A Study On Dong Guan Han Ji

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the rulers strengthened the intervention of historiography in order to maintain their rule by strengthening the ideological control, which made the historiography become a tool for political service increasingly. Dong Guan Han Ji, as the China's first official history book of feudal society, was compiled by the officials versed in historiography who were gathered by the government according to the edict issued by the supreme ruler of the Eastern Han dynasty. It took more than one hundred years to complete this book. Compared to other contemporary historical books, Dong Guan Han Ji obviously raises the Eastern Han government to the highest honor and praises the "virtue" of the supreme ruler turgidly. On the basis of the results of previous studies, this paper discusses Dong Guan Han Ji from four aspects, that is, its generation, style, idealistic trends and impact.Chapter One is the introduction of compilation, spread and versions of Dong Guan Han Ji. This part mainly summarizes the previous studies, discusses several stages of its compilation and spread concretely and conducts the comparative study on several existing versions.Chapter Two is concerned about the study on the style of Dong Guan Han Ji. Based on the idea that Dong Guan Han Ji is on the succession of biographical style, this thesis emphasizes its effect on the specification and transformation of biographical style, especially the theory that considers the empire as the center.Chapter Three deals with a problem rarely discussed by scholars. By the comparison between Dong Guan Han Ji and other contemporary historical books, this paper highlights the four idealistic trends of Dong Guan Han Ji--- destiny theory, orthodox theory, the cycle theory of history and the conception of history as determined by heroes, and hence illustrates that Dong Guan Han Ji, as the first official historical book in ancient China, has completely become a tool for maintaining the authority of rulers.Chapter Four is the impact of Dong Guan Han Ji. This paper presents Dong Guan Han Ji's effect on the system of historical official and its literature value, and mainly reflects its status and function in the process of the formation of the orthodox history of feudal China.