The influence of Historical Records on later generations?
Historical contribution
First, the establishment of an excellent general history genre "Historical Records" is the first general history masterpiece in the history of Chinese historiography. It is precisely because historical records can be written into a book, which sets a precedent and an example, so people who follow this genre to compile and edit history have begun. The style of general historians has always influenced the research and writing of modern historiography. Secondly, the independent position of historiography was established. In ancient China, historiography was included in the category of Confucian classics and had no independent status. Therefore, Liu Xin's Seven Outlooks and Ban Gu's Records of Literature and Art both attached the books of the History Department to the Spring and Autumn Annals. Since Sima Qian compiled Historical Records, there have been more and more specialized historical works. Therefore, in the Jin Dynasty, Xun Xu adapted to the new requirements and divided the ancient books into four parts: Part A recorded the Six Arts Primary School, Part B recorded the martial arts of various schools, Part C recorded the historical records of emperors, and Part D recorded poetry and singing. As a result, historiography has gained an independent position in the academic field of China. Thinking about the source of drinking water should be attributed to Sima Qian and his Historical Records. Third, the literary tradition of historical biography has been established. Sima Qian's literary accomplishment is profound, and his artistic means are particularly ingenious. Often, some extremely complicated facts are handled in a very proper and orderly manner, and then they are far-sighted, knowledgeable, vivid in words, tempered in brushwork, full of feelings, handy and vivid in image, which makes people "exclaim and clap their hands, I don't know why." However, it must be pointed out that due to the limitations of the times, Sima Qian also has some shortcomings and deficiencies. For example, there is a mysterious thought of "destiny", a disaster, and a historical cycle theory. When discussing the reasons why Qin was merged into the world, the Preface to the Chronology of Six Kingdoms pointed out that this was the result of "God's help". In the Book of the Official, when describing various special natural phenomena, it is often associated with personnel, showing more mysterious thoughts of disasters. All these show that Historical Records did not completely get rid of the influence of the theological thought of "the connection between man and nature" when studying the relationship between man and nature.
Literary influence
Cultural aspect
Beijing Opera The Orphan of Zhao
Historical Records has a wide and far-reaching influence on ancient novels, plays, biographies and essays. First of all, on the whole, Historical Records, as China's first large-scale work mainly describing characters, provided an important foundation and various possibilities for the development of later literature. Although there are real people in the history written in Historical Records, it is actually typed by "meeting each other", that is, highlighting some main characteristics of people, comparing different people and fabricating details. In the early literature of all nationalities, there is such a phenomenon, which is a way for human beings to know themselves through artistic means. It's just that the original typed characters in China literature appear in historical works, and the situation is quite special. Therefore, Historical Records established many important prototypes for China literature. In later novels and dramas, emperors, heroes, chivalrous men, officials and many other characters evolved from the characters in Historical Records.
Novel aspect
In terms of novels, besides the types of characters, its genre and narrative style are also obviously influenced by Historical Records. China's traditional novels are mostly in the name of "biography" and developed in the form of biographies, with the beginning and end of biographies, always taking the life of the characters as the context and unfolding the plot in strict chronological order, often with the author's direct comments. All these important features mainly come from historical records. Later novels are mostly based on historical records. Among them are Biography of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty by Feng Menglong, Empire of Daqin by Sun Haohui and Warring States by Han Chuanzi.
Dramatic aspect
Beijing Opera Farewell My Concubine
In terms of drama, Historical Records has naturally become a treasure house for later generations because of its strong drama, distinctive characters and sharp contradictions. According to Fu Xihua's Catalogue of Complete Works of Yuan Zaju, there are more than 180 zaju based on historical records. According to the statistics of Li Changzhi, among the existing 132 Yuan Zaju, there are 16 stories based on Historical Records. Among them, The Orphan of Zhao is a masterpiece with world influence. There must be more similar works lost. In the later Peking Opera, there are still many historical records, such as Farewell My Concubine, which is well known. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, with the formation and maturity of China's drama, the content and art of Historical Records also influenced the drama creation. For example, the Song and Yuan operas include "Zhao's Orphan Revenge"; During the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, there were Zhao orphans (Yuanji), Zhuo Wenjun eloped (all) and General Guan toasted (Ming). . Legends in the Ming and Qing Dynasties include "Stealing Symbols" and "Yi Shui Ge" (Xu Qingqin); Local operas and newly-edited historical dramas include Seeking Solitude (Beijing Opera), Sleeping for a Taste of Courage (Han Opera, Yue Opera), Heshibi (Tongzhou Bangzi), Return to Zhao in Perfect Condition (Beijing Opera), Hongmen Banquet (Beijing Opera, Sichuan Opera, Han Opera) and Xiao He Chasing the Moon (Beijing Opera)
biographical literature
In biographical literature, due to the biographical style of Historical Records inherited by later generations, a large number of biographies of historical figures have been produced. Although the literariness of later history books is not as good as that of Historical Records, there are a large number of them, and if you extract excellent biographies, it is also very impressive. In addition, other biographies, family biographies, epitaphs and other biographical forms are also related to the biographical literature tradition initiated by Historical Records.
Edit this passage for generations.
The edition of Historical Records is roughly divided into four parts. The first series is a ten-line edition carved in the Song Dynasty. There are about four kinds of the second series, which are sonnets published in Hangzhou during the Shaoxing period of the Southern Song Dynasty. Jianyang edition during the reign of Xiaozong in the Southern Song Dynasty; Zhu published Twelve Lines in Shaoxing for ten years in the Southern Song Dynasty. During the Shaoxing period of the Southern Song Dynasty, Huainan East Road was transshipped to make nine trips. The third system is the research annotation of two schools. There are two kinds of existing ones, one is Zhang Jian's engraving in the second year of Xichun in the Southern Song Dynasty, and the other is Geng Bing's engraving in the eighth year of Xichun in the Southern Song Dynasty. The earliest existing Quaternary is the Annotation of Two Collations carved by Cai Mengbi in the seventh year of the Southern Song Dynasty, and then it was divided into two schools. The first one is relatively simple: three notes of Huangshan Fu magazine in Jianyang in the second year of Qingyuan in the Southern Song Dynasty, Yuan Pengyin Weng's engraving, Ming engraving, Ming Ke Weixiong's engraving, Ming engraving, Chongwen Bookstore's engraving in the Tongzhi period of Qing Dynasty, and Jinling Bookstore's engraving in the Tongzhi period of Qing Dynasty. The second branch is more complicated. This branch school started from the second-year edition of Mongolian and Chinese. From the middle school edition, there are Ming You Ming Edition, Ming Jianyang Shendu Zhai Edition, Ming Jianning Official Edition and Yuan Dade Edition. From the perspective of Dade, it can be divided into Ming Nanjing imperial academy engraving and Beijing imperial academy engraving. In the fourth year of Qing Qianlong, the engraving of Wuying Hall was published from Beijian Bamboo Slips. In addition, there is another series, namely "History of Chicken Bone Pavilion at the End of Ming Dynasty", which is a stand-alone interpretation. It is said that it originated in the Song Dynasty, but the specific base is unknown. Accordingly, there were 24 historical books (printed by Jinling Bookstore) reprinted in Tongzhi period of Qing Dynasty.