The history of China's ancient historiography includes three periods: pre-Qin, Qin and Han Dynasties to the early Tang Dynasty and the middle Tang Dynasty to Ganjia. In the pre-Qin period, in the primitive society of China, our ancestors created splendid culture and taught each other stories at the same time, which can be said to be the source of history. Before the Shang Dynasty or Shang Dynasty, there were already written words that could be used for recording. Historians appeared in Shang Dynasty. The word "history" originally appeared in the form of simple books, but at first historians were not specialized in making records, but were first responsible for presiding over sacrifices, divining good and bad luck, and communicating the will of the gods. At the same time, tell stories, record current events, and compile and preserve literary compendiums. Further division of labor, there is a difference between remembering the history of words and the history of things. What Shangshu has preserved today is the historical documents of Shang and Zhou Dynasties. Compared with the historiography in the pre-Qin period, the historiography in the Qin, Han and early Tang dynasties has remarkable characteristics. First, historiography gradually became independent from its subordinate position. There are few historical records before the Eastern Han Dynasty, and there is no historical department in the classification of Bielu and Qilv. History of Literature and Art in Hanshu records the history books in Liu Yilue and Chunqiujia, and attaches them to the classics. Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, a large number of historical books have emerged, and the types of historical books have increased, and historiography has been paid more and more attention by the society. Historians and museums have been set up in the imperial court, and the history department has also been listed in the catalogue, which shows that historiography has formed an independent discipline. There are official and private historical works in this period, and the trend is that the official training day is popular.
With the rise of the gentry landlord power and the prevalence of the gate system, the gentry brand in history has become prominent, most notably, genealogy works and genealogy have developed greatly, including genealogy, genealogy and surname genealogy. Scholars in the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties were good at genealogy, with Jia and Wang as masters. At the same time, family biographies and official biographies also reflected the social customs of advocating family status at that time.
Ethnic minorities also occupy a place in history. In addition to official biographies, there are also special books that record the history of all ethnic groups, and ethnic issues are also reflected in historiography.
As for the comments on historiography, Sima Qian once said that the Spring and Autumn Annals is "a great collection of rites and righteousness", "taking its good and discarding its evil", and pointed out the educational function and political significance of historical books. At the same time, he clearly expressed his determination to write history "following the Spring and Autumn Period" and expressed his consciousness of taking history as his own responsibility. Ban Biao's A Brief Comment on Pre-history is a monograph on history. It is about ancient historians and historical records, with emphasis on Sima Qian and historical records. It is not only affirmed that they are "talented in history", but also accused them of "destroying Taoism", which shows the difference between Ma and Ban's historical thoughts. Ban Biao's ideas were inherited by his son Ban Gu. After the Han Dynasty, there were more and more historical comments. Liu Xie's "Wen Xin Diao Long Shi Zhuan Pian" in Liang Dynasty is a monograph on history. This paper discusses the setting and responsibilities of ancient historians, describes the origin, schools, gains and losses of history books, and discusses the role, purpose and attitude of history revision. There are thirteen categories in The Annals of Sui Shu Classics, and the sequence of each category describes the origin and development of various historical books, and makes comments on them. Taken together, the order of thirteen categories of history department is a comprehensive historical summary.
Liu Zhiji, a historian in the Tang Dynasty, made a systematic comment on ancient historiography, and put forward very important views on the compilation of historical books, the merits and demerits of books, the cultivation of historians, the supervision and repair of historical museums, etc. He advocates straight writing and opposes bending writing; Advocate monopoly and oppose government monopoly; Advocate seeking truth from facts and oppose speculation. These are all progressive ideas.
From the middle Tang Dynasty to Ganjia period, the feudal dynasty set up a history museum and formed a history revision system. The first is the compilation of factual records, that is, recording the major events of each emperor's reign in a chronological way. The records of the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty have been lost, and the records of the Ming and Qing Dynasties are basically intact. Although the records are not completely true, they are rich in relatively primitive historical materials. The history museum also teaches "national history", that is, contemporary history, but with the change of dynasties, most of the national history of past dynasties has disappeared into oblivion. Secondly, all history museums have compiled the history of the previous generation, such as Old Tang Book and Old Five Dynasties History. It was not until the Qing Dynasty revised the History of Ming Dynasty that a set of biographical Twenty-four History, which was later called the official history, was completed. Except historical records, they are all biographical dynastic histories with dynasties as boundaries. The formation of the Twenty-four History has gone through two thousand years, with great changes and different levels, but this set of history books is still the main basis for studying the long-term feudal social history of China today.
The historical books corresponding to the official history include unofficial history, miscellaneous history and other histories. History such as unofficial history and Miscellaneous History is also called "private history" because they are written by the people rather than the government. These three are different. Unofficial history has different styles, or chronicles, biographies, or miscellaneous notes of a generation of historical events, and there are many anecdotes, alley customs, and secret stories of rulers, so it is often regarded as banned books by feudal dynasties; The style of miscellaneous history is generally to remember only the whole story, a moment's experience or a piece of furniture; The content of other history is often limited to the miscellaneous records of historical events in past dynasties or generations. Although historical books such as unofficial history and Miscellaneous History have the disadvantages of inaccurate historical facts, they can often make up for the missing historical relics and have high historical value.
Since Sima Qian put forward the idea of "connecting the preceding with the following", some historians have inherited this idea from different angles, investigated and studied various changes in history and compiled classified and comprehensive history books. After the middle Tang Dynasty, this kind of general history with the purpose of "change" and "use" began to appear: Du You's General Code, His General Annals, Ma Duanlin's General Examination of Literature, and Sima Guang's General Mirror of Zi Zhi. They are representative works of general history and historiography in this period. The 200-volume book is divided into eight parts: food, election, official, ceremony, music, soldiers, punishment, prefecture and county, and border defense. It is the first general history of canon system in China from ancient times to the middle Tang Dynasty.
Zheng Qiao Tongzhi, with 200 volumes, is a biographical history. Twenty of them account for a quarter of the book, which is the essence of the book. Zheng Qiao advocated "communication", that is, communication with various academic cultures and communication with changes in ancient and modern times. He advocated "practical learning", emphasized "verification" and opposed any praise or criticism, and criticized the five elements accordingly. Ma Duanlin's Literature General Examination is another general history of the general code system after General Code. The book has 348 volumes and is divided into 24 exams. From ancient times to the end of Song Dynasty, it was fine in classification and rich in content. However, Ma Duanlin aims to understand the ancient and modern canon system and does not involve current politics. Because it is characterized by the collection of assessment codes, all similar books in the future are called general exams.
The above three links have an important position and influence in the history of Chinese historiography. Later, there were "three links continued" and "three links cleared", which were collectively called "nine links". In addition, Liu Jinzao's "A General Examination of Continued Documents in Qing Dynasty" is called "Ten Lian". Ten links and conferences that brought together various economic, political and social systems of a certain dynasty, such as the Yao Hui Conference in Tang Dynasty and the Western Han Conference, were collectively called the Canon System.
Zi Tong Zhi Jian, edited by Sima Guang, has 294 volumes, spanning from the early years of the Warring States to the end of the Five Dynasties. This is an ordinary chronicle. Sima Guang invited Liu Shu, Liu Ban and Fan Zuyu to participate in the compilation, with a clear division of labor. They first make a catalogue, then grow up to make a catalogue, and then kill each other on the historical materials.br/> to introduce China's historical research method and discuss the political history of China and the academic history of the Qing Dynasty. Liang Qichao's style of study is superficial and changeable. In his later years, the discussion on history even tended to regress to the "four evils" of feudal historiography that he had criticized before. Hu Shi applied pragmatic philosophy to history, opposed Marxism and historical materialism, and thought that "history is a submissive girl, you can wipe it and decorate it". Under the grim situation that the first Sino-Japanese cooperation broke down in 1927, there was a debate about the social nature and social history, the essence of which was whether to recognize Marxism as a universal guiding significance and whether it was suitable for China's national conditions. It was not until 1937 War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression broke out that the debate came to an end. During and after the Anti-Japanese War, many progressive scholars, such as Guo Moruo, Fan Wenlan, Jian Bozan, Hu Sheng, etc. , severely criticized all kinds of idealistic historical views with historical materialism, such as "democratic historical view" and "will philosophy". They wrote some monographs on history, and also noticed the research and dissemination of historical theories, such as Jane Bozan's A Course in Historical Philosophy, which played a very important role. At this time, Mao Zedong made many remarks about historical work and the history of China. He pointed out: "It is another task for us to draw lessons from our historical heritage and make a critical summary with Marxist methods. ..... From Confucius to Sun Yat-sen, we should sum up and inherit this precious heritage, which is of great help to guide the great movement at present. " He also put forward the correct attitude and method of studying history, emphasizing the critical inheritance of historical heritage.