Ethnic Writing In The "Historical Records"

This paper takes the National Biography in Historical Records as the research object,analyzes the formation of National Biography,narrative strategy and the reasons why Sima Qian wrote the National Biography.Through the analysis of the historical materials of National Biography,this paper sums up the reference of Sima Qian to the pre-Qin documents,analyzes the source of the historical materials of National Biography,and explores the deep influence of the National Biography of Historical Records on the later history and literature.This paper is divided into five chapters.Chapter one,historical sources of national biographies in Historical Records.Sima Qian set up six special biographies of ethnic groups for the first time in Historical Records.Under the social situation and new identity system at that time,he constructed systematic knowledge about ethnic groups for the first time.The National Biography of Historical Records is rich in materials,which not only integrates the previous literature,but also refers to the imperial rescript policy,the court discussion and the exchange of documents.The travel investigation of Sima Qian provides detailed textual research for his National Biography.Of course,with the deepening of the communication between Han and the surrounding nationalities,envoys,descenders,merchants and the material objects of all nationalities have also enriched the national cognition of the contemporaries and Sima Qian.Chapter two,study on the style of National Biography in Historical Records.Sima Qian followed the five body example,set up a special biography for Xiongnu,Nanyue,Dongyue,Minyue,Chaoxian,southwestern Yi,western regions and other ethnic groups(countries),and wrote the history of each ethnic group according to the regional system.The six sections were basically within the overall limit of the Historical Records.Sima Qian chose to establish biographies for these ethnic groups(countries),mainly related to the political pattern and ethnic relations at that time.On the whole,the arrangement is based on the order of the communication between the various nationalities and the central government,interspersed among the various biographies,and formed a parallel relationship with other biographies.Chapter three,the narrative strategy of National Biography in Historical Records.This chapter mainly uses the traditional narrative method and the Western narratology theory to analyze the materials in the National Biography and the related items of Historical Records,From the perspective of narrative concept,narrative perspective,narrative time,narrative space and narrative structure,it analyzes how Sima Qian organized,tailored and processed the historical materials,and then understands the narrative purpose and narrative structure of the narrator The focus of events,the view of history,etc.Chapter four,the reason why Sima Qian set up the National Biography.Under the background of multi-cultural interaction,the Chinese ethnic group has formed and developed continuously,and gradually formed a stable ethnic group in the process of national integration.The thought of "great unity" established in the period of Emperor Wu not only includes political unity and ideological unity,but also includes national unity.Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty successively carried out actions to construct "great unity" for the four nationalities,which had a certain influence on Sima Qian's writing of national history.Sima Qian attached great importance to recording the history of the front of the Huns and the history of the Han and Huns and the war,mainly for the purpose of "participating in the other's own" during the "equipment conquest".However,Sima Qian was able to break the traditional idea of the difference between Yi and Xia,and put forward that Yi and Xia came from the same source,shared the ancestor with Chinese in the Yellow Emperor,and put all ethnic groups into the unified political system for investigation.Chapter five,the value of national writing in Historical Records.The National Biography in the Historical Records is the earliest and most complete record of the surrounding ethnic groups in the historical documents of our country.Because of its reliability and authority,it is still the most credible material to study the history of these ethnic groups.While recording the history of the relationship between the ethnic minorities and the Central Plains Dynasty,Sima Qian not only enriched the content of Historical Records,but also shaped some typical and vivid ethnic minority figures,forming a historical and literary biography.Under the influence of the concept of unification,Sima Qian created a precedent for the creation of biographies for ethnic minorities,which had a profound influence on the later generation of official history writing and formed a fine tradition of writing ethnic history.