Historical Records, formerly known as Taishigong or Taishigong Gong Ji and Taishigong Historical Records, is a biographical historical book written by Sima Qian, a historian of the Western Han Dynasty. It is the first biographical general history in the history of China, recording the history of four years and more than 3,000 years from the legendary Huangdi era to Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty.
In the first year of Taichu (BC 104), Sima Qian began to create Taishi Gongshu, later called Shiji. This book was used for 14 years before and after completion.
The unique narrative art of Historical Records pays great attention to the deeper exploration of the causal relationship of events, and synthesizes various historical books of the previous generation to form a statement.
Represented by Twelve Records and Ten Tables in the vertical direction, it narrates all historical times before the mid-Western Han Dynasty, and represented by Eight Books, Thirty Houses and Seventy Biographies in the horizontal direction, leading all classes, nationalities, fields and industries, forming a comfortable structure criss-crossing.
In addition, Historical Records also has many unique features in terms of composition, sentence patterns and words, which is unique and unconventional, and produces unique effects with its novelty and variety.
Extended data:
Creation background
During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the kingship was abolished, and the ancient cultural classics were destroyed by the Qin Dynasty, which led to the loss of precious classics in Mingtang and Shishi. After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, Xiao He revised the law, Han Xin affirmed the military law, Zhang Cang formulated the articles of association, and Shu determined the etiquette. Scholars with good personality and knowledge gradually played a role, and literary lovers from all over the world constantly collected and presented abandoned ancient books such as poems and books.
Drawing material
Historical Records has a wide range of materials. At that time, Shi Ben, Mandarin, Ji Qin, Chunqiu of Chu and Han Dynasties, a hundred schools of thought contend and other works, as well as national documents and archives, as well as materials obtained from field investigation, were all important sources of materials for Sima Qian to write Historical Records.
What is particularly valuable is that Sima Qian carefully analyzed and screened the collected materials and eliminated some nonsense. For example, Huang San, who had no evidence, was not listed. He took the Five Emperors as the beginning of his discipline, and either took a skeptical attitude or recorded various opinions on some unclear issues. Due to its extensive materials and serious attitude in compiling history, Historical Records is informative and rich in content.
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