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Ideas of History in the Medieval China: Shiji, or The Grand Scribe’s Historical Records, and Hanshu, or History of Former Han Dynasty

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An Historical Sketch of Chinese Historiography

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Abstract

Actually, such a type of conclusion was actually a process. In the historical period spanning from the eras of Spring and Autumn and Warring States down to the early Former Han dynasty

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Bai Shouyi 白寿彝, “Shiji xinlun 史记新论” (Shedding new light on the significance of Shiji), in Bai Shouyi, Shixue yichan liujiang 史学遗产六讲 [Six lectures on the legacies of ancient Chinese historiography] (Beijing: Beijing chubanshe, 2003), p. 136.

  2. 2.

    Zhuangzi 庄子, or The Writings of Chuang Tzu, trans. James Legge, http://ctext.org/zhuangzi/tian-xia/ens.

  3. 3.

    John Knoblock, Xunzi: A Translation and Study of the Complete Works (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994), vol. 1, p. 225.

  4. 4.

    Han Fei Tzu: Basic Writings, trans. Burton Watson (New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1964), p. 120.

  5. 5.

    Theodore de Bary et al. eds., Sources of Chinese Tradition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1960), pp. 205–206.

  6. 6.

    Ibid., p. 206.

  7. 7.

    Burton Watson, Ssu-ma Ch’ien: Grand Historian of China (New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1963), p. 50.

  8. 8.

    Ibid., p. 51.

  9. 9.

    Ibid., pp. 52–53.

  10. 10.

    Sima Qian 司马迁, Records of The Grand Historian: Qin Dynasty, trans. Burton Watson (Hong Kong: Research Centre for Translation, Chinese University of Hong Kong; New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), p. 80.

  11. 11.

    Ibid., p. 83.

  12. 12.

    Sima Qian, Records of The Grand Historian: Han Dynasty I, trans. Burton Watson (Hong Kong: Research Centre for Translation, Chinese University of Hong Kong; New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), p. 226.

  13. 13.

    Ibid.

  14. 14.

    Ibid, p. 227.

  15. 15.

    Sima Qian, Records of The Grand Historian: Han Dynasty II, trans. Burton Watson (Hong Kong: Research Centre for Translation, Chinese University of Hong Kong; New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), p. 196.

  16. 16.

    Ibid., p. 197.

  17. 17.

    Ibid., p. 202.

  18. 18.

    Grant Hardy, Worlds of Bronze and Bamboo: Sima Qian’s Conquest of History (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), pp. 56–57.

  19. 19.

    Ibid., p. 57.

  20. 20.

    Burton Watson, Ssu-ma Ch’ien: Grand Historian of China, pp. 56–57.

  21. 21.

    Sima Qian, Records of The Grand Historian: Han Dynasty II, trans. Burton Watson, p. 434.

  22. 22.

    Hou Wailu 侯外庐, Zhao Jibin 赵纪彬, Qiu Hansheng 邱汉生, and Du Guoxiang 杜国庠, Zhongguo sixiang tongshi 中国思想通史 [General history of thoughts in China] (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1980), vol. 2, p. 134.

  23. 23.

    Sima Qian 司马迁, The Grand Scribe’s Records: The Memoirs of Pre-Han China, trans. William H. Nienhauser, Jr. et al. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1994), vol. 7, p. 4.

  24. 24.

    Sima Qian, Records of The Grand Historian: Han Dynasty I, trans. Burton Watson, p. 48.

  25. 25.

    Ibid.

  26. 26.

    Pi Xirui 皮锡瑞, Jingxue tonglun 经学通论 [A comprehensive discussion of studies in Confucian classics] (Shanghai: Zhonghua shuju, 1954), p. 19.

  27. 27.

    Sima Qian, Records of The Grand Historian: Han Dynasty II, trans. Burton Watson, p. 84.

  28. 28.

    Sima Qian, The Grand Scribe’s Records: The Memoirs of Pre-Han China, trans. William H. Nienhauser, Jr. et al., vol. 7, pp. 298–299.

  29. 29.

    Burton Watson, Ssu-ma Ch’ien: Grand Historian of China, p. 66.

  30. 30.

    Sima Qian, Records of The Grand Historian: Qin Dynasty, trans. Burton Watson, p. 87.

  31. 31.

    Sima Qian, Records of The Grand Historian: Han Dynasty I, trans. Burton Watson, p. 432.

  32. 32.

    Sima Qian, The Grand Scribe’s Records: The Basic Annals of Pre-Han China, trans. William H. Nienhauser, Jr. et al. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1994), vol. 1, pp. 46, 47, 49.

  33. 33.

    Sima Qian, Records of The Grand Historian: Han Dynasty I, trans. Burton Watson, p. 76.

  34. 34.

    Sima Qian, The Grand Scribe’s Records: The Memoirs of Pre-Han China, Part I, trans. William H. Nienhauser, Jr. et al. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2008), vol. 8, p. 301.

  35. 35.

    Sima Qian, Records of The Grand Historian: Qin Dynasty, trans. Burton Watson, pp. 75–76.

  36. 36.

    Ibid., p. 74.

  37. 37.

    Sima Qian, Records of The Grand Historian: Han Dynasty II, trans. Burton Watson, p. 434.

  38. 38.

    Ibid., p. 446.

  39. 39.

    Ibid., p. 447.

  40. 40.

    Sima Qian, Records of The Grand Historian: Han Dynasty II, trans. Burton Watson, pp. 435–436.

  41. 41.

    Ibid., p. 454.

  42. 42.

    Ibid., p. 449.

  43. 43.

    Ibid., p. 446.

  44. 44.

    Ibid., p. 436.

  45. 45.

    Ibid., p. 84.

  46. 46.

    Sima Qian, Records of The Grand Historian: Han Dynasty II, trans. Burton Watson, pp. 85–86.

  47. 47.

    Zhouyi 周易 or Book of Changes, trans. James Legge, http://ctext.org/book-of-changes/xi-ci-xia/ens.

  48. 48.

    Sima Qian, Records of The Grand Historian: Han Dynasty I, trans. Burton Watson, pp. 428–429.

  49. 49.

    Sima Qian, Records of The Grand Historian: Qin Dynasty, trans. Burton Watson, p. 81.

  50. 50.

    Ibid., p. 76.

  51. 51.

    Sima Qian, Records of The Grand Historian: Han Dynasty I, trans. Burton Watson, p. 85.

  52. 52.

    Sima Qian, Records of The Grand Historian: Qin Dynasty, trans. Burton Watson, p. 93.

  53. 53.

    Sima Qian, Records of The Grand Historian: Han Dynasty II, trans. Burton Watson, p. 62.

  54. 54.

    Ibid., p. 63.

  55. 55.

    Ibid.

  56. 56.

    Burton Watson, Ssu-ma Ch’ien: Grand Historian of China, pp. 53–54.

  57. 57.

    Ibid., p. 49.

  58. 58.

    Ibid., p. 56.

  59. 59.

    Ibid., p. 53.

  60. 60.

    Ibid., pp. 51–52.

  61. 61.

    Ibid, p. 48.

  62. 62.

    Sima Qian, The Grand Scribe’s Records: The Basic Annals of Pre-Han China, trans. William H. Nienhauser, Jr. et al., vol. 1, p. 17.

  63. 63.

    The prophecy—“Mao jin xiude wei tianzi 卯金修德为天子”—meant that the man whose surname consisted of mao 卯 and jin 金—explanatorily, the combination of mao 卯 and jin 金 is exactly the Chinese world liu 刘, the surname of Liu Xiu—cultivated his virtues so successfully that he would finally become the Son of Heaven.

  64. 64.

    Liji 礼记, or Book of Rites, trans. James Legge, http://ctext.org/liji/zi-yi/ens.

  65. 65.

    Translator’s note: Chen-wei 谶纬 was a prevalent mystical learning and practice, wherein the regular divination and Confucian ideas were fused together. To be specific, chen 谶 referred to the enigmatic words that were used by the diviners in sessions of divination; and wei 纬, the books embodying concerned superstitious Confucian interpretations.

  66. 66.

    Hou Wailu et al., Zhongguo sixiang tongshi, vol. 2, p. 207.

  67. 67.

    Pi Xirui 皮锡瑞, Jingxue lishi 经学历史 [History of studies in Confucian classics] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1981), p. 109.

  68. 68.

    Antony E. Clark, Ban Gu’s History of Early China (Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2008), pp. 199–201.

  69. 69.

    Wang Chong 王充, Lun-Heng: Philosophical essays of Wang Ch’ung, trans. Alfred Forke (Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz, 1907), pp. 87–88.

  70. 70.

    Xiao Tong 萧统, Wen Xuan, or Selections of Refined Literature; Volume One: Rhapsodies on Metropolises and Capitals, trans. David R. Knechtges (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982), pp. 147, 149.

  71. 71.

    Ibid., pp. 147, 151, 153.

  72. 72.

    Xiao Tong, Wen Xuan, or Selections of Refined Literature; Volume Three: Rhapsodies on Natural Phenomena, Birds and Animals, Aspirations and Feelings, Sorrowful Laments, Literature, Music, and Passions, trans. David R. Knechtges (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), pp. 85, 87, 97.

  73. 73.

    Ibid., p. 103.

  74. 74.

    Ban Ku 班固, The History of The Former Han Dynasty, trans. Homer H. Dubs (Baltimore, MD: Waverly Press, 1938), vol. 1. pp. 146–150.

  75. 75.

    Dong Zhongshu 董仲舒, Luxuriant Gems of The Spring and Autumn, trans. Sarah A. Queen and John S. Major (New York, NY: Columbia Press University, 2016), p. 623.

  76. 76.

    Ibid., pp. 636–637.

  77. 77.

    Ibid., pp. 621–622.

  78. 78.

    Ibid., p. 627.

  79. 79.

    Ibid., p. 644.

  80. 80.

    Ibid., pp. 637–638.

  81. 81.

    Ibid., p. 641.

  82. 82.

    Ibid., pp. 241–255.

  83. 83.

    Gu Jiegang 顾颉刚, “Wude zhongshi shuo xia de zhengzhi he lishi 五德终始说下的政治和历史” (The politics and history in the perspectives of cyclical alternations of Five Virtues), in Gu Jiegang ed., Gushi bian 古史辨 [Polemics regarding the ancient Chinese history] (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1982), vol. 5, pp. 404–635.

  84. 84.

    Ban Ku 班固, The History of The Former Han Dynasty, trans. Homer H. Dubs (The American Council of Learned Society, 1944), vol. 2, pp. 336–338.

  85. 85.

    Ibid., p. 418.

  86. 86.

    Ibid., pp. 417–418.

  87. 87.

    Ban Ku 班固, The History of The Former Han Dynasty, trans. Homer H. Dubs (Baltimore, MD: Waverly Press, 1955), vol. 3. For the quotation, http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/saxon/servlet/SaxonServlet?source=xwomen/texts/hanshu.xml&style=xwomen/xsl/dynaxml.xsl&chunk.id=d2.49&toc.depth=1&toc.id=0&doc.lang=bilingual.

  88. 88.

    Ibid. For the quotation, http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/saxon/servlet/SaxonServlet?source=xwomen/texts/hanshu.xml&style=xwomen/xsl/dynaxml.xsl&chunk.id=d2.58&toc.depth=1&toc.id=0&doc.lang=bilingual.

  89. 89.

    Karl Marx, The British Rule in India, in Karl Marx, Frederick Engels: Collected works (New York: International Publishers, 1979), vol. 12, p. 127.

  90. 90.

    Ellis Tinios, “Sure Guidance for One’s Own Time: Pan Ku and the Tsan to ‘Han Shu’ 94,” Early China, vol, 9/10 (1983–1985), pp. 193–194.

  91. 91.

    Ban Ku, The History of The Former Han Dynasty, trans. Homer H. Dubs, vol. 3. For the quotation, http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/saxon/servlet/SaxonServlet?source=xwomen/texts/hanshu.xml&style=xwomen/xsl/dynaxml.xsl&chunk.id=d2.57&toc.depth=1&toc.id=0&doc.lang=bilingual.

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    Huaiqi Wu

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Wu, H. (2018). Ideas of History in the Medieval China: Shiji, or The Grand Scribe’s Historical Records, and Hanshu, or History of Former Han Dynasty . In: An Historical Sketch of Chinese Historiography. China Academic Library. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-56253-6_4

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