Thank you for the invitation and for your questions. "Which book, "Ancient Literature Guanzhi" or "Zizhi Tongjian", is more worth learning and reading?" Generally speaking, the "Ancient Literature Guanzhi" belongs to the classic reading of classical literature, and the "Zizhi Tongjian" belongs to the historical classics.
Which one is more worth reading? Are you a middle school student or a college student? Or a civil servant?
If you are a middle school student, of course, "Ancient Literature and Guanzhi" is more worth reading. This is because "Ancient Literature Guanzhi" was originally a classical literature reading for middle school students to refer to and study.
The Ancient Literature Guanzhi is a collection of ancient essays compiled by the Qing Dynasty scholar Wu Chucai and Wu Tiaohou's uncle and nephew in the thirty-third year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1694). The book collects 222 literary works from the pre-Qin to the Ming Dynasty, a total of 12 volumes, with prose as the main part and part of the Text.
The sources of the essays in this anthology are divided into two parts, one from ancient historical works and some from the works of literary scholars.
So, this is a collection of essays that has both history and literature. It is also a collection of essays with literary historical value. If you read all the "Ancient Literature Guanzhi", it can basically be said that you have a rough understanding of the history of Chinese literature.
However, the works selected from the historical works in the "Ancient Literature Guanzhi" are all prose in historical works that describe very vividly or discuss raw flowers.
For example, the "Zheng Boke Duan Yu Yan" and "Cao Jie Controversy" selected in the "Zuo Chuan"; the "Zhao Gong Zhi Li Wang Zhi Li Wang" and "Jing Jiang on Laoyi" selected in the "Chinese"; the "Bao Ren An Shu", "The Theory of Passing Qin", "Emperor Wu Qiu Mao Cai Yi and other edicts" selected in Sima Qian's "History", etc., all have such characteristics, and they are all famous works of the people.
There are also selected from the literary works of writers, such as Wang Xizhi's "Preface to the Orchid Pavilion", Tao Yuanming's "Peach Blossom Origin", "Return to the Word", etc., as well as the Articles of the Tang and Song Dynasty writers Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan, Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi and others in the "Eight Greats of the Tang and Song Dynasties", all the way to the Articles of the Ming Dynasty literary scholar Song Lian and his student Fang Xiaoru and others.
It can be said that "Ancient Literature and Literature" has both the systematization of historical literature and the diversity of article types, both literary lyrical works and political discussion articles, and is the best literary reading for teenagers.
Manuscript of Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian
However, although these articles are very vivid, they are only fragments of history, and there is no deeper historical logic, which is the difference between "Ancient Literature and Guanzhi" and the profound and magnificent "Zizhi Tongjian".
However, the articles selected in the "Ancient Literature Guanzhi" are concise in language, short and concise, easy to memorize, and convenient to remember. Therefore, it is more suitable for middle school students to read. Or literature lovers read, because "Ancient Literature And GuanZhi" is originally a collection of essays gathered by literary works of all generations, and it is also a literary event for literary lovers, at this grand event, we will have the most outstanding sages in history.
For example, among the writers in the anthology of "Ancient Literature And Guan Zhi", there are both Li Si, who helped Qin Shi Huang unify China, and Tao Yuanming, who is arrogant and uninhibited; there are both Su Shi, a great literary hero whom everyone loves, and Wang Anshi, a political reformer.
Of course, this does not mean that "Ancient Literature Guanzhi" is a patent for teenagers to read ancient literary classics, and our friends who like literature, whether men, women or children, have the possibility of becoming friends with "Ancient Literature Guanzhi" as good teachers and friends.
Mr. Lu Xun said: "It is the same as the "Selected Writings of Zhaoming", and its literary influence cannot be taken lightly by both."
When looking back on his lifelong creative path, Ba Jin, a master of modern literature, has repeatedly and frankly said that the articles in "Ancient Literature and Guanzhi" are really unforgettable enlightenment teachers for life.
Wu Tiaohou, the compiler of the Ancient Literature Guanzhi, was a native of Shanyin County, Shaoxing Province, during the Kangxi Period of the Qing Dynasty. He and his uncle Wu Chucai were both full of Confucian classics, but because of coincidence, their careers were not smooth, and they had long been engaged in the cause of private school education in the township party.
But this "Ancient Literature Guanzhi" has brought them an unexpected and immortal reputation.
In the thirty-fourth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1695), the "Ancient Literature Guanzhi" was officially engraved and printed. Who knew that it actually swept the country and became another classic of selected essays after the "Selected Writings of Zhaoming".
"Zizhi Tongjian" is a historical masterpiece that everyone is very familiar with. This is a great historical work with the same name as the Chronicle of History. The first half of it can be said to be a condensed version of the "Records of History", because the "Zizhi Tongjian" was written from the "Three Branches of Jin", but the whole book is the brilliant achievement of the great history and thought that the author and editor-in-chief Sima Guang painstakingly managed for 19 years.
The Zizhi Tongjian consists of 294 volumes, about 3 million words, and the history recorded in the book begins in 403 BC, that is, the twenty-third year of King Weilie of Zhou, until 959 AD, the sixth year of the five generations of Later Zhou Shizong Xiande's conquest of Huainan.
The book spans 16 dynasties in China and has a history of 1362 years. However, Sima Guang can write a clear historical context, a proper detail, a little more detailed, and it is obvious that Sima Guang, in the intricate historical space, he has left more ink and ink to the picture of the Xianming political period, such as the rule of Wenjing in the Han Dynasty, the rule of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty, and the pen and ink of the Kaiyuan prosperous era.
The value of the Zizhi Tongjian does not require us to bother with words. The summary of the historical theory of "ChenGuang Yue" of only 119 articles embodies the political ideals and governing concepts of Sima Guang's great statesman and historian, and has a huge impact on the economy, politics, diplomacy, and military of the Song Dynasty, and has a greater impact on future generations, truly embodying the role of a mirror that draws on historical experience and governs the country.
Therefore, the knowledge needed to read the Zizhi Tongjian is not just literature, but a synthesis of more sociological knowledge.
Let's give an example here in a very small detail, to see how much Sima Guang's "Zizhi Tongjian" has a deep historical feeling.
This detail is Sima Guang's use of a set of "eccentric" chronological terms, such as "the age of Fu Shu Ti Ge".
"阏逄" is equivalent to the Chinese "A", and "Setig" is equivalent to the Chinese "寅".
Why not use Chinese to use the Tiangandi branch since the Western Zhou Dynasty, but to use a set of stem branches of a multisyllabic language like "foreign language"? Sima Guang did not give an account.
However, we also find this set of multisyllabic dry branch terms in the "Almanac" of the "Records of History", and Sima Qian did not explain why this was and how it was inherited from a set of languages.
However, it is safe to say that at least this timing system had a certain basis in the Warring States period.
Since the Chinese script has not had a tradition of polysyllabic languages and writings since the Western Zhou Dynasty, this has given rise to speculation and doubts about the origin of Chinese history, which originated in the two river basins of Western Asia or the Egyptians because of the opportunities for exposure to foreign languages.
For example, the meteorologist Mr. Zhu Kezhen once suggested that Sanskrit scholars use Sanskrit to decipher this set of terms. However, unfortunately, there was no result.
This is entirely limited by the Western set of "ancient civilizations" theory of self-confidence in Chinese culture.
It seems that the ancient civilizations of polysyllabic languages are earlier than China, so Chinese civilization may have originated in India, Egypt.
In fact, ancient mainland texts clearly record that this is the language of the "emperor", that is, the official language of the Three Emperors era.
Regardless of the question of world civilization, how can we, with the history that was originally for Chinese to see for ourselves, adopt a foreign Chinese that few people understand? Moreover, this is timekeeping, which is a very serious thing for Chinese.
This involves the dignity of the dignity of the nation. For example, Sima Guang, in the Zizhi Tongjian, has a clear idea of "orthodoxy" in the chronicle.
For example, the Three Kingdoms were a split era in which the three regimes were established, and Sima Guang gave Wei Youji, Shu and Wu no "ji"; in the southern and northern dynasties, the southern dynasty had a "ji" and the northern dynasty had no "ji"; the five dynasties had a "ji", while the ten kingdoms had no "ji".
Ji, then, is the question of who represents Chinese orthodoxy. Maxima believes that Sima Guang's understanding of this issue is very serious and profound.
Therefore, it is not difficult for us to understand why Sima Guang regarded the "Emperor" chronicle as "orthodox" and god lord in the Zizhi Tongjian.
In this regard, the "Three Lives General Society" written by Wan Minying, a famous scholar in the Ming Dynasty, also has some explanations of its own, saying: The emperor's surname of thirteen people, following the Pangu clan to rule, is known as the 'heavenly spirit', indifferent and vulgar self-transformation, the name of the original system of cadres, in order to determine the place of age.
Its ten stems:
Yu Feng, Xu Meng, Rou Zhao, Qiang Yuan, Zhu Yong, Tu Wei, Shang Zhang, Chongguang, Xuan Di, Zhaoyang;
Twelve Branches:
Sleepy Dun, Chi Fenruo, Setig, Shan Yu, Zhi Xu, Da Desolation, Dun Mu, Xie Qia, Jian Tan, Zuo Yu, Castration Mao, Dayuan Xian.
The late Han scholar Cai Yong's "Dictatorship" also has a different interpretation of the ancient Tiangandi branch, saying: "Dry, dry." Its name has ten, also known as ten mothers, that is, the present-day methyl ethyl propylene butyl heptyl heptyl xin nondecyl is also; branch, branch also. Its name is ten and two, also known as the twelve sons, that is, the ugly yin 卯辰 has not been shen yu hai is also. Those who are called the Emperor's clan take the righteousness of their heavens from the son; those who are called the emperor of the land take the land of the ugly righteousness; those who are called the emperor's clan take their lives from the righteousness of Yin. Therefore, the name of the dry branch was first established during the time of the emperor, and the earth emperor clan set three days, and the road was divided into day and night, with thirty days as the month, and the dry branch had its own match. The emperor of man, the lord is not vain, the subject is not vain, the government and religion are from the beginning, the diet of men and women from the beginning, the beginning of the heavens and the earth and the division of children and mothers, so the stem branch has belonged to the Yan. ”
From Cai Yong's interpretation of the ganzhi, we do see that there is indeed a set of China's own "emperor" chronological language, which may have an independent system, so it seems to be different from Chinese, but it is absolutely impossible to come from indian or Egyptian languages.
Therefore, the set of polysyllabic language stem terms used by Sima Qian and Sima Guang is the earliest official time term in China, which belongs to the nature of "imperial power and clan power", so it is adopted as a historical chronology to indicate the authority of the Han and Han emperors in Chinese orthodox culture.
In this sense, I think this is a great fine tradition of self-confidence in Chinese culture, and we should have such self-confidence.
Of course, this kind of self-confidence we have today will not be the cultural self-confidence of Han chauvinism in The era of Sima Guang, but the self-confidence of the great history of the Chinese nation in which all 56 nationalities are equal.
Sima Guang's "Emperor" chronicle is not a core value of the Zizhi Tongjian, but only a cultural symbol. However, from such a symbolic detail, we can also get a cultural confidence, that is, not to casually deny our own cultural origins.
For a long time, the denial of Chinese culture, especially the doubts about the origin of Chinese culture, whether from the mainland or from other foreign nationalities, has always been very attractive to some scholars, whose imagination is beyond your belief, so that they can subvert the view of history and culture.
However, China's history is the most complete in the world and has never been interrupted.
With such a complete history, we also have to doubt that our ancestors will not be Native China, and it is hard to imagine how some people are less confident in Chinese culture.
Bacon famously said in "On Life" that "reading history makes people wise, reading poetry makes people wise, and philosophy makes people profound." ”
The great historical work of the Zizhi Tongjian can be said to be a history of both philosophy and poetry.
I would like to say here in particular: Sima Guang's "Zizhi Tongjian" deliberately does not record literary scholars, which is the principle of Sima Guang's "Zizhi Tongjian" writing. Therefore, qu yuan, Li Bai, Du Fu, and other poets cannot be seen in the "Zizhi Tongjian", and many historians still have some regrets about this.
However, Maxima believes that this is also the forerunner of Sima Guang's historicism and social discipline thinking.
It shows that history needs to be professional, and of course, literature needs to be professional. Attributing different cultures to cultural majors, Sima Guang may be the first person in the world.
Fu Baoshi is a collection seal engraved by Chairman Mao
However, that did not reject the existence of poetic culture in the Zizhi Tongjian. For example, the Zizhi Tongjian records the details of a Tang Dynasty minister reciting to the emperor the chapter "Crickets" in the Book of Poetry.
Personally, I think that the cultural spirit of "Zizhi Tongjian" is also highly consistent with the highest realm of poetry that makes people "gentle and generous". His philosophy, then, is closer to caring for the long-term peace and stability of society.
Therefore, if you like history or be a civil servant, I highly recommend that he read the Zizhi Tongjian.
Mao Zedong, the great leader of the Chinese people, liked his favorite historical work was the Zizhi Tongjian. He read countless books in his lifetime, but this historical work was read through 17 times, which many historians cannot do.
It can be said that the "Zizhi Tongjian" accompanied Chairman Mao throughout his life of reading.