How to understand the fine tradition of ancient historiography in China?

The fine traditions of China ancient historiography: seeking truth, Ming Dow, etc.

One is the tradition of Ming Dow, that is, the tradition of pursuing truth and exploring historical laws.

Second, the tradition of seeking truth, historical research, as far as its direct purpose is concerned, is to truthfully reveal the basic trajectory of human activities, which determines that it must take specific historical facts as an important basis for its academic activities.

The third is the tradition of governing the country. China's historiography, which embodies the spirit of general history, has a tradition of emphasizing "communication". Since Sima Qian wrote Historical Records, there have been many works on general history, and at the same time, the interpretation of general history theory is also brilliant. In Qing Dynasty, Zhang Xuecheng summarized the phenomenon of attaching importance to "communication" in China's historiography as "a general history of family style", and made a wonderful summary of the ancient tradition of "connecting the past and the present".

From the reality of China's ancient historiography, it has the meanings of "vertical communication", "general communication" and "horizontal communication". The so-called "vertical communication" means to connect the ancient and modern times, regard history as a continuous adaptation process, and show the connection and evolution of history from beginning to end. "Connecting the ancient and modern times" is its theoretical core.

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Sima Qian's Historical Records, Du You's Tong Dian and Sima Guang's Zi Tong Zhi Jian are all representative works of Tong. "Communication" is a historical method strongly advocated by Zheng Qiao in the Southern Song Dynasty. He expounded his concept of "communication" in the preface to Tongzhi: first, the communication of documents and materials, "poetry, calligraphy, ceremony and music can be combined in one hand, and then the same as the world literature"; The second is the "communication" between ancient and modern history, "connecting two emperors and three Weiyi Wang families, and then changing ancient and modern times."

Obviously, Zheng Qiao added the "meeting" in literature on the basis of "connecting the past with the present", that is, mastering all kinds of historical materials to write history. Zhang Xuecheng discussed the general history and mentioned "horizontal communication". Zhang's "horizontal communication" is a means for critics to show off their profound knowledge. At the same time, he also believes that the value of "horizontal communication" to "vertical communication" can not be ignored, and it is a necessary condition to complete "vertical communication". Its "horizontal communication" includes historians' knowledge reserves and rich historical contents of historical works.

This is on the basis of "connecting the preceding with the following", which increases the consideration of the social and historical content contained in historical works. Thus, from Sima Qian's "connecting the preceding and the following" to Zheng Qiao's "connecting the preceding and the following" to Zhang Xuecheng's "connecting the preceding and the following", the connotation of "connecting the preceding and the following" is constantly enriched. Most importantly, the "general historian style" is rich in connotation and runs through ancient and modern times; In terms of information, four departments were extensively searched; Content, everything.