What does the left history record and the right history record mean

In terms of expression, this is an intertextual sentence. What it actually means:

There are historians who record history, but in fact, it is not very clear, there is left history and right history.

Of course, there are some mechanical statements, such as the following:

1) In the Spring and Autumn Period, the Jin and Chu countries set up the left history and the right history. "The Book of Rites: Yuzao" is said to be the left history of the movement, and the right history of the words. And "Hanshu Art and Literature Chronicles" is also known as the left historical record, the right historical record.

Gu Donggao's "Spring and Autumn Timeline" believes that the left history is the internal history, and the right history is the Taishi. This is difficult to prove.

In the fourteenth year of the Jin Mourning Dynasty (559 years ago), the Jin invaded Qin, went deep into the Jingshui Valley, and the army commander Luan Yi withdrew the army without authorization and returned to the east. It can be known that Zuo Shi is an official who remembers the affairs of the army.

King Chu Ling had Zuo Shi Yixiang, and Wang Sun Wei called the treasure of the Chu State "Chinese Chu Language".

2) "Han Shuyi Wenzhi" says, "The left history is recorded, and the right history is recorded." The so-called words and things are separated, and the "words" of "Left Historical Records" are the "Shangshu", and the "things" of the "Right Historical Records" are "Spring and Autumn". There are also people who turn the words left and right upside down, that is, the left history records and the right history records.

In any case, this practice of separating words from deeds is too rigid. In fact, the Book of Shang not only records but also historical facts. In Liu Zhiji's "Stone" in the Tang Dynasty, the historical theory was divided into six bodies, including the "Book of Shang", which fully proves that the speech and historical facts in the "Book of Shang" coexist.

3) "Shangshu" and "Spring and Autumn", one is a record, the other is a memory. What is the reason for the separation of words and deeds? The first is the detailed division of labor among ancient historians.

Historians have different responsibilities. Second, it is related to the writing tools of the time. In the case of writing instruments that are still quite rudimentary, they can only be used for simplicity.

Third, and more importantly, it has to do with the laws of the development of historiography itself. In the era of the "Book of Shang" and the "Spring and Autumn Period", although people were aware of the changes in social history, however, the grand and magnificent historical view of the past and the present, including the words of a family, as Sima Qian's "when studying heaven and man, through the changes of the past and the present, became the words of a family", has not yet been formed, therefore, it limits the breadth and depth of historians' examination of history, and the result can only be "each according to the gaps, and the road is fresh", and the phenomenon of words and deeds is separated. Whether it is the Book of Shang or the Spring and Autumn Period, the common defect of a single account or account is that it ignores the main body of historical development—people.

Left pass is narrative.

According to legend, Zuo Biography is a historical book annotated by Zuo Qiu Ming of Lu State in the late Spring and Autumn Period for the "Spring and Autumn Period", and "The Legend of the Ram" and "The Biography of Gu Liang" are collectively known as the "Three Legends of the Spring and Autumn Period". It is also the first chronicle of China with a detailed narrative, with a total of 35 volumes, which is one of the Confucian classics and the longest of the thirteen classics. The account ranges from 722 BC (the first year of Lu Yin) to 468 BC (the twenty-seventh year of Lu Ai).

If there is an error in the record of the Hanshu Art and Literature Chronicle, it should be based on the "Book of Rites: Yuzao Chapter" that "the movement is the left history book, and the words are the right history book".

This point can be corroborated by the record in the first volume of "The Legend of the Spring and Autumn Ram: The Hidden Gong": Q: "Spring and Autumn" is based on historical books, and history has left and right, according to what history?

Answer: "The Theory of the Six Arts" cloud: "The "Spring and Autumn" is recorded in the national history of the people's actions, the left history is recorded as "Spring and Autumn", and the right history is recorded as "Shangshu".

It is based on the cloud of "Yuzao": "If you move, you will be in the history book on the left, and if you say it, you will be in the history book on the right." Zheng Zhuyun:

His books "Spring and Autumn" and "Shangshu" are the surviving ones. "The preface of the text is the history of the left, and the preface of the Zheng note is the "Spring and Autumn", and the history of the left is the "Spring and Autumn".

Judging from the above contents, the statement of the "Book of Rites and Yuzao Chapter" is more in line with the situation of the historian system in ancient times, and the statement of the "Book of Han" is wrong.