史景迁是美国著名汉学家，他的特长是以细腻的笔触描写中国历史上的动人片段。这种“讲故事”型的历史学家，与专事考证的史家走的是完全不同的道路。
《王氏之死》篇幅不大，再现的是清初山东剡城、淄川农村人民的贫苦生活。主角之一王氏不堪生活的重压，与人私奔，最后却惨死在情夫手下。其实，史景迁的汉学功夫不算深，史料运用不算广，文字技巧也不算突出，但我始终觉得，与其关心他怎么讲述一个故事，不如多留心他为何要讲述这么一个故事，是什么东西最初打动了他。拿《王氏之死》来说，也许是王氏那种在动乱年代里显得模糊混沌的生活状态才是真正值得玩味的。

一个“现代”国家既可融汇一体，又能兼容并蓄，既有明确的自我认同，也能以平等的地位竞逐新市场、新技术、新观念。本书以16世纪末作为叙述的起点，展现了中国的社会、政治、经济、思想文化等方面的变迁，怀着同情之心回顾中国走向现代过程中遭遇过的机遇与挫折，认清中国问题的缘由，以及中国人该凭恃何种知识、经济、情感来解决这些问题。

This collection of primary source documents--many translated into English for the first time and available only in this book--gather proclamations, treaties, laws, and other public acts with pieces reflecting everyday life, family, social networks, and culture. Informative head notes accompany the selections, helping readers with unfamiliar names, places, and events. With a chapter organization mirroring that of The Search for Modern China, this collection is the perfect supplement, providing a first-hand look at the modern Chinese society.

Whether read for its powerful account of the largest uprising in human history, or for its foreshadowing of the terrible convulsions suffered by twentieth-century China, or for the narrative power of a great historian at his best,
must be read. At the center of this history of China's Taiping rebellion (1845-64) stands Hong Xiuquan, a failed student of Confucian doctrine who ascends to heaven in a dream and meets his heavenly family: God, Mary, and his older brother, Jesus. He returns to earth charged to eradicate the "demon-devils," the alien Manchu rulers of China. His success carries him and his followers to the heavenly capital at Nanjing, where they rule a large part of south China for more than a decade. Their decline and fall, wrought by internal division and the unrelenting military pressures of the Manchus and the Western powers, carry them to a hell on earth. Twenty million Chinese are left dead.

"To change China" was the goal of foreign missionaries, soldiers, doctors, teachers, engineers, and revolutionaries for more than three hundred years. But the Chinese, while eagerly accepting Western technical advice, clung steadfastly to their own religious and cultural traditions. As a new era of relations between China and the United States begins, the tales in this volume will serve as cautionary histories for businessmen, diplomats, students, or any other foreigners who foolishly believe that they can transform this vast, enigmatic country.

The Gate of Heavenly Peace guards the southern approach to the former imperial palace in the city that used to be called Peking. Until China's last dynasty fell in 1912, it was believed that through this gate ran the main axis of the Emperor's power. In the revolutionary decades that followed, it was a meeting place for political activists, students and workers, and after the Cultural Revolution, a place for the new leader, Chairman Mao, to review his Red Guards. In the late 1970s it became again a place of protest. The Gate of Heavenly Peace is thus at once a symbol of the aspirations of the Chinese people and an emblem of the state and its autocratic traditions.
This astonishing tour-de-force of historical narrative looks at the Chinese and their long revolution through the eyes of the men and women who were most caught up in its development. But, uniquely, Jonathan Spence places the familiar careers of the political leaders like Mao and Chiang Kaishek at the edge of his story. Instead he explores his theme through the lives and writings of those who were most sensitive to the processes of violent revolution, the great writers, insurrectionists, historians and poets of twentieth-century China.
Professor Spence's approach achieves the most unusual revelation. For the first time, the famous and extraordinary events of the last one hundred years --- the collapse of the nineteenth century empire, the first Chinese republic, the rise of the Guomindang, the Long March, the Communist triumph of 1949, and the Cultural Revolution --- are placed in the true context of Chinese life and literature. The unsung heroes and heroines of twentieth-century China are given their proper place in the story, and the great issues of modern Chinese history --- how should China modernise? what is the role of violence in a revolution against an authoritarian state? what are the first priorities for social justice? --- suddenly come alive with a richness and vitality that is lasting and unforgettable.
The Gate of Heavenly Peace makes it possible for us to understand a people whose society is only now just beginning to surrender some of its most fascinating secrets.
"A brilliant achievement" --- Professor John K. Fairbank
"An extraordinary book" --- San Francisco Herald
"A masterpiece of style and narration" --- Harold Bloom
"An unforgettable book of historical recreation" --- Theodore H. White, The New Republic
"Powerful and tremendously moving" --- American Historical Review
"A rare poetic intensity ... a genre of its own" --- Marina Warner, New Statesman
"Elegant, deceptively simple ... his combination of scholarship and artistry has produced a historical treasure" --- Philadelphia Inquirer

"A magnificent tapestry . . . a story that reaches beyond China into our world and time: a story of faith, hope, passion, and a fatal grandiosity."--Washington Post Book World Whether read for its powerful account of the largest uprising in human history, or for its foreshadowing of the terrible convulsions suffered by twentieth-century China, or for the narrative power of a great historian at his best, God's Chinese Son must be read. At the center of this history of China's Taiping rebellion (1845-64) stands Hong Xiuquan, a failed student of Confucian doctrine who ascends to heaven in a dream and meets his heavenly family: God, Mary, and his older brother, Jesus. He returns to earth charged to eradicate the "demon-devils," the alien Manchu rulers of China. His success carries him and his followers to the heavenly capital at Nanjing, where they rule a large part of south China for more than a decade. Their decline and fall, wrought by internal division and the unrelenting military pressures of the Manchus and the Western powers, carry them to a hell on earth. Twenty million Chinese are left dead.

史景遷作品在台灣出版的最後一塊拼圖
一字未刪繁體中文版
薈萃史景遷學術關懷與研究精華的經典之作

　　史景遷在廣受讚譽的學術生涯中，已確立其傑出中國歷史詮釋者的崇高地位，他的著作展示了非凡的學識、活力、優雅和想像力，吸引了無數讀者，讓一般大眾也能接觸到原本只有專家才能了解的主題。《中國縱橫》精選了25篇史景遷重要的短篇作品，是史景遷唯一一本短篇文選。

　　與最會說故事的漢學家一起放眼寰宇、縱橫華夏

　　《中國縱橫》全書分成五大部分：1.黃嘉略、利瑪竇、馬爾羅的《誘惑》等跨越東西文化藩籬的人物與思想；2.儒學發展以及中國政府公權力的運作機制；3.食物、稅制、藥品、鴉片等中國社會百態的研究；4.脫離帝制後的近代革命中國；5.追憶業師暨漢學巨擘的紀念文字。這25篇文章包含了與史景遷的長篇巨作相互呼應的主題，讓讀者得以一窺其治學脈絡，並在充滿情感與知性的筆致中，共赴一趟中國歷史與文化的探索之旅。

名家推薦

　　伍佰（音樂人）
　　何致和（作家）
　　吳家恆（數位傳聲製作總監）
　　吳展良（國立臺灣大學歷史學系教授）
　　宋怡慧（新北市立丹鳳高中圖書館主任，作家）
　　李孝悌（國立中央大學歷史研究所講座教授）
　　沈旭暉（國立中山大學政治學研究所副教授）
　　金老ㄕ（「故事：寫給所有人的歷史」專欄作家）
　　神奇海獅（歷史作家）
　　馬雅人（FB馬雅國駐臺辦事處）
　　康豹（中央研究院近代史研究所特聘研究員）
　　陳一隆（臺中一中歷史科教師兼任祕書）
　　陳國棟（中央研究院歷史語言研究所研究員）
　　陳茻（與點堂創辦人）
　　陳榮彬（國立臺灣大學文學院翻譯碩士學位學程副教授）
　　陳德政（作家）
　　溫洽溢（世新大學社會發展研究所副教授兼所長）
　　廖彥博（歷史作家，譯者）
　　蔡依橙（陪你看國際新聞創辦人）
　　蔡偉傑（國立中正大學歷史學系助理教授）
　　蔣竹山（國立中央大學歷史研究所副教授兼文學院學士班主任）
　　鄭俊德（閱讀人社群主編）
　　鄭培凱（香港非物質文化遺產諮詢委員會主席，集古學社社長）
　　謝金魚（歷史作家）
　　謝哲青（作家╱節目主持人）
　　藍崇文（特聘教授）
　　——各界名家 齊聲推薦（依姓名筆畫排序）

國際推薦

　　令人驚訝、有趣且富有啟發性。——《芝加哥論壇報》（Chicago Tribune）

　　史景遷以一種在學術寫作中獨特的風格和優雅，傳達了廣博的知識。——《科克斯書評》（Kirkus Reviews）

　　史景遷富有智慧的冒險性文章幫助我們理解中國過去的動態，以及其未來潛在的希望。——《出版人週刊》（Publishers Weekly）


 

Bibliography: p. 319-337.
"Elisabeth Sifton books."
Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-262) and index.

中研院院士、美國匹茲堡大學教授許倬雲曾這麼形容耶魯大學歷史系專治中國史的史景遷（Jonathan Spence）：給他一本電話簿，他可以從第一頁的人名開始編故事，編到最後一個人名。史景遷當然不曾寫過這麼一本「電話簿當代史」，但是從許倬雲教授的比喻中，不難了解史景遷說故事的功力是如何高超。

而這種說故事的能力，乃是成為優秀史學家的必要條件之一，也往往是一種天分，而史景遷就有這種本事，能埋首在故紙堆裡細心排比資料，但也能跳脫到宏觀的角度，從世界的大格局來觀照中國歷史，兼顧考證、敘述、分析、綜合與理論各個層面。這本《追尋現代中國》就是最好的例證。

史景遷有非常清晰而強烈的問題意識，這從原書名 The Search for modern China就可看出。史景遷的問題是：如果有「現代中國」這回事的話，那麼這個名詞可以回溯多遠而仍能成立？在這個基本層次上，史景遷所思考的問題可說和已故史學家黃仁宇相當接近，因為黃仁宇的主要關注點正在於把中國和歐洲歷史相對照，思索為何歐洲式的資本主義沒有發生在中國。而所謂資本主義在某種程度上，和現代性（modernity）可說是相通的。而史景遷和黃仁宇兩人也都很注重看似細微不起眼的技術細節對歷史發展的影響，所以在千端萬縷的細節中，揀選、過濾有意義的事件，並將之匯集，與歷史的大走向掛鉤，那是真的要有小說家的筆法與功力才能畢其功，更何況這本書的英文版還是由Norton 所出版，是作為大學教科書之用。一本大學教科書能寫到兼顧學術性與可讀性，在英語世界裡，史景遷恐怕是當代第一人了。