Tang Dynasty Crossing Guide: Chang'an and People's Life Manual

Chapter 38 Postscript: The Internet is a Good Thing (1)
The Internet is a great thing for amateurs in any field, not just history.

The first major benefit of the Internet is that it is relatively convenient to obtain professional resources.

Back then, not so long ago, when I was a poor student, in order to find out "what people in the Tang Dynasty called their father", I ran all over the school and provincial and municipal libraries, but I couldn't find much useful information.Let's go to the bookstore, first of all, you still can't find monographs on "terms", so buy "Zi Zhi Tong Jian", "Old Book of Tang" and "New Book of Tang" at home and read them slowly? — Am I rich?Can I move it?
Now, I sit in front of the computer and type a few words on the Internet search engine. Within a few seconds, I find that even for a huge professional academic resource like "25 History", there are more than one academic institution on the Internet. It is free and open to the general public, and supports keyword online search queries.There is also a plethora of less rigorous online articles disseminating all sorts of relevant information, true or false.

Needless to say, the proliferation of amateur "popular history" works is directly related to the popularization of materials.But what I want to say is that if the use of Internet resources is limited to ancient books such as "25 History" and online articles without formal sources, it is still relatively shallow.

I entered "Tang Dynasty appellation" into the search engine, and found that the electronic journal database included research papers in this area. If I search carefully, I may even find published academic monographs.With the title and author's name, I can go to the online bookstore to buy it. If it is out of stock, I can also ask my friends who work in universities and academic institutions to download it from the electronic library and network database and share it with me.

Before the Internet age, it was impossible for amateurs like me outside the professional circle to know the existence of those academic works with deep expertise, little fame, narrow audience, and limited circulation, let alone learn from them.With the further expansion and tolerance of network resources, many times I can even go directly to the websites, blogs and Weibo of professionals to ask them "face-to-face", which was even more unimaginable before.

The second biggest advantage of the Internet is that people with the same interests can easily gather together across geographical restrictions, communicate with each other, discuss incentives, and keep the interest lasting and deep.

The circle that people can come into contact with in real life is limited. If the hobbies are very remote, like mine, you may not be able to find a single person in a hundred people around you.Always thinking about it alone, without a source of living water, no matter how deep the love is, it will gradually dry up.

However, if you can't find a like-minded person in a hundred people, what about in [-] million people?[-] million netizens who know how to use targeted search engines can easily find the works they are interested in and gather together through websites, forums, and various communication software to keep in constant contact for a long time—such a huge base of people, no matter how remote your hobbies are. Side door, it can't be a lonely person who is silently cute, right?

Studying and writing are quite boring and lonely activities, and I must be able to persevere thanks to the support and encouragement of these online friends over the years.

Most of my Tang history materials were collected and accumulated with the help of Miss Xiaofei, and her divine light also illuminated various trivial matters in the publishing process of this book; as college scholars, Shuizhi and his wife taught me Historical views and learning methods, and all the knowledge about Tang Dynasty language in this book comes directly from Shui Zhi, a master of linguistics.

Ruowei, Song Mao, Lianzhicao, Hanhai Yinsha, Ah Yao, Sisi, Yandie, Dijiang, Leopard Cat, Lao Ke, Rabbit, Ant, Raincoat, Orange, Aman, Sleeve, Xiao Muzhi, You Beijun... Although many of these strange online IDs have not met, the days and nights of talking over the years and the fierceness of beating me with a small whip every day to "fill in the hole" have made us close and intimate friends.

The book "Tang Dynasty Crossing Guide" was published on websites such as Xixihe, Fengyi, Tianya, and Aizhisheng when it was first written.Zha Jun, the editor of Motie Books, also approached me through the Internet to discuss cooperation matters.When I wanted to add some photos of cultural relics as illustrations for this book, Song Mao, Lian Zhicao, San Sanjun, Peng Er, Xibo volunteer Zhang Hexin and many other friends were willing to provide me with their photographic works for free , how warm and grateful it all is!

Mr. Zhang Guogang, the former president of the Chinese Society of Tang History and a professor of the History Department of Tsinghua University, met me many years ago, and has maintained correspondence since then, giving me valuable guidance in studying Tang history.Fellow Yan Wang WF is not only a popular painter, but also a lover of ancient customs and history. I thank him for his generous writing for the cover of this book. The painting style and writing style can be said to complement each other.

There is still a wealth of material to be excavated about all aspects of social life in the Tang Dynasty.If conditions permit, I hope to continue writing this series of books, to provide more and more interesting knowledge for readers who are willing to learn about the life of ancient people, and to provide more useful reference materials for young writers who are interested in writing on ancient themes.

forest deer

2012.7
(End of this chapter)