What are the styles of Chinese historiography? What should I be aware of?

Chronicles, general history, dynastic history and so on!

1. The country style is a style of writing that takes the country as a unit and describes historical events separately. For example, "Chinese" and "Warring States Policy" are country-specific history books.

2. Chronicle is a genre of traditional history books in China. Organizing historical facts by year, month, and day is the earliest and easiest way to compile history. For example, "Spring and Autumn" and "Zizhi Tongjian" are chronicle history books.

3. The biography style is a genre of traditional historical books in China, with the biography of the characters as the center to narrate the historical facts (the chronicle is the emperor's own chronicle, listed in the front of the book, the biography is the biography of other figures, the characters in special circumstances are called "records", the record system, customs, economy, etc. are called "chronicles", and the historical events are called "tables") Such as "Historical Records", "Book of Han", "Book of the Later Han", "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms", etc.

Extended Content:

There are six main types of historical book styles: (1) Chronicles: relevant historical events arranged with chronological clues as clues, such as "Zuo Biography".

2) Chronicles: Reflect historical events through the narration of character activities, such as "Historical Records". 3) Chronicle of the end of the book:

Take the event as the main line and bring together relevant thematic materials. It was first created by Yuan Shu in the Southern Song Dynasty. Such as Yuan Shu's "Tongjian Chronicle".

4) Country-by-country: The history is recorded separately by country. Such as "Warring States Policy".

5) General History: An uninterrupted account of historical events from ancient times to the present, such as the Records of the Historians. 6) Dynastic History:

Record the history of a certain period or dynasty, such as the Book of Han. The above six types of historical books are divided according to different standards, and in fact, the same historical book may belong to several different historical book styles at the same time. For example, "Historical Records" belongs to the chronicle and general history; "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" belongs to the chronicle style, the country style, and the dynastic history.

For example, the chronicle is a genre of Chinese history books recorded in the order of years, months and days, and the history of dynasties only records the history of a certain period or a certain dynasty.

There are many styles of historical books, including country-specific style, chronicle style, chronicle style, general history, and end style of notebook, etc., which are very commonly used.

The style of the history book:

1. Chronicle.

The style of narrating historical events in chronological order of time, month, day, and time. Advantages: The occurrence and evolution of historical facts can clearly indicate their time and position, giving people a clear sense of historical chronology; The links between the various historical events at the same time are clearer.

Disadvantages: The events that are related before and after are often separated by the staggered occurrence of other events, which is difficult to describe completely and appears chaotic.

2. Chronicles.

It is a style that takes people as the main body and center, and reflects historical events around personal narratives. It was first created in Sima Qian's "Historical Records", that is, it takes the "Ji" as the outline, the "biography" describes the events in detail, the "table" lists the system, and the "Zhi" describes the categories. Pros:

The characters are vividly described, the historical facts are described in detail, and the analysis data is complete; Disadvantages: Character events are repeated in different sections.

3) Chronicle of the end of the book:

The style of historical books based on historical events was first created in Yuan Shu's "Tongjian Chronicle" in the Northern Song Dynasty. He gathered together the events of a system recorded in chronological order in the Zizhi Tongjian, and described them in detail from the beginning to the end.

Pros: Coherent and logical notes. Later historians have followed suit, and all dynasties have corresponding chronicles.

Such as: "Song History Chronicle", "Yuan History Chronicle", Qinggu Yingtai's "Ming History Chronicle" and so on. To the Ming and Qing dynasties, the names are mostly various "Ji Luo" and "Fang Luo".

4. Constitutional system (canonical style).

Focusing on the system of rules and regulations used in the management of the state, the historical books that describe the system of rules and regulations of the past dynasties and their origins, development and evolution are divided into categories. There are also corresponding chapters on canons in the "Records of the Historians" and "Book of Han", but the time and content described are relatively limited. The first influential canonical political book in Chinese historiography was the General Dictionary written by Du You in the Tang Dynasty, which included the canonical system from the Yellow Emperor to the Tang Dynasty.

Tang Duyou wrote the "General Dictionary", Zheng Qiao of the Southern Song Dynasty wrote the "General Chronicles", and Ma Duanlin of the Yuan Dynasty wrote the "General Examination of Literature", which are collectively known as the three links.

5. Study the case body.

A style of writing about the origins, development and evolution of scholarship. Each case should explain the lineage, origin, subject and life of the school, academic thoughts, academic treatises, relevant comments, etc. This is a special category of academic intellectual history, which provides literature for scholars to study the academic thought of the past dynasties.

Such as: "Song and Yuan Dynasty Case", "Ming Confucianism Case", "Qing Confucianism Case" and so on.

6. Historical criticism.

Stone covers a wide range of topics, which can basically be summarized into two categories: historical theory and historical criticism. Historiography refers to the discussion of historiography style, compilation methods, and the system of historians. Historical criticism includes commenting on historical events, discussing the gains and losses of historical books, and examining the correctness and difference of historical events.

7. Fang Zhi.

Also known as local chronicles, it is a historical book that records the local situation, which is characterized by detailed descriptions and is an important material for understanding local history. For example, the early "Shangshu-Yugong" and "Classic of Mountains and Seas" have the characteristics of local chronicles. Later generations followed the evolution, and there are records of provinces, prefectures, and counties in various places.

(1) Chronicle is a genre of historical books that describe historical facts in the order of year, month and day, such as "Zuo Chuan" and "Zizhi Tongjian".

2) The biography style is a genre of historical books written with characters as the central clue, which was pioneered by Sima Qian. "Twenty-four History" is all biographical.

3) The country is a record of history by country. "Chinese", "Warring States Policy".

4) The history of dynasties is a discontinuous record of dynastic history. The remaining twenty-three histories except for the "Historical Records".

The first chronicle of history - "Spring and Autumn".

The first biographical history book - Historical Records

The first country-specific history book - "Chinese".

The first dynastic history book - "Book of Han".

The first chronicle of the general history - "Zizhi Tongjian".

The first military work - "The Art of War".

The first popular science work - "Dream Creek Writings".

The first hydrological and geographical monograph - "Notes on the Water Classic".

Chronicle - Chronological - Chronologically centered, chronicling historical events in the order of year, month, and day is the earliest and easiest way to write history. Its advantage is that it gives people a clear concept of time, and it is easier to reflect the background of the occurrence and development of historical events. The disadvantage is that it is not easy to focus on the connection between the same historical event and the previous and subsequent events. The way to make up for this is to record historical events, sometimes recounting the past, and sometimes also recounting the aftermath.

The Spring and Autumn Period is the first chronicle of China, which records the historical events from the first year of Lu Yin (722 BC) to the fourteenth year of Lu Ai (481 BC). The content of the account is basically credible, and the historical value is very high, but it is incomplete. "Zuo Chuan" is the first relatively complete chronicle history book in China.

Originally known as "Zuo's Spring and Autumn", the Han Dynasty changed its name to "Spring and Autumn Zuo's Biography", referred to as "Zuo Chuan". According to legend, it was written by Zuo Qiu Ming in the late Spring and Autumn Period to explain Confucius's "Spring and Autumn". It started in the first year of Lu Yin (722 BC) and ended in the fourteenth year of Lu Mourning (453 BC), based on the Spring and Autumn Period, and explained the outline of the Spring and Autumn Period by describing the specific historical facts of the Spring and Autumn Period.

Ji Biography - Describe historical facts in the way that a biography of a person is called "Ji" (the biography of the emperor is called "Ji", and the general person is called "biography"). The Records of the Historians is the first historical book in China (most of the previous historical books were written in chronological style), and the other historical books of the "Twenty-four History", the official official history of China, were compiled in the style of the Records of the Historians. Country-specific - Historical events are recorded separately in the form of countries.

Chinese is China's first national history, also known as the national record, "Chinese" is one of China's earliest national history works, recording the history of the Zhou Dynasty royal family and the state of Lu, Qi, Jin, Zheng, Chu, Wu, Yue and other vassal states, is part of the historical prose of the national chronicle.