(1), Historical Records and other books.
Historical Records is Sima Qian's masterpiece and the first biographical general history of China. It is not only a great historical work, but also a great literary work. Liang Qichao, who is next to him, praised this masterpiece as "a masterpiece through the ages". Lu Xun praised it as "a masterpiece of historians, a blank poem" Li Sao "(an outline of China's literary history). Historical Records inherited and published Zuo Zhuan.
Historical Records consists of five styles: Ji, Biao, Shu, Shi Jia and Biography. Book 130, including Ji 12, Biao 10, Shi Jia 8, 30 and 70 biographies.
(2) Five forms of Historical Records.
First of all, the chronicle records the rise and fall of emperors and major historical events.
Second, the table records important historical events in chronological order.
Thirdly, the book records the evolution of various laws and regulations and the astronomical calendar.
Fourthly, Shijia records the deeds of princes and people with special status who were founded and handed down from generation to generation since Zhou Dynasty.
Fifthly, Biography records the deeds of representatives from all walks of life, including famous thinkers, politicians, militarists and writers, as well as biographies of officials, scholars, cruel officials, rangers, assassins, famous doctors, Japanese, turtle males and businessmen.
(3) The characteristics of Historical Records in describing characters.
First, select major historical events related to the rise and fall of the world, and highlight the character through dramatic and fierce conflicts.
Second, using "cross talk" to supplement the narrative and explain some relevant historical background, cleanliness or details can not only avoid the repetition of the narrative, but also make the personality characteristics of the characters clearer and more complete.
Third, pay attention to describing outstanding characters with details.
Fourth, be good at writing characters' expressions in language that conforms to their identities.
2. Hanshu
(1), Hanshu and other books.
Ban Gu's historical work Hanshu, also known as Pre-Hanshu. It mainly started in the first year of Emperor Gaozu (206 BC) and ended in the fourth year of Emperor Wang Mang (AD 23), covering the historical events of the Western Han Dynasty in 230 years (including the short-lived Wang Mang regime). It is another important historical book in ancient China after Historical Records. Its style basically inherits the Historical Records.
Historical Records is the first general history of China, and Hanshu is the first dynastic history. The later Official History is also a dynastic history, and its style is mostly based on Hanshu.
Hanshu enjoyed a high reputation in ancient times, and was called "Han Shi" together with Shiji, or "History of the Later Han Dynasty" and "History of the Three Kingdoms".
(2) The writing characteristics of Hanshu.
First, the text is concise and clear.
Second, the author often contains praise and criticism in his straightforward narrative, and his discretion is quite accurate.
Thirdly, the author has made great efforts in selecting materials and is good at tailoring.
Fourthly, structurally, the author pays great attention to the interpretation of historical events.
Fifth, the author collects a large number of prose poems, which strengthens the literariness, but too many quotations sometimes affect the coherence of the style.
3. The development of China's historical biographical literature;
(1), pre-Qin history books: Shangshu, Chunqiu, Zuozhuan, Mandarin, Warring States Policy, etc. When describing historical events, we began to pay attention to the vividness of plots and details; It is the embryonic form of historical biography literature to highlight the personality characteristics of characters' words and deeds when describing characters.
(2) Sima Qian's Records of the Historian broke through the chronicle-centered form of pre-Qin history books, and the whole book focuses on people to write history, which is literary. It is the * * * of the development of historical biographical literature. Han Shu by Ban Gu is not as literary as Historical Records, but some historical figures are also vividly depicted.
(3) Since Hanshu, historical biography literature has a tendency to weaken literariness and strengthen historicity, mainly focusing on the revision of history. Zhao Ye's Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu Yue and Liu Xiang's Biography of Woman are more literary and close to novels. After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there were the History of the Three Kingdoms and the Book of the Later Han Dynasty.
Historical biography literature is an important source of later novels and essays, both in subject matter and writing techniques.