In which period was Sima Qian writing the Records of the Historians ?

The Records of the Historians is the first general history in Chinese history, written by Sima Qian in the Western Han Dynasty, and began to be called "Taishi Gongshu", or "Taishi Gongji" and "Taishi Ji". Sima Qian, the word is long, his father Sima talked about Ren Taishi Ling, his wish to write a general history of ancient and modern times was not realized, and he wanted Sima Qian to complete his long-cherished wish on his deathbed. Later, Sima Qian succeeded his father Taishi Ling and began to write the "Historical Records", which was finally completed more than ten years later.

This secretary began with the legendary Yellow Emperor, and the lower limit was to the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, spanning more than 3,000 years of history. The book has a total of 130 chapters, including 12 books, 10 tables, 8 books, 30 families, 70 biographies, and 526,500 words. The "Honki" is the outline of the whole book, which records the words and administrative achievements of the emperor by year and month.

The table uses ** to briefly list the lineage, people and historical events. The "book" describes the development of the system, covering the system of ritual music, astronomy and military law, social economy, and the geography of rivers and canals. "Family" describes the hereditary princely feudal historical sites of the descendants.

"Biography" is a biography of an important person. Among them, the book and the biography are the main body.

According to Sima Qian, the purpose of the compilation is "to study the changes of the past and the present, and to become the words of a family". The author criticized the original "Divine Providence Theory of Destiny" and put forward the "Emperor-Centered Theory". "Changes through the past and the present", that is, the development of history and its laws.

The Shiji refers to many classics, such as "Zuo Chuan", "Chinese", "Shiben", "Warring States Policy", "Chu Han Spring and Autumn" and Zhuzi Baijia, as well as archives and folk ancient books. He also conducted interviews and field investigations, and then carefully selected and used materials, and his academic attitude was extremely rigorous.

Historical works before the Han Dynasty cannot be compared with the "Historical Records" in terms of content, historical events, materials, and the level of compilation of authors. It can be said that the "Records of the Historians" is the first general history of ancient China, which is not only huge in scale and complete in system, but also has a deep influence on the subsequent chronicle history books, and the official histories of all dynasties are basically written in this genre. At the same time, the vividness of the words in the book and the vividness of the narrative are also the highest achievements, and Mr. Lu Xun's evaluation of historical records is also very high.

After Sima Qian's death, "Historical Records" did not immediately become popular and was taken seriously. By the time of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, Sima Qian's grandson had worked hard and began to circulate, but by the time of the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was already mutilated.

In 104 B.C., Sima Qian officially began to write his great work "Historical Records".

The original name of the historical record was "Taishi Gongshu". The first general history of Chinese history. Sima Qian of the Western Han Dynasty, and later Chu Shaosun supplemented part of the content.

The book has one hundred and thirty chapters. The chronicle begins with the legendary Yellow Emperor and ends with Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, a total of about 3,000 years. The sub-biographies are the Benji, the family, and the biography; Eight books describe the evolution of the system, and ten tables of general history and events.

It is very valuable in historiography and literature.

Sima Qian was from the (Western Han Dynasty) dynasty, and the "Historical Records" recorded the history from (the legendary Yellow Emperor) to (122 BC) (three or four thousand) years.

In the first year of Taichu (104 BC), Sima Qian began the creation of the Taishi Gongshu, which was later known as the Historical Records. It took 14 years for the work to be completed.

The "Historical Records" is the first general history in the history of our country, which 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.