“重建美国历史真相与理智”
Reconstructing the Truth and Reason of American History
“重建美国历史真相与理智”
— Reflections on the Harvard Art Museums’ Shelving of the Winthrop Statue
——对 Harvard 艺术馆将 Winthrop 塑像束之高阁的反思
钱宏（Archer Hong Qian）
一、山巅之城的源起
1630年，Winthrop 在布道文 Model of Christian Charity（《基督徒慈爱典范》）中首次提出“the city on a hill（山巅之城）”。在他看来，清教徒的殖民事业并非个人野心的膨胀，而是与上帝的契约。透明、友爱、顺应、自由与互助，构成了这份契约的精神核心，也奠定了“America”一词的内涵。
这一概念长期尘封，直至1809年才被重新发现，1838年再次印发。1954年，哈佛历史学家 Perry Miller 指出：“Winthrop 是第一个让我们意识到什么是‘美国’的人”。1980年代，里根更是将“山巅之城”从宗教语境转入政治语境，把它提升为“自由与希望的灯塔”。
二、叙事的延展与纠偏
从 Winthrop 的“a model of Christian charity”，到开国元勋赋予的“We the People”联邦理念，再到肯尼迪、里根、川普对“超验主义文学运动”“反主流文化运动”和“左倾政治正确”的纠偏，美国文明的叙事始终在传承与修正中前行。尤其在川普第二次当选后，“Make America Great Again”进一步深化为“Make America Healthy Again”（MAGA-MAHA），标志着一种全方位的新文明生活方式正在逐渐稳健地展开。
三、哈佛的遗忘与反思
2025年9月5日，我专程到哈佛寻访温思罗普的足迹。谷歌提示哈佛艺术馆收藏着 Winthrop 的雕像。但当我询问时，工作人员茫然不知其人，直到检索后才告诉我，这座雕像早已收起，不再展出。那一刻，我不能不联想到所谓“政治正确”对这所世界名校的反智影响。
四、让博物馆再次伟大
我赞成川普总统提出的“重建美国历史真相与理智”（Reconstructing the Truth and Reason of American History）——“让博物馆再次伟大”（韩秀）。是的，博物馆的真正价值，在于尊重历史，抵制披着政治正确外衣的历史虚无，以及以道德批判求全责备代替真实记忆的偏见。
然而，博物馆并非只是追忆的艺术空间。它更是生命自组织连接适应平衡再平衡艺术的召唤之所。对于孩子和年轻人而言，博物馆能在追忆中激活积极记忆，在记忆的涌现中启发他们对未来新的生活方式的想象与创造。伟大的博物馆从来不只是过去的收藏馆，而是文明未来的启发场。
五、从博物馆到“健康乐园”
正因如此，我始终认为，真正伟大的博物馆，必然要从“存放过去”迈向“启迪未来”。因此，我一直希望在北美为孩子们建造第一座“全球共生健康乐园”（Global Symbiotic Health Paradise，GSHP）。它将由三大版块构成：
不同生活方式的展现；
在地历史人物的标杆；
以“三世”为纽带展开的八大共生博物馆：
“自然世”（Naturaropocena）的共生起源；
“人类世”（Anthropocene）的共生底线；
“地球世”（Earthropocene）的共生灵魂。
在这里，追忆、记忆、体验与创造将交织，文明的火种将由历史延展到未来，“像高地燃起的大火，除烤暖了周围地区之外，还用它的光辉照亮遥远的天边。”
2025年9月5–8日于 Boston, Massachusetts · Rockland, Maine
参考文献
Archer Hong Qian:《SYMBIOSISM·共生——The Mind Power to Agree on An Innovative Lifestyle·一种约定创新生活方式的精神力量》，Onebook Press，CANADA，2021。电子版https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B096PYNP8H/ref=cm_sw_r_u_apa_glt_0KRJY15HME8AAT3ABCV7)
“Make Museums Great Again”
— Reflections on the Harvard Art Museums’ Shelving of the Winthrop Statue
Qian Hong (Archer Hong Qian)
I.The Origin of the City on a Hill
In 1630, John Winthrop first articulated the concept of “the city on a hill” in his sermon *A Model of Christian Charity*. In his view, the Puritan colonial enterprise was not an expansion of personal ambition but a covenant with God. Transparency, fraternity, obedience, freedom, and mutual aid formed the spiritual core of this covenant, laying the foundation for the meaning of the word “America.”
This concept remained dormant for centuries until it was rediscovered in 1809 and reprinted in 1838. In 1954, Harvard historian Perry Miller noted, “Winthrop was the first to make us aware of what ‘America’ means.” In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan transformed the “city on a hill” from a religious concept into a political one, elevating it to a “beacon of freedom and hope.”
II.The Evolution and Correction of the Narrative
From Winthrop’s *A Model of Christian Charity* to the Founding Fathers’ federal ideal of “We the People,” and later to Kennedy, Reagan, and Trump’s corrections of the “Transcendentalist literary movement,” “counterculture movement” and “left-leaning political correctness,” the narrative of American civilization has continuously progressed through inheritance and revision. Particularly after Trump’s second election, “Make America Great Again” evolved further into “Make America Healthy Again” (MAGA-MAHA), signaling the gradual and steady emergence of a comprehensive new civilized way of life.
III. Harvard’s Forgetting and Reflection
On September 5, 2025, I made a special trip to Harvard to trace Winthrop’s legacy. Google indicated that the Harvard Art Museums held a statue of Winthrop. However, when I inquired, the staff were unaware of such a figure until they checked and informed me that the statue had long been removed from display. At that moment, I couldn’t help but associate this with the anti-intellectual impact of so-called “political correctness” on this world-renowned institution.
IV.Make Museums Great Again
I endorse President Trump’s call to “rebuild the truth and reason of American history”—“Make Museums Great Again” (Han Xiu). Indeed, the true value of museums lies in respecting history, resisting historical nihilism cloaked in political correctness, and rejecting the bias of replacing authentic memory with moralistic criticism.
However, museums are not merely spaces for reminiscence. They are also places that summon the art of self-organized connection, adaptation, balance, and rebalancing of life. For children and young people, museums can activate positive memories through reflection and inspire, through the emergence of memory, their imagination and creation of new ways of living in the future. Great museums are never just repositories of the past but arenas for inspiring the future of civilization.
V.From Museums to a “Health Paradise”
For this reason, I have always believed that truly great museums must move beyond “storing the past” to “inspiring the future.” Thus, I have long hoped to build the first “Global Symbiotic Health Paradise” (GSHP) in North America for children. It would consist of three main components:
Exhibitions of different ways of life;
Benchmarks of local historical figures;
Eight symbiotic museums centered around the concept of “Three Worlds”:
- The symbiotic origins of the “Natural World” (Naturaropocena);
- The symbiotic baseline of the “Anthropocene”;
- The symbiotic soul of the “Earthropocene.”
Here, reflection, memory, experience, and creation will intertwine, and the spark of civilization will extend from history to the future，“like a fire kindled on the heights, which not only warms the surrounding area but also illuminates the distant horizon with its glow.”
September 5–8, 2025, Boston, Massachusetts · Rockland, Maine
参考文献
Archer Hong Qian:《SYMBIOSISM·共生——The Mind Power to Agree on An Innovative Lifestyle·一种约定创新生活方式的精神力量》，Onebook Press，CANADA，2021。电子版https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B096PYNP8H/ref=cm_sw_r_u_apa_glt_0KRJY15HME8AAT3ABCV7)