Reading the Records of the Grand Historian -- Series of Lectures on Famous Classics of National Learning

Author: Wang Ranran
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: "Records of the Grand Historian," which was once praised by Mr. Lu Xun as "the peerless song of historians, an unrhymed Lament for the Departed." The first half highly evaluates the historical value of "Records of the Grand Historian," while the second half highly praises its literary value, presenting a rather fair assessment of the work. Based on the San Zhu edition of "Records of the Grand Historian" published by Zhonghua Book Company, twenty chapters are selected for detailed annotations to assist students in original text reading. The "Introduction" section summarizes the main content of these twelve chapters, followed by four parts after each chapter: "Cultural Expansion," "Literary Links," "Critical Reviews," and "Reflections and Discussions." These sections compare and integrate multiple chapters of "Records of the Grand Historian," synthesize knowledge, and connect with other works and statements to outline specific topics, combining original text reading with systematic and research-based learning. Among them, "Table Prefaces" and "Treatise on the Equalization of Weights and Measures" are arranged with only "Introduction" and "Collected Reviews" due to their special formats. Additionally, "Biography of Scholars" and "Biography of the Xiongnu" hold significant cultural historical importance, so in this textbook, their "Literary Links" are limited to "Related Literary Allusions" and "Famous Literary Works Related to Later Generations," omitting "Literary Analysis." The "Literary Analysis" in this textbook does not involve vague or general character analysis, plot analysis, or language analysis. Instead, it references previous literary critiques to genuinely highlight the unique literary features of each chapter, avoiding comprehensiveness and striving to use specific examples to inspire broader understanding, guiding students to think by analogy.