As the first general history of China's jichuan style, the status of the "Shi Ji" in historiography is unattainable, and due to the obstacles of literature and language, many people have not read the historical record.
In fact, the "History of History" is only half a million words, if you read it hard, there is really nothing! Instead of blowing with everyone, I can code out an average of two million words a year, although mostly hydrological, but the life is still there! Therefore, if you recognize the truth, half a million words is really nothing, and it is still beneficial to read more history.
In addition to telling you about Han Xin, this article also introduces the book "History" to you by the way, as a historical popularization author, this is my duty!
What does Motoki and Shijia mean in the Chronicle of History?
If the "History" is decomposed, it may be more helpful for everyone to understand, the book is a total of 130 articles, the main body includes the twelve books, the third family, and seventy columns of biography, in addition to the ten tables and eight books, on average, each article is more than 4,000 words.
The Twelve Books are records of the achievements of the emperors of the past, five pre-Qin and seven Qin and Han dynasties, and it is more interesting that Sima Qian added Xiang Yu and Lü Yan to the Qin and Han dynasties.
It seems that Sima Qian also regarded these two as rulers, and from Xiang Yu, it can be seen that Sima Qian has a somewhat heroic view of not being a hero based on success or failure, and from Lü Yan, we can see the historical view of equality between men and women.
To make an analogy, this era is like the trunk of a big tree, then the family is equivalent to a branch, the thirty families record the princes of the pre-Qin period and the princes of the Han Dynasty, taking the pre-Qin period as an example, each family is the rise and fall of a princely state, such as the Qi Taigong family, which is the part of the Jiang clan that governs the State of Qi, and after the State of Qi was replaced by the Tian family, Sima Qian did "Tian Jingzhong Completed the Family" to undertake.
It can be said that the Spring and Autumn Five Hegemons and the Warring States Seven Heroes, as well as the princely states with a certain degree of influence in the pre-Qin period, were all recorded by Sima Qian.
In addition to these nailed families, Sima Qian turned his pen sharply and recorded Confucius and Chen Shi, Confucius was not a prince, just a thinker, Sima Qian put him into the family, and introduced Confucius's life activities and achievements in all aspects, which is a respect for Confucianism.
Chen Shi is also relatively special, he was the first person to raise the banner of anti-Qin, which had an important impact on the overthrow of the Qin Dynasty, probably because he did not succeed, so it was inappropriate to put it in the current era, and put it in the column biography, it seems to have lowered Chen Shi's value a bit.
In the family of the Han Dynasty, it first tells about the princes of the Liu clan who were divided by Liu Bang in the early Western Han Dynasty, such as Liu Bang's younger brother Liu Jiao, Liu Bang's son Liu Fei and other families, as well as the foreign relatives of the royal family.
In addition to Liu's clan relatives and foreign relatives, Sima Qian included Xiao He, Cao Shan, Zhang Liang, Chen Ping, Zhou Bo and other families in the family.
The same han chu sanjie, Xiao He and Zhang Liang entered the family, why did Han Xin not enter the family?
Many people think that Han Xin and Xiao He and Zhang Liang are all the three masters of the early Han Dynasty, and even for the contribution to the establishment of the Han Dynasty, Han Xin may be higher than the two of them, especially compared to Cao Shan, Zhou Bo and others, there is no comparison with Han Xin.
Han Xin almost had the same experience as Chen Shi, all of them were from the bottom, and later because of their military merits, liu Bang reused them, and his role in the Chu-Han War almost determined the direction of the entire war, if Han Xin had defected to Xiang Yu at that time, then Xiang Yu would have won a victory, and even if Han Xin remained neutral, Liu Bang would inevitably fail.
But in the end, Han Xin felt the grace of Liu Bang's knowledge, and finally did not choose to betray Liu Bang, originally Liu Bang was unable to match Xiang Yu militarily, and was forced by Xiang Yu to the point of exhaustion many times, but Han Xin was Xiang Yu's nemesis and finally defeated Xiang Yu.
For such an important figure as the Han Dynasty, why would Liu Bang write it in the "third file" of the column biography, rather than in the family?
Some people think that Sima Qian put Han Xin in the column biography, it may be forced by some political pressure, did not dare to "rehabilitate" Han Xin, this kind of statement I think is untenable, the early Han Dynasty's control of writing should not be so strong, Sima Qian dared to openly slander Liu Bang in the "Records of History", praise Xiang Yu, will not dare to move Han Xin's position in the book forward?
Some people believe that Han Xin finally failed, so he lost his qualification to enter the family, as mentioned earlier, Xiang Yu in this era, as well as Chen Shi in the family, were all losers, and Zhou Bo and Zhou Yafu were also persecuted by the Han Dynasty in their later years, but they were included in the family by Sima Qian, which can once again prove Sima Qian's historical view of heroes who do not think of success or failure.
Some people think that Han Xin was finally killed by the rulers of the Han Dynasty because of his high merits, and Sima Qian's move was to satirize the Rulers of the Han Dynasty by "unloading and killing donkeys", after all, when Sima Qian was mentioned, everyone would think that he was sentenced to palace punishment by Emperor Wu of Han, and his life was therefore gray, and he regarded the slander of the Han Dynasty as his lifelong wish.
In fact, there are many characters in the biography, although there is no emperor, but there are many famous generals, such as Guan Zhong, Shang Martin, four generals, Lü Buwei, Li Si, etc., Han Xin should not have fallen much in it.
If you analyze the family family here, you can find that except for Chen Shi, all the others are family, and the column biography is all about a certain person, not about the descendants.
Then the above example, if the family is a branch, then the column is the page, the two are complementary, and no one has a higher status than anyone, but the family can be recorded in a family way, and Han Xin was exterminated when he was killed, and in Sima Qian's view, it cannot be called a family.
Of course, Sima Qian's view of Han Xin was that he agreed with the point of his outstanding merits, "Yu Han Jiaxun can be better than the disciples of Zhou, Zhao, and Taigong, and the blood of future generations." However, he thought that Han Xin rebelled when the world was stable, which was a bit out of place.