Major Causes for Misquotation & Misuse of Historical Materials
Zhou Fang-gao · Journal of Zhejiang University(Humanities and Social Sciences) · 2005
Historical materials are the foundation for the stu dy of historiography. But many of them have since ancient times been incorrect or obscure for a variety of reasons. Therefore, it is not possible to achieve the r esults of scientific research without making any necessary differentiation or cr iticism regarding these materials. Major causes for misquoting and misusing them in academic research can be summed up as follows: (1) Misuse of correct materials because of the user's misunderstanding/misinterp retation/ mispunctuation, or of political purposes. (2) Misuse of correct materi als because of the user's faulty reasoning based on the wrong information or con text. (3) Misquotation of materials with hidden meaning as the quoter failed to read between the lines. (4) Misquotation from indirect or misquoted/mistaken his torical information. (5) Misquotation from the bad or unreliable edition or text as many ancient hist orical books each may have more than one edition. (6) Use of wrong historical ma terials, which had been manipulated for politi cal, factional or private purposes, or due to the writer's own mistakes.