Chen Shou received strict family education since childhood. His parents spared no expense to build a place for him to study, Wanjuan Building, at the foot of Guoshan Mountain in the west of the city, and hired a famous local Confucian scholar as a teacher. About the middle and late period of Yan Xi (238-257), Chen Shou said goodbye to his father and went to imperial academy in Chengdu, the capital of Shu and Han Dynasties. At that time, Qiao Zhou, a disciple of Fu Qin, a Sichuan scholar, and a native of Guo County, Xichong (in Langzhong, Sichuan), was engaged in the study of Canon in Chengdu and personally preached and taught Taitai students.
In imperial academy, Chen Shou studied the Confucian classics Shangshu and Three Biographies of the Spring and Autumn Annals diligently, and learned the ancient sages' way of governing the country and leveling the world. I especially like historical masterpieces, and I take pains to read Historical Records by Sima Qian and Hanshu by Ban Gu. In the dead of night, I often stay alone. Qiao Zhou attaches great importance to this disciple and often teaches alone. Therefore, he was highly praised by imperial academy's teachers and students, and was praised as Ziyou and Xia Zi among the 72 sages of Confucius.
After arriving in Yan Xi, Chen Shou began his official career. One is to serve as the main book of general Wei Jiang Wei and collect documents. Later, he was transferred to Dongguan as a doctor and Huangmen as an assistant minister. At this time, Shu Han's national strength gradually declined, Cao Wei's army in the north was under siege, and the master idled all day, ignoring state affairs, and eunuch Huang Hao took the opportunity to be authoritarian, so Shu Han's political arena fell into unprecedented chaos, and Chen Shou was unwilling to curry favor with him, and his official career was frustrated. During this period, Chen Shou's father passed away. After the funeral, Chen Shou fell ill. During the period, the maid-in-waiting personally prepared medicine for her, and because she was too close to the maid-in-waiting (not allowed to be close to women during mourning in ancient times), she was laughed at by the village, so that she could not be promoted for many years.
In the first year of Xing (263), Si Mazhao divided his troops and attacked Shu on a large scale. The Shu army was unable to resist and finally had to surrender. The following year, Chen Shou returned to his hometown full of national Chou He hatred. Since then, Chen Shou has lived in seclusion in his hometown of Han An for nearly ten years.
In the second year of Wei Xianxi (265), Sima Yan abolished Cao Huan, the Emperor of Wei Yuan, established the Western Jin Dynasty, and changed the title of a surname. In order to eliminate Sun Wu and unify the whole country, the court of the Western Jin Dynasty recruited talents and scholars extensively, and used Wei Shu ministers and ancestors' children. In the spring of the fourth year of Taishi (268), Luo Xian, a native of Xiangyang, Wuling, and Chen Shou were classmates of Shu Han and imperial academy in his early years. He strongly recommended Chen Shou and others, and Emperor Wu of Jin immediately issued a letter to Chen Shou to use in Luoyang.
After Chen Shou entered Luoyang, he was awarded the post of Lang and was also in charge of talent selection in Brazil. The secretariat ordered Hou Guan to invite Emperor Wu of Jin, and ordered Chen Shou to compile a collection for Prime Minister Zhuge Liang. Soon, Chen Shou was ordered to make up Pingyang (now Linfen West, Shanxi). At this time, when the Western Jin Dynasty strongly advocated attaching importance to agriculture and promoting profits, Chen Shou, while diligent in government affairs, squeezed out his spare time to compile the Collected Works of Zhuge Liang, which lasted for several years and was finally compiled into "Every Classic10412", which comprehensively combed and preserved Zhuge Liang's successful experience in enriching Qiang Bing and managing and strengthening the army. In February, the tenth year of Taishi (273), Chen Shou returned to Beijing from Pingyang to present this book, which was appreciated by Emperor Wu of Jin and named the author Lang. After that, Chen Shou was transferred from Pingyang to Luoyang, Kyoto, and continued to serve as Zhongzheng in Brazil County.
In the first year of Taikang (280), the Western Jin Dynasty wiped out Wu, and China, which had been divided for more than 100 years, was reunified. Out of political needs, Chen Shou is duty-bound to take on the heavy responsibility of writing the History of the Three Kingdoms. Since then, he has diligently collected and sorted out archives and documents of the Three Kingdoms period, published four anecdotes, folk rumors and ballads about visiting historical figures, visited the remains of celebrities in the Three Kingdoms, and evaluated the surnames, year numbers, official titles and deeds of old historical figures. After ten years, the compilation of The Three Kingdoms was basically completed in the tenth year of Taikang (290).
Sixty-five volumes of * * * and one volume of "LULU" (lost today), with a total of nearly 400,000 words, concisely describe the historical panorama of China's transition from division to unification during the last hundred years from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the early Jin Dynasty. Later, Chen Shou revised and corrected the book many times until Yuan Kang died in Luoyang in 297. Therefore, the compilation of the History of the Three Kingdoms lasted nearly twenty years.
In addition, as a native of Shu, Chen Shou also wrote a book "Old Biography of Ibrahimovic". This book records the anecdotes of hundreds of famous people in Sichuan from the Western Han Dynasty to the early Jin Dynasty, and is widely praised by scholars in the Western Jin Dynasty. Wang Xianzhi, a famous calligrapher in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, once wrote Yi Bu Zhuan as a gift to his friends.
Chang Qu, a resident of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, not only enjoyed a high reputation, but also drew lessons from this book when writing Huayang Guozhi. Later Chang Kuan's Biography of the Continuing Benefit Department also followed the book system. Later, Pei Songzhi made notes on the Three Kingdoms, Li Daoyuan, Xu Jian's Notes for Beginners, and Song Dynasty's Magnolia. , a large number of references to this book to supplement the old history or enrich the old anecdotes. This shows that the world attaches importance to this book.
The advantages of reflection-
The history of the three kingdoms is carefully selected. The author carefully examines historical facts, carefully selects unreliable materials and carefully selects the sources of materials, without making any comments or compiling. There are as many as 20 imperial edicts in Pei Songzhi's Notes on the History of the Three Kingdoms. In the History of the Three Kingdoms and Emperor Wendi, Chen Shou wrote this great event in only one book with the word 173. For Sun Ce's death, Chen Shou abandoned the false birth legends in Search of Ji Shen and other books, only remembering that Sun Ce was attacked by Xu Gong's assassin and even died of serious injuries. All these reflect his attitude of careful revision and careful selection of historical facts.
The History of the Three Kingdoms was good at narration, concise in writing and properly tailored, and was praised by many parties at that time. Xiahou Zhan, a contemporary of Chen Shou, wanted to write Shu Wei. After reading the History of the Three Kingdoms, he found it unnecessary to write a new history, so he ruined the original. Later generations even think that the history books that record the history of the Three Kingdoms are only written by Chen Shou, which can be compared with Historical Records and Hanshu. Therefore, the chronicles of the Three Kingdoms of other schools have been lost in obscurity one after another, and only the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms has survived to this day.
Liu Xie, a Liang native in the Southern Dynasties, said in the article "A Historical Biography of Wen Xin Diao Long": "Chen Shou and Wei Sanjie wrote stories and told stories, and Yang Qiu, Wei Lue, Jiang Biao and Lu Wu were all alike, either challenging or sparse. Only Chen Shou's "History of the Three Kingdoms" is outstanding in literary quality, and Xun (Xu) and Zhang (Hua) are more moving and consolidated than (Sima), which is not a hollow reputation. " In other words, those historical books of the same kind are either extreme in argument and insufficient in basis, or sparse in writing and irrelevant in text. Only Chen Shou's works achieve a high degree of unity between historical facts and written expression.
Chen Shou can also conceal the truth in his narrative without losing records, and promote beauty without concealing shortcomings. In the era when Chen Shou lived, all kinds of political relations were complicated, and historical issues and practical issues were intertwined. Chen Shou tried to reflect the historical truth in a tortuous way. The History of the Three Kingdoms is somewhat secretive about the relationship between the Han and Wei Dynasties, but the wording is slight and true, and some real situations are revealed elsewhere. For example, in the first year of Jian 'an (196), Emperor Xian of Han moved the capital to Xuchang, which was Cao Cao's attempt to "hold the emperor to make the princes". Here, Chen Shou doesn't need to write clearly Cao Cao's political intentions, which is taboo. But when it comes to moving the capital, it is not called the son of heaven, but it is said that Dong Zhao and others advised Mao Shi, which is a complaint. In addition, he also recorded the real situation at that time in Biography of Yu Xun, Biography of Dong Zhao and Biography of Lv Meng. In addition, although Chen Shou has a feeling of motherland for Shu Han, he did not conceal the fault of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, but wrote down Liu Bei's personal hatred for killing Changyu and Zhuge Liang for misusing Ma Su. This is also a manifestation of good historical talents.
The History of the Three Kingdoms is not only a historical masterpiece, but also a literary masterpiece. On the basis of respecting historical facts, Chen Shou painted portraits of the Three Kingdoms for us in concise and beautiful language. The characters are very vivid, the words are concise and clean, and they are extremely readable.
For example, Biography of the First Master records that Cao Cao and Liu Bei cooked wine and talked about heroes. Cao Cao said, "Today, heroes in the world are only kings, but they only listen. There are not enough people at the beginning of this book ",and" the first person to eat lost his dagger and chopsticks ". In just a few lines, Liu Bei's character of keeping a low profile is vividly on the paper. According to The Biography of Monroe, Cao Cao heard that Sun Quan set up Jingzhou to help Liu Bei stand on his own feet, so he wrote a book and put pen to paper. In a few words, Cao Cao's fear of Sun Liu's alliance came to the fore. The elegance of celebrities, the strategy of counselors and the ferocity of military commanders in the book are mostly vivid.
In addition, Chen Shou also showed interest in making the title characters in the book. He said that Liu Bei was a hero, Cao Cao was a peerless hero, Sun Ce and Sun Quan were heroes, Zhuge Liang, Zhou Yu and Lu Su were wizards, Pang Tong, Cheng Yu, Guo Jia and Dong Zhao were wizards, Dong He and Liu Ba were scholars, He Shen and Chang Lin were beauties, Xu Miao and Hu Zhi were Yan Shi, RoyceWong and Fu Qin were intellectuals, and Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and He were intellectuals.
The shortcomings of The Romance of The Three Kingdoms-
The History of the Three Kingdoms is called ambition, but it is not ambitious. Wei Zhi has biographies and biographies, while Shu Zhi and Wu Zhi only have biographies. As a minister of the Jin Dynasty, Chen Shou succeeded Wei and won the world, so the History of the Three Kingdoms respected Wei as orthodox. Therefore, The Three Kingdoms wrote Liang Wudi Ji, Wendi Ji and Ming Di Ji for Cao Cao, Cao Pi and Cao Cao respectively, while Shu Shu took Liu Bei and Liu Chan as the first and second biographies. I remember Sun Quan's name is Wu, and Sun Liang, Sun Xiu and Sun Hao are three heirs. This is an example of compiling history books to serve politics, and it is also a feature of the History of the Three Kingdoms.
As far as recording methods are concerned, Biography of the Ancients and Biography of Wu are the same as chronicles, but they are not called chronicles. Chen Shou's handling in this way was in line with the actual situation at that time. Generally speaking, the history of the Three Kingdoms is relatively simple, which may be related to the quantity of historical materials. Chen Shouxiu's History of the Three Kingdoms belonged to contemporary history at that time, and many things were experienced, heard and witnessed by him personally, which was quite true. However, due to the recent history, many historical materials have not been made public. At the same time, due to the lingering grievances, it is difficult to be fair, which also brings certain difficulties to the selection of materials and the revision of history.
Comparing the three books of Wei, Shu and Wu, there are only fifteen volumes, which is simpler than Wei and Wu. This is probably the reason why Wei and Wu have more historical materials than Shu. When Chen Shou wrote The History of the Three Kingdoms, Wei had it and Wu had it, which provided great convenience for Chen Shou to collect historical materials. However, there are neither historians nor ready-made historical books to learn from in Shu and Han dynasties, so it is very difficult to collect historical materials. Chen Shou worked hard and even paid attention to searching for some fragmentary articles. Shu Shu only got fifteen volumes. The deeds of many important figures in Shu Shu are recorded very briefly, which shows that the historical materials of Shu Han are quite lacking.
Another drawback of Chen Shou's criticism by later generations is that there are sometimes melodies in the book, and there are many people in power. Liu Zhiji in Tang Dynasty criticized Chen Shou and Wang Yin for being partial to the then rulers Cao Cao and Sima Yi when compiling history. The most serious defeat is the murder of the noble township public. According to Han Shu Jin Shu Chun Qiu, Wei Shu Chun Qiu, Shiyu, Biography of the Late Wei Dynasty and other records, the conflict between Cao Mao and the nobles was actually a conspiracy, but Chen Shou downplayed it. No wonder Zhao Yi, an official in A Qing, lamented, "This is the case, and there is no biographical record. This is especially true. However, this is still an official in Jin, and I am not afraid. " Cao Wei left the DPRK, so why bother? "
Zhao Yi's criticism is incisive and profound, and there are many examples. For example, Cao Cao's killing innocent people when he conquered Tao Qian was an understatement. I still remember Cao Wei's "only avoiding defeat and boasting victory" in the battle of Shu, so that Zhao Yi thought that Chen Shou was not only involved in protecting the supreme ruler, but also a taboo in biographies. Of course, it is also possible that the Wei and Jin materials referred to by Chen Shou were originally recorded in this way, and Chen Shou did not modify or dare to tamper with them. Historians should abide by the principle of emphasizing truth and not concealing evil in compiling history, and writing is naturally not enough for training. It is also understandable that the editing of contemporary history is embarrassing because of Chen Shou's specific historical environment. Therefore, future generations believe that, except for sensitive issues and power figures involved in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, other descriptions in the book are accurate and credible.
The History of the Three Kingdoms has the characteristics of simple words, but it also causes the shortcomings of insufficient historical materials. In the sixth year of Song Yuanjia (429), Pei Songzhi was instructed by Song Wendi to annotate the Three Kingdoms. He collected 140 kinds of books and kept a large number of historical materials for the purpose of filling in gaps, preparing for differences, punishing mistakes and debating classics. His annotations are three times more than the main text, creating a new paradigm of annotations. The two learn from each other's strengths and make the Three Kingdoms stand in the forest of "Twenty-five History".