01
A few days ago, Sima Guang spent his thousand birthday quietly, quietly and quietly.
On November 17, 1019, Sima Guang was born in Guangshan County, Henan, and his father Sima Chi was named "Guang". Sima Guang's distant ancestor can be traced back to Sima Fu during the Western Jin Dynasty, and his brother's name was Sima Yi.
According to the "Biography of Sima Guang of the Song Dynasty", Sima Guang was a gifted child from an early age. The seven-year-old's demeanor is "awe-inspiring as an adult", and when he hears others talk about "Zuo Zhuan", he likes it, and when he goes home, he tells it to his family, and he can already get its main idea. Since then, I have not released the scrolls, and I have not paid attention to the hunger, thirst, cold and heat when I read the books. Although he loves to read, he is not a nerd. The children fell into the water tank, and the other children were frightened to escape, but Sima Guang smashed the cylinder with a stone to save the children, leaving behind the legend of "Sima Guang smashing the cylinder".
During the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song, Sima Guang became a jinshi, during the reign of Emperor Yingzong of Song he became a scholar of Longtuge Zhi, and during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song he was an opponent of Wang Anshi and a conservative who was in direct opposition to the Fa-changing faction. Because Wang Anshi was gaining power at that time, Sima Guang was not reused. So at the age of fifty-two, he retired from Bieliang to Luoyang without asking about political affairs, and he himself lived in seclusion to write history, and he was not bothered by it.
Since Sima Qian's "Records of History" a thousand years ago, since the "Book of Han", all the history has been in the form of chronicles. Sima Guang's heart was very large, and he was not satisfied with the inherent pattern of writing about the characters of a dynasty, but he wanted to inherit the "Zuo Zhuan" that he had heard in his childhood and compile a chronicle of the general history in chronological order. Politically, Sima Guang was known for his intransigence, and such a truth may not be suitable for politics, but it is very suitable for writing history.
Before the age of fifty-two, Sima Guang had completed the pre-Qin parts intermittently, and the emperor was satisfied after presenting it to Emperor Yingzong of Song, so he rewarded Sima Guang with 2400 old books for reference. He also provided him with pen and ink, silk, afternoon tea and related expenses, but also allowed him to borrow books from the Royal Dragon Pavilion, Zhaowen Hall, Jixian Temple, and other places. In the Song Dynasty of the eleventh century AD, Sima Guang received the support of the top resources.
Sima Guang also invited the first-class historians at that time, Liu Shu, Liu Shu, and Fan Zuyu to participate together. First of all, they excerpted valuable historical materials and compiled them into "long compilations" in chronological order, and the compilation time was to be detailed, "it is better to lose than to be complicated, rather than to lose in omitted". Then Sima Guang examined the similarities and falsities of the historical materials, deleted them and finally cut them into the final finished product.
Sima Guang and this group of the best assistants worked day and night, and he himself did not rest even when he was sick. His friend advised him to take a leisurely time, and he replied: Death and life are fate. This almost non-stop work continued for 13 years. Sima Guang's drafts were all written in meticulous orthography, and they filled two rooms.
In 1084, Sima Guang presented Song Shenzong with this 294-volume, 3 million-word chronicle chronicle that took 19 years to compile. From the three branches of the Warring States to the conquest of Huainan by Emperor Shizong of Later Zhou in the five dynasties, a total of 16 dynasties spanned 16 dynasties, covering the rise and fall of 1,362 years. Sima Guang said in the "Jintong Jian Table":
"The subject is now skeletal, his eyes are faint, his teeth are few, his consciousness is depleted, and what he is doing now is forgotten." The energy of the subject is exhausted in this book. ”
Emperor Shenzong of Song was very satisfied, and with his book "In view of the past, in order to govern the Tao", he gave the title of the book "Zizhi Tongjian" and personally prefaced it. After Emperor Shenzong's death, the young Emperor Zhezong took the throne, and Sima Guang returned to power, abolishing the new law and completely deposing the officials who changed the law within a few months. However, due to the excessive energy consumed by writing books, Sima Guang died after more than a year in power, at the age of sixty-eight.
Later, when the new party constitution came to power, Cai Jing's younger brother Cai Bian and the official Xue Ang and others wrote to destroy this historical book compiled by the old party, all thanks to this preface written by Song Shenzong himself. Sima Guang's political evaluation of the Song Dynasty was mixed, but his "General Commentary" far exceeded his achievements in eunuchs.
02
In the nearly thousand years since it was written, the Tongjian is the only immortal masterpiece that can compete with the "History", the so-called "two Sima of Historiography". Other history books ahead of these two peaks are breathtaking. The Qing Dynasty's "Outline of the General Catalogue of the Four Libraries" commented on the "General Commentary": "The style is rigorous, the context is clear, the scope is grand, the body is large and thoughtful, the historical materials are rich, the examination is detailed, the narrative is detailed, and the complexity is appropriate." ”
The Chronicle, represented by the "Chronicle of History", takes a specific person as the narrative benchmark. The advantage is that the characters have a clear line of deeds, and the disadvantage is that they are often unable to show the full picture of the event. A battle to influence the trend of the world is not just a rough outline of the biographies of Xie An or even Xie Xuan, Murong Chui, and Yao Cang.
The advantage of the chronicle represented by the "General Commentary" lies in this: historical figures are characters in specific events, characters in specific time, space and environment. In chronological order, it can not only sort out the order and end of historical events, present a complete and three-dimensional historical scene, but also juxtapose a number of major events in a time dimension at a specific time, so that readers can discover the connection between events and the impact on the future development of events.
Taking the Hongmen Banquet as an example, the Hongmen Banquet is written in the "Records of History", although it is the most detailed in the "Xiang Yu Benji", but it is also scattered in the biographies of Liu Bang, Zhang Liang, and Fan Duo.
Xiang Yu was furious and said, "Dan Ri Fei Shi Shi, in order to break the Pei Gong Army!" "When it was, Xiang Yu had four hundred thousand soldiers, and at the New Fenghong Gate, Pei Gong had one hundred thousand soldiers, in the hegemony. "History of Xiang Yu Benji"
Liang is a solid uncle. Xiang Bo saw Pei Gong. Pei Gong and Drink for Shou, married guests. Ling Xiang Bo said that Pei Gong did not dare to double Xiang Yu. "History of the Liuhou Family"
Xiang Xiangbo wanted to live Zhang Liang, and went to see Liang at night, because xiang Yu was sentenced to Xiang Yu, and Xiang Yu stopped. Pei Gong rode from more than a hundred, drove to the Hongmen Gate, and saw Xie Xiangyu. Historiography of Takazu Honki
The battalion guard stopped snorting, slammed straight in, and set up the tent. Xiang Yu asked for whom. Zhang Liangyue: "Pei Gong ginseng fan duo." "The Biography of Fan Li Teng"
And the "General Commentary" will be the thrilling Hongmen Feast in one go, jumping on the paper:
...... So Zhang Liang went to the military gate to see Fan Duo. "What's going on today?" Liang Yue: "The sword dance of This Xiangzhuang is often intended to be Pei Gongye." "This is a compulsion, please enter, and live with it!" "Enter with a sword and a shield." The guards of the military gate wanted to stop, and Fan Huan sideed his shield to collide, and the guards served the ground. Entering, draped in drapery, staring at Xiang Yu, his hair on his fingers, his eyes cracked. Xiang Yu pressed his sword and said, "Who is the guest?" Zhang Liangyue: "Pei Gongzhi's samson Fan Duoye." ”......
Historian Qian Mu greatly admired Sima Guang's eyesight and tailoring, saying that for more than 1,360 years of a seventeenth history, Sima Guang used only two hundred and ninety-four volumes to write, "It can be seen that his important work is not to add materials, but more importantly, to delete historical materials." But in addition to deleting a lot of historical materials, he also added two hundred or dozens of new materials from books, which is of course a great effort. ”
Other praise words have been countless in the past, such as the Southern Song Dynasty King Yinglin said: "Since the existence of the book deed, there has not been a person like the "General Commentary". In modern times, Liang Qichao said: "The grandeur of its structure and the abundance of its materials have made it impossible for future generations to write a general history, and it is inevitable that they will not be able to base it on it, and so far there is no one who can heal it." Wen Gong is also a great man! ”
Because it is so admirable, there is an endless stream of imitators after that. The Southern Song Dynasty Jin Luxiang wrote "Zizhi Tongjian Pre-compilation", the Southern Song Dynasty Li Tao wrote "Continuing Zizhi Tongjian Long Edition", and the Qing Dynasty Bi Yuan's "Continuing Zizhi Tongjian" ... These were all great historians and scholars of the time, but none of them could be compared with the General Commentary.
From a modern academic point of view, the General Commentary is not absolutely perfect. For example, there are inaccuracies in historical materials, there are errors in chronological ranking, and there are errors and omissions in cutting historical materials... In addition, Sima Guang himself was an absolute Confucian orthodox, and it was difficult to be absolutely at peace when he denied the characters. For example, cen Zhongmian, a close friend, believes that his evaluation of Li Deyu, a cattle monk and child in the Tang Dynasty, was biased out of his position against the change of law, and deviated from the objectivity of historians.
However, it is easy to point out the fallacy of "leakage, repetition, disorder, miscellaneousness, error, persistence, and slander", but it is difficult to write a general history of two hundred and ninety-four volumes, and it is even more impossible to require three million words to be exactly the same. Guan Hanqing of the Yuan Dynasty wrote in the "Double Tone Qiao Pai'er" that "the sun is full of losses and eclipses." The southeast of the underground, the northwest of the sky, the heavens and the earth are not yet complete. "The General Commentary is fallacious and does not detract from its greatness.
Moreover, to absolutely restore the "truth" of history, it may be absolutely impossible to do. Modern people may not be able to judge the true and false events they have personally experienced at the moment, let alone the personnel affairs of thousands of years ago. The value of the Tongjian is not that it is 100% correct, but that it represents the highest achievement of humanity in the 11th century AD and the highest level of understanding of the history of China in the previous 1,362 years.
03
However, if you ask ten thousand people what is the significance of reading the General Book, perhaps ten thousand people will answer: imperial power plot. This is also the biggest misunderstanding caused by the General Book since its publication, and there is no one.
Although the book was repaired at the emperor's expense, the name was given by the emperor, and finally dedicated to the emperor, Sima Guang's original intention in writing the book was not to provide a management textbook for imagami. He describes the original intention of his creation as:
After the Spring and Autumn Period, for more than a thousand years, from the "History of History" to the "History of the Five Dynasties" in fifteen hundred volumes, the calendar years of the various lives can not be completed, the whole world can not give its outline, tired of easy, and will be extinguished. Yu Wanted to entrust the beginning of the Zhou Weilie King's order of Han, Zhao, and Wei as princes, and the next five generations, because of qiu Ming's chronicle, imitating Xun Yue's brief text, snaring the public and becoming a family dialect.
That is to say, Sima Guang's purpose was to contribute a general history as concise and concise as possible to the majority of scholars, not to recharge the emperor's leisure time. He himself had no interest in the so-called conspiracy that posterity was enthusiastic about, and Zhu Xi once said: "Wen Gong did not like the conspiracy, and when he was repairing the book, he deleted it a lot. Only to exist with him. ”
Although I don't like it, the existence of power plots in the book is a fact after all, coupled with the deliberate propaganda of contemporary publishers for the psychology of those who are large and small in power, so the concept of the "General Commentary" for the imperial power strategy is not gone. Many people get the book with enthusiasm, expecting that after studying, even if they can't catch up with who has read seventeen times in their lives, at least they can look like Wang Jianlin, who has a small goal of 100 million. However, if I hold the illusion that the king will dominate and kill me, it is better to read the so-called Four Books of Power and Conspiracy directly.
Taking history as a mirror, we can know the rise and fall. Liang Wendao said in "Noise", "Our historical interpretation focuses on the choices of certain key figures at certain critical moments, and we value the individual more than society." When it comes to learning from history, there is a very important assumption, that is: first, human nature is unchanged, the first emperor of two thousand years ago can be resurrected today, and the rulers of two thousand years can also call the wind and rain in the Qin Dynasty; second, the change in social background is only the most superficial difference, in addition to etiquette, clothing and architecture, a certain situation in the past is likely to reappear at present. ”
The significance of reading the "General Guide" lies in knowing the present from the past and from the past to the past. The ultimate wisdom displayed in the General Commentary is not the seeming conspirators who kill each other, but how to judge the truth and direction of big and small things, how to achieve a thing in the end instead of dying in the middle, and how to gain the deepest insight into human nature in the complicated world. Feng Tang said that the best way to understand human nature "seems to be to observe the change and invariance, reincarnation and evolution of human nature on a large scale of time." "To date, no other history book has been continuously observed for more than 1,362 years—not in China, and even less in the West.
Only by knowing people can we discuss the world, and history is, in the final analysis, the history of people. Sima Qian and Sima Guang both wrote the glorious history of thousands of generations in the depressed life encounters. Du Fu has a poem "Article Hates Destiny", and the spring breeze triumphant life is often incompatible with the words that are enough to be passed down to the world. I know that netizens "such as I smell" once sighed: When the lives and deaths of tens of millions of people are gently turned by you page by page, you feel that the things you encounter with dog blood are all small things.
Reading the "General Book" will make people understand: the male lord and the king, the wise and the beautiful, the pearls and jade are full of halls, and the corpses are all over the field... All the rise and fall of success or failure is the glory and disgrace of mankind. Although in the long river of time, more than a thousand years is just a drop of water - this drop of water is enough for you to see the great rivers and the sea, and the dust of the future generations.