The discussion of this topic is not only related to the evaluation of the peasant war itself, but also related to the understanding of the social nature of Qin and Han Dynasties. The main reasons for the outbreak of peasant uprising at the end of Qin Dynasty are: "Because of the internal contradictions of feudal system and the urgent political tyranny, Qin Shihuang completed the cause of reunification and created conditions for overthrowing the Qin Dynasty"; Its historical role is to "strike at the landlord class, overthrow the increasingly brutal Qin ruling clique, and make social and economic development possible." In 1950s and 1960s, historians generally held the same or similar views. After 1978, some scholars put forward some new viewpoints. Zhao Xiyuan believes that the nature of the peasant uprising in the late Qin Dynasty was the people's anti-Qin uprising with peasants as the main body, which blocked the development of slavery. As the fruits of victory were usurped by the landlord class, a new feudal system was established in China. Gao Min believes that due to the serious existence of the remnants of slavery in Qin society, many teams of slaves and criminals appeared in the peasant uprising at the end of Qin Dynasty, and the main function of this great uprising was to sweep away the remnants of slavery and individual slavery.
Sima Qian (about 145 ~ about 89 BC) was a historian, writer and official of the National Library of the Western Han Dynasty. Word length. Zuo Fengyi was born in xia yang (now south of Hancheng, Shaanxi). Sima Tan. 10 years old, able to recite ancient Chinese, traveled around the country in his early years, inspected customs, interviewed ancient books and collected legends. First time to see a doctor. In the third year of Yuanfeng (108), his stepfather took the post of Taishiling, in charge of national books, classics, astronomical calendars and documents, and had a good view of national collections, which provided a lot of information for the study of history. Later, because of Li Ling's defense, he was sentenced to prison and punished for corruption. After he was released from prison, Ren Zhongshu wrote a book named Taishi Gongshu, which was later called Shiji. As the earliest general history of China, it provides systematic and complete information for future generations to study the history of more than 3,000 years from the Yellow Emperor to the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, which has important academic value and has a far-reaching impact on the history and literature of future generations.
Sima Qian's Historical Records
Historical Records contains 0/30 articles, with 520,000 words, including five parts: Biography, Sage, Biography, Book and Table. It dates back from Xuanyuan Huangdi to Tang, Yu, Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin and the early years of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. Historical Records covers a wide range and has profound thoughts. It not only wrote ancient and modern times, but also wrote modern and contemporary times; Not only wrote the Central Plains and China, but also wrote the frontier and foreign countries; Not only political and military, but also economic and cultural; Not only emperors and princes, heroes and heroes, but also all kinds of people in the lower classes. This kind of spirit, which contains all kinds of knowledge from ancient times to modern times and integrates all kinds of cultures in one furnace, is unprecedented; Sima Qian told himself that the purpose of writing this book is to "study the relationship between heaven and man, learn from the changes of ancient and modern times, and become a family statement." This grand goal of opening up all fields, standing on its own academic charter, summing up all the laws and serving the real politics is unprecedented.
The most exciting thought in Historical Records has four main points today: First, it shows the progressive national outlook. Sima Qian absorbed the theory of the development sources of various nationalities in China and neighboring countries since the Warring States Period, and regarded the countries and nationalities in the Spring and Autumn Period, Central Plains, Jingchu, wuyue, Qin Long, Guangdong and Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou, Saibei and Northeast China as descendants of the Yellow Emperor in historical records, which played an inestimable role in the formation and stability of this multi-ethnic friendly family in China for two thousand years. Moreover, when Sima Qian wrote that the Han Dynasty used troops against neighboring countries and nations, he always stood against belligerence, expansion and plunder. He pursues equality, friendship and harmonious coexistence of all ethnic groups. It is in this sense that we say that Sima Qian was a friend of the oppressed people of the Han nationality and the surrounding ethnic minorities at that time.
The second is his progressive economic thought. This includes emphasizing economic development, which is considered as a strong foundation of the country; Oppose "emphasizing the foundation and restraining the end" and advocate paying equal attention to "industry", "agriculture", "commerce" and "danger"; Oppose political discrimination against businessmen, but praise their skills and talents and dedicate a monument to them.
Third, it is strongly democratic and critical. Historical Records is the epitome of pre-Qin culture, and Sima Qian is the inheritor and promoter of pre-Qin literati's excellent ideological personality. The reason why he wrote Historical Records is not simply to record historical traces, but to "show a state". Therefore, Historical Records highlights an ideal politics, the light of an ideal society, and the various criticisms of the real politics and the real society pursued by the author. Some of them are quite profound and accurate, and even some of them have been reading and innovating for two thousand years.
The fourth is to carry out the heroic outlook on life, life and death and values in the book. Almost all the heroes praised by Sima Qian in Historical Records are brave in making progress and making contributions. They have ideals, ambitions and pursuits; They can sacrifice their lives for certain beliefs and principles; They all have a spirit of perseverance and will never stop until they reach their goals. Sima Qian once wrote in the book "Bao Ren An": "People are inherently mortal, or they are heavier than Mount Tai or lighter than a feather, and their uses are different." He was castrated and in great pain. In order to complete the historical records, he stubbornly survived. His example is "King Wen was arrested and played Zhouyi; Zhong You wrote Spring and Autumn Annals; Qu Yuan's exile is a tribute to Li Sao. Zuo Qiu is blind and has "Mandarin"; The ruler of the revised version of Sun Tzu's Art of War; It's not Shu, but Lu Lan. Han Fei imprisoned Qin, expressing embarrassment, loneliness and anger; There are 300 poems, which are generally attributed to the angry actions of sages. "The man was too depressed to understand his way, so he told the past and thought about those who came." Sima Qian's personal struggle experience and the thought of hard struggle praised in Historical Records are a precious wealth left by Sima Qian to future generations, which will inspire us forever and give us incomparable strength, confidence and courage when we are discouraged and on the verge of despair.
Historical Records is China's first people-centered great historical work and China's first people-centered great literary work. From a historical point of view, Historical Records initiated the "official history" of China's two thousand-year-old biographical dynasties. From the literary point of view, Historical Records shows people colorful and distinctive historical figures with colorful artistic techniques for the first time. There are emperors who shocked ancient and modern times, such as Qin Shihuang, Xiang Yu, Liu Bang and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. There are well-known courtiers such as Guan Zhong, Yan Ying, Xiao He and Sean; There are invincible stars such as Bai Qi, Han Xin, Wei Qing and Huo Qubing; There are reformers such as Wuqi, Shang Yang and King Wuling of Zhao. Other frugal types are Qu Yuan and Qin Wang; There are Zhang Yi, Su Qin and Qi. Chivalrous types include Lu Zhonglian, Jing Ke, Jia Zhu and Guo Jie; Funny ones are Chun Yukun, You Fang and so on. They are varied, and about one hundred of them can leave a deep impression on readers.
The remarkable difference between the characters in Historical Records and those in pre-Qin literature lies in their distinct personalities. Because the author pays great attention to the specific situation of each plot and scene, and strives to realistically express the psychological character of each character, the description language of Historical Records and the dialogues he designed for the characters in his works are extremely wonderful. I think we just need to carefully analyze the specific descriptions of plots and scenes in Biography of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru and Biography of Jing Ke, such as "Full Return to Zhao", "Mianchi Meeting", "Yi Shui Farewell" and "Qin Ting Sudden Change"; By analyzing the dialogues between Xiang Yu, Liu Bang and Sean in Biography of Gao Zu and Biography of Xiang Yu, we will be deeply fascinated by the author's superb ingenuity. When Liu Bang and Xiang Yu were in Xingyang in The Legend of Emperor Gaozu, Xiang Yu's men shot an arrow at Liu Bang's chest, and Liu Bang actually said,' I pinched my toe!' This is a vivid portrayal of Liu Bang's extremely clever, quick and natural conditioned improvisation, and at the same time, his personality of "openness", abuse and ridicule! Xiang Yu was besieged, and when he heard that the Han army was besieged on all sides at night, he "lamented and wrote poems for himself:' When the mountain was pulled out, he was angry with the world, and when it was unfavorable, he would not die. What can I do if I don't die, but what can I do if I worry? "Zhou Lianggong said in the Qing Dynasty," My concubine died and my children scattered, and my horse fled, and I was fascinated by Kamikozawa. Why did I have time to write songs and poems? Even if there is a work, whoever hears it and remembers it will call me this number. Whether there is anything, it should be Tai Shigong's pen to make up for it. "This statement can be said to reveal some important tricks of the literariness of Historical Records. It is also from these aspects that I say that Historical Records seems to have a leap-forward maturity in the method of shaping characters.
Another notable feature of Shiji literature is lyricism. Some works in Historical Records are short in length, but the whole work is like a poem, such as Biography of Boyi, Biography of Qu Yuan and Biography of a Ranger. The lyricism of a large number of chapters in Historical Records lies in the narration and discussion of the works, as well as the strong feelings of love and hate in the narration and description. Such as Biography of Xiang Yu, Biography of Wei Gongzi and Biography of General Li. The whole Historical Records is an ode to love, a curse of hate and a sad song full of the author's blood and tears. Lu Xun once said that Sima Qian "hated being a jester, was deeply ashamed of his life experience and passed on the grotesque to future generations." Although it recites the meaning of Spring and Autumn Annals, it is a masterpiece of historians, and Li Sao is a blank poem. " (Outline of China Literature History) The subjective color and lyricism of historical records are the strongest and most prominent in the "official history" of past dynasties.
The appearance of Historical Records determines the basic pattern of China's ancient biography, such as taking history as a mirror in thought, which is enlightening; The form is short, emphasizing the performance of characters, rather than the richness and completeness of materials, the exquisiteness of language, lyricism and so on. The methods of writing characters and stories in Historical Records have had a far-reaching impact on later novels and dramas in China. Numerous themes, paradigms, plots and scenes in Historical Records have opened up countless methods for later novels and dramas.
The establishment of Historical Records as the first biographical literature is of world significance. In the past, Europeans took Europe as the center, and they called Plutarch in ancient Greece "Biography of the king of world". Plutarch was born around 46 AD and died in 120 AD. He wrote 50 biographies (translated into Greek and Roman biographies), which was the beginning of European biographical literature. If we compare Plutarch in the ancient history of China, we can find that Plutarch was born 14 years later than Bangu (32-92) and 19 1 year later than Sima Qian. Sima Qian's Historical Records predates Plutarch's biography by almost two centuries.
Historical Records written by Sima Qian in the Western Han Dynasty plays a connecting role in the development of China's prose, which not only created the biographical history of China, but also created the biographical literature of China. It describes the history of more than 3,000 years from the Yellow Emperor to the early years of Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty. The whole book 103 has more than 500,000 words.
Sima Qian has a progressive view of history and a critical spirit of social reality and justice. His progressive thought is embodied in four aspects in Historical Records: exposing and satirizing the feudal ruling class, especially the supreme ruling group in Han Dynasty; It reflects the resistance of the broad masses of the people to feudal tyranny; Enthusiastically praised and affirmed a series of lower-level figures; Described a series of patriotic heroes.
Historical Records is not only a historical record, but also has high literary value. Its artistry is first manifested in the successful creation of many vivid characters by using real historical materials. In the characterization, Sima Qian tried to unify history, characters and themes, which not only made history alive, but also made characters alive. He is also very good at putting characters in sharp contradictions and conflicts, and completing the characterization of characters through their words and deeds.
The narrative of Historical Records is concise and vivid, especially the description of dramatic scenes, which increases the appeal of the work.
Sima Qian seldom used parallel prose, and formed his own simple, concise, popular and fluent language style, which was both relaxed and calm, harmonious and changeable. The language of Historical Records has always been regarded as the highest achievement of "ancient prose".