What is the difference between the Historical Records and the Han Book in the account of Emperor Wu

Bangu's Book of Han is the official version of the history of the Western Han Dynasty, which means that the history must be recorded to the satisfaction of the imperial court, especially the emperor. Although it must also be true, what the emperor or the court does not do well must also be "avoided" (in fact, hidden), which will affect its authenticity. Just like Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was so happy that he had suffered the people in successive wars, the "Book of Han" still had to look at the emperor's eyes.

Sima Qian's "Historical Records" is different, he is a personal record, a personal publication, and has a lot of freedom. You don't have to pay too much attention to the face of the imperial court, its authenticity is very strong. Under normal circumstances, the official unauthorized recording of history is called "wild history", but the "Records of the Historians" is different, it is also known as "the pioneering work of the 24 histories" because of its high historiography and literary nature, and it is also a true history.

Full of Lu Xun's evaluation, "the swan song of the historian, the rhyme of the separation".

1. The authors are different:

The author of the "Historical Records" is Sima Qian, and the author of the "Book of Han" is Ban Gu.

2. Different literary genres:

The "Records of the Historians" is a general history of the chronicles, and the "Book of Han" is the history of the dynasties.

3. The creation age is different:

The Records of the Historians was written in the Western Han Dynasty in 104 B.C., and the Book of Han was written in the Eastern Han Dynasty in 80 A.D.

4. The recorded historical time is different:

The Historical Records records the history of more than 3,000 years from the era of the legendary Yellow Emperor in ancient times to the first four years of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

The Book of Han records a total of 230 years of history from the first year of Han Gaozu (206 BC) in the Western Han Dynasty to the fourth year of Emperor Mangdi (23 AD) of the New Dynasty.

5. Different creative backgrounds:

Historical Records: During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the royal road was abolished, and the Qin Dynasty destroyed ancient cultural classics, so that the precious books and classics in the Ming Hall and the Stone Room were scattered and disordered. After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, Xiao He revised the law, Han Xin affirmed the military law, Zhang Cang established the statute, Shusun Tong determined the etiquette, and the literary scholars with excellent character and learning gradually entered the use, and the destroyed ancient books such as "Poems" and "Books" were constantly searched and donated by people who love literature in various places.

Book of Han: Since the "Historical Records" was only written in the early years of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, many people wrote a sequel for it at that time. According to the records of "Stone Justice", there are more than ten people who have written the sequel to "Historical Records" to change the gods, including Liu Xiang, Liu Xin, Feng Shang, Yang Xiong, etc., and the title of the book is still called "Historical Records".

Ban Gu's father, Ban Biao (3 A.D., 54 A.D.), was very dissatisfied with these sequels, so he "picked up his old things and ran through strange news" for the "Historical Records" and "wrote sixty-five articles of the "Later Biography" to verify the loss. After Ban Biao's death, Ban Gu, who was only 22 years old, began to sort out his father's posthumous manuscripts, determined to inherit his father's business and complete this succession masterpiece.