Why is Historical Records the "Father of Official History"?

Historical Records is one of the twenty-four histories, formerly known as Taishi Gongshu or Taishi Gongji and Gong Ji. It is a biographical history book written by Sima Qian, a historian of the Western Han Dynasty, and the first biographical general history in China history. The work has written a history of more than 3,000 years from the legendary Huangdi era to the fourth year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. ?

Historical Records includes twelve biographies (recording the political achievements of emperors in past dynasties), thirty biographies (recording the rise and fall of vassal states and governors in Han Dynasty), seventy biographies (recording the words and deeds of important people, mainly describing the characters and ministers, and the last one is the preface), ten tables (chronology of major events) and eight books (recording various laws and regulations, such as etiquette, music, temperament, calendar, astronomy, etc.). There are * * * 130 historical books with more than 526,500 words, which is more than 395,000 words in Huainanzi and 288,000 words in Lv Chunqiu. Historical Records has a huge scale and a complete system, which has a far-reaching impact on the biographical history books of later generations. The official history of past dynasties was written in this genre. Historical Records is also an excellent literary work, which occupies an important position in the history of China literature. It is praised by Lu Xun as "a historian's swan song, and Li Sao has no rhyme", which has high literary value. Liu Xiang and others think that this book is "good in order and reason, argumentative but not flashy, qualitative but not vulgar".

Historical Records is listed as the first of the "twenty-four histories", and it is also called "the first four histories" with Hanshu, Houhanshu and the History of the Three Kingdoms, which has had a far-reaching impact on the development of later historiography and literature. His original biographical method of compiling history was passed down by the "official history" of later generations.