Appreciating the Records of the Grand Historian

Author: Zheng Mingbao
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-09-01
Features: "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 and the unrhymed Lament for the State of Chu." It is both history and poetry. Originally titled Records of the Grand Historian, it is China's first comprehensive history written in the biographical style, pioneered by Sima Qian. The entire work consists of 130 chapters, including basic annals, tables, treatises, hereditary houses, and biographies, with over 526,000 characters. Its narrative spans from the Yellow Emperor to the Taichu period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, comprehensively recounting three millennia of China's political, economic, and cultural development from ancient times to the early Han Dynasty. 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, particularly in the field of history, over two thousand years ago.
To help students, young people, and friends of all ages learn history and gain wisdom, we have carefully selected 225 chapters from the basic annals, hereditary houses, and biographies of Records of the Grand Historian, providing annotations and translations. Then, we approach these vivid and splendid historical scenes with contemporary perspectives and new ideas, 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 thousands of years ago. We also aim to convey the awe-inspiring historical sounds and scenes imbued with Sima Qian's life's work, hoping to inspire and enlighten our readers!