On The Historical Thought Of Xenophon

Xenophon is one of the three greatest ancient Greek Historians. His works about politics, economy, education, military, philosophy and history, are based on the social problems of the ancient Greece, these works show some traits such as his historiography connecting the past and the future, simple and fluent language, and revealing his profound historical thought. However, meanwhile, his historical achievement suffered from blame and negation, which leaded to little attention on Xenophon among researchers. Therefore, the study on Xenophon’s historical thought can not only help us to realize the essence of his historical thought and put his historical achievement together, but also provide useful lessons for the current historical research and writing, in the era background of the postmodern historiography.The first part of the paper is the introduction, which describes the significance of the topic, research status all over the world, writing methods and innovation. The second part explains the era background which Xenophon was in. In ancient Greek, when states were facing disintegration, Athens, Sparta, and other states were no longer splendid, Xenophon still produced many great works based on his life experience and the influence of Socrates and other predecessors. The third part is the main section, a systematic statement of Xenophon’s historical thought and traits by analyzing his works. The following are included:the humanistic and heroic historiography, the moral and justicial historiography, the anti-democratic historiography, the effect of admonishing descendant, and the fact that he created a biography style, the Rhetoric in his works, made a great contribution on historical literature. The fourth part has an objective evaluation of the effect and the limitation of Xenophon’s historical thought.