Originated in the Spring and Autumn Period in China, the number is extremely large. For example, The Spring and Autumn Annals, the earliest chronological history book in China, is said to have been compiled by Confucius according to the Spring and Autumn Annals compiled by Lu historians. Zuo Zhuan is the first complete chronological history book in China, formerly known as Zuo Zhuan, which was written in the Spring and Autumn Period. According to legend, Zuo Qiuming, a Lu historian, wrote the Spring and Autumn Annals for Confucius at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, which is called Zuo Zhuan for short. As a Mirror, Zi Tong Zhi Jian is the first general annals of China and the representative work of China's general annals. Sima Guang (10 19— 1086) was the editor of the Northern Song Dynasty, from the 23rd year of Zhou Weilie (403 BC) to the 6th year of Zhou Shizong's showing virtue in the Five Dynasties (959 AD).
Chronological history books are conducive to investigating the specific time of historical events, understanding the relationship between historical events, and avoiding narrative repetition. The disadvantage is that chronicles are classified by year and month, and it is difficult to concentrate on the whole process of each historical event. Events that cannot be arranged by year and month are difficult to record, and they are often detailed in political events, ignoring economy and culture.
A form of East Asian history books is a compilation style of history books with biographies and characters as the key link and time as the latitude, which reflects historical events.
The outstanding feature of biographical history books is to focus on a large number of biographies, which is a further combination of memorizing words and taking notes. In terms of genre form, biography is a synthesis of biography, biography, record and table. This chronicle is basically a chronicle, and it also describes the deeds of the emperor himself. Family mainly records the history of princes and nobles. Biography is the biography of representative figures in all aspects. The records of books are about laws and regulations and the history of nature and society. Tables are used to express complex social situations and many people who cannot be written into biographies one by one. Excellent biographical history books combine these genres to form a complementary whole in a history book. It is a mixture of various schools and has its own special specifications.
The earliest biographical history book in China is also the best history book in China. It's Historical Records compiled by Sima Qian in the Western Han Dynasty. Historical Records began with the legendary Huangdi and ended in the early years of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, where the author lived. It lasted for 3,000 years and consisted of 130 articles, the titles of which were Biography, Watch, Book, Family and Biography. Centered on emperors of past dynasties, this chronicle is a chronology of major events, including secretarial etiquette, official system and economic system, biographies of aristocratic families and biographies of various important historical figures, ethnic minorities and neighboring countries before Emperor Wu, among which aristocratic families and biographies account for 100. In order to complete this masterpiece, Sima Qian spent more than 20 years traveling all over the country to inspect the folk customs of scenic spots and historical sites, and devoted his life to it. The ancient historical materials of Historical Records are extremely precious, and many records have become precious documents for modern people to study ancient history. The historical analysis and evaluation of Historical Records are also relatively objective, with certain popularity and scientificity. For example, ancient historians rarely affirm the progressive role of Chen Sheng, the leader of the peasant uprising, and use the genre of "aristocratic family" as a biography. Historical Records is not only an immortal historical work, but also an excellent literary work. Sima Qian is good at portraying characters in simple terms, and Lu Xun even called Historical Records "a poem with no rhyme for historians".
However, Historical Records only lasted until Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, so many people made up Records of Historical Records in the Han Dynasty. Among them, Han Shu by Ban Gu is the most admired by later generations. This is a biographical chronology, describing the history of the Western Han Dynasty for 229 years. Since Hanshu was written, the style of historical books with discipline, expression, ambition and biography as the main forms and time as the history has become the standard form of "official history" in later generations. Other historical books of China's official Twenty-four History are written in a biographical way according to the style of Historical Records. The twenty-four histories are also attached with records and tables as appendices. Some history books in Korea and Japan are also written in biographies.
However, biographies also have their disadvantages, that is, "reading several articles on the same thing can't distinguish the subject from the object", and the historical events are recorded in biographies of characters separately, resulting in repeated contradictions. It was not until the Southern Song Dynasty that the original and final chronological style appeared, which overcame the defects of chronological style and biographical style and integrated its advantages.
3 Also called Canon System, Canon System History Book, centering on Canon System, records the canon system of past dynasties and its gains and losses due to reform. It is characterized by classification and was once called a classification book. Canon history books are separated from biographical history books and developed into an independent genre.
The first influential classic in China's ancient historiography is Du You's General Code, a historian in the Tang Dynasty. (Before that, Liu Zhiji's son Herry Liu's Zhengdian, and Du You's Tongdian was expanded on its basis, so his book was replaced by Tongdian, which has not been circulated in the world so far. ), * * * two hundred volumes, divided into food, election, official, ceremony, music, military, punishment, state and county, border defense, there are nine doors, there are Buddhism under the door, and there are details under the Buddhism. The contents of the book are collected from the history of the Five Classics, from the Yellow Emperor to the end of Tianbao in the Tang Dynasty.
At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, Ma Duanlin wrote A General Examination of Documents, with a total of 348 volumes, which was more than that of General Code. General Canon and General Examination of Documents are both general histories of canon system, and later generations and General Records are collectively called "three links".
Zheng Qiao's Tongzhi in the Southern Song Dynasty is a biographical history book, and the canon part is called "Brief". From the nature of the book, it belongs to biographical general history.
There was a sequel to the "three links", and by the end of the Qing Dynasty, the total number was "ten links". Among them, the official description of repairing the three links lasted until the end of the Ming Dynasty, and the three links in the Qing Dynasty continued until the book was written, that is, about 50 years. Because Tongzhi is a general history of biography, the sequel only lasted this part of twenty chapters. Six famous works 1560. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Liu Jinzao wrote 400 volumes of "A General Examination of Continued Qing Literature" independently, which lasted until the end of the Qing Dynasty.
In addition, the chronological history books began with forty volumes of Yao Hui by Su Mian in the Tang Dynasty, which recorded the current events of Tang Gaozong to Dezong. When Xuanzong proclaimed the Emperor, the sequel Yao Hui had 40 volumes, which was easy to be renewed because of its long history.
Chronicle is a kind of historical book style which takes events as the main line and brings together relevant specialized materials. Yuan Shu, the founder of the Southern Song Dynasty, adopted this style in his History as a Mirror. Chronological style is different from chronological style and biographical style. Instead, it focuses on taking notes, recording major events in history in detail, and focusing on their processes. Both chronological style and biographical style have obvious shortcomings in notes.
Yuan Shu's History as a Mirror in the Southern Song Dynasty formally established this style. Since then, many historical books have been adapted or created in this style, such as History of Song Dynasty, History of Yuan Dynasty by Chen Bangzhan, History of Xixia by Zhang Jian, History of Ming Dynasty by Qing Gu Yingtai and History of Qing Dynasty by Huang Hongshou. , throughout ancient and modern times, self-contained. This is a chronicle of past dynasties.
Take the country as a unit and record historical events separately.
"Guoyu" is the first annals of China's national history, also known as the annals of the country, and it is a historical prose with notes from some countries. It started in western Zhou Muwang and ended in Lu Daogong in the early Warring States period, covering the history of eight countries: Zhou, Lu, Qi, Jin, Zheng, Chu and wuyue. Its original recorder may be historians of various countries, and it was compiled into a book by historians of Jin State during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The chronicle of Guoyu is much more detailed and vivid than Chunqiu, and it also preserves many precious historical materials. The Warring States Policy is a compilation of historical materials during the Warring States Period. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Xiang sorted out 33 books, which were divided into three national policies: Eastern Zhou, Western Zhou, Qin, Qi, Chu, Zhao, Wei, Han, Song, Wei, Zhongshan, etc. 12, and named it Warring States Policy. The History of the Three Kingdoms by Chen Shou in Jin Dynasty recorded the history of Wei, Shu and Wu.
A historical book that describes the historical facts of each era coherently is called general history, which is just the opposite of dynastic history.
For example, Sima Qian's Historical Records in the Western Han Dynasty can also be called a general history. Because he recorded the historical facts that lasted more than 3,000 years from the legendary Yellow Emperor to the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. There is also Sima Guang's Zi Tong Zhi Jian, which is also a famous general history. "General history" can be understood as a comprehensive history, that is, the history of a country or region or the world from the earliest civilization to the time when the author of history books is located.
Since it is called a general history, it is first required to describe a wide range of contents, and all important events and research topics (military, cultural, and artistic) are not deeply involved but must be involved. Secondly, it is required to reflect the historical development context or the clues running through it in the narrative, giving people a holistic understanding.
The main feature is that it only records the history of a certain period or a certain dynasty.
Such as Hanshu. Hanshu is the first chronological history book in China, which is divided into 12 chapter, 8 tables, 10 chapter, 70 biographies and *** 100 chapter, with 800,000 words. From the first year of Emperor Gaozu to the fourth year of Emperor Wangmang, the history was ***229 years. The twenty-four histories from Shiji to Shi Ming, except Shiji, are all dynastic histories. The above six styles are classified according to different standards. In fact, the same history book can be divided into different styles according to different standards. For example, The History of the Three Kingdoms is not only a biographical history book, but also a national history book, and it also belongs to the historical book style of dynastic history.