Is there such a thing as historical progress and regression in Western historiography and ancient Ch

All history is contemporary history, and human beings always judge the past history with the eyes of the present. For example, the "White Army", which fought against the Soviet Red Army, had a miserable life during the Soviet period, but now it is regarded as a hero in the pursuit of national independence. If one day the Slavic brothers want to unite again, then they will become reactionaries again, and how can the progress and regression be clearly explained?

Historical progress and regression is a term used in Marx's historical materialism, which cannot appear in ancient Chinese history.

Classical historiography, which generally refers to the historiography of ancient Greece and Rome, is the origin of Western historiography. And we know that although Rome conquered Greece, Roman culture developed on the basis of Greek culture, and Roman historiography was also influenced by Greek historiography. Therefore, the spiritual core of classical historiography often refers to ancient Greek historiography.

In particular, two important historians in ancient Greek historiography, Herodotus and Thucydides, were representatives, who created the writing paradigm and historiographical spirit of Western historiography and laid the foundation for later historiography.

Herodotus is known as the "father of history", and his book Histories marked the birth of ancient Greek historiography and created a historiographical paradigm of social and cultural history. The significance of the History lies in two points: first, it completes the transition of ancient Greek historiography from mythology, epic, epic group, prose chronicle to history, that is, the content of historiography has changed, so that it has a clear boundary with myth and epic.

Second, Herodotus's Histories uses the method of criticism, and the use of the method of judging the acre is the key to historiography. He has always adhered to a spirit of truth-seeking and rigorous criticism in his writing, writing: "My responsibility is to report everything that people say, but I don't necessarily believe it to be true."

This statement applies to all of my writings.

His critical attitude can also be seen everywhere, for example, when he records a certain historical event, he will compare different statements, corroborate each other, and clearly tell the reader which is possible, which is impossible, which is controversial, and which is temporarily doubtful. As the pioneering work of history, this kind of truth-seeking and critical spirit is the most important legacy of classical historiography to future generations. Thucydides also inherited Herodotus' critical spirit of truth-seeking and had a more rigorous sense of evidence, and he is also known as the "father of historical science".

In contrast to the historiographical paradigm of social and cultural history pioneered by Herodotus's Histories, Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War created the historiographical paradigm of military and political history, and together they opened the tradition of classical historiography, and these two types have been constantly reproduced in later historiographical writing.

In short, as the source of Western historiography, classical historiography is not only because it has taken the first step in historical writing, but more importantly, because of the historiographical spirit it contains, and the historiographical paradigm it has laid is not limited by the times and has a far-reaching influence on future generations, which is a precious spiritual wealth of mankind.

Appendix is a passage from Herodotus's opening Histories about the purpose of his study of history: "What is published here is the work of Herodotus by Halicarnassus, and the reason why he published them was to preserve the great achievements of mankind and to prevent them from being obliterated by age; In order that the great deeds of the Greeks and the Gentiles should not lose their due glory, and especially that the causes of the wars that took place between them should be recorded for posterity. "I think that's the spirit of historiography.