The history of the Book of the Later Han Dynasty covers the history of the Eastern Han Dynasty 196 from the first year of Liu Xiujianwu, Emperor Guangwu of Han Dynasty (AD 25) to the twenty-fifth year of Jian 'an, Emperor Xiandi of Han Dynasty (AD 220). Fan Yeyuan intends to write ten biographies, ten records and eighty biographies. He entrusted Xie Yan to write Ten Volunteers. Xie Yan was involved in the internal struggle of the ruling class and was killed with Ye Fan on charges of rebellion. Ye Fan's draft chronicle and preface are missing. Later generations, when commenting on the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, praised the Book of the Continued Han Dynasty written by Sima Biao of West Jin Man, and took eight records to make up for it, so this record is still called the Book of the Continued Han Dynasty.
Ye Fan once said that the purpose of compiling the Book of the Later Han Dynasty was "to discuss the things in the book, with the gains and losses of the positive generation". In this way, it is clearly stated that writing history serves politics, which can be said to be the first person in history. Therefore, Ye Fan attached great importance to historical theory. He commented on historical events in the form of praise, focusing on historical theory, which became a major feature of the Book of the Later Han Dynasty. Ye Fan also inherited Sima Qian's compiling thought of "connecting the past with the future". In many prefaces and discourses, he broke the restriction of dynasties, described the occurrence, development and result of a historical phenomenon as clearly as possible, and tried to summarize it. Although, most of the internal relations he found were superficial, and some were even wrong. However, this historical research method is desirable to explore the changes of ancient and modern times from the development of historical situations and summarize the laws of historical development. For example, in the preface to the Biography of Danggu, Ye Fan discussed in detail the changes of taxi style from the Spring and Autumn Period to the end of Han Dynasty: during the Warring States Period, he emphasized strategy and respected scholars, thus inducing many people to make profits by clever argument; The simplicity and generosity of Emperor Gaozu aroused people's light death and heavy righteousness, and resentment must be rewarded; Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty advocated Confucianism, and there were disputes within the party and dissidents. When Huan Ling was in power, eunuchs were in power, which led to the popularity of Qingyi. He believes that "the best is the worst, and it is natural to overdo it." This shows that Ye Fan saw some historical phenomena developing to the opposite of contradictions, and tried to summarize them with "rationality". In the preface to the Biography of Dang Gu, Ye Fan also used four groups of contradictory things to compare the contradictions faced by Dang Gu, and expounded the author's simple dialectical thought, which was rare in previous history books.
Ye Fan thought about the genre of the later Han Dynasty. According to Sui Shu Wei Biography, when writing a book, the biographical style and chronological style were compared. He said: "The Spring and Autumn Annals is short because it is always short and pithy, and it has a good rapid formation. Today, people plan to write them. Ji Chuanti, the change of Shi Ban, also caught a generation, and it is appropriate to learn after learning. This is excellent, so I will do it. " This shows that in his view, writing history in biographical style can reflect the true colors of history more comprehensively than in chronological style, and can provide more things for future generations.
The History of the Later Han Dynasty mostly followed the ready-made styles of Historical Records and History of the Han Dynasty, but in the process of writing, Ye Fan made some innovations and changes according to the specific characteristics of the history of the Eastern Han Dynasty. First, he added Empress Ji after Emperor Ji. Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, there have been six queens. It is reasonable to write down their activities in the form of discipline, and it can also accurately reflect the political characteristics of this period. Secondly, seven biographies of Danghu, eunuch, Wen Yuan, viceroy, Fang Shu, Yimin and Lienv were added to the Book of the Later Han Dynasty. Ye Fan was the first historian to write biographies for women in biographical history books. What is particularly commendable is that the seventeen outstanding women collected in Biography of Lienv are not all chaste daughters, and there are also talented women Cai Yan who do not meet the ethical standards. Ye Fan's Biography of Wen Yuan grasped the development trend of literature in the Han Dynasty and put the literature with the lowest status in the four books of Confucius in its proper position. In addition, the History of the Party and Biography of Eunuchs were established to reflect the characteristics of a generation and summarize the great events of a generation. Third, The Book of the Later Han Dynasty highlights the status of "theory" and "praise". Sima Qian, Ban Gu and Chen Shou all comment on history in their works, but their specific names are different. Historical Records is called Taishi Gong Yue, Hanshu is called Zan, and The History of the Three Kingdoms is called Review. The importance of "Comment" and "Praise" in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty is far above that of the first three books, because Ye Fan not only used this form to comment on historical facts, but also summarized a historical figure or event and repeatedly analyzed it from several aspects, which played a role in explaining this biography. The "theory" in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty generally refers to the theory behind the biography, and almost every article has one or more. The theory of order in theory, also known as the theory of sequence, precedes Ji and Zazhuan. Most of them are comments on historical issues and historical figures, sometimes in the form of fables or emotions. There is a praise at the back of every biography, which is written in four-word verse, or summarizes historical facts, or has new ideas, which can make up for the shortcomings. The language of praise is concise and profound. For example, the praise of Ji in the Ji of Emperor Guangwu summarized the political events in different stages of the establishment, development and decline of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Looking at the nine praises together, it is simply a brief political history of the Eastern Han Dynasty written in rhyme. In Biography of Hu Guang, the author wrote a history of the promotion of an unblemished bureaucrat who sought accommodation through sexual intercourse, praising: "Gong Hu is brave and good at fighting, respectful and handsome. Although Juck Zhang makes sense, the correctness is still radial. " Reveal the author's accusation and indignation against such characters.
The books of the later Han Dynasty are well-structured and orderly arranged. For example, biographies of eighty biographies are generally arranged in chronological order. The first three volumes are the man of the Han Dynasty. The next nine volumes are emperors, generals and important generals in Guangwu era. Volume 13 to Volume 42, the characters at the beginning of the volume lived in the Ming, Zhang and san huang periods and were combined by similar lines or lineages. Eleven volumes of celebrities in Anshun period, followed by Huan, Ling and Xian. Sixty-six to seventy-four volumes are biographies of Jiupin officials, and the last six volumes are biographies of border people. In addition, the rigor of the Book of the Later Han Dynasty is also manifested in Ye Fan's ability to adhere to the principle of "one thing is not two years". If one thing is related to several people, you will see it here. After careful editing, the book does have the advantages of Liu Zhiji's "concise and thoughtful, sparse and not leaking" (Shi Tong added). At the same time, the description method used by Ye Fan is also very distinctive. He combined people with the same personality into a biography, and sometimes even broke the time limit. Wang Chong, Wang Fu and Zhong Changtong, although they also merged into one biography in different times, were indifferent to honor and disgrace because of the controversy. This greatly increases the capacity of the book and creates opportunities for many people with good character but few deeds. For example, Biography of Zhuo Mao included the stories of five non-Wang Mang officials, including Kong Xiu and Cai Xun, while Biography of Origin attached the stories and life experiences of 17 people who opposed the abolition of the Prince.
Ye Fan is basically an atheist. In the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, he lashed out at the fallacies of Buddhism. These viewpoints mainly focus on the theory of Biography of the Western Regions. He pointed out that since Zhang Qian, there was almost no record of Buddhism in the Western Regions, and all kinds of so-called Buddhist statements were later. Although Buddhism's doctrine of "loving benevolence and killing evil, cherishing our goodness" is attractive, its methods are various, especially the theory of immortality and karma, which makes it difficult for sensible people to accept it. In Xiang Kai Zhuan and Huan Di Ji, Ye Fan also satirized and criticized Han Huan Emperor who believed in Buddhism. Ye Fan opposed the theory of destiny. In the Biography of Li Tong, he commented on Li Tong's divination of "Liu Fuxing, supplemented by Li" and encouraged the beginning of an affair: "Heaven's life is hard to say, but love is speculation, madness is innocent, and the nation is destroyed, so that both merits and demerits are obtained!" This shows that Ye Fan doesn't believe in prophecy at all. He also included Zhang Heng's Zhang Hengchuan Anti-divination. Zhang Heng cited a large number of historical facts and demonstrated the deception of prophecy. Ye Fan recorded this in detail and agreed. Interestingly, he combined Wu Xiong, Zhao Xing and Chen Bojing in Guo Gongzhuan. Wu Xiong and Zhao Xing didn't believe in wizards, so they made a demon ban. III was not punished by the clan, but became an official. But Chen Bojing stepped on his knee and denied the word "death", but he couldn't help but take a knife to see it. Ye Fan demonstrated the absurdity of the taboo of Yin and Yang through historical facts. The atheism and anti-destiny thoughts in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty are undoubtedly progressive. Due to the limitation of the times, Ye Fan's atheism thought is not thorough. The Book of the Later Han Dynasty reflects this ideological contradiction. For example, in Biography of Dou Wu and He Jin, he compared the failure of Dou Hehe with that of others, revealing the viewpoint that "wisdom is not insufficient, strength is sufficient, and defeat is also possible". The Book of the Later Han Dynasty preserved some superstitious records, especially in the Magic Biography, in which he vividly described Fei Changfang's shrinking ground, Wang Qiao's wearing shoes, Zuo Ci's herding sheep and singing, and Guo Xian's baking wine to put out the fire, as if there were demons on earth. These are all negative factors in Ye Fan's thought.
The progressiveness of the Book of the Later Han Dynasty is also reflected in the courage to expose dark politics, sympathize with and praise justice. In Biography of Wang Chong, Biography of Wang Fu and Biography of Zhong Changtong, Ye Fan collected eight articles attacking current politics in detail. Most of these articles promote heresy, such as boldly blaming the ruling class for social unrest. They said that the cruel monarch always thought that his rule was very stable when he saw that everyone dared not go against his will. Therefore, in order to satisfy personal desires, anything can be done. He sent bureaucrats such as "hungry wolves" and "hungry tigers" to various places to "endure the cream of the world and destroy the bone marrow of outsiders". As a result, "the resentment is dull, and the disaster comes from one place. China is harassing, Siyi is invading, falling apart and leaving in succession. ". These articles exposed the luxury and corruption of the ruling class, saying that "a hundred buildings are full of fields, and thousands of maids are in vain", and "the meat of three animals is smelly and inedible, and the mellow is inedible". It is also believed that some relations between the monarch and his subjects are relations between subjects and between conquerors and conquered people. In addition to expressing his heretical thoughts through the mouth of the ancients, Ye Fan also directly expressed his dissatisfaction with the monarch's abuse of power and waste of manpower in the Biography of Dou Xian: "Dong Fangshuo said: If you use it, you will be a tiger, if you don't use it, you will believe it! With this statement, there are still people who are pregnant with dust and do not support it! " On the one hand, the Book of the Later Han Dynasty exposed the strength of the Fisherman, on the other hand, it praised the middle and lower classes who were strong and upright and not afraid of violence. In the Biography of Party Insanity, he made a biography of 2 1 individuals and highly praised their integrity. He also wrote letters to James Zhang, Fan Pang, Mars and others vividly, and integrated into the author's feelings. Regrettably, although he sympathized with the people's sufferings, he opposed the peasant uprising. Ye Fan basically held a negative attitude towards the Yellow turban insurrectionary, which was determined by the class position.
As a historian, Ye Fan attached great importance to literary talent, and he spoke highly of the articles in Hanshu. Indeed, Shu Fan's prose is beautiful, concise and fluent, which is not only a historical masterpiece, but also a literary masterpiece. However, in some places, Ye Fan is too heavy-handed, which inevitably leads to the loss of record history. For example, Sima Biao's "Continued Han Dynasty" states: "Seo Woo is the prefect of Wudu, starting from the county, with thousands of grain stones, 8,000 salt stones and 33,000 households. In three years, 80 rice stones and 400 salt stones were returned to the people. The number of households is10,000, and the people give enough, and there is no county. " "More than 30 miles to the east, there is a gorge. The middle spring gave birth to a big stone, which blocked the water flow. Every spring and summer, there is no autumn harvest, which is bad and defeated. Xu is to let people burn the stone and fill it with water, and the stone will crack. There is no danger of drowning because the stone has been removed. " The historical materials are informative and vivid, but in Ye Fan's works, there is only "burning stones and logs for dozens of miles, boiling water". And the words "in 2003, it increased to more than 40,000 households, and salt rice was abundant and cheap, ten times as much as before".
The Book of the Later Han Dynasty was written privately by Ye Fan, but it was not completely completed. Therefore, few people saw this book before his death, which had little impact.
By nature, honesty and frankness are stifled.
In the early years of Liu and Song Dynasties, the term of office of local officials still inherited the six-year system of Jin Dynasty. In the 15th year of Yongjia (AD 438), Ye Fan left Xuancheng and was transferred to Changsha as the long history of Wang Zhenjun, under the command of General Ning Shuo.
The following year, Ye Fan's first mother died in Yidu. At that time, his brother Fan Ming served as a satrap in Yidu. My first mother has been with me in the office since my father died. According to the moral code, Ye Fan should leave for mourning at once. But he had no feelings for his first mother, so he refused to go on the road and was forced to follow behind, taking his wife and children with him. He was impeached for a series of violations of etiquette. Song Wendi admired Ye Fan's talent and didn't convict him.
Since then, from the 17th year of Yuanjia (AD 440) to the 21st year, Ye Fan's official career has been relatively stable for more than five years. He once served as the commander-in-chief of Shixing Queen and led the satrap of Nanxiapi. Shixing Wang was transferred from Yuzhou to Jiankang (now Nanjing) as the secretariat of Yangzhou and entered Beijing with him. Soon, he was promoted to general, in charge of some imperial troops and Prince Zhan, whose position was equivalent to that of a minister. Ye Fan is versatile. Besides being knowledgeable and good at writing, he is also proficient in music and calligraphy. But Ye Fan was insolent and refused to obey the supreme ruler. He plays the pipa very well and can write new songs. Song Wendi wanted to listen, and repeatedly hinted that Ye Fan pretended to be confused and refused to play for the emperor. At a banquet, Song Wendi directly asked Ye Fan, "I want to sing a song. Can you accompany me? " Words to this top, Ye Fan had to obey orders. As soon as Emperor Song and Yuan finished singing, he stopped playing and refused to play another song. Yu, He Shangzhi, Xu Zhanzhi, Shen and others, who held important positions in the imperial court, were all jealous of his talent and unwilling to be favored by the emperor. Although Ye Fan didn't please the emperor, he was honest with his colleagues. At that time, Shen was a right-back, but was not allowed to travel. They kept it a secret. Every time I appear before the Emperor, if Fan Ye arrives first, I will wait for the arrival of Shen Yan and go in together. And his colleagues have never been hostile to him, trying their best to crowd out, attack or even frame him. As Shen entered North Korea, he never had the habit of waiting. Soon, Ye Fan saw through the sinister intentions of his colleagues and wrote an article "He Xiangfang" to mock them. According to the characteristics of his colleagues, he compared some of them to "taboo" musk and "plain" jujube paste; Some people compare them to "Huohuo" which is empty and dry, and "Zhan Tang" which is wet and dry. , and Ye Fan with "body is one and" to metaphor. When the "Lotus Fragrance Workshop" came out, my colleagues did not tolerate it. In the officialdom full of traps, Ye Fan didn't know how to protect himself, which eventually led to a fatal disaster. Liu Yikang, the king of Pengcheng, has been in power for a long time and his power is increasing day by day, so he is suspected by Song Wendi. As time goes on, the contradiction between brothers becomes more and more fierce. In the 17th year of Yuanjia (AD 440), Song Wendi punished and exiled Liu Yikang's cronies, such as Liu Zhan and Liu Bin, and removed Liu Yikang from his post of Zaifu, and was demoted to Zhang Yu (now Nanchang, Jiangxi) as Jiangzhou secretariat. After Liu Yikang arrived in Zhang Yu, unwilling to fail, he stepped up his activities and prepared to seize power.
In the 21st year of Yuanjia (AD 444), several confidants of Liu Yikang planned a coup. Because Ye Fan mastered the imperial army, gained a good reputation, and worked as an official under Liu Yikang for many years, he became the object of their concern when he was netting his henchmen. They wooed Ye Fan in various ways, and Liu Yikang repeatedly apologized to him for the fall of Xuancheng. At first, Ye Fan refused to participate, and the other party used the court to refuse to get married. Considering his own situation, Ye Fan finally joined. They agreed to the uprising in September the following year. Kong Xixian, a henchmen of Liu Yikang, wrote a campaign in advance, asking Ye Fan to draft a coup declaration in the name of Liu Yikang. For various reasons, the coup failed to be held as scheduled. This year 1 1 month, Xu Zhanzhi, a member of Liu Yikang, tipped off Song Wendi, claiming that Ye Fan was the mastermind of the coup. As a result, Ye Fan was arrested and killed in the 22nd year of Yuanjia (65438+ October 466 AD) at the age of 48. Before being executed, Ye Fan still insisted on his atheism and fought uncompromisingly with his colleagues who believed in Buddhism and threw stones at him. He said: "There are no buddhas and ghosts in the world. If you have the spirit, report it yourself. " While in prison, Ye Fan and his nephews wrote a book summarizing his research experience in literature, history, music and calligraphy. When he is about to die, he hopes to have a confidant in the future and understand the value of the Book of Were Han. He is very conceited about the historical works he has written all his life, thinking that they are "extensive and profound" and have never been seen since ancient times. Among them, the preface is praised as "Wonder of the World", which is no shame compared with Ban Gu's Hanshu. He said that the world values the ancient times and ignores the present, which is why he "talks nonsense" to attract people's attention to the Book of the Later Han Dynasty. Although Ye Fan's boasting is a bit excessive, his works are indeed superhuman. Liu Zhao said: "The Later Han Dynasty was in Ye Fan, and it really spanned many places" (preface to Notes and Addendum of the Later Han Dynasty), and Liu Zhiji also said: "Learn more books, cut into the Han Dynasty, and observe what they have taken, which is quite noticeable" (see Supplement to the History of Tong Shu). According to "Sui Shu Jing Ji Zhi", before Ye Fan wrote a book, there were ten books about the history of the Eastern Han Dynasty, with more than 800 volumes. However, as soon as the sample books came out, the later Han books of various schools became increasingly depressed and gradually lost. Later, except the Book of the Later Han Dynasty written by A Jin Justin, everything was gone. This shows that although Shu Fan was late, he came from behind. The biographical part of the Book of Were Han was recorded by Prince Li Xian of Tang Gaozong. Sima Biao's ambition was noticed by Liu Zhao, a native of A Liang in the Southern Dynasties. Liu Zhao's annotation originally included all the model books and Sima Zhi, and Li Xian's annotation was based on it, and was added or deleted with reference to other books. Li Xian's ambition is not a typical book, so he didn't notice it. As a supplement, Liu Zhu and Li Zhu were handed down together. There are many works that annotated the Book of the Later Han Dynasty in Qing Dynasty, among which Huidong's Supplementary Notes is the best. Later, Wang Xianqian collected many notes and synthesized them into a book "Ji Jie", which provided great convenience for later study. In addition to the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, there are fifteen volumes of Ye Fan's posthumous works, including one volume of Hexiangfang and one volume of Zaxianggao Fang (depending on the Annals of Sui Shu). According to "Old Tang Zhi", Ye Fan also wrote a roll of "List of Officials". None of the above books exist now. Today, there is "Preface to Poems of Double Crane", which can be found in Selected Works, Volume 90. For a poem "Poetry should be written in pleasure", see the second volume of Selected Works.
When Ye Fan was executed, his sons Fan Ai and Fan were killed at the same time. Only Fan's son, Fan, survived because her mother was the daughter of a princess. His grandnephews Fan Zhen and Fan Yun are famous in Qi Liang. Fan Zhen inherited and perfected Ye Fan's atheism, while Ye Fan's "non-ghost theory" was filled by Fan Zhen's "deism", which was an epoch-making materialistic paper in the history of China's thought development.