Chapter 14 Sima Qianba

"Historical Records" is a biographical general history, involving politics, economy, military and culture three thousand years before the Han Dynasty.The whole book includes twelve records, ten tables, eight books, thirty families and seventy biographies. "Ben Ji" records the affairs of the emperor. The "table" records the succession of generations, the relationship between countries and the change of official positions. "Book" records laws and regulations; it also talks about astronomy, water conservancy, economics and culture, etc., similar to the later history of science. "Aristocratic family" describes the princes and princes of various periods. "Biographies" are the most abundant, covering counselors, generals, knights, assassins, wizards, merchants, literati, and fortune-tellers, etc., occupying the first place in the book.

The style of "Historical Records" has been used by the official history of all dynasties. Among these five parts, Biography, Family, and Benji are basically excellent biographical literature.At that time, history and literature had not yet drawn a clear boundary, and the model of the fusion of the two was Sima Qian's "Historical Records".To write history as biographical literature, most of the later historians dare not do this, dare not bring personal emotions, and blindly describe it calmly, seemingly objective, but in fact they speak for the feudal rulers.Ban Gu inherited his father Ban Biao and wrote the history of the dynasty "Hanshu", which revealed his orthodox face. He also ridiculed Sima Qian for not being good at protecting himself wisely.And the good things in "Hanshu", including the style, are almost all learned from "Historical Records".Combat, folk and individual, "Historical Records" set a precedent, but later it became a small stream and gradually dried up.Twenty-four histories, the attitude shown in "Historical Records" is arrogant, and the height and breadth it has achieved are difficult for future generations to match.Lu Xun's evaluation of it is the most incisive: "The swan song of historians, "Li Sao" without rhyme."

"Li Sao" is Qu Yuan's masterpiece.King Huai of Chu exiled Qu Yuan, and Qu Yuan wrote this long poem; Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty castrated Sima Qian, and Sima Qian wrote "Historical Records" with 520,000 words. The body is castrated, but the spirit becomes stronger, exuding a strong and rare breath of freedom.Although things like freedom have rebounded from time to time since the Western Han Dynasty, the general trend has been to weaken and become blurred—the feudal rulers snatched it away and stole it away.In China, there is no emperor who is not a robber and thief who takes freedom.Grab and steal, both ways.

The irony is that whether the spirit of freedom is castrated by the ruler is the first standard we use to measure ancient literati today.It is in this sense that we regard Sima Qian as the forerunner of outstanding literati in the past dynasties. In Sima Qian’s time, some literati lived very comfortably. The typical example is Sima Xiangru, who was good at seducing women and even more good at singing praises. He wrote a lot of fu, which are gorgeous but empty.Later Mei Gao, Yang Xiong and others were similar to Sima Xiangru.Of course, they have a good side in life, such as Xiangru's mission to the Southwest is very successful, such as Yang Xiong is a good person.But as literati, they are mentally handicapped, castrated in another sense, have no position, do not speak for the common people, and only focus on climbing, lest the master will be unhappy.The works of such literati also often lack aesthetic feeling.The reason is simple: beauty always comes from true feelings. "Han Fu" marks the literature of the Han Dynasty. It is really a misfortune for the Han Dynasty. In my opinion, Han Fu is undoubtedly the worst in the literature of all dynasties.Fortunately, there was a Sima Qian who wrote "Historical Records", holding up two peaks of history and literature with one hand.

Reading "Historical Records", what impresses me the most is its simplicity and vividness.Sima Qian's use of words is like sending a telegram, and his words are precise.Words are written on bamboo slips, wordy is not enough, so how much more bamboo should be chopped?The way early Chinese is written determines its style.Han fu is full of words, after all, the number of words is limited. "Historical Records" has 520,000 characters. If it is written in modern Chinese, it may have 5 million characters.Sima Qian worked hard on single characters, often with multiple meanings.Examples of nouns and function words used as verbs abound.Sima Qian's ability lies in: he can also write clearly.He often uses the "mutual encounter method" in his books. For example, when talking about Xiang Yu, some things should be included in the biographies of Liu Bang or Han Xin, and they are not casual, but have deep meaning.Another example is that Qin Shihuang was fascinated by immortals, which implies that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty wanted to ascend to heaven.His criticism of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is reflected in the selection of characters. The good officials are all in other dynasties, while the cruel officials of the common people are concentrated in the current dynasty. ——Based on this item alone, Emperor Wu would not worry about the crime if he wanted to kill him.It took a lot of courage for him to include Xiang Yu, who had never been an emperor, in the "Benji", and Chen Sheng, the leader of the peasant uprising, in the "Aristocratic Family" and to praise them.It is no wonder that scholars poisoned by orthodox thinking called "Historical Records" a "slanderous book" and "filthy history". ——Sima Qian actually included homosexuality in it.

Sima Qian's use of spoken language is also very good. He is in the court, and his writing is not a bit courtly, and he has hundreds of thousands of words, and none of them sound like the emperor's secretary.The Chinese seem to have limited tension and are easily occupied by his social role. Cadres usually have the face of a cadre, and secretaries often have the accent of a secretary.Sima Qian is obviously an exception. He can completely separate work from get off work. He has two faces, the surface is blurred, and the inside is clear.As a peerless scholar, he has always turned his heart to the people, and his stance on the people is not forced at all, unlike the current economists who follow the trend quickly.He used to be a cowherd boy on the high slopes of the loess, running all over the mountains and plains.The so-called power of an article must come from real feelings.Sima Qian does not lack this, but he has too much truth, which must be compressed, and sometimes disguised, and expressed in a subtle way with spring and autumn brushwork.He has been studying and traveling all his life, and he has traveled hundreds of thousands of miles.He set an example for the cultivation of later generations of literati.As mentioned earlier, a major feature of Chinese literati is roaming.Li Bai roamed the world, learning from Sima Qian.Travel, education, experience, three in one.There are also those who do not swim or swim less, such as the great Cao Xueqin, who took a long and tortuous spiritual journey.Great Western writers, like Kafka and Faulkner, stared at small places and wrote great works.

Sima Qian is a master at writing people, with just a few words, the characters come alive.He has done a good job in grasping the big picture and laying out the details.Later generations of literati, not only those who wrote prose admired him, but even the novels of Ming and Qing Dynasties drew nourishment from him.The number of articles selected by him exceeds that of Su Dongpo and Ouyang Xiu.He is a pioneer of fuzzy texts. He wrote about Xiang Yu and Liu Bang in novels and dramas.The tense atmosphere of writing "Hongmen Banquet" itself is like a drama, with different characters playing their own roles: Xiang Zhuang, Xiang Bo, Fan Zeng, Zhang Liang... Sima Qian even made a special trip to make a field trip to arrange everyone's seats. Be clear.In response to this rigor, Gu Yanwu, a famous scholar in the early Qing Dynasty, praised and said: "During the Qin and Chu Dynasties, the way soldiers entered and exited had twists and turns, and only the Taishi Gongxu knew it well... since ancient history books, there has never been such a detailed account of military affairs. Those who have a great future in Tai Shigong's chest are beyond the ability of future generations of scholars."

Almost all the great writers of the past dynasties in China have admired Sima Qian. The so-called moral writing, character and literary quality, Sima Qian is enough to set an example for future generations.The characters in his works are distributed in various industries, because of their vividness, they can be approached, admired, sighed, despised, and hated.These historical figures have also influenced the personality and character trends of the Chinese people.For example, the endlessly emerging heroes of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States were interpreted by successive dynasties, turned into dramas and novels, and were widely circulated among the people.Recently, Professor Ma Yueran, a judge of the Nobel Prize in Literature, wrote an article saying: "My heart is in the pre-Qin period." This is very meaningful.No one surpassed Sima Qian in the records and explanations of the pre-Qin period.The pre-Qin period was a great era, which has become the consensus of scholars.

Luo Guanzhong's interpretation of a dynastic history, while "Historical Records" truly describes the general history of three thousand years, both are precious resources of Chinese civilization, but the latter is obviously more precious.The history written by Sima Qian is a magnificent scroll of life.His all-round investigation of the living world has raised history to a historic height.It can be said that with his mighty power alone, he provided extremely rich spiritual resources for Chinese civilization. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty castrated his body, but gave birth to this kind of great power. Is this the arrangement of God?

The feudal rulers of the past dynasties have fattened up many imperial literati, but castrated their souls and turned them into walking corpses with fine clothes and fine food.This article is aimed at Sima Qian, but in fact it is also aimed at the opposite type of literati.Just like Sima Qian wrote about great men, villains are already active in it.A villain is a crippled form of a great man, and vice versa. Regarding "Historical Records", there are a lot of annotations, interpretations and comments in the past dynasties.The book I have in hand is "Historical Records Today's Notes" by Nanjing University Press. It draws on the achievements of predecessors, and the interpretation is also very clear.By the way, I am not engaged in the research of "Historical Records" personally, and I have limited reading, but I have admired Sima Qian for a long time.

"Historical Records" has a strong personal color, so it is true, not just telling history on behalf of certain classes with a straight face.Literary artists are naturally close to it.The great works of human culture, no matter philosophy, history or literature, are without exception the fruit of individual labor. "Historical Records" is great, but it is not closed. Sima Qian himself said: He "studies the relationship between heaven and man, and understands the changes of the past and the present to form the words of a family." Just like a great philosophical thought, it must be open and can be discussed.I personally don't fully agree with some of Sima Qian's tendencies, such as his attitude towards Xiang Yu.On the contrary, I think that Xiang Yu is brave, short-sighted, narrow-minded, stingy, and cruel.Fortunately, Liu Bang defeated him and forced him to kill himself in Wujiang, otherwise, he would probably be Qin Shihuang, the tyrant he had vowed to replace. Compared with Xiang Yu, Liu Bang's problems are almost all minor problems.Thanks to Sima Zichang (Sima Qianzi Zichang) for his detailed records, allowing us to weigh history from different angles. In addition, Sima Qian has a preference for rangers.Jing Ke's assassination of the King of Qin was righteous, but a hero like Guo Xie's righteousness was superficial and could not be deduced from the bottom of his heart.He is good at putting on a show, and he made a name for himself in the world with one thing: his sister was being bullied, and he hoped that he would come forward to support her and settle things down, but he criticized her in public and ignored her, leaving an impression of being fair.However, most of those who offend him will die; most of those who befriend him are powerful... There are other examples, needless to say. Everyone will have some different feelings when reading "Historical Records", which just proves that Sima Qian is broad and powerful.Great men are never perfect. Reading Sima Qian means endless growth. Italian philosopher Croce said: All history is contemporary history. In the mid-to-late 1970s, Mr. Weikerd, who was the ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to China, wrote the radio drama "Han Wu Di and Tai Shi Gong".Wei Kede is a famous writer, active in European diplomatic circles and literary circles.When he wrote about Sima Qian, he had a peculiar idea, asking the historian and the emperor to argue face to face about the truth of history, each holding on to one side and refusing to give in to each other.Liu Che, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, couldn't let his historians write history according to his intention, and became angry from embarrassment.Liu Che didn't kill Sima Qian, but tried every means to torture this stubborn man, occupy his beautiful wife, and castrate his lower body which was passed on from generation to generation.But this Sima Qian, whose head could be broken and bled, never lost the principle of writing "Historical Records".The majestic Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty finally had nothing to do with a frail scholar... Mr. Wei Kede pushed the contradiction between the emperor and the historian to the extreme by way of dramatic conflict.And the incisive conclusions he drew from it are commonplace among Chinese people: Telling the truth costs blood. 2006.10.30.Changed to Wangyan Zhai in Meishan