Jin Historiographer Research

Historiographer originated early in ancient China. A completesystem was formed after integration and development of Shang andZhou Dynasty. Historiographers, intellectuals of the bureaucraticclass, fulfill their duty for the royal court with a high status. Inpre-Qin period, a special historical time which several dynastiesco-existed, functions of the historians are broad and messy. Suchuncertainty causes constant evolution and finally formed a fixedway of the writing style and building method of the antienthistoriographers which laid foundations for the development of laterhistoriographers and historiography.Pre-Qin civilization is the beginning of Chinese civilization.History of such period is extremely bright in China’s long history. Inorder to study historical developments in China, studies ofhistoriographers is particularly important as no research ofhistoriography or history documents can separate from the study ofhistoriographers. Jin Dynasty, with its open politics and largeamount of historiographer, dominates the Spring and Autumn Periodfor a long time. A large proportion of record of the Jin Dynasty inChronicle of Zuo, Guoyu (two important historical books of ancientChina) and other documents of the pre-Qin period reflects that Jin Dynasty values historiographers and performs actively inhistoriography. Researches of historiographers in Jin Dynastyallow us to study and better understand the evolution anddifferentiation of historiographers in the pre-Qin period. However,scholars before did little for the systematic study ofhistoriographers in Jin Dynasty. So the present paper aims atrespectively sorting all historiographers in Jin Dynasty and findingtheir contributions to the development of the Dynasty.In order to sort out the sources and development of thehistoriographer and to bedding research background for the studyof historiographers in Jin Dynasty, the paper begins from theevolution of the original meaning of "history" to the origin anddevelopment of historiographer to the development and changes ofhistoriography system. After that, through relative records inChronicle of Zuo, Guoyu and other documents of the pre-Qin periodand by analyzing causes how Jin historiographer’s thoughts,statements and actions are formed and deducing their roles, statusevolutions and their roles and contributions in the development ofJin history, the paper finds out how the historiographer’s statuschanged in the pre-Qin period and their relationship with history ofthe period. Finally, the paper analyzes individuals to see theinfluences, functions and features of Jin historiographers in theSpring and Autumn Period and to understand their contribution tothe development of human history. Through textual research ofvarious aspects of Jin historiographers, the paper expounds thefar-reaching influence of them to provide a unique perspective forthe study of regional culture of Jin Dynasty.