Is the style of the "Historical Records" a chronicle?
When it comes to the "Historical Records", the authoritative statement has always been that China's first general history in the form of Ji Biography, and the official histories of all subsequent dynasties basically followed the form of Ji Biography, which added up to become twenty-four (or even five or six) histories. That's what we write in our school textbooks, it's still taught in the classrooms of our professors, and it's said on the pulpit on TV.
- Actually, this is a misunderstanding, a big misunderstanding. Because this statement underestimates and ultimately ignores the value and status of the "table".
As part of the chronicles, the length of the 12 books, the 30 families, and the 70 columns certainly account for the majority of the book, with only 10 tables and 8 books. However, the amount of work put in by the author and the amount of information obtained by the reader must not simply correspond to the length of the article.
Because the table is a highly condensed information essence, this inspiration comes from the previous chronicles such as the "Spring and Autumn Classics", but the form is much higher than the previous written chronicles, using the form of the table, more scientific, how chaotic people can see at a glance. This is especially true of the "Chronology of the Twelve Princes" and the "Chronology of the Six Kingdoms," which sort out the various contradictory relationships in a multipolar world in an orderly and unobstructed manner, and it is difficult to achieve no matter how many words and pages of chronicles there are.
This is not a difference in quantity, but a difference in quality. Although the chronology of the Six Kingdoms has always been criticized due to the limitations of materials at the time, there are many errors, but these deficiencies have nothing to do with the form of the table, mainly due to the lack of historical materials in the Warring States period.
Although the biography style is the style pioneered by Sima Qian's "Historical Records", it is limited to 112 biographies of characters in the 130 historical records, that is, 12 books, 30 families, and 70 biographies, and does not include ten tables and eight books.
In terms of length (to be precise, the number of pages), the chronicles account for more than 70% of the entire book, the 10 tables only account for about 20% of the total length, and the 8 books account for less than 10%.
Taking the 1997 miniature edition of the First Four Histories of Zhonghua Book Company as an example, the entire "Historical Records" has a total of 3,322 pages, including Jijie, Suoyin, Justice, Segmentation, and punctuation. Among them, there are 486 pages of "Twelve Chronicles", accounting for 14.6%, 676 pages of "Thirty Families", accounting for 20.3%, 1,201 pages of "Seventy Columns", accounting for 36.2%, and 2,363 pages of biographies of the three types of characters, accounting for about 71%; "Eight Books" is 288 pages, accounting for 8.7%, and "Ten Tables" is 671 pages, accounting for 20.2%.
Why don't you use the number of words, because the table is a table - its content is not only words, nor is it just a table, but an organic combination of the two; the blank table in the table does not mean that the author has not paid the amount of labor, nor does it mean that the reader cannot read the information, it just shows that the author after a lot of statistical comparison and screening, believes that there is no major thing worth saying, so that the reader does not have to think about it; besides, even if the number of words is used to count, it is estimated that it is not much worse.
Although the book claims that the whole book has a total of 526,500 characters, and that he himself has totaled the words in the chronicle and the table, we cannot say that these words constitute the whole of the "Historical Records", because some of the words appear in the form of tables as the contents of the table.
Liu Zhiji, a famous historian of the Tang Dynasty, commented on the "Historical Records" in "Stone": "The chronicle is to unify the monarchs and ministers, and the book is based on the chronology", "The chronicle is to encompass the big end, the biography is to compose the details, the table is to list the year, and the ambition is to summarize the omissions". It is precisely because various styles learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses that "the obvious and hidden must be, and the Hong Fiber is lost". It is not a simple and sloppy general history that can be completely summarized.
Therefore, the creation of the "table" should be respected and valued in the same way as the biography, the length of the table is relatively small, but the workload and amount of information are not much less than that of the biography.
Although the biography is for people, the biography of a character in the "Historical Records" still cannot completely describe a character, and it must refer to the relevant parts of the biographies of other characters.
The contribution of the chronicles is to emphasize the respect for the individual and the overall description and evaluation of life. The characteristics of the chronicle style are that it is longer than the writer and is convenient for the characters to comment, but it is shorter than the narrative, making it difficult for the reader to fully and thoroughly grasp the general trend of history, while the characteristics of the chronicle style are just the opposite, that is, it is longer than the narrative and shorter than the writer.
"Historical Records" complements each other's strengths and weaknesses between the two to achieve the optimal combination, that is, the combination of biography and table. The table, in the form of a table, from a two-dimensional perspective, places the main characters and events in the vertical historical time (era, year, month) and horizontal social environment, so that the myriad historical events and intricate relationships between the characters are clear at a glance, this summary table is definitely a great historical creation, and its importance is no less than that of the 112 biographies. Of course, we must not forget the Eight Books, which are the "multi-disciplinary encyclopedias" of the time, why not the encyclopedia, because there are still many areas that are not included. The above three styles eventually formed a comprehensive history book, so "the first comprehensive general history of the mainland" is the correct description of the book "Historical Records".
In this way, Sima Qian's "Historical Records" has four creations,
The first is to create a biography style to write biographies of historical figures and write the history of people;
The second is to create a style of table to compare and list the main historical figures and events;
The third is to create a style of combining biography and table in the whole book, so as to achieve the combination of points and faces, which not only takes into account the whole picture of history, but also highlights important figures, which is an essential historical progress compared with the chronicle style used in previous history books;
The fourth is to create a "book" that has created many encyclopedias in the appendix of historical books.
Therefore, it seems more appropriate to position the "Historical Records" and the "Book of Han" with the "combination of biography and table", rather than being called "Ji Biography" in a partial and comprehensive manner. Because there is a special real chronicle in the official history of later generations, of course, the combination of biography and table is obviously much better than a simple chronicle or a simple chronicle.
Later, whether it was the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" and the "Book of the Later Han" in the simple biography style, or the "Zizhi Tongjian", which re-chronographed the history from the Warring States period to the Five Dynasties in the continuation of the "Zuo Chuan", neither of them appeared to be clear, thorough, accurate and comprehensive.
In "Twenty-four History", the "history and Han" are superb, which is not unrelated to the fact that they have a good "table". If the chronicle is a pile of copper coins, the watch is a string of money. If the biography is the goal, the table is the outline. Later, the Book of Han inherited the fine tradition of the Historical Records, a synthesis of biography and tables. In the later "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" and "Book of the Later Han", there was no table again. This is a history of regression, and of course a regression of history.
In this way, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has become China's first chronicle of the dynastic history, and it is obvious that this first is a regression of the level of Chinese historical works. Without a table as a reference, just looking at the biographies of the characters, many complex events, many aspects of the contradictions, and many factors that affect and determine the development process of the contradictions, it is not very clear.
For the history of the Later Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms, we still do not have a clear and detailed table like in the "Historical Records" and the "Book of Han".
This will lead to new evaluations of historical classics such as "Bamboo Book Chronicle", "Shiben", "Shangshu", "Spring and Autumn", "Zuo Chuan", "Chinese", "Warring States Policy", "Zizhi Tongjian", and the so-called "Twenty-four History" and even "Twenty-five History" of the so-called correct history:
"The Bamboo Book Chronicle" is the first chronicle of the general history of the mainland, from Xia (some books are even "Yellow Emperor") to the "present king" is the end of the Warring States Wei Dynasty 299 years ago;
The World Book is the first comprehensive compilation of historical materials in mainland China;
The Book of Shang is the first compilation of historical materials in the Chinese language;
"Zuo Chuan" is the first chronicle of the mainland to break the dynastic history, and "Spring and Autumn", as the first chronicle of the major events of the dynastic period, is its original outline;
"Zizhi Tongjian" - a continuation of "Zuo Chuan" and became the first chronicle of the mainland's cross-generational history (it is barely reasonable to say that the general history);
"Historical Records" - is the first comprehensive (combination of surface and biography, with "book") general history in the mainland;
The Book of Han is the first comprehensive (basically the same as the Historical Records) dynastic history in the mainland;
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is the first simple chronicle of the history of the dynasty in mainland China;
"Book of the Later Han Dynasty" - although the content should be before the "Three Kingdoms", but it was written later than the "Three Kingdoms", so it can only become the second simple chronicle of the dynastic history.
After the "Twenty History" of later generations, plus the "Qing History Manuscript", among the twenty-one official histories,
There is a ———— in the simple biography
"Book of Jin", "Book of Song", "Book of Southern Qi", "Book of Liang", "Book of Chen", "Book of Wei", "Book of Northern Qi", "Book of Zhou", "History of the South", "History of the North", "Book of Sui", "Book of the Old Tang", "History of the Old Five Dynasties";
The combination of the transmission table has ————
"New Tang Dynasty Book", "New Five Dynasties History", "Song History", "Liao History", "Jin History", "Yuan History", "Ming History" and "Qing History Manuscript".
Among them, the Tang Dynasty Book and the History of the Five Dynasties, one of the great advantages of the new over the old is that it is not a simple biography style of the "Three Kingdoms", but a complex with "tables" like the "Historical Records" and "Han Shu".
In short, in the twenty-five histories, there are only 10 complexes that combine biography and tables.
Including Shi Han at the beginning and the last eight from the beginning of the New Tang Dynasty,
There are 15 simple biographies,
From the beginning of the Later Han Dynasty to the Three Kingdoms, the Two Jin Dynasties, the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Sui Dynasty, there is no table of the history of the middle 600 years.
It needs to be supplemented and perfected by future generations.
Why not?—— it is clear that these 600 years have been in troubled times, and there are many clues, and they must be sorted into a table.
The amount of work can be imagined, and the necessity and urgency of it are also greater.
Speaking of which, the ancient historical classics of the mainland also have quotation-style "Shangshu", "Chinese" and "Warring States Policy". However, the author opposes the use of the so-called "country-specific" concept.
Because it's an illogical concept. During the period of reunification, there was only one country, not because there were no historians, but because there was no distinction between the countries.
Therefore, the so-called "country-specific" term should be abolished.
There is also a "chronicle book", based on the hand-me-down history book, the major events in it are selected to form a compilation of historical materials, so that it becomes a second-hand historical material, which is obviously different from the history book, because there is no use of this style to directly compile the history book, it is not good to compare with the history book.
If the title "quotation style" and the previous types are added together, they constitute the basic type of mainland historical classics -
- That is, according to the length of the era, there are general histories and dynastic histories, as well as intergenerational histories in between;
-- According to the style of creation, there are five types: chronicle style, simple chronicle style, synthesis of biography and table, quotation style and chronicle script.
Now it seems that surely a synthesis combining biography and timeline is the best form. Why is it the best, biography makes the story of important people complete, unlike a simple chronicle where characters appear and disappear from time to time, it is difficult to have a consistent clue, and it is not easy to recognize the complete historical image of a character.
The disadvantage of the simple biography is that although the characters are complete, they will be very vague about the intricate history of an era, so it is best to combine the two, exhibit each other, and complement each other.
The Book of Han is not the first history of China's dynasties
The first dynastic history should be the Spring and Autumn Period and its "Three Legends", especially the "Zuo Chuan", because "The Biography of Gu Liang" and "The Legend of the Ram" are more like historical explanations, explanations and commentaries, rather than "Zuo Chuan", which mainly narrates historical events themselves.
The Spring and Autumn Era of 242, as the first half of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, seems to be an incomplete generation, and it is a broken dynasty in the broken dynasty, and although the "Zuo Chuan" takes the twelve dukes of the Lu State as the basic framework of time, the year is the duke, the month is the year, and the day is the month, but the perspective is by no means limited to the Lu State, including the Zhou Dynasty, the twelve princes and other dozens of princes' regimes, and the major events in the world are basically reflected truthfully in all aspects.
Therefore, the book is not only the history of the Lu State at that time, but can be regarded as the history of China and the history of the world at that time.
Earlier than the "Zuo Chuan", there is the "Shangshu", which is not a history book in the pure sense.
Although there is a saying that "the six classics are all history", but the only one in the "Five Classics" that can really be called a "history book" is "Spring and Autumn", and other classics certainly have historical value, but they are not from historians, nor are they real history books. The same is true of "Chinese" and "Warring States Policy", which is closer to the account of "Shangshu", so "Shangshu", "Chinese" and "Warring States Policy" are in the same vein and can be classified as historical books such as memorization.
Comparing its vocabulary and language style, it is not difficult to find that the "Book of Shang" is ancient and profound, and the main content is ancient proclamations, speeches, admonitions and speeches dating back about 2,000 years or even more than 3,000 years;
The style of "Chinese" is close to "Zuo Chuan", concise and vivid, while "Warring States Policy" is wanton, sometimes excessive, suspected of being groundless, which greatly reduces its credibility.
It is a fact that the Book of Han inherited the comprehensive example of the Historical Records and wrote the history of the first Han Dynasty in the former Han Dynasty, which became the first dynastic history under this style (I object to the call it Ji Chuan style).
Added the concept of "intergenerational history".
For example, the "Zizhi Tongjian", a total of 1362 years of history from 403 BC to 959 AD, is a cross-generational chronicle.
It is certainly not a general history, because it is clearly inherited from the "Zuo Chuan". Although there is still a break of fifty or sixty years in between, the "Zuo Chuan" is strictly speaking in 468 BC, and some people later added some events related to the division of wisdom in 463 BC and 453 BC, which are detailed below.
Therefore, "Zizhi Tongjian" and "Zuo Chuan" are grouped together. Taken together, it is a chronicle of more than 1,600 years in China. Naturally, it cannot be called a general history, because the "Zuo Chuan" obviously began in 722 BC after the eastward migration of the Zhou royal family.
Eliminate the term "country-specific".
As for the statement that the "Chinese" and "Warring States Policy" are designated as "national entities", it is actually absurd and ridiculous, at that time, the world was divided into vassal states, each doing its own thing, each doing its own government, of course, to write their own history, and the names of each family are different, because of the exchange of materials and the collection of materials during the change of dynasties, later generations will compile and copy the original history books of various countries into new history books.
The "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" is divided into "Book of Wei," "Book of Shu," and "Book of Wu." Should it also be called a country-specific style, and according to the existing logic, is it not called a country-specific style? The era reflected in "Zuo Chuan" was even more numerous and multi-stated, and it is very clever not to use the so-called "country-specific" method of writing. Because the time thread is obviously clearer, more precise, and purer. For example, when writing the history of the Tang Dynasty, the "Zizhi Tongjian Tang Dynasty" is a chronicle, and the "Old Tang Book" and the "New Tang Book" are chronicles or complexes, but they cannot be written in the country-specific style, because the Tang Dynasty has always been unified, so how can it be individualized? It can be seen that this "country-specific style" is not a common style of writing history. So this "country" is an illogical and absurd concept.
Welcome to pay attention to "word farming" and open up new ideas for history and archaeology!
(The author declares the originality, all rights reserved.) The maps drawn and photographs taken in this number also belong to the category of works. The pictures from the Internet are only for optimizing the visual experience of self-media readers, and do not belong to the scope of this work, and are hereby declared. ）