In literature, it 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.
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, the context of the characters' life from beginning to end, the plots arranged in strict chronological order and the author's direct comments. All these important features mainly come from historical records.
There are many historical novels drawn directly from historical records. In drama, Historical Records, with its dramatic stories, vivid characters and sharp conflicts, naturally became a treasure house for future generations to draw materials from drama. According to statistics, only 16 kinds of Yuan Zaju are adapted from historical records, including the world-famous masterpiece Orphan of Zhao. 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.
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. The literariness of later history books is obviously not as good as that of Historical Records, but its quantity is huge. 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.
In the aspect of prose other than historical biography, due to the prevalence of parallel prose in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties and early Tang Dynasty, the influence of Historical Records is not obvious; After the mid-Tang Dynasty, due to the continuous promotion of the ancient prose movement advocated by Han Yu and others, the stylistic innovation movement advocated by Ouyang Xiu and others in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the literary retro movement advocated by the seven sons in the first and last part of the Ming Dynasty, the influence of Historical Records is increasing day by day, and it is regarded as a lofty model of "ancient prose" as opposed to parallel prose. Eight masters in Tang and Song Dynasties, Gui Youguang in Ming Dynasty, and even essayists of Tongcheng School and Yanghu School in Qing Dynasty all wrote articles in Historical Records. Of course, the reasons why these writers admire Historical Records and the gains and losses of learning Historical Records are very complicated and can only be analyzed in the relevant chapters in the future.