(1) Grasp the main features and highlight the characters.
By focusing on describing some vivid stories and details, the characters are highlighted. If you only choose two representative battles: one encounter and one escape, Li Guang's amazing wit and superhuman courage are displayed in the tense and thrilling battle description. Such as shooting Xiongnu archers, shooting the enemy's white horse generals, shooting back the enemy's pursuit, mistaking stones for tigers instead of clustering, even these details are described in detail, which shows Li Guang's good marksmanship incisively and vividly.
(2) Use the restrained and implicit narrative style to express deep and strong love and hate and their own subjective understanding.
For example, in Xiongnu Entering Xiao Guan, Wendi regretted that Li Guangsheng was not "timely", which was very meaningful. His quotation also included euphemistic criticism of the employment system during Wendi's period. At the end of the article, Li Guang wrote: "The scholar-officials in Guang Jun army cried. When the people heard it, they all cried. " There is no discussion or lyric here, but the author's praise, sympathy, grief and bitterness for Li Guang are all included in the narrative.
(3) Reveal the fate of characters and enrich their images through comparison. The full text not only writes the deeds of General Li everywhere, but also records the unfair treatment he suffered, forming a strong contrast and contrast. In order to make Li Guang's image full of three-dimensional sense, the article quoted Emperor Wendi's admiration: "It's a pity that the child was born at the wrong time!" If your son becomes Emperor Gao, why are there feet everywhere? "He also quoted the title of" Flying General "given by the Huns, showing Li Guang's talent from the side.
(4) The language is popular and rich in literary talent.
For example, writing about the experience of Li Guang and Xiongnu shocked the whole army because they were outnumbered. At this time, Li Guang was as cool as a cucumber and ordered the whole army to approach the Xiongnu army to show his courage. "Tell the riders,' Front!' I stopped before I went to Xiongnu Chen Erli. "Sixteen words, divided into four sentences and two words" money ",have different meanings. The first word "money", written as a password, summed up the command of Li Guangru's "The Voice of Thunder", saying that only by going forward bravely can we overwhelm the enemy and strive for survival. The second word "Qian" is written about the heroic momentum of the whole army marching forward neatly. The word "stop" shows the will of the whole army. Sixteen words and four sentences vividly depict the indomitable spirit of the Han army and outline the big scene of the meeting between the two armies. It is really exquisite.
literariness
Biography of General Li is Sima Qian's masterpiece, which fully shows the author's outstanding talent in biography. Grasping the main features and highlighting the characters is one of Sima Qian's best methods. In this paper, the author grasps the most prominent features of Li Guang, and makes great efforts to depict the characters through some vivid stories and details, which makes the characters extremely vivid. For example, he skillfully rode a hundred horses to scare off thousands of Huns, was injured and captured, but was able to fly out of danger, led 4 thousand people to be besieged by 40 thousand enemy troops, remained fearless in times of crisis, and commanded decisively, and so on. Through these thrilling battle stories, Li Guang's wisdom and courage are highlighted. Especially for Li Guang's good marksmanship, the author takes great pains to describe it in detail, such as shooting Xiongnu archers, shooting the enemy's white horse generals, shooting off the enemy's pursuit, mistaking stones for tigers instead of fighting, and even drinking with archers and soldiers at ordinary times. These wonderful clips are like close-ups, vividly showing the elegance of famous players.
Sima Qian's biography is often sentimental. In this biography of General Li, he expressed his deep sympathy for Li Guang and his indignation at those in power. These feelings of the author are mainly reflected in the narrative. For example, writing Cai Li's "I am an inferior person, and my reputation is far from wide", but I can seal the white elephant; Write Wei Qing favoritism, crowding out Li Guang. In these two paragraphs, we can all feel the indignation of the author. After the news of Li Guang's anger and suicide came out, "the scholar-officials in Guang Jun cried. When the people heard it, they all cried. " Writing about the sorrow of the whole army and the people naturally includes the author's personal sorrow. We can imagine that when Tai Shigong wrote here, he must have tears in his eyes.
In addition, such as side contrast, negative contrast, exquisite tailoring, structural ups and downs, refined and fluent language, vivid and vivid. , is the outstanding feature of this masterpiece of biographical literature.
With the advent of this masterpiece, Li Guang's heroic image is gradually engraved in people's hearts. "But make Longcheng fly, and don't teach Huma to cross the Yinshan Mountain." (Wang Changling's "The Embankment") "You see, the battlefield is bitter. Today we are named Li, a great general who lived a long time ago." (Ge Yanxing by Gao Shi) These well-known Tang poems vividly express the feelings of later generations for this generation of celebrities.
historical
Praise Virtue and Express Injustice —— Reading Biography of Historical Records and Li Liezhuan
Liang Qichao once criticized that "the old historian admonished the facts without any purpose" and emphasized the "far-reaching purpose" of historical records. Sima Qian wrote Historical Records to express his ideals, right and wrong, praise and criticism. Although he abides by Confucius' creed of "breaking his word" and claims to "tell stories in sequence, not write stories", he has taken great pains in selecting and sorting out historical materials, so he can become a family statement. This is fully reflected in Historical Records and Biography of Li.
Mao Duiyun: "(Li Guang) is the most famous, but it is also the most ineffective." However, in historical records, he is particularly valued.
1. The Biography of General Wei's title of generals in ancient times records that "his (Wei Qing's) lieutenant is already 14 generals", but the only one is the general named Li Guang, who has his own biography ". Cheng Wuming is equal to Li Guang in experience and status, but Cheng Wuming only mentions his own life experience in Biography of Li, which is quite different from Li Guang's Biography of Independence.
2. Most of the great generals recorded in Historical Records wrote their names directly on the titles. Even if the master was once given an official title, he used the title as the title, but at the beginning of the article he called him by his first name. Li Guanguan was not a former general, but was named "Biography of General Li", and at the beginning of the biography was called "Broader General Li" by Sima Qian, which shows how much the author respects him.
Both Li Guang and Wei Qing fought against Xiongnu. Li Guang, as a general, passed before Xiongnu Biography, and Wei Qing, as a general, passed after Xiongnu Biography, which shows Sima Qian's praise and criticism of them.
Sima Qian likes Li Guang so much for several reasons. The most superficial reason, or what Sima Qian can and has conveyed through words, is his general intention to write biographies of historical records.
Sima Qian claimed that his book should "learn from the changes of ancient and modern times and become a family statement", and his understanding of life (the changes of ancient and modern times) preceded the social summary. He also said that it is necessary to make a biography for those who "help others, are charming, don't waste their time, and their merits are famous all over the world." It can be seen that "Historical Records" is people-oriented, emphasizing individual subjective initiative and praising the beauty of personality. As a summary of Historical Records, The Preface to Taishi Gong says: "Be brave as an enemy, be kind to your soldiers, and make it the 49th biography of General Li." This shows that Sima Qian's biography of Li Guang is based on the courage of benevolence and righteousness, which is quite different from his disciples' contributions in writing Biography of General Wei.
Sima Qian once showed the beauty of personality he admired in his book "Reporting as Shao Qing": "Those who cultivate themselves are also the home of wisdom; Love the giver, the end of benevolence is also; Take, the symbol of righteousness; Shame and courage; Those who are famous do very well. Scholars have these five things, and then they can win the trust of the world and rank among gentlemen. " As a military commander, Li Guang was "good at shooting" and "committed to shooting like a play, but he died". He repeatedly solved problems and defeated the enemy by relying on good shooting, relying on "self-cultivation"; Running the army is both broad and fine, honest and dedicated. "All rewards are divided into subordinates, and the diet is related to scholars." Quite a "benevolence of love" and "righteousness of taking"; It is a shame to kill the commander of Baling rather than pick up the knife and pen collectors, so he has the "courage" to keep the trapped people from chaos; Emperor Wen mourned for it, Gong Sunkun wept for it, and Khan was famous for his virtue. "On the day of his death, those who are known by the world are all sad", which makes him famous all over the world for a long time. Li Guang's five virtues are the ideal personality in Sima Qian's mind. No wonder there are a series of praises at the end of the biography, and none of them involve anything else. Sima Qian wrote The Biography of General Wei's title of generals in ancient times because of the exploits of Wei Qing and Huo Qubing. As for their personalities, Sima Qian thinks that they can be included in Xing Xing Biography after Li Chuan.