Historical Records is a biographical history book written by Sima Qian, a famous historian in the Western Han Dynasty. It is the first biographical general history in the history of China, and is listed as the first of the "Twenty-four History", which records the history of more than 3,000 years from the legendary Huangdi era to the first year of founding ceremony, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Together with The History of the Later Han Dynasty, The History of the Later Han Dynasty and The History of the Three Kingdoms, they are called "the first four histories".
Historical Records had a far-reaching influence on the development of later historiography and literature. His original biographical method of compiling history was passed down by the "official history" of later generations. At the same time, Historical Records, as an excellent literary work, occupies an important position in the history of China literature. It is praised by Lu Xun as "the swan song of historians", which has no rhyme with Li Sao and has high literary value. Liu Xiang and others think that this book is "good in order and reason, argumentative but not flashy, qualitative but not vulgar".
The Great Contribution of Historical Records
Historical science
First, establish an outstanding general history school.
Historical Records is the first general history masterpiece in the history of Chinese historiography. It is precisely because historical records can be written into a book, which sets a precedent and an example, so people who follow this genre to compile and edit history have begun. The style of general historians has always influenced the research and writing of modern historiography.
Secondly, the independent position of historiography was established.
In ancient China, historiography was included in the category of Confucian classics and had no independent status. Therefore, Liu Xin's Seven Outlooks and Ban Gu's Records of Literature and Art both attached the books of the History Department to the Spring and Autumn Annals. Since Sima Qian compiled Historical Records, there have been more and more specialized historical works. Therefore, in the Jin Dynasty, Xun Xu adapted to the new requirements and divided the ancient books into four parts: Part A recorded the Six Arts Primary School, Part B recorded the martial arts of various schools, Part C recorded the historical records of emperors, and Part D recorded poetry and singing. As a result, historiography has gained an independent position in the academic field of China. Thinking about the source of drinking water should be attributed to Sima Qian and his Historical Records.
Third, the literary tradition of historical biography has been established.
Sima Qian's literary accomplishment is profound, and his artistic means are particularly ingenious. Often, some extremely complicated facts are handled in a very proper and orderly manner, and then they are far-sighted, knowledgeable, vivid in words, tempered in brushwork, full of emotion, handy and vivid in image, which makes people "exclaim and clap their hands, I don't know why." The beauty of Rong Zhai's Essays and Historical Records. Among them, Biography of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru is included in the primary school Chinese experimental textbook 18.
Folding culture
Historical Records has made great contributions to ancient novels, dramas, biographical literature,
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Prose has a wide and far-reaching influence.
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.