Sima Guang And Great Historic Writings Of Politicization

Sima Guang was a famous historian in Song Dynasty of China. His well-known work Great Historic Writings of Politicization is as great as Records of Historian by Sima Qian.Great Historic Writings of Politicization is the natural outcome of history development. The stable political environment and prosperous economy of Song Dynasty provided sound political and physical conditions for the development of historical science. At that time the Confucian culture had stepped into a stage of rapid development, and the core of Confucian culture, Confucianism, had already evolved from the Han school of classical philology into the Song school of classical philology, from exegetics into the science of philosophy. The school of Song came in various sub-schools which showed the creation of Confucian culture. The historical science of Tang Dynasty and song Dynasty were prosperous and fruitful as the result of the development of the Confucian culture. All the above factors helped Sima Guang reach another summit of historical science. Sima Guang was a lucky person of that times who created historical glory on the basis of glorious Confucian culture and edited the great historical work Great Historic Writing of Politicization.The historical science is a comprehensive subject of art. Therefore, the historical works involve every aspects of culture. Great Historic Writings of Politicization, as a milestone in historical study, would undoubtedly reflect thoroughly the thinking and culture of the Song Dynasty. Firstly, it completely showed the concept of overall unity of Confucian culture, which is also the theme of Song Dynasty. This time spirit is specificly reflected through assimilation, consistency, and all-round communication. Assimilation lies in the formation and evolvement of the diversity in Chinese culture. Consistency referes maily to appearance of the style of Records of Historian by Sima Qian in Great Historic Writings of Politicization. The great unity concept explained by Sima Guang is superior to that of the former no matter in connotation or denotation. All-round communication means the spread of the Confucian culture to countries such as Korea and japan, and thereby formed the Asian circle of Confucian culture. The Confucian culture became the regional culture developed from the Chinese traditional culture. Secondly, it played the social role of taking warning from history, which was derived from Confucian culture. Sima Guang composed Great Historic Writings of Politicization to be read by the emperor and his officials in order to learn from the hisotry and perfect their rule. Therefore, there is detailed description about the poor behavior of the emperor, the curruption of the officials, and the farmer wars. Thirdly, it displayed the concept of ruling by hierarchy and propriety, and relevant ideas of moral principles and ethics. The core of Sima Guang's approach to ruling the country is the ruling by hierarchy and propriety. The history analysis of Great Historic Writings of Politicization, (e.g. remarks from Sima Guang) consists of 218 articles, most of which are descriptions of ruling by hierarchy from different angles. Fourthly, it developed the ideology of people-centered and materialism. The ideology of people-centered is the most glorious part of Sima Guang's system of concepts. He believed that its people is the basis of a country and the decisive factor of the emperor authority. The ideology is usually related to materialism. Sima Guang was an outstanding people who don't believe in God or goust. In Great Historic Writing of Politicization, there is scaresly any description of mythical items. Fifthly, it followed the Confucian thought of "valuing harmony" and advocated peaceful policies towards nationalities and foreign affairs. The North Song Dynasty was in a time when national conflicts were severe. Sima Guang insisted firmly on adopting peaceful policy towards adjacent countries and harmonious policy towards the minorities within the country. He clung to the belief that the government should be faithful in dealing with the minorities. Sixthly, it adopted the Confucian idea of enriching the people as guideline, and showed the economic thought of increasing income and reducing expenditure, as well as idea of enriching the country and its people.Great Historic Writings of Politicization enjoys a very important position in Chinese historical science and the literature history, which is reflected through four aspects. Firstly, it perfected the style of annalistic history. On the basis of annalistic historical science that was founded by Confucius and developed by Zuo Qiuming., it mixed together with many other styles of historical science, completing and perfecting the annalistic historical science. Secondly, it had great influence in the history of Chinese historical science. It not only brought life to annalistic historical books, but also gave birth to several new styles of historical science. Good examples are outline style developed by Zhu Xi and the style of history presented in separate accounts of important events which was developed by Yuan Shu. Thirdly, it was a historical work with great literature value. Fourthly, it became the study target of historicians and was developed into a new subject, the study of Great Historic Writings of Politicization, which in turn enhance and improved the position of Great Historic Writings of Politicization in historical science and literature. The great position of Great Historic Writings of Politicization in Chinese literature history has made Sima Guang a great historician and literary giant who was as great as Sima Qian.This thesis states the angle of the dialectical relationship between the Confucian culture and Chinese ancient historical science, and discusses the fact that Great Historic Writings of Politicization is the natural outcome of the times ad the development of the Confucian culture. The thesis also shows the rich literary content of Great Historic Writings of Politicization. This is a new attempt to study Great Historic Writings of Politicization. This attempt might enlarge the scope of the study on Great Historic Writings of Politicization and contribute to the cross study on historical science and the Confucian culture.