would be to commit an act of Historical Nihilism. It does admit he was a) a eunuch, b) a moslem. Expect that to be revised over time.