Three New Manifestations of Historical Nihilism

As the era and environment change, the trend of historical nihilism takes on diverse forms, exhibiting characteristics of constant flux. Its essence determines that it will not automatically withdraw from the historical stage in a short time; rather, its mode of expression shifts from overt and direct to circuitous and covert, and its agenda-setting becomes more "academicized." Attention must be paid to the new trends and new manifestations of historical nihilism under the new era and environment.

历史虚无主义思潮随着时代环境变迁，形式变化多样，表现出变动不居的特点，其本质决定其不会在短时间内自动退出历史舞台，而是在表现方式上由显性直白向迂回隐性转变、议题设置上更加“学术化”，必须注意新的时代环境下历史虚无主义的新动向、新样态。

It is disseminated via the internet, presenting itself in a networked manifestation. In 1994, China's internet was formally connected to the international internet. Over the past 30-plus years, China's internet has grown from nothing, from a "follower" in information technology to a "leader," striding forward toward becoming a cyber power. The 54th "Statistical Report on China's Internet Development" shows that the scale of China's netizens has approached 1.1 billion. However, the rapid development of the internet has also allowed historical nihilism to "discover" new areas for infiltration and conditions for dissemination. Since the 1990s, the trend of historical nihilism has been combined with the internet, spreading erroneous historical views and erroneous historical facts by setting up harmful public opinion agendas and changing forms of public opinion dissemination. After 2010, as the internet increasingly became an important field for social information dissemination, the infiltration areas of historical nihilism also shifted accordingly, spreading erroneous historical information in social software, live-streaming platforms, and game apps, inducing people unaware of the truth to fall into historical fallacies.

借助互联网输出，以网络化样态示人。1994年我国互联网与国际互联网正式接轨，30多年来我国互联网从无到有，从信息技术的“追随者”到“引领者”，向着网络强国阔步迈进。第54次《中国互联网络发展状况统计报告》显示，我国网民规模已近11亿人。然而，互联网的快速发展也让历史虚无主义“发现”了新的渗透领域和散播条件。自20世纪90年代起历史虚无主义思潮便与互联网结合，通过设置不良舆论议题、变换舆论传播形式散播错误史观、错误史实。2010年以后，随着互联网愈发成为社会信息传播的重要场域，历史虚无主义渗透领域也随之发生转移，在社交软件、直播平台、游戏类APP中散播错误历史信息，诱导不明真相的群众陷入历史谬论中。

In recent years, phenomena such as online orchestration denying Marxist historical materialism, denying China's progressive revolutionary history since modern times, and smearing heroic figures have notably decreased. But this does not mean that historical nihilism has withdrawn; rather, it has hidden within the spaces and channels created by the internet, carrying out infiltration through new networked manifestations such as covert expression, fragmented narration, and daily-life penetration, with its tendency toward concealment strengthening. For example, a certain Weibo blogger set their account name as 73I, using the English letter I to replace the numeral 1, attempting to use "de-ideologization" to induce people to forget the inhumane atrocities committed by the Japanese invaders against the Chinese people. The networking of historical nihilism is an important characteristic of historical nihilism, with its manifestations constantly changing, requiring real-time attention.

近年来网络上带节奏否定马克思主义唯物史观、否定中国近代以来进步革命历史、抹黑英雄人物等现象明显减少，但这并不意味着历史虚无主义已经退场，而是隐匿于互联网营造的空间、渠道中，以隐蔽性表现、碎片化叙事和日常化渗透等网络化新样态展开渗透，历史虚无主义隐匿化趋向增强。例如，某微博博主将账号名设置为73I，用英文字母I取代1，企图用“去意识形态化”诱导人们忘却侵华日军对中国人民惨无人道的残害行径。历史虚无主义网络化是历史虚无主义的重要特征，样态不时翻新，亟须实时关注。

It utilizes artificial intelligence technology, penetrating through an intelligent manifestation. In recent years, the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology has triggered subversive changes in the field of communication, marking the full arrival of the era of intelligent communication. With the emergence and development of AI technology, under the interaction of era environment and social conditions, historical nihilism has coupled with AI technology, changing its appearance and growing stealthily, presenting a new intelligent manifestation.

利用人工智能技术，以智能化样态渗透。近年来人工智能技术的飞速发展，引发了传播领域的颠覆性变化，标志着智能传播时代的全面到来。随着人工智能技术的出现与发展，在时代环境、社会条件相互作用下，历史虚无主义与人工智能技术耦合，改头换面、潜滋暗长，呈现出智能化新样态。

In information production, historical nihilists use AI-generated content technology, training models constructed with historical nihilist information to mass-produce historical nihilist content mixed with erroneous historical views and erroneous historical facts. In information release, they use deepfake and virtualization technologies to create "bot armies," using fake accounts to participate in a targeted and organized manner in commenting, reposting, and liking erroneous content containing historical nihilism. In information dissemination, they leverage recommendation algorithms to "profile" network users, intelligently distributing information implicitly containing historical nihilism based on user behavior habits and interests, long-term inducing audiences to "reinterpret" history. The application of AI technology by historical nihilism is not limited to the several technologies listed above; some technologies are also used in combination. For example, combining AI-generated content technology with deepfake technology to mass-produce erroneous information that alters historical texts and forges historical images.

在信息生产上，历史虚无主义者利用智能生成内容技术，以历史虚无主义信息建构模型训练，批量化生产夹杂着错误史观、错误史实的历史虚无主义内容。在信息发布上，利用深度伪造和虚拟化技术，打造“机器人水军”，用虚假账号有组织、有目的地参与评论、转发和点赞含有历史虚无主义的错误内容。在信息散播上，借助推荐算法，对网络用户“画像”，根据用户行为习惯、兴趣爱好，智能分发暗含历史虚无主义的信息，长期诱导受众“重新解读”历史。历史虚无主义对人工智能技术的运用，不限于以上所列举的几种技术，有些技术还存在交叉性运用。例如，将智能生成内容技术与深度伪造技术相结合，批量化生产篡改历史文本、伪造历史影像的错误信息。

By leveraging AI technology, historical nihilism has gained unprecedented space for growth in information production, release, and dissemination, further intensifying its concealment and deceptiveness, harboring risks of diffusion and spread. With the development and breakthroughs of technologies such as natural language processing, computer vision, and deep learning, AI technology will advance further, simultaneously creating new conditions and spaces for the spread of historical nihilism. This trend requires high vigilance.

借助人工智能技术，历史虚无主义在信息生产、发布与传播上获得了前所未有的滋长空间，隐匿性、欺骗性进一步加剧，潜藏着扩散、蔓延的风险。随着自然语言处理、计算机视觉、深度学习等技术的发展与突破，人工智能技术将会进一步向前发展，同时也会给历史虚无主义制造新的蔓延条件和空间，这种趋势需要高度警惕。

It is disseminated under the guise of academic research, in an "academicized" manifestation. Using the name of academic research and academic reflection to subvert historical views and distort historical facts is a common tactic of historical nihilists. Some historical works, as well as the trend prevalent in recent years of using memoirs, oral materials, and personal biographies as historical sources to overturn evaluations of historical figures, all reveal this path of academic spread. Historical nihilism that spreads through "academicization" uses idealist historiography to construct a seemingly profound theoretical veneer, then employs biased historical materials with erroneous political stances and methodological anomie to provide evidence, easily leaving an impression of "meticulous analysis" and "extensive citation and corroboration." Without careful analysis, it is hard to see how much ideological content it contains. For historical professionals, the so-called theoretical viewpoints and so-called historical materials proposed by historical nihilism cannot withstand even the slightest academic scrutiny or verification, but for non-history professional audiences, they possess strong deceptiveness.

假借学术研究之名，以“学术化”样态散播。以学术研究、学术反思为名，颠覆史观、歪曲史实，是历史虚无主义者惯用的手法。一些史学著作以及前几年盛行的以回忆录、口述资料、个人传记为史料颠覆对历史人物的评价，均可见其学术蔓延路径。借助“学术化”蔓延的历史虚无主义，运用唯心史观架设起看似高深的学理外衣，再利用带有错误政治立场和方法论失范的偏颇史料展开佐证，容易给人留下“条分缕析”“旁引曲证”的印象，若不细加分析，看不出含有多少意识形态的成分。对于历史专业人士来讲，历史虚无主义提出的所谓理论观点和运用的所谓史料，经不起学理上的半点推敲和考证，但对于非历史专业的受众而言却具有较强的迷惑性。

Because historical nihilism presents itself in an "academicized" manifestation, it easily confuses the public and evades supervision, thus becoming one of its main infiltration methods. The latest manifestation of the current "academicized" historical nihilism is prominently reflected in the spread and dissemination of erroneous views of the "New Qing History." [1]1 "New Qing History" (新清史) refers to a historiographical trend, primarily associated with some American scholars since the 1990s, that emphasizes the Qing Dynasty's Inner Asian and imperial characteristics, often challenging the narrative of seamless Chinese dynastic continuity and the Sinicization of its rulers. The "New Qing History" denies the integration and unification of ethnic groups such as the Manchus and Mongols with the Han during the Qing Dynasty period, severs the connection between the Qing Dynasty and the Han dynasties in Chinese history, refers to the area south of the Great Wall as "China proper," falsely claims that the Qing Dynasty is not equivalent to China, and conflates the Qing Dynasty's governance of border areas with Western colonial behavior. These views are clearly completely inconsistent with Qing Dynasty history and represent a nihilization of Qing history. In recent years, the fallacies of the "New Qing History" have developed further, spreading from land to the sea, putting forward the erroneous view that the Qing Dynasty's governance and defense of maritime territories were also aggression and expansion, and that the Qing Dynasty was a "dual empire" that was "superior in both land and sea." This is completely at odds with the real history of the Qing Dynasty's coastal defense forces and suppression of commercial development. Furthermore, some exhibitions on Chinese Qing Dynasty history held abroad, and some books published, are also deeply influenced by the fallacies of the "New Qing History," implicitly containing erroneous interpretations of Qing history, seriously distorting the prominent characteristics of the pluralistic and integrated pattern of the Chinese nation and the unity of Chinese civilization, and covering up or whitewashing the history of imperialist aggression against China. These erroneous historical views of the "New Qing History" and their dissemination fuel the spread of the "academicized" historical nihilism. Scholars in the process of historical research must clearly and resolutely struggle against them, restoring a true and objective historical original appearance to readers based on historical materialism.

由于历史虚无主义以“学术化”样态示人，容易混淆视听、逃避监管，从而成为历史虚无主义主要的渗透方式之一。当前历史虚无主义“学术化”最新样态突出表现为“新清史”错误观点的蔓延、传播。“新清史”否定清朝历史时期满、蒙等少数民族与汉族的融合统一，割裂清朝与中国历史上汉王朝的联系，把长城以南地区称为“中国本土”，妄称清朝不等于中国，把清朝对边疆地区的治理与西方殖民行为混为一谈。这些观点显然与清朝历史毫不相符，是对清朝历史的虚无化。近年“新清史”谬论又有新的发展，从陆地蔓延至海洋，提出所谓清朝对海上疆域的治理和防御也是侵略扩张，清朝是“陆海兼优”的“双重帝国”的错误观点。这与清朝海防力量与抑制商业发展的真实历史南辕北辙。此外，国外举办的一些关于中国清代历史的展览、出版的一些书籍，同样深受“新清史”谬论影响，隐含着对清朝历史的错误解读，严重曲解了中华民族多元一体格局和中华文明统一性的突出特性，掩盖或粉饰了帝国主义侵华历史。“新清史”这些错误历史观点及其传播，助长着历史虚无主义“学术化”蔓延趋势，广大学者在历史研究的过程中要旗帜鲜明与之斗争，立足唯物史观向读者还原真实客观的历史原貌。

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧