5. Ancient Historians
In China the recording of historical events began as far back as
over 3,000 years ago, and has never been interrupted. This long,
continuous tradition of historical documentation is unique in the
world.
In no other country was the writing and study of history so
valued as in ancient China. The Chinese thought that history not on-
ly provided information of the past, but also gave moral and political
education to future generations.
It has been mentioned that the $hang rulers often ordered their
court diviners to foretell, with the help of tortoise shells and ox
bones, whether the actions to be taken would be auspicious, ,and that
the diviners would carve a few words on the shells or bones recording
the real results of the actions after they were carried out. In this way
they made brief but faithful records of many important events that
had happened. Those court diviners could be called the earliest histo-
rians in ancient China, though they did not write anything consecu-
tive.
In the Zhou that followed the Shang, there were officials in the
government whose main duty was to keep records of important things
that happened in the court or the country, and of unusual natural
phenomena. Not only in the king's court, but also in the houses of
princes who ruled the states, were there such official historians, who
were invariably learned and upright scholars. Their records, when
put together, would make up chronicles. In many states those chron-
icles were called Spring and Autumn Annals, perhaps because im-
portant events often happened in these two seasons.
One story shows how official historians true to their duties did
their work. In 548 BC, in the state of Qi, a powerful minister by the
name of Cui Shu killed the ruler Duke Zhuang. The official historian
of the state wrote in the chronicle"Cui Shu murdered the prince. "On
reading the entry, Cui $hu was so angry that he put the historian to
death. This man's younger brother, who succeeded him as the offi-
cial historian, wrote exactly the same words, and was also killed.
Then another younger brother was given the job, and he still wrote
those words. This time Cui Shu knew that he could not change the
historian's way of making truthful records, so he left the third broth-
er alone.
It was said that Confucius believed historical facts, if properly
explained, would be more instructive and easier to understand than
abstract theories. So he revised and edited the chronicle of the state
of Lu, where he was born. It was the Spring and Autumn Annals
that gave the 242 years (722 -481 BC) it covered a name:the Spring
and Autumn Period. Its system of recording events according to the
sequence of time was a great invention in the way of writing histo-
ries. The facts entered into his chronicle was generally accurate. For
instance, 30 of the eclipses mentioned in it have been confirmed by
modern scientists.
In editing the book, Confucius was careful with the choice of
words. The laudatory and derogatory words he used showed his ap-
proval or condemnation of persons and actions. So Mencius said,
"After Confucius completed the Spring and Autumn Annals, disloy-
al ministers and villainous people were in constant fear. "They were in
fear because they knew that their wrong behavior would be con-
demned as similar behavior had been by Confucius.
As events are only briefly mentioned in this book, there wen
historians who elaborated on the entries by writing commentaries or
them. Those written by Zuo Qiuming, an official historian of tht
state of Lu and a contemporary of Confucius, were perhaps the bes
known.
Several historical works were produced in the pre-Qin period,
but no attempt was ever made to compile a comprehensive history of
the entire past of the nation. The first work of this type was writter
by Sima Qian(145- 86.9 BC) of the Western Hah.
He was the son of an official historian called Sima Tan. On his
deathbed the father asked the son to do what he had desired but failed
to do--writing a history dealing with all the past events of the whole
nation, and the son promised to do that.
Sima Qian was appointed the Grand Historian of the court three
years after his father's death. Before this he had travelled far ant
wide in the country, collecting material for the book he was to write.
In his official position he was able to read the books and documets
stored in the court. He began writing his book in 104 BC. Five years
later, for some reason he incurred the anger of the emperor (HA
Wudi), who made him suffer the punishment of castration. He de-
cided to put up with the shame instead of committing suicide, be.
cause he was determined to complete his great work, which he did in
92 BC. Not long after that he died.
Records of the Grand Historian, which he wrote, consists 0f
five parts, 130 chapters, in half a million words. The five parts are:
Basic Annals, Chronological Tables, Treatises, Hereditary Houses,
and Biographies. The first, fourth and fifth parts deal with emperors,
big feudal families and famous men respectively. The Chronological
Tables are tables of dates of important events; the Treatises are
essays devoted to the history and description of various subjects, such
as rites, music, and the economy. With minor changes, this
arrangement was followed by almost all later official historians in
writing dynastic histories.
The book was the first general history published in China, and
possibly in the whole world. It covers the major events and personali-
ties of nearly 3,000 years, from the Yellow Emperor down to the
writer's day.
The book has great literary value, for it is written in an excel-
lent style. It strengthened the relationship between history and liter-
ature.
All kinds of people are described in it: emperors and ministers,
sages and philosophers, generals and adventurers, assasins and crimi-
nals. Their biographies are very colorful and full of life, with a lot of
conversations in direct speech. They have the charm of fiction.
Ban Gu and Sima Qian were often mentioned together by later
historians when they discussed the writing of histories. For Ban Gu,
the chief author of the Book of Hah, imitated and also introduced in-
novations in Sima Qian's way of recording historical facts. Sima Qian
wrote a general history of several dynasties, while Ban Gu wrote the
history of only one dynasty, the Western Han, which was the dy-
nasty preceding his own, the Eastern Han.
Like Sima Qian, Ban Gu(32 - 92 AD) was born into a scholar's
family. Ban Biao, his father, was a well-known historian who had
collected material with the intention of writing a continuation of Sima
Qian's Records. What he wrote was not extant, but must have been
very helpful to his son's work.
Ban Gu's book starts with the first emperor of the Western Han
and ends with the emperor who usurped the throne of the last emper-
or of the dynasty. It covers the history of 230 years. Like Sima
Qian's Records, it contains articles, tables, and biographies, and
deals with many aspects of social changes and natural phenomena,
with special chapters on morality, the arts, the classics, literature,
astronomy, and ghosts and spirits. As it is the history of one
dynasty, it is possible for it to give more detailed accounts of events
than the Records.
In his last years, Ban Gu was in a way very close to a powerful
man in the court. That man was disloyal to the reigning emperor,
and committed suicide after his attempt to kill the emperor failed.
Many of his assistants and friends, including Ban Gu, were pun-
ished. Ban Gu was thrown into prison. He was then 61, too old to
endure the hardships in prison, and died shortly afterwards.
But his book was then only a pile of manuscript. The emperor of
the time heard about this, and ordered Ban Gu's sister, Ban Zhao,
also an erudite scholar, to edit it. With the help of other scholars,
she completed and finalized her brother's work--the Book of Hah.
It was the first dynastic history, which served as a model to
many later historical works. In each dynasty after the Eastern Han,
there were official historians who wrote the history of the preceding
dynasty. For some dynasties more than one history was written. But
only 25 historical works, including Sima Qian's Records and Ban~
Gu's Book of Hah, were generally recognized as official histories.
Besides th[m there were countless historical writings by scholars who
were not official historians.