Sima Qian, the great historian, writer and thinker of the Western Han Dynasty in China, was revered by later generations as Shi Qian, Tai Shi Gong, and the father of history. So where did his good names come from? Sima Qian, also spelled Zichang, was a native of Xiayang, Longmen, Western Han Dynasty, or a native of Hancheng County, Shaanxi, born in 145 BC. He was a great historian, writer and thinker of our country, and his main activities in his life were during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. His father Sima Tan was a Taishi Ling, who was knowledgeable, deeply familiar with astronomical almanacs, liked the study of Huang Laozhi, and was determined to take the revision of history in the Spring and Autumn Period as his responsibility, all of which had a deep influence on Sima Qian.
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After Sima Qian went to Chang'an with his father at the age of ten, he began to study the ancient texts, and learned the Ram Spring and Autumn from Dong Zhongshu, the master of classics at that time, and the Ancient Literature and Shangshu from Kong Anguo. At the age of 20, he roamed south from the Beijing master Chang'an, traveling all over the Jianghuai River Basin and the Central Plains, inspecting customs, visiting ancient monuments, collecting legends, understanding the terroir, and contacting people from all sides.
After that, Sima Qian traveled to more places because he served Emperor Wu and toured and sealed Zen, and these practical activities enriched Sima Qian's historical knowledge and life experience, expanded Sima Qian's mind and vision, and more importantly, enabled him to contact the economic life of the broad masses of the people and experience the people's ideological feelings and aspirations. These observations prepared him well for his later book, The Chronicle of History.
With his historical knowledge of "investigating the time of heaven and man, through the changes of ancient and modern times, into the words of a family", he created China's first general history of the jichuan style, "Shi Ji" (formerly known as "Taishi Gongshu"). It is widely regarded as a model of Chinese history books, which records the history of more than 3,000 years from the time of the Yellow Emperor in ancient legends to the first year of the Han Wu Emperor Yuan Hunt, as the first of the "Twenty-Six Histories", and was praised by Lu Xun as "the best song of historians, the departure of rhymelessness".
In the third year of the Yuan Dynasty, that is, in 108 BC, Sima Qian succeeded his father Sima Tan as the Taishi Ling, in charge of the astronomical calendar and the royal atlas, giving him the opportunity to read the literary and historical scriptures collected in the stone cabinet of the royal library, the hundred sons and hundreds of families and various archival historical materials. "Reading ten thousand books and walking ten thousand miles" laid a solid foundation for Sima Qian's later writings and teachings. In the first year of the Taichu Dynasty, that is, in 104 BC, Sima Qian began to write the "Records of History" after supporting the revision of the Qin and Han dynasties to the Xia calendar. Five years later, he was convicted and imprisoned for defending Li Ling, who was defeated and surrendered to the Xiongnu, and was sentenced to corruption. After his release from prison, Ren Zhongshuling continued to write books in anger, and at the age of fifty-three, he finally completed the monumental work "On the occasion of the investigation of heaven and man, the changes through ancient and modern times, and the words of the Zhongjia" - "History".
The "History" is the first general history of the jichuan body in Chinese historiography, which has created a magnificent precedent for the general history of the jichuan body, has made great contributions to historiography, and has a far-reaching influence on the historiography of later generations.
From the Yellow Emperor to the Han Wu, the "Records of History" records the development and changes of politics, economy, military and culture over the past three thousand years, truly reflecting the whole picture of ancient society and the summary of ancient history. The book consists of chronicles, tables, books, lineages, and biographies, consisting of 130 volumes and 525,600 words.
"History" mobilized various artistic means to shape characters, through the vivid images of many historical figures, showing huge paintings of various historical periods, becoming an immortal monument in the history of Chinese literature and occupying a lofty position in the history of world literature. Therefore, the literati and scholars of later generations in China have all taken the "History of History" as a model, and the novels and operas have more selected themes from them, which have not faded to this day.