Hello, I’m Zhang Xiangrong. Welcome back to the History: New Knowledge and Critique reading list. Episode Two discusses Zhou Sicheng’s The Fall of Three Capitals and so-called historical nonfiction.

What is historical nonfiction?

In recent years readers often encounter the term in book copy, and friends repeatedly ask me:What does it mean? Is history not already nonfiction? How does it differ from popular history, and if it does not, why invent another term?

Historical nonfiction is indeed ambiguous, without an agreed definition or clear boundaries. Even authors of books I place in this category, including Zhou Sicheng, may reject the label. So let us first discuss the term.

The publishing distinction between fiction and nonfiction developed organically in mature overseas book markets and became familiar convention. Readers, authors, and publishers therefore understand it without confusion. For example,Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinkingare classic nonfiction. Within history,Jonathan Spence’sbooks appear on nonfiction lists. Our reading-list series also includesYang Suqiu’s nonfiction selections,which you may enjoy.