Exploring The Historical Records Of "Historical Records"

It has been over 300 years since ancient historian Gu Yanwu put forward that “claim theses through stories” is a significant artistic expression in the Historical Records, and it not only has been an artistic choice that directly added by the editor, Sima Qian, to state his mind for the readers, but also being an inevitable choice for Sima Qian to narrate the history. The academia, however, doesn’t pay enough attention to this artistic expression that matches its important status and usage in the Historical Records, and even mix it with other expression from time to time. Thus, this thesis is going to provide a more specific classification and analysis about this artistic expression in the Historical Records based on the former studies, and in order to explain the specific manifestation of “claim theses through stories”, the author will also give a more detailed exploration under three basic expression: dialogue, narration and comparison; besides, the author is going to define the connotation and usage of this artistic expression through making comparison with the artistic expressions widely used in the Spring and Autumn Annuals and Zuo Zhuan, thus to prove the importance of “claim theses through stories” in the Historical Records, and claiming the realistic meaning of this study.