The last time I wrote about Sima Qian's experience when he was young, I talked about the cultivation and education of his father Sima Qian, which can be said to be the most elegant and free period in his life.
However, the happy time is always short-lived, and in Sima Qian's life, there are two things that hit him the hardest:
The first is the death of his father Sima Tan. In the first year of the Yuan Dynasty, Emperor Wu of Han went to Mount Taishan to hold the Great Ceremony of Sealing Zen, and Sima Tan followed him as a historian, which was a very glorious thing, but unexpectedly he fell ill near Luoyang and could not participate in the ceremony, and he felt very sorry. It happened that at this time, Sima Qian returned from an inspection in the southwest to report to Emperor Wu of Han, and the father and son were able to meet.
Before his death, Sima Tan asked Sima Qian to continue to revise history, hoping that he would become the second Confucius and write a work like "Spring and Autumn", praising good people and good deeds, and attacking bad people and evil deeds! And told him to inherit the family school, make a name for himself in the future, and let his parents have a face, which is the greatest filial piety.
Because from the han wudi emperor's dynasty, there was a system of selecting officials for "filial piety and honesty", so the ancients attached great importance to the matter of "filial piety", and also paid special attention to a person's morality. He understood that his father had placed great hopes in himself!
Sima Qian tearfully assured his father, "Even if I am stupid, I must realize your ambition." I will sort out and supplement the draft you have written, and I will cherish and make full use of the material you have collected. I will not slacken off, you old man rest assured! Sima Tan calmly closed his eyes and passed away. This year Sima Qian was twenty-six years old. This had a decisive influence on his later writing of the Chronicle of Historia under extremely difficult circumstances.
The second is the Li Ling incident. In the third year of the Tianhan Dynasty (98 BC), Sima Qian was angry with Emperor Wu of Han for defending Li Ling, who had surrendered to the Xiongnu (the grandson of Li Guang, a famous general of the Han Dynasty, who was besieged by the enemy in battle against the Xiongnu, and the generals of the foreign aid army were dissatisfied with the arrangements of the imperial court, and finally Li Ling's troops were defeated and surrendered), angered Emperor Wu of Han, and was sentenced to palace punishment because the family was poor and could not afford to atone for their sins.
Sima Qian was greatly hit, and his shame and grief made him repeatedly have suicidal thoughts. It was his father's dying instructions that gave him the motivation to live, to live, to complete his father's will, and to write a history book that "at the time of the investigation of heaven and man, through the changes of ancient and modern times, into the words of a family".
At this time, he had been writing this history book for six years, and his creative style had undergone great changes; in the past, he dominated by singing praises and praising virtue, but now he is much more objective in his political commentary on the Han Dynasty, and he has more soberly understood the social reality than before, exposed and criticized certain dark phenomena, and made the "History" gain stronger political and academic vitality. Therefore, in a sense, Sima Qian's personal tragedy gave birth to a great work.
Now let me solemnly introduce the author of this "The Great Song of Historians, the Departure of No Rhyme": Sima Qian, a famous historian, writer, and thinker of the Western Han Dynasty.
Sima Qian, also known as Sima Qian , a han zuo Feng Yi Xia Yang (present-day Hancheng, Shaanxi), was born in the fifth year of the reign of Emperor Wu of Han (145 BC) and died in the third year of Emperor Wu of Han 's reign (90 BC) or later, roughly the same life as Emperor Wu of Han; another theory is that Sima Qian was born (135 BC) and died in an unknown year, some believe that it was (89 BC), shortly after he wrote the Book of Shaoqing (i.e., the Book of Baoren'an). Therefore, Sima Qian's birth is controversial, and the time of his death is also disputed.
Not only does he have the knowledge of the past and the present, the profound vision, the rich life experience, and the majestic courage, Sima Qian also has the compassion of the heavens and the people, using sharp irony, with the torrent of suppressed emotions, using a deep and atmospheric brushstroke, composing an epic melody of singing and sighing. In his spare time, he wholeheartedly completed the writing of the "History of History" of about 526,500 words, which gave a brilliant work to the history of China's cultural development and erected a monument to the establishment of historiography. Let the sky of history twinkle with stars, and a righteous atmosphere in the world will last forever!
These two articles give us a brief understanding of what kind of person Sima Qian is, so what kind of shock did the "History" he wrote bring us, and we will continue to talk about it next time.