Si Ma-qian's Understanding Of Man From His View In Records Of The Historian

Records of the Historian is a great work, which created the historical forms of literature mainly on the history presented in a series of biography. It for the first time recorded history based on man and took man's position and role in history seriously. From a great deal of historical Personage's action, it presented man's living style, living value and man's fate, which are the essence of Records of the Historian. The thesis tries to inspect Si Ma-qian's understanding of man's position and role in history on the background of the relationship between man and fate.The value and new idea of this thesis is, according to the aim of Records of the Historian, that is, examing the relationship between man and fate, having a thorough knowledge of changes in history and then forming one's own thought, and based on the cultural background of the relationship between man and fate, it analyses Si Ma-qian'sunderstanding of man------Si Ma-qian began to concern and think about man on thebackground of the relationship between man and fate. Influenced by tradition and the idea of his age, he still paid attention to " fate", sometimes he would sigh with feeling about the fate. But because of his objective viewpoint ,he paid more attention to man, thinking more about who in which aspect took roles in history.Records of the Historian is a historical work, which only recorded history objectively and never expressed the authors viewpoint directly. This thesis expounds Si Ma-qian's understanding of man and his evaluation on historical personage and historical event. The main basis of thesis is, the evaluation of what Taishigong said, Si Ma-qian's choice pf the forms of literature, the subjective color of the words and the comment of figures in the work.This thesis will expound the idea from three aspects.The first part analyses Si Ma-qian's understanding of man. It is on the base of the background of the relationship between man and fate. In this part, Si Ma-qian agree to the fate's control on man, it also expressed his doubt on fate. When he recorded history, he paid attention to the rise and fall of a nation and the historical personage's merits and demerits, here he began his change from fate to man.The second part analyses man in Records of the Historian from five aspects: the attention to man's existence, the praise of moral integrity, the pursuit of achievements and value, the inquiry into personal relationship and the role of man in the development of society and history.The third part is about Si Ma-qian's knowledge of man. His thought about the relationship between man and fate, his faithful record of officials and his feeling for his own experience made Si Ma-qian push aside something that misled him to understand the relationship between man and fate, he took man in the central pare of history, expressed man's personal value and explored man's role in historical development.