继往世之绝学，开时代之生面一一 董士伟教授访校报道

Inheriting the Essence of the Past and Creating a New Era — A Report of Professor Dong's Visit

By G10 丁诗城Sage Ding

On February 17th, Professor Dong Shiwei from Tsinghua University delivered a lecture entitled “Understanding Local History: Guangdong’s Geographical, Historical, and Cultural Characteristics” to Tsinglanians. Professor Dong is an associate professor in the Department of History at Tsinghua University, and his main research area is modern and contemporary Chinese intellectual and cultural history. He has previously served as the Vice Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Tsinghua University, as well as the Deputy Director of the Department of History. He is currently the Executive Deputy Director of the Center for Buddhist Studies and Culture at Tsinghua University.

Professor Dong gave a detailed lecture to his fellow students on “Understanding Local History: Guangdong’s Geographical, Historical, and Cultural Characteristics”. He began the story from Zhao Tuo to Sun Yat-sen, and touched on the unification of China under Qin Shi Huang, as well as the Guangzhou Uprising. Professor Dong's speech was humorous and touching, inspiring the students to learn from each other and fully embody the spirit of teaching and learning. Despite the enthusiasm of the students, time flew by, and the lecture soon came to an end. However, Professor Dong's fascinating teaching style kept the students engaged, and he encouraged them to continue exploring the depths of history. 

At noon, several dozen students gathered with Professor Dong in the Tea Room for further discussion. At first, Jessica Chen and others talked about issues related to women's rights. Compared to the past, the unequal treatment of genders has been greatly improved, benefiting both women and men through mutual respect. In the discussion, I personally stressed the importance of "China's unification." I mentioned that China's civilization has gone through a long period of time and has never interrupted its written language. This is in contrast to other civilizations, where different languages are used. For example, Spanish and English have many similar words, but are not the same written language. However, in China, the concerns of “difficulties in communication due to written language” were resolved by Qin Shi Huang's creation of the lesser seal character. The Qin Shi Huang's unification of written language helped China maintain its unity for over a thousand years. After I finished speaking, Professor Dong agreed that written language was indeed an important task for achieving unification. 

Professor Dong's visit to Tsinglan provided a precious opportunity for the exchange of ideas and deepened the students' understanding of history. This unique opportunity allowed S-Scholars to participate in S-Plan and receive guidance from Professor Dong to deepen their understanding of history and philosophy, inheriting the essence of the past and creating a new era.