Chapter 4 Sima Qian and Ban Gu

Sima Qian's "Historical Records" was completed in the last years of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.Ban Gu wrote "Hanshu", but the author died in prison because of his past relationship with his relative Dou Xian before the book was completed.One belongs to the Western Han Dynasty and the other belongs to the Eastern Han Dynasty, about 90 years before BC and about 90 years after AD.From our perspective today, these two books seem to go hand in hand.In fact, they are separated by a distance of 180 years, which is equal to the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty before us.

One of "Historical Records" and "Hanshu" is a private work, and the other manuscript has been read by the emperor, which has the color of national history.Sima Qian's self-proclaimed "Words of Cheng Family" and "Famous Mountains in Tibet" are already different from Ban Gu's purpose of writing books.Besides, "Historical Records" is a general history, and "Hanshu" is a history of dating.The different personalities and hobbies of the two writers also caused considerable discrepancies between their materials and writing.However, between 90 BC and 90 AD, the environment in which Chinese writers and thinkers lived had changed drastically.One of the important points is that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty used Dong Zhongshu's suggestion to reject all schools of thought and respect Confucianism alone.In fact, the Han Dynasty established the country and practiced miscellaneous hegemony, with legalist thought, and the governance of Wenjing also had Taoist spirit. Dong Zhongshu's own writings also involved elements of yin, yang and five elements, involving disasters and abnormalities.In short, the whole thought of the Han Dynasty is a kind of selective synthesis, which has been explained by Chinese and foreign scholars.What we want to emphasize here is that Dong Zhongshu's respect for Confucianism was not for the purpose of respecting Confucianism, but to establish a formal thought of unifying the empire, which is evidenced by his own words.He once said to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty:

This passage denies the independence of academics, and frankly admits that it promotes academics in order to support the current regime.Emperor Wu set up doctors of the Five Classics, set up school officials, and promoted virtuous men, all based on this purpose. From then on, China's huge civil official group had an orthodox logic for their governance.Sima Qian was at the same time as Dong Zhongshu, and his studies were not affected by this policy.And Ban Gu's "regular" Confucianism when he was young has a foundation of more than one hundred years.Moreover, Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu, the master of entrepreneurship in the Later Han Dynasty, was a college student himself.The second emperor, Emperor Ming, Liu Zhuang, even considered himself a scholar, and once lectured on Shangshu in Piyong (the auditorium).The third emperor Zhangdi Liu Tan personally formulated the similarities and differences of the Five Classics in Baihu Temple, and Ban Gu was also listed.It is difficult to break away from the shackles of the standards set by the state when writing a book in an environment under the leadership of this regime.

Sima Qian, like Ban Gu, claimed to be a follower of Duke Zhou and Confucius.But today, as soon as we open the "Historical Records" and browse through three or five places at will, we can feel that the author has a romantic and individualistic style, which is refreshing, informal, and non-confucian.His self-proclaimed "few unruly talents, long without the reputation of hometown songs", should be a true portrayal.It can be said that the "scholars are for the confidant's use, and the women are for their own appearance" that he believes in can be attributed to Confucian morality, but this position is already different from the so-called Confucianism that has been restricted by orthodoxy.

In "Historical Records", it is written that Jing Ke and Gao Jianli drank and beat the building, singing and weeping, as if there was no one else around, which is close to what Dong Zhongshu called "elimination of evil".And Xiang Yu is the enemy of Han Gaozu Liu Bang, and "Historical Records" "Xiang Yu Benji" is arranged before "Gaozu Benji" (if it is called "Xiang Chieftain" and "Pseudo-Chu" in later generations, "Benji" can only be downgraded to " record").In the article, Xiang Yu is written as an irritable but naive and cute character. His hero has come to an end, which is pitiable.In comparison, Liu Bang is like a hypocrite.And Sima Qian described Empress Lv's cruelty to Mrs. Qi, so that her own son Emperor Xiaohui accused her of "this is not what people do."When Ban Gu wrote the "Book of Han", the section about Liu Bang was roughly based on Sima Qian's materials.But his "Gao Houji" hides evil and promotes good, and does not mention a word about Mrs. Qi, but only narrates it in "Biography of Foreign Relatives" at the end of the book.

In addition to "Assassin's Biographies", "Historical Records" also includes "Funny Biographies", "Japanese Biographies" and "Gui Ce Biographies", which can be said to involve nine streams and three religions, showing the profile of the entire society.Although there is "Dongfang Shuo Biography" in Ban Gu's book, it no longer lists undecent or obscene cultural materials. Sima Qian played his personal self-interest concept through "Huo Zhi Biography". "The king of thousands of vehicles, the lord of thousands of families, and the king of hundreds of families still suffer from poverty, let alone the people who make up households!" Also." And from his point of view, being poor is a shame. "If the family is poor and the relatives are old, the wife is weak, and there is no sacrifice to eat at the age of one, and the food and clothing are not enough for self-sufficiency, so shameless, there is no comparison!" More than two thousand years later, many educated people The Chinese may dare to think so in their hearts, but I am afraid not many people can say so in their mouths.

Because of this, Sima Qian was criticized by Ban Gu. There is a "Biography of Sima Qian" in "Han Shu", which criticizes him "and his right and wrong are quite ignorant of sages. When discussing the Dao, he will first discuss the Huang Lao and then the Six Classics. In the preface, the knight-errant will retreat from the scholar and enter the traitor. Being ashamed, lowly and poor is also covered by it.” These places are not enough to fully express Ban Gu's orthodox thought. It is the volume 20 of "Hanshu" that most makes us see that his works belong to the product after "rejecting the monopoly of Confucianism" in history. "Ancient and Modern Tables".This table lists 1931 ancient people, including legendary figures such as Nuwa's family and Youchao family, famous Confucian disciples in China, and monarchs in "Spring and Autumn", etc., until the death of Qin Dynasty.And the history writers "show good and reveal evil" are divided into three classes and nine cases according to the top and bottom.Among them, there are fourteen people who have won the "Supreme Sage", including the Three Emperors and Five Emperors; and Zhougong Confucius is the queen.There is no saint other than Zhongni, although Mencius only belongs to the "Shangzhong Renren" with Yan Yuan and Guan Zhong.Lao Tzu, Shang Yang, Shen Zi, Mo Di, and Han Fei all belong to the "upper middle class", and they are first-class with Sun Bin.Assassin Jing Ke is the same product as Zhongzhong and Mengchang Lord Lu Buwei.And in "Fools Down Under", there are not only Chi You, Gong Gong, San Miao, but also Bao Si and Da Ji who are all over the country.Although Qin Shihuang burned books and harassed Confucian scholars, Ban Gu only demoted him as a middle and lower class, because his second generation, Hu Hai, was included in the "lower middle class", and the eunuch Zhao Gao was included in the "lower middle class".

From my personal point of view, unless the author has cultivated a period of "common scriptures" and "heterodox" concepts since he was educated, it will never be possible to explain so many things with only one sentence in an ancient book. The list of characters distinguishes their character, just like measuring the length of their talents. Therefore, we can also infer that the rigidity of Confucianism in the secular concept is not necessarily the true character of Confucius and his disciples.In many ways, those rigid forms were created by later generations, and their purpose was to maintain the compactness of the civil official group.In the end, Chinese scholars are still lucky. There must be Ma Qian from the Taishi Company who wrote before Lantai ordered Ban Gu, otherwise there would be no "Historical Records", and the "Hanshu" will open the beginning of the twenty-three histories. The tradition of Chinese historiography will definitely tend to " The policy of writing to convey the truth is even less authentic and lively than the "Hundreds of Different Prescriptions".