The long river of history is running endlessly, there are calm waves, there are also waves, let Xiaobian take you into history and understand history.
We all know Sima Qian's history, but few people have ever understood the origin of the history. In fact, the author of the historical record should have been Sima Qian's father Sima Tan at the beginning, Sima Tan was the Taishi of the Han Dynasty when he was alive, and before he left behind, he warned Sima Qian that the ancestor of the Sima clan was the Taishi of the Zhou Dynasty, in charge of astronomical work, hoping that in the future he would be able to undertake the work of recording the family's history. At that time, the reigning Emperor Wu of Han was an emperor who attached more importance to military generals, and he also had the ambition to complete the unification of the world, so Sima Tan's Taishi work was not satisfactory, at that time he could not comment on all people, did not dare and could not, in that era there were too many loyal people, under the rule of the emperor, the four seas were also very peaceful.
However, as a Taishi, it was a dereliction of duty to fail to record all historical records, so Sima Tan's heart was very afraid, afraid that the traces of all the eras would be interrupted here in the future. Therefore, before he died, Sima Qian, who could take over his position as Taishi, became his hope. And in order to let Sima Qian write with his heart and not forget the glory of his ancestors, he also used Confucius to write the Spring and Autumn Works to inspire his son. It is precisely because this is the father's last wish and the glory of the family, coupled with Sima Qian's own ideals, that there is a historical record that later allows the world to recognize the changes in the dynasty. If there is no historical record, perhaps as Sima Tan thought, after the change of dynasties, those who once survived in this world are afraid that there will be no trace, and we will not be able to know those famous celebrities.
Speaking of the process of Sima Qian's completion of the historical record, there is another thing that although it has further inspired him to write the history, it also made him humiliated and regretted to die. And the cause of the matter is actually very simple, just because he said a sentence himself, but it also seems very heavy, but because of a battle. We all know that the biggest enemy of Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty was the Xiongnu, and in the process of attacking the Xiongnu, the Han Dynasty won and lost, and even once the entire army was destroyed. The general who wiped out the entire army in the campaign was the brother of one of Emperor Wu's favorite concubines, a man named Li Guangli.
Li Guangli fled back after his defeat, while Li Ling, who served as a knight lieutenant, asked for five thousand infantry and wanted to attack the crowd with a widow, but because of Li Ling's courage, it attracted the attention of the Xiongnu. Therefore, there were more and more Xiongnu soldiers, but there was no reinforcement on the other side, and in the end they were surrounded by several times the Xiongnu regiment, and when the 5,000 people finally broke through, there were only more than 400 people left. After running out of food, Li Ling was eventually captured and surrendered to the Xiongnu. After this news came back, how much Emperor Wu admired Li Ling at the beginning and how much he hated Li Ling now. While everyone scolded Li Ling, and while Emperor Wu had already convicted Li Ling's parents, wives and children and sent them to prison, Sima Qian stood up and spoke for Li Ling.
He believed that Li Ling not only killed more than 10,000 enemy people in the case of a small number of people, but also attracted all the strength of the Xiongnu in this battle, which could be regarded as a countervailing, and believed that Li Ling's surrender was only a temporary measure. Liu Che was furious at that time, coupled with Li Guangli's previous defeat and escape, according to Sima Qian, was this not to say that Li Guangli he chose was inferior to Li Ling? Therefore, in the end, Li Ling was exterminated, and Sima was also demoted and punished. In the face of those big punishments, Sima Qian in prison had the idea of committing suicide in his heart, but thinking of his father's last wish, his book was not completed, and his thoughts retreated.
I also thought that those celebrities in history did not all experience various tribulations, but they were still able to write out those works that made future generations infinitely useful in the tribulations, which invisibly gave Sima Qian a lot of encouragement and advancement. It is precisely because he was insulted in prison that he had great sympathy for those lower-class personnel when he wrote the history, and he also had great respect for the leader of the peasant uprising, although the history of the history carried some personal ideas of Sima Qian and the evaluation of historical figures, but his history compiled from the mythical Yellow Emperor period to the Western Han Dynasty in which Emperor Wu lived, so many dynasties, so many histories and figures are alive in his pen. So we can look at what a great work this is.
Well, today's sharing ends here, and we'll see you next time