Which is more worth learning and reading, Guan Jian or Zi Jian?

My friends haven't really understood the contents and characteristics of Guanzi and Zitongzhijian. The following is the author's brief introduction to this problem, and then we can decide whether to choose or both.

Guanzhi of Ancient Chinese Literature is an anthology of ancient Chinese literature compiled by Wu Chucai and Wu Diaohou in Qing Dynasty. This book is the first reading for students in private schools. It is said that the authors are all from Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, and have set up a library in their hometown to give lectures. For the convenience of teaching, they chose this masterpiece of Chinese studies for their first son. Although Wu is not well-known, he left behind precious excellent prose readers, which provided rare first-hand information for later generations to study China's traditional culture. This book has always been regarded by scholars as the best anthology of ancient Chinese prose. It is the most widely circulated, influential and practical literary reading for more than 300 years. Of course, the treasures in China's traditional culture are vast, and it is inevitable that pearls will be left in this book. Although some researchers believe that there are still many excellent works that should be selected but not selected, in any case, the authority of the ancient prose view is unshakable.

After reading the view of ancient Chinese characters, it was really amazing. The selected works began with Zuo Zhuan (Three Biographies in the Spring and Autumn Period) and Guoyu, and finally became masterpieces of the Ming Dynasty. In content, it involves not only politics, philosophy and religion, but also history, parallel prose and art. It is an excellent classical Chinese reading with rich connotation, wide selection of materials and diverse styles. At the same time, it is also a rare popular reading to understand the history of Chinese civilization, historical knowledge and even philosophy of life. As the title of the book reveals, all the articles compiled in this book are excellent works of classical Chinese, which is the highest realm of classical Chinese, so the study of classical Chinese ends here. It can be seen that the evaluation of the selected articles is high and well-deserved!

Next, I will briefly introduce the book Zi Tongzhi Jian. This book is a chronological history book edited by Sima Guang, a historian and literary master of the Northern Song Dynasty. A total of 294 volumes, starting from Wei Lie's Zhou Chengshu and ending in the Xiande period when Zhou Shizong was in power five dynasties later, cover the history of 1360 16 dynasties. It took 19 years for Fu Zi to appear. What a huge project!

Song Shenzong once spoke highly of this book, which he thought was "rich in governance in view of the past". This is in line with Li Shimin's "taking history as a mirror, we can know the rise and fall". This book is named Tongzhi Sword because it can be used as a guide to governing the country.

The book takes the political, military and ethnic relations as the main line, supplemented by the evaluation of the gains and losses of economic, cultural and historical figures, and comprehensively summarizes the historical experience and lessons of the rise and fall of the 16 dynasty. Warn the ruling class with the rise and fall of the country. Therefore, "Learning from the Same Resources" is not only a political masterpiece of governing the country, but also an excellent literary masterpiece. Some people put this book in the same position as the twenty-four histories, which shows the important position of this book in past dynasties.

In short, how to choose how to read these two historical and cultural masterpieces is really a dilemma. In my opinion, readers with an average level of education should first choose a more popular view of ancient prose, then read the vernacular reader of Zijian, and finally return to the original work of Zijian to appreciate the essence of this book.