Sima Qian's background

Zichang was born in xia yang (now Hancheng, Shaanxi). He was born into a family of historians, and his ancestors have been royal government officials since the Zhou Dynasty, in charge of literature and history. After his father Sima Tan succeeded to the throne, he served as Taishilingda for 30 years. Sima Tan is well-read and proficient in astronomy, the Book of Changes and the study of Huang Lao. At the age of ten, Sima Qian began to read "Ancient prose" and received his father's enlightenment education. His long-term family research had a far-reaching impact on his later academic career. After that, he went to Chang 'an with his father, and studied the history of ancient Chinese literature and the Spring and Autumn Annals with the famous Confucian classics masters Kong Anguo and Dong Zhongshu at that time. Nineteen is a doctor's child. At the age of 20, he started his travel life with six people including Dr. Tai Chu. His footprints reached Huiji, visiting the ruins of Yu Xia; I have been to Gusu, overlooking the five lakes where Fan Li rowed. The story of visiting Han Xin in Huaiyin; I have been to abundance and visited the hometown of Liu Bang and Xiao He. Go to Daliang, visit Yimen, and inspect the irrigation of Daliang by the river from Qin Jun; I have been to Chu State and visited the palace ruins of Chun Shen Jun. I have been to Xuedi to inspect the fief of Meng Changjun; I have been to Zou Lu and visited the hometown of Confucius and Mencius. In addition, he also crossed Zhuolu in the north, climbed the Great Wall, traveled to Yuanxiang in the south and reached Kongtong in the west. Intense travel broadened his horizons and increased his knowledge. After returning to Chang 'an, Emperor Wu attached great importance to this well-informed and knowledgeable young man, appointed him as a doctor, and sent him to Bashu with the emperor's orders to the southwest of Kunming today.

Reading thousands of books and walking on Wan Li Road laid a solid foundation for Sima Qian to write a book. In the first year of the Yuan Dynasty (1 10), Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sealed Mount Tai, and Sima Tan died of anger because he was appointed Taishi Gong. On his deathbed, he said sadly to Sima Qian, "After I die, you will be too old. Don't forget my last wish when you are a teacher. Today, great men are prosperous and the whole country is unified. There are wise teachers and sages in the world, and loyal ministers and righteous men in the world. As a teacher, it's a pity that I can't record it. You must finish my unfinished business! After Sima Tan's death, Sima Qian's stepfather was Taishiling, which gave him the opportunity to read all the literary and historical classics, schools of thought contend and various archival historical materials collected by the Royal Library. In the first year of Tai Chu (BC 104), he reformed the calendar with Luo and astronomers. With the joint efforts of these experts, after repeated calculations and choices, a new calendar was finally created in May this year, which is the famous taichu calendar method. " Taichu calendar corrected the month as the first year (early October of the first year of Qin Dynasty), with 29.53 days in January and 365.25 days in a year. This was the most advanced calendar in the world at that time, and it was also the first major reform in the calendar history of country A. Since then, he has been preparing to write Taishi Gongji according to his father's wishes.

In the second year of Tian Han (99 BC), Li Ling, a colleague, was besieged when he went to Xiongnu, and all his food was surrendered to Xiongnu. When the news reached Chang 'an, Emperor Wu was furious. All the officials in the imperial court cursed Li Ling for his shameful surrender. Sima Qian kept silent. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty asked him what he thought, and Sima Qian, who was full of economy and knowledge, said bluntly: "Li Ling fought for thousands of miles, and his arrows were exhausted, and he was also a famous ancient name." Although he surrendered, he was excusable. I thought that as long as he didn't die, he would still be loyal to the Han Dynasty. The angry Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty heard Sima Qian's remarks, thinking that he was defending Li Ling and deliberately belittling Li Guangli, who was fighting against Xiongnu at that time. He was very unhappy, so he ordered Sima Qian to be sentenced to death (or replaced by corruption). In the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, people sentenced to death could pay 500,000 yuan to mitigate the death penalty. However, Sima Qian, whose family was not rich, could not afford the money, so he had to be punished by "corruption" (castration) and chose the road of "drag out an ignoble existence". Unfortunately, Sima Qian's spirit was greatly stimulated and he once wanted to commit suicide. But he remembered his father's last words, encouraged himself with the anger of Confucius, Qu Yuan, Zuo Qiuming, Sun Tzu and Han Fei, and finally survived with amazing will. Exhausted physically and mentally, Sima Qian, who endured a dirty life, knew that "people are inherently mortal, and death is heavier than Mount Tai or lighter than a feather." He is determined to finish the history book that his father asked him to finish in his later years. After six years in prison, Zheng He was finally released from prison in the first year (the first 93 years). Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty still attached great importance to Sima Qian's talent and appointed him as the secretary-general. Since then, I have devoted myself to writing, and finally completed the masterpiece Historical Records, which is a masterpiece of "studying heaven and man, connecting the changes of ancient and modern times, and becoming the words of the Chinese nation". Historical Records was originally named Taishi Gongshu, also known as Taishi GongGong Ji and Taishi Gongji, and was not called Historical Records until the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Sima Qian intended him to be "a famous mountain in Tibet, an assistant minister in the capital, and a sage and gentleman for later generations." When Xuan Di was proclaimed emperor in the Han Dynasty, Yang Yun, the grandson of Sima Qian, announced it. At that time, there were several missing articles, which were supplemented by later generations. Historical Records is the first biographical general history in the history of China, which is a grand precedent. There are 12 biographies and 70 biographies in Historical Records, in addition to 30 aristocratic families, 10 tables, 8 books, 130 articles and 525,600 words, which records the historical events from the Yellow Emperor to the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty for about 3,000 years. Biography is the general program of the book, which records the lineage of emperors in past dynasties in chronological style. The oldest is dominated by dynasties, and the younger is dominated by emperors or actual authorities. Chronicle is essentially a national chronicle, which plays an important guiding role in the outline. "Family" also takes chronicles as the body, describing the vassals who sealed the country, the founding heroes and people with special status and influence. It may not involve the whole country, but it has great influence on a certain aspect of social life in a certain country or the whole country, and most of them can be regarded as "national history", such as "Jin's family", "Chu's family", "Kong's family" and "Chen She's family". Biographies occupy the most space and can be divided into two categories: one is biographies of people, the other is a special biography of one person, and the other is a joint biography of two or more people, arranged according to the nature of the characters. The figures recorded are extremely extensive, involving aristocrats, bureaucrats, politicians, economists, militarists, philosophers, writers, scholars, strategists, hermits, lobbyists, assassins, rangers, doctors, fortune tellers, Xi You and other social classes. The other is the records of foreign or domestic minorities, involving the history of Sino-foreign relations and the history of domestic ethnic relations. The former biographies include Biography of Boyi, Biography of Sun Tzu Wu Qi, Biography of Assassins and Scholars. The latter category includes biographies of Xiongnu, Nanyue, Southwest Yi and Korea. Biography enriches and concretizes the subject. "Table" lists the lineage, titles and short-lived achievements of emperors, princes, nobles and ministers, and takes the distance of the year and the complexity of historical events as the world table, chronology and monthly table. Modern people's views can also be divided into two categories: the event table and the character table, such as the chronology of the Three Represents, the twelve princes, the chronology of the heroes of Gaozu, and the chronology of the famous ministers since the Han Dynasty. The function of "table" is visual, intuitive and easy to read. It can make up for the shortcomings of Historical Records, Shi Jia and Biography, and also save a lot of words, so that records can get rid of cumbersome. Book is a very important part of Historical Records, which describes the calendar, rites, meditation, water conservancy and economy in different categories, and reflects all aspects of social life, such as Book of Rites, Le Shu, Calendar, River Book and Pingshu. Among them, Pingshu is the most wonderful, which records the social and economic situation of the Han Dynasty, especially the evolution of economic policies, and opens a precedent for the official history of later generations. People have always called Historical Records a biographical history book, emphasizing the importance of biographies. In fact, as a part of the whole book, watches, books and aristocratic families all have independent values that cannot be replaced by discipline and biography. Strictly speaking, it should be Ji Chuanzhi's writing style and a comprehensive history book. Sima Qian not only recorded a lot of historical facts in Historical Records, but also wanted to "test his actions, sum up his life and record his history of success or failure" in order to "study the relationship between heaven and man, learn from the changes of ancient and modern times and get married." He wants to explore some truths from complicated historical facts and put forward his own views. Therefore, he is not only the organizer of historical events, but also a great thinker. The essence of Sima Qian's historical philosophy is embodied in the theme of "exploring the relationship between man and nature and dredging the changes of ancient and modern times" Sima Qian first emphasized the separation of heaven and man, that is, he thought that heaven had nothing to do with personnel. In the Biography of Boyi, he criticized the saying that "Heaven has no relatives and often works with good people" by taking Boyi, Shu Qi and Yan Yuan as examples, saying, "What if Heaven does good to people?" "In modern times, those who have bad conduct and specialize in taboos are all" enjoying it and being rich all their lives "; On the contrary, just and angry people often "it never rains but it pours." From this, he wrote deeply: "I am very confused. If the so-called heaven is evil, is it evil? "He is a hero of Xiang Yu's life, but he never checks himself. Before he died, he repeatedly said, "It is not a crime to kill me on such a day." He said with a serious and critical attitude, "Isn't it ridiculous? He profoundly exposed the profligate activities of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty in offering sacrifices to Zen Buddhism and praying for immortals. He believes that such activities have poisoned the social atmosphere, but the effect is obvious and has been strongly satirized. When writing about people's activities, he deliberately wrote about the important role of personnel in historical development. In the preface to Taishi Gong, it is said that thirty schools should write "loyalty to the Lord". Biography of Seventy is the activity of people who write "Helping others, not wasting their time and making contributions to the world". This is the first time in the development of China's historiography that human activities have been placed in such an important historical position. He also linked people's activities with the rise and fall of the country, thinking that "a gentleman uses it, a villain retreats it", which is a sign that "the country will prosper"; And "the sage is hidden, and the chaotic minister is expensive" is a sign that "the country will die." Then it is pointed out that "yes", safety is in order, and life and death are on the job. "Sincerity is a statement! (Wang Jiashi, Chu Yuan) After the first discussion, he profoundly pointed out: To make the country strong and peaceful, "only when selecting leaders! "Only the one who chooses will be awkward!" (After Biography of Xiongnu) Changing the Past into the Present contains rich contents of Sima Qian's historical philosophy. First of all, he put forward a relatively complete view on the process of historical evolution, which can be seen from the preface of the Five Emperors to the Emperor Gaozu and the preface of the Three Dynasties to the Qin and Chu Dynasties. The history of the Five Emperors and Three Generations is too long to be dated. The Chronicle of Three Generations to Chronicle of Twelve Governors covers the period from * * * to the dictatorship of Confucius, princes and the rise and fall of five tyrants. Then came the Chronicle of Six Kingdoms, which began in Zhou Yuanwang (475 BC) and ended in Qin Ershi (207 BC). Its historical characteristics are "co-administration with ministers", "winning the meritorious military service at home" and "talking about uniting with the enemy and plotting fraud in Qiang Bing". Qin Chu's monthly calendar began in July of the first year of Qin Ershi (209 BC) and ended in September of the fifth year of Gaozu (202 BC). For this period of history, Sima Qian wrote: "The first difficulty is in Chen She; Abuse and destroy Qin, since Xiang's; Bring order out of chaos, punish evil and promote good, pacify the seas and seas, practice the emperor to death, and become a Han family. " These four tables not only run through ancient times and modern times, but also outline the characteristics of each historical era, reflecting Sima Qian's outstanding views on the historical process. Secondly, in the process of describing historical changes, he also expounded his own viewpoint of historical evolution. His view is particularly prominent in Eight Books. Thirdly, it puts forward the historical proposition that "when things rise, they will decline, and when times turn, they will be extremely extreme". When talking about the compilation of biographies, The Preface to Taishi Gong proposed that we should "test the merits of emperors in previous dynasties with the original way and see the ups and downs", that is, we should examine in detail why it started and how it ended; At its peak, we should see signs of its decline. In Sima Qian's philosophy of history, history is always changing: either from prosperity to decline or from decline to prosperity. It is this historical philosophy that he used to observe history, "to examine history and take actions accordingly, and to examine the reasons for its success or failure." In addition to historical records, Sima Qian also wrote eight poems, all of which have been lost. Only the 30th volume of "Literary and Art Newspaper" has a section of "Mourning for the Past". His letter to Shao Qing is a famous essay. This paper describes the process of his imprisonment because of the Liling Incident. Expressed the indignation of loyalty, suspicion and innocent punishment, and exposed the tyranny and cruelty of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and the cruelty of politics at that time. Finally, I expressed my determination to write a book and create a historical record. Sima Qian's academic thought occupies an important and prominent position in the history of China's ancient ideology and culture. Historical Records was praised by Lu Xun as "a historian's swan song, leaving Sao without rhyme", and it really deserved its name.