Shiji Appreciation. Student Edition

Author: Fan Peiyou, Li Jinchao
Publisher:
Publishing Time: Not available
Features: Collects the essence of Records of the Grand Historian, appreciating immortal chapters; elaborates on the successes and failures of millennia, gaining insights into the true meaning of life! "Reading history makes one wise, reading poetry makes one refined." Records of the Grand Historian is a perfect unity of literature and history, hailed as "the peerless chronicles of historians, an unrhymed Li Sao." It is both history and poetry. Originally titled Records of the Grand Historian, it is China's first comprehensive history written by Sima Qian, pioneering the annalistic and biographical style of historical writing. The entire work consists of 130 chapters, including basic annals, tables, treatises, hereditary houses, and biographies, with over 526,000 characters. Its chronicles span from the Yellow Emperor to the Taichu era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, comprehensively narrating the political, economic, and cultural developments of China's ancient history up to the early Han period over three millennia. It represents a monumental summary of ancient Chinese history and a landmark in the history of Chinese historiography, marking an invaluable contribution by Sima Qian to Chinese culture, especially in the field of history, over two millennia ago.
To help students, young people, and friends learn history and broaden their wisdom, we have carefully selected 225 chapters from the basic annals, hereditary houses, and biographies of Records of the Grand Historian, including narratives, characters, discourses, and allusions, and provided annotations and translations. Then, we examine these vivid and splendid historical scenes one by one through the lens of contemporary perspectives, offering commentary from the perspective of fostering readers' intellectual frameworks. In the commentary, we strive to vividly present the wisdom of the successful and the lessons of the failures of millennia past, as well as the awe-inspiring historical sounds and scenes that resonate through the ages from Records of the Grand Historian, which is imbued with Sima Qian's life's work, to leave a meaningful impact or inspiration for our readers!