Historical Truth

History has no objective truth. Even if you were present at the time and place, you would still not know the truth—you would see only the surface; many behind-the-scenes details would forever remain unknown to you. What later generations learn is merely people’s evaluations—evaluations by later dynasties of earlier ones, with content unfavorable to the evaluating dynasty filtered out; or evaluations by those who held authority to speak at the time, likewise omitting anything unfavorable to themselves. Rather than ‘truth,’ these are simply ‘evaluations.’

Such evaluations vary from person to person. Each individual possesses unique emotions, experiences, positions, perspectives, and limitations. Consequently, different people hold different—sometimes diametrically opposed—evaluations of the same event or phenomenon. Yet people fiercely defend their own evaluations: arguing until faces flush, fighting until heads bleed, even waging wars and launching military campaigns. Human history—across time and across cultures—is saturated with such evaluations and with all the consequences arising from them.

History can only be experienced—it cannot be explained! And ‘historical truth’ is but a mirage pursued by humanity.