[书] 邓小平时代[Book] Deng Xiao ping and the Transformation of China

Deng Xiao ping and the Transformation of China

It took me over half a month to finish this book, and I kept putting off writing about it, not knowing what to say, not knowing what I could say.

Next, I plan to structure this summary of an extraordinary reading experience around my reading approach, my mindset, and a few of my own views.

My Reading Approach

The weight of the book is comparable to the weight of history. One can imagine that this hefty tome requires not only calm, focused reading, but also pen-in-hand annotation and organizing of thoughts.

I first skimmed the chapter titles to get a general sense of the timeline. That being so, I also recorded each chapter's content by time period, writing it all on a sheet of A4 paper.

For the latter half of the book (Chapter 13), I suggest reading it through the lens of "key figures of the Deng Xiaoping Era"—the motivations and positions of many figures are placed in this section.

With that, I prepared a pen and some coffee, and began reading.

The Use of Underlining

Among reading methods, the one that has benefited me most is underlining.

Citing the view of a Bilibili creator (城主的地界), underlining is for emphasis and re-reading—some sentences, once underlined, are equivalent to reading them again.

At the same time, for me, underlining is a way to keep my attention focused on the book, and it also serves to record reading progress.

Building a Symbol System

A symbol system, simply put, is a system that uses your own symbols to "smoothly" annotate the various parts of a text.

For example, I use wavy lines to emphasize highlight sentences or key insights in the text.

I use circles to mark characters appearing for the first time or unfamiliar figures.

I use multiple lines to mark extremely important sentences.

I believe the benefits of a symbol system are twofold: retrieval and interaction.

Retrieval goes without saying—when something is related to earlier content, underlines and symbols make it easy to find the sentences you're looking for. This method was especially useful when reading One Hundred Years of Solitude.

The key point is "interaction."

My philosophy is that knowledge requires interaction. Regardless of what kind of knowledge it is, knowledge doesn't just enter your brain unilaterally—rather, you create links and interactions with it, and then absorb the useful parts.

And in the process of interaction, you can experience the joy of reading. Just like playing a game, the book will give you feedback—it just requires you to patiently seek it out.

My So-Called Mindset

It simply means: do not judge without knowing the full picture.

True history exists, but understanding the real and complete history is impossible. What we can do is synthesize different perspectives and, in this process of blind men touching an elephant, build an understanding of a fragment of an era.

In other words, since I know that the history I understand is not comprehensive enough, I must observe that history from a comprehensive and objective angle all the more.

This mindset was especially profound when I read the chapter "Challenges of the Deng Xiaoping Era."

Before that, I only had extremely one-sided views on the history of the late 1980s. The vast majority of these accounts had incredibly clear-cut positions—they only needed to place each major figure in a position of right or wrong, and the situation immediately became clear, with no further doubts.

I have no intention of criticizing whether this is reasonable, but I don't wish to judge merits and faults solely by outcomes, because the motives, contradictions, background, impact, and later interpretations of an event are all indispensable components of that history.

Only by looking at problems from different perspectives can one understand what different perspectives think and feel.

If we judge right and wrong by the surface-level results of an event, all complex history is reduced to true-or-false questions—we only need to judge which events based on current needs.

Therefore I reiterate, or appeal to you, the reader who may not exist: you must have your own views. Even if you don't, don't blindly apply others' opinions.

A Few Personal Views

Some thoughts that arose during the reading process:

• History is complex; there has never been right or wrong.

• Some of the problems and contradictions at the current stage were already foreshadowed in that era.

I will not discuss controversial topics here. The merits and faults of predecessors can only be left for the times to evaluate. Perhaps one day everything will be different, and only then will we recognize the meaning of so-called wounds.

We still have a long way to go.