After in-depth investigation, readers will find that "Zi Tong Zhi Jian" not only omits Li Bai and Du Fu, but also omits many China historical celebrities like them, such as Qu Yuan. There are countless other small historical celebrities who have been "forgotten" by Zi Tongzhi Sword. This is certainly not the negligence of the editorial team of Zi Tong Zhi Jian headed by Sima Guang. If, as Li Guangdi, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, satirizes, Zi Tongzhijian's "Fish Swallows the Boat through the Net", it can't be a classic that can stand for thousands of years, let alone form the twin peaks of China's traditional historiography together with Historical Records. Obviously, it is readers like Li Guangdi who make careless mistakes, not Sima Guang and his assistants.
Why is there such a seemingly "omission" phenomenon in "Lessons Learned from Mutual Understanding"? If this is not a real omission, what is the rationality behind it? Let's calculate an account first. Purple Tongzhi Sword is very long, with a total of less than 3 million words. But don't forget, the historical period it describes, from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to the establishment of the Song Dynasty, spanned 1400 years. It can only account for about 2000 words a year on average. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is one of the most important emperors in the history of China. During his fifty-four years in office, he served the four foreigners abroad and strengthened the imperial power at home, which laid the foundation for China's history of more than two thousand years. In such an important historical period, Zi Tong Zhi Jian only gave it six volumes, with an average of nine years, and each volume did not exceed 20,000 words. We have been fighting all-out for eight years. Imagine if War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression described it in 20,000 words, what can we say? List the main battles, command generals, and how many compatriots have been sacrificed, about 20,000 words. However, "Zi Tong Zhi Jian" tells the magnificent nine years of the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in less than 20,000 words. What a pity!
In this way, the length of the tongzhi sword becomes a relative problem. Compared with ordinary works, it is a masterpiece of three million words. However, compared with the tasks and contents it undertakes, 3 million words can't be saved any more. Why is this relativity formed? What does this have to do with the lack of historical celebrities such as Qu Yuan, Li Bai and Du Fu in Zi Tong Zhi Jian? Let's look at a passage in Sima Guang's "Golden Tongzhi Brief Table":
Since the relocation and reorganization, there have been many words, all of which are read by people wearing cloth. It's decided by people. There are thousands of opportunities every day, and there is no time to watch them. I often don't smoke myself. I want to cut redundancy, quote secrets, focus on the rise and fall of the country, and it is related to the unity of the people. Good can be the law, evil can be the precept, and it is a chronological book to make it coherent and refined.
This passage of Sima Guang contains two meanings, which can answer the two questions we raised before. The ancients in China attached importance to history, especially after the middle and late Tang Dynasty. After the war, emperors, prime ministers and other members of the highest ruling class began to pay more and more attention to learning history, forming a stable tradition of reading and discussing history. This tradition was further consolidated in the Song Dynasty. However, the traditional history books, even the most important parts, accumulated to the middle of the Song Dynasty, and their weight was already great. Today, we call it the official history of the "Twenty-four History", from Historical Records, Han Shu, Han Shu and the History of the Three Kingdoms to Old Tang Book, New Tang Book, Old Five Dynasties History and New Five Dynasties History, which was completed before Zi Tongzhi Jian was compiled./kl Only these 19 historical works add up to about15 million words. This is the situation described in the first sentence of Sima Guang in the previous quotation. "Since ancient times (referring to Sima Qian and Ban Gu), there have been many words." Find a professional reader and read 50 thousand words carefully every day. It will take a year to finish reading these books. Historical reading for the purpose of application still needs to be careful, not superficial, but learning and thinking in parallel. If you read history so meticulously, how can senior officials such as emperors and prime ministers have time to read all these books?
This leads to the second topic mentioned by Sima Guang in the previous quotation. He hoped that through his own efforts, he would refine and summarize the history of past dynasties, shorten the length, and leave the most essential part for the top managers of the empire headed by the emperor to read carefully. This is the origin of Sima Guang's compilation of Zi Tong Zhi Jian. Compressing history and choosing narrative objects need standards. What content should be kept and what content should be eliminated should be determined according to this standard. The formulation of standards is closely related to the purpose of writing. Sima Guang made it very clear that he compiled this period of history as a mirror to provide historical reference for emperors and other state administrators, so that they could learn from historical experience and improve the level of governing the country. This is the purpose of compiling Zi Tong Zhi Jian. According to this purpose, it is not difficult to define what kind of historical events and historical figures can go into history as a mirror and what kind of historical events and historical figures can be ignored. In Sima Guang's original words, it is "putting the rise and fall of the country first, helping the people, taking good as the law and taking evil as a warning". This is the simplest normative description of the selection of historical events and historical figures in Zi Tong Zhi Jian. It only records people and events that affect the success or failure of the country and the happiness index of the people, and there is no extra space to write literature, art and celebrity anecdotes.
Li Bai and Du Fu are not listed in the History of Mutual Learning, which meets this standard because they are not politicians. Sima Xiangru's most representative literary works Zi Xufu and Shang are not included in Zi Jian, but only his short story Lev, which also meets this standard. Because the rhetoric in Zi Xu and Shang Lin is gorgeous, it has nothing to do with governing the country; Although the words in Jane Lev are plain and short in length, it raises the question of the emperor's code of conduct from one angle, which is related to the rule of Tao, so it can be regarded as a mirror by Zi Tongzhi Jian.