Sima Qian

Sima Qian (90 years before 145) was a famous historian, writer and thinker in the Western Han Dynasty. Zichang was born in xia yang (now south of Hancheng County, Shaanxi Province). Hi

Sima Qian (90 years before 145) was a famous historian, writer and thinker in the Western Han Dynasty. Zichang was born in xia yang (now south of Hancheng County, Shaanxi Province). His father, Sima Tan, is an official, responsible for drafting documents, compiling historical materials, and taking charge of national classics and astronomical calendars.

Sima Qian/Kloc-0 began to read China's ancient classics at the age of 0/0, and began to roam all over the country at the age of 20, inspecting local customs and collecting local legends. After returning, he became a doctor for the first time and was sent to all parts of southwest China. Besides, he visited many places by visiting Liang Wudi. These practical activities enriched Sima Qian's historical knowledge and life experience, broadened Sima Qian's mind and vision, and more importantly, brought him into contact with the economic life of the broad masses of the people and realized their thoughts, feelings and wishes, which was of great significance to his later work Historical Records.

In the first year of Yuanfeng (1 10 years ago), Sima Tan was critically ill. Before he died, he left his ideal and desire to write history to Sima Qian. Three years later, Sima Qian succeeded Taishiling and began to read and sort out historical materials in the "Golden Chamber and Stone Room" (that is, the National Library). In this way, after four or five years of preparation, in the first year of Taichu (before 104), he formally wrote Historical Records, which fulfilled his father's legacy of writing articles on the world. Sima Qian was 42 years old this year.

When Sima Qian was absorbed in writing, a catastrophe befell him. In the second year of Tianhan (the first 99 years), Li Ling fought against the Huns and surrendered, which shocked the court. Sima Qian believed that Li Ling's surrender was out of temporary helplessness, and he would definitely find opportunities to repay the Han Dynasty. Just when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty asked him what he thought of this matter, he told him his own thoughts. Emperor Wu was furious and thought it was lobbying Li Ling to attack Li Guangli. Sima Qian went to prison, and in the third year of Tianhan, he went to the "Silkworm House" to go to prison. This is a great destruction and insult to him. He thought of death, but he also thought that his book had not been finished, so he was inspired by sages such as "Xi Bo detained him to play Zhouyi, Zhong You wrote Spring and Autumn Annals, Qu Yuan demoted him and endowed him with Li Sao, which made Zuo Qiu blind and lost his Mandarin". After about ten years of hard writing, he finally completed the historical masterpiece Historical Records in a humiliating and angry situation.

In addition to historical records, Sima Qian wrote eight poems. Now there is only one poem "A Sad Man Never Met Fu" and the famous "Letter to Ren An". Bao Ren An Shu expressed his painful feelings of being determined to endure humiliation and filth in order to finish his works. It is an important material to study Sima Qian's life thought and an excellent prose full of emotion.

Historical Records is the first biographical general history in China, including 12 biographies, 10 tables, 8 books, 30 subjects and 70 biographies *** 130, with 526,500 words. Shiji describes the political traces of the emperor; "Table" is a memorabilia in different historical periods, and it is the connection and supplement of the narrative of the whole book. "Book" is the starting and ending document of a single event; Family describes the history of nobles and princes; Biographies are mainly biographies of people of different types and classes. From the Yellow Emperor to the early years of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the historical development of politics, economy and culture in China from ancient times to the third year of the Han Dynasty was comprehensively described.

Historical Records takes emperors and generals as the center and does not get rid of the heroic historical view. However, Sima Qian respected historical facts and was full of realistic spirit. In some aspects, he broke through the feudal orthodoxy, such as "affirming the justice of Chen Sheng and Guangwu's anti-Qin uprising;" For Liu Bang, although his great role in unifying the Chu-Han dispute and establishing the country has not been obliterated, he has not let go of his hypocritical, cunning and rogue qualities. In biographies of cruel officials, the crime of murder by rulers was also revealed. Historical Records describes patriotic heroes with great praise, such as Lin Xiangru, Wei Gongzi Wuji (New Ling Jun) and Li Guang. , are written very vividly.

The characters in Historical Records are rich and vivid. They use various methods to express their ideological character and characteristics, grasp the main events and describe their activities in detail, so as to make the characters stand out. For example, The Biography of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru focuses on three things: returning to Zhao after finishing the wall, meeting in Mianchi, and offering a humble apology, which highlights Lin Xiangru's heroic character of putting national interests first and being witty and brave. In order to express the characters, Sima Qian also expressed the characters' character through many scenes of fierce struggle. For example, the Hongmen Banquet in Biography of Xiang Yu depicts Liu Bang's cowardice and wit, Xiang Yu's frankness and lack of wisdom in a tense scene. Story-telling writing makes the characters in Historical Records have their own characteristics and stand out from the crowd, becoming a model work combining history and literature.

Historical Records has an important position and far-reaching influence in the history of China literature. In writing methods, article styles and other aspects, later writers have gained useful inspiration. Biographies in Historical Records have played an important role in the formation of the traditional style of China's typical novels, and many plays are also based on Historical Records. Mr. Lu Xun once spoke highly of Historical Records as "a historian's swan song, leaving Sao without rhyme".