Overview of the masterpiece (including author's introduction, setting, characters, some details, etc.)

The Historical Records (史记), initially without a fixed title, was known as the "Book of the Grand Historian (太史公書)", or the "Records of the Grand Historian (太史公記)", or the "Grand Historian (太史公記). Originally, "Shiji" was a common name for ancient history books, and since the Three Kingdoms, "Shiji" has gradually become the moniker of "The Book of the Grand Historian" from the common name.

The Shiji is a general history of the ancient and modern worlds, beginning with the legendary Yellow Emperor and ending in the first year of Emperor Wu's reign, and covering about 3,000 years of China's history.

According to Sima Qian, the book has twelve books, ten tables, eight books, thirty biographies, seventy biographies, and one hundred and thirty ****. Ban Gu in the "Han Shu - Sima Qian biography" mentioned that the "Historical Records" is missing ten articles. Zhang Yan of Wei of the Three Kingdoms pointed out that these ten articles were Jing Di Ben Ji, Wu Di Ben Ji, Book of Rites, Book of Music, Book of Laws, Chronology of Generals and Ministers since the Rise of the Han Dynasty, Biographies of the Risen Sun, Family of Three Kings, Biographies of Turtle Curse, and Biographies of Fu Jin. Most of the later generation disagreed with Zhang Yan's statement, but the "Historical Records" is crippled is conclusive.

The current version of the "Historical Records" is also one hundred and thirty, there are a few chapters is obviously not Sima Qian's handwriting, Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Cheng's Dr. Chu Shao-sun supplemented the "Historical Records", the current version of the "Historical Records", "Mr. Chu said" is his complementary work.

The Historical Records is based on a wide range of materials. At that time, the social circulation of the "Shiben", "Guoyu", "State Policy", "Qin Ji", "Chu Han Spring and Autumn Annals", the writings of the Hundred Schools of Thought and the state's paperwork and archives, as well as field investigations to obtain the material, are Sima Qian writing the "Records of the Grand Historian" is an important source of material. What is especially valuable is that Sima Qian carefully analyzed and selected the collected materials and eliminated some nonsense. For some issues that could not be clarified, he either adopted a skeptical attitude or recorded various different accounts. Because of the wide range of materials and the serious attitude towards history, the Shiji is informative and rich in content.

The Writing of the Records of the Grand Historian

The Records of the Grand Historian is a monumental work that spans thousands of years. Its emergence is, on the one hand, an inevitable requirement put forward by the times, and on the other hand, a product of the hard labor of historians.

For Sima Qian, the first step was to carry on the legacy of his ancestor's career as a historian. His father, Sima Tan, had long intended to write a history book, but this wish was not realized. Dying Sima Tan instructed his son: "Yu death, you must be too history, for too history, no forgetting what I want to talk about carry on! And filial piety begins with the service of relatives, in the service of the king, and finally establish themselves, and make a name for themselves in later generations, to show their parents, this filial piety of the big one! The world recites the Duke of Zhou as being able to sing about the virtues of Wen and Wu, to proclaim the wind of Zhou and Zhao, to reach the thoughts of King Tai and Wang Ji, and to honor Houji with Gong and Liu. After Yu Li, the king's way was lacking and the rites and music were declining. Confucius repaired the old and started to abolish the old, discussed the Poetry and the Book, and made the Spring and Autumn Annals, which scholars have been following to this day. Since the scales, more than four hundred years, and the lords and lords, the history of the release of the end; now the Han Xing, the unification of the sea, the Lord of the wise ruler, the loyal subjects of the death of righteousness of the people, the Yu for too much history and Frey loaded, the abolition of the world's history of the text, Yu very fear! You have to think about it!"

The compilation of the historical record, which is the continuation of the cultural life of the ancestors of the famous mountain cause, as the order of the Imperial Historian, can not fulfill the mission, there is no greater sin. Since then, his father's last orders are always in Sima Qian's ears echoed: "The ancestors have said, since the Duke of Zhou 500 years old and Confucius, Confucius died after the present 500 years old, there are able to Shao Ming Shi, is the "Yi Chuan", following the "Spring and Autumn Annals", this "Poetry," "Book," "Rites" "music" occasion, the intention of the Sihou! The intention is to do so!" ?

The times have also raised the inherent requirement of constructing new historical and cultural texts - ? "Yu heard of the ancestors said: 'Fuxi to Chunhou, made "Yi" gossip. Yao and Shun's sheng, "Shangshu" contained, rituals and music for yam. Tang Wu's long, the poet sings. The Spring and Autumn Annals" to pick good and depreciate evil, push the virtue of the three generations, praise the Zhou Dynasty, not only the ridicule of the ridicule only also! Since the rise of Han, to tomorrow's son, won the Ruifu, sealing the building of Zen, change the right date, easy to dress color, the order of Mu Qing, Zelu reckless. Overseas customs, re-translated paragraph plug, please come to offer to see the people can not be counted. The ministers of the hundred officials, reciting the Holy Spirit, but can not be declared full of its meaning. And Shi Xian and not use, there is the shame of the country; the Lord on the bright saint and the German is not heard, the Secretary's fault. And I have been in charge of its officials, waste Ming Sheng Shengde not loaded, extinguish the merits of the family of sage doctor's industry not described, the fall of the words of the ancestors, the crime is not greater!" ?

In order to write, Sima Qian can be said to have exhausted his life's energy. To write a history book, one needs to collect a lot of materials. The Historical Records of the People's Republic of China (《史记》) has an extremely wide range of materials, firstly, the documentary materials, including Xia Xiaozheng, Shiben, Qin Ji, Chunqiu, Guo Ce, Chu Han Chunqiu, and dozens of other kinds of materials. Secondly, it is the result of traveling. Sima Qian traveled widely throughout his life, each other from the exchange, but also gained a lot of extremely valuable historical materials. Third, field interviews. Sima Qian at the age of twenty that traveled around, the trip almost reached the whole territory of the Western Han Dynasty, saw some ancient ruins, heard some ancient anecdotes, which also greatly enriched his treasure trove of historical materials. In the process of traveling, Sima Qian also paid special attention to the records of the stone inscriptions, creating a precedent for the use of stone materials, such as the "Qin Shi Huang Ben Ji" and so on.

If it is only the accumulation of historical materials, of course, can not complete a great work. The reason why Sima Qian suffered a great deal of humiliation, but "on the extreme punishment and no color", because of the great ambition. He said: "servant steal not inferior, nearly self-trusted to incompetent words, net the world put lost old news, examined the behavior, audit its success or failure of the rise and fall of the reason, all hundred and thirty articles, also want to study the sky and man's world, through the changes of the past and present, into a family of words." ("Report Ren'an book") only such lofty ideals and firm beliefs, only to support the painstaking work of preparation, leaving a glorious and immortal work of Chinese historiography.

Style of the Historical Records

The Historical Records is a general history of the ancient and modern worlds, beginning with the legendary Yellow Emperor and ending in the first year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (122 BC), and recounting the history of our country for about 3,000 years. According to Sima Qian, the whole book has twelve articles of the book, ten articles of the table, eight articles of the book, thirty articles of the family, seventy articles of the biographies, and one hundred and thirty articles of the ****?

"Benji" is actually the emperor's biography, because the emperor is the highest head of the state affairs, for them to make a biography and named "Benji", just so that the world to show where the original system, so that the people and the government act have a certain outline of the cause. The reason for this is that it is a very important part of the process.

At the same time, it is also the general outline of the book, is a chronological method of record. In the writing of the "book", Sima Qian took the approach of detailing the present, the more distant the era, the more brief, the more recent the more detailed. The reason why "this record" is based on the Yellow Emperor is because the Yellow Emperor is the founder of the Chinese nation and the ancestor of "correcting the name of all things". Xiang Yu will be included in "this century", a few years between the Qin and Han dynasties, "politics by the feather", one is to promote its personality.

"Table", so the list of events, so that the outline and the eye, in order to simple against complexity, at a glance, easy to view, retrieve.

"Book", is a record of successive dynasties chapter of the national code, in order to illustrate the history of ancient and modern systems of the special chapter, non-familiar with the history of the historians, is not able to write a book. Ban Gu "Han Shu" renamed "Zhi", became a general rule. The compilation of the "book" for the study of various specialized history provides a wealth of information.

"Family" is a record of the vassal kingdom. This is because the vassals opened the country to inherit the family, descendants hereditary, but also gave their biographies called Shijia. Beginning with the great feudalism of the Western Zhou Dynasty, developing into the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, each vassal state successively claimed hegemony and dominance and flourished for a period of time, so it was very appropriate to record this situation with the genre of "Shijia". Sima Qian's inclusion of Confucius and Chen Shiji in the "lineage" is an exception. Although Confucius was not a prince, he was the patriarch who inherited the culture for three generations, not to mention that Confucius was the founder of Confucianism during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, so the inclusion of Confucius in the "lineage" reflects the reality of the ideological field. As for Chen Shu, he was not only the leader of the first uprising against Qin, but also the first person to fight against the brutal rule by commoners since the Three Dynasties, and most of the Hou Wangs who died in Qin were built by him. Sima Qian will be included in the "family", and his achievements and soup put Jie, King Wu Wu Zhou, Confucius made the "Spring and Autumn Annals" compared to write him as a shock to the rule of the tyrannical Qin empire, the great historical heroes, reflecting the author of the progressive view of history.

"Biographies" are records of various historical figures other than emperors and lords. There are single biographies, combined biographies, and class biographies. Single biography is a person, such as "Shang Jun Liezhuan", "Li Si Liezhuan" and so on. Joint biographies are about more than two people, such as Guan Yan Liezhuan, Lao Zhuang Shen Han Liezhuan, and so on. Class biography is to class from each other, the activities of the same class of characters, to a biography, such as "Confucianism and Forestry Biography", "Methodist Officials Biography", "Assassins Biography" and so on. Sima Qian to the historical situation of the minority groups around our country at that time, also recorded in the form of class biographies, such as "Xiongnu biography", "North Korea biography", "Dawan biography", etc., which for the study of China's ancient history of minorities, provides an important source of historical information.

The last of the seventy biographies, is the "Taishigong preface", the preface at the end of the book, which is the practice of ancient scholars writing books.

In short, Sima Qian wrote the "Historical Records" with the "Chronicle" of the emperor, the "Family" of the vassals, the "Biographies" of the characters, the "Book" of the emperor, the "book" of the emperor, the "book" of the emperor, the "book" of the emperor, the "book" of the emperor, the "book" of the vassal. "Book" describes the rules and regulations, and "Table" arranges the major events, covering the ancient and modern times, including a hundred generations, breaking the limitations of chronicles that start and end with years and months, such as Spring and Autumn Period, and country histories that are divided into regions, such as Guoyu, and creating the precedent of general histories that run through the ancient and modern times and all aspects of social life, making it the first official history. It was a precedent for a general history, and became a model for a formal history.

Evaluation of the Shiji

The birth of the Shiji was a great event in Chinese cultural history. Mr. Lu Xun, in his book "Outline of the History of Chinese Literature", praised "The Records of the Grand Historian" as "the last song of the historians, the unrhymed leavings of a riot". As far as the specific development of Chinese historiography is concerned, the contribution of the Shiji is enormous.

First, the establishment of an outstanding genre of general history. The Records of the Grand Historian (史记) is the first general historical masterpiece in the history of Chinese historiography, covering the ancient and modern worlds and encompassing a hundred generations. Whether to say that it is the most brilliant achievement in the history of ancient Chinese historiography, or to say that it is the most brilliant achievement in the history of ancient world historiography, it is not too much. This will be very clear if one compares it with Herodotus' Histories. It is precisely because the Historical Records could be written in one book, opening up a precedent and setting an example, that those who followed this style of history have also risen one after another. This is the first time in the history of the world that we have seen the history of the world in the past, and it is the first time in the history of the world that we have seen the history of the world.

Second, the establishment of the independent status of historiography. In ancient times, China, historiography is included in the scope of economics without its own independent status. So the history of the book in Liu Xin's "seven liao" and Ban Gu's "Arts and Letters" are attached to the back of the "Spring and Autumn Annals". Since Sima Qian repaired the Historical Records, authors succeeded each other, and specialized works of history became more and more numerous. Therefore, the Jin Dynasty Xun castor to adapt to the new requirements, only the canonical books of the ages into four parts: part A of the six arts of elementary school, part B of the military arts of the sons, part C of the historical records of the Emperor's view, part D of the poems, fu and praise. Thus, the history of a door, in the field of Chinese academics to obtain an independent status. This achievement should be attributed to Sima Qian and his "Historical Records".

Thirdly, he established the tradition of historical literature. Sima Qian's literary training was profound, and his artistic methods were particularly skillful. Often some kind of extremely complex facts, he is very appropriate, orderly, and then to vision far, high insight, vivid text, pen power, emotionally charged, handwritten, not word gas, image of the bright and fast, so that people "exclaimed knuckleheads, do not know the reason for it". ("Rongzhai Suibi - Shi Ji Jane wonderful")

"Shi Ji" is not only a collection of Chinese historical literature, but also, its articles for the Wei and Jin novels, the Tang and Song ancient literature, and even the Song and Yuan operas, have a great impact on Chinese literature as an important source of living water.

Of course, Sima Qian's highest ideal in compiling the Historical Records was "to study the interstices of the heavens and the people, to understand the changes of the past and the present, to become a family of words". It was to establish an all-encompassing historical and philosophical system. A more in-depth understanding, to be left to our specific study of the "Records of the Grand Historian" to experience.