Biography of Sima Guang

Author: Li Changxian
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-12-01
Features: Sima Guang was an outstanding statesman and thinker during the Northern Song Dynasty, as well as a great historian of ancient China. The era in which he lived was the period of transition between the great division of the mid-Tang Dynasty and the unified Yuan Dynasty, a phase of strategic stalemate between the Song Dynasty and the successive rise of various ethnic minority regimes in the north. Learning from the historical lesson that since the Zhou and Qin dynasties, wars and divisions had far outnumbered peace and unification, he opposed the Xifu Reform and the wars against Western Xia and other neighboring ethnic minority groups. He proposed the idea of ritual governance for social stability and peaceful development, the people-centered governance, and the concept of maintaining peace and harmony between China and foreign lands. He advocated the principle of the "Golden Mean" and promoted the spirit of unity and harmony. This book provides a comprehensive, systematic, and in-depth study of its subject through chapters on introduction, biography, thought, and historiography. Based on a reevaluation of Sima Guang's historical significance in the Song Dynasty, his life and actions are reexamined within the specific historical period of the 10th to 13th centuries, revealing the ideological roots and philosophical foundations of his political beliefs and activities throughout his life. This book represents a summary of research on Sima Guang over the past few decades, especially since the era of "rectifying chaos and restoring order."