Perspective Of Political Thoughts Of Sima Qian, Ban Gu And Fan Ye

Honest officials and ruthless officials represented the two government ranks in ancient China. Different administrative methods were adopted by the two officials to serve for the dictator. Respectively, honest officials pursued a policy with high moral to run the kingdom. Meanwhile, they made the political equality as their purpose. However, the latter pursued a policy governed by law. And they attacked strongly the rich and the privileged class. Besides, they prepared to pay any price in realizing their goals, even to do something against the law, which brought great harm to the society. So by comparison, the administrative method of honest officials could work better than the latter one. Sima Qian, Ban Gu and Fan Ye are the most famous historians in China. Due to the different times they were in, the social problems they faced were not the same, either. This paper will summarize the uniqueness in their political thoughts as well as their academic thoughts and principles of writings by comparison the honest biographies and ruthless biographies in"Han Book","Shiji"and"Houhan book".In the paper's introduction, the present research in this field will be given briefly, including the monograph on Sima Qian, Ban Gu and Fan Ye as well as other related research. Meanwhile, the research results will be classified and summarized. The methods and purposes of writing will be introduced.The body of the paper covers four parts. Firstly, a general introduction and their uniqueness will be explained. Secondly, the comparison of the honest biographies and ruthless biographies will be given according to those three books (mentioned above). All the three historians hold positive attitudes towards honest officials and hold negative attitudes toward the latter one. But if further and detailed research were done, different characteristics could be found in the two kinds of government ranks. Thirdly, the political thoughts of the three historians can be reflected clearly by comparing their respective honest biographies and ruthless biographies. And it is the comparison that shows their different political thoughts. For example, the three historians all supported the policy of running a country by high moral and considered the punishment as the complementary measure. They all put forward that the talented people should be promoted to manage a country. Particularly, Sima Qian hold that the customs should be respected and followed in running a country, and praised highly the policy of governing by doing nothing that against nature. And the theoretical system of the three historians and the argumentation of the two kinds of biographies will be introduced in the fourth part. Due to the time, family origin and personality, their academic thoughts and system could not be the same. Thus, it influenced their principles in writing. And their different academic systems were reflected clearly in their respective honest biographies and ruthless biographies.In the last part of the paper, a general conclusion will be drawn, including the characteristics of honest officials and ruthless officials in administration and the respective influences to the society. First, by grasping their political thoughts, Second, academic system and principles in writing and by recognizing the relationship between the two kinds of biographies, Last the research in this field can afford us lessons that merit attention in the present administration.