Xiangjun Zhi’s Historical Thoughts And Its Historical Achievements

Xiangjun Zhi is a representative historical work of Wang Kaiyun. But it faced the criticism of some high-ranking military officers in the Xiang’s Army such as Zeng Guoquan and Guo Songtao, after it was finished. They insisted on that the work was just a release of Wang Kaiyun’s indignation, not reflecting the historical facts and it should be destroyed without any publication. When back to Chengdu, Wang Kaiyun published Xiangjun Zhi in a second edition for the requirements of his students. As a reaction, Zeng Guoquan immediately ordered Wang Ding’an, one of the aides of Zeng Guofan, to compile another concerned historical work, naming the record of the Xiang’s Army. Meanwhile, Guo Songtao and Guo Kuntao, the two brothers, analyzed and had detailed comments on Xiangjun Zhi and later their grandson Guo zhenyong collected all these notations, forming the discussions of Xiangjun Zhi at last.The thesis tries to find out the idea of writing of Wang Kaiyun, mainly from how he uses the historical materials, makes comments on the historical figures and describes the facts. It to some extent indicates Wang Kaiyun’s historical thoughts in Xiangjun Zhi, containing the important opinions that historiography should be connected with the present, in other words, helping to solve some current social problems; that a historical work must have its own style of language, structure and thought; that the power of our humans is to be emphasized instead of the power of God. Directed by the above historical thoughts, Xiangjun Zhi gains great achievements, such as objective historical concepts without flattering words, the unique way of employing the materials, compiling the book and describing the facts as well as the refined understanding of history. Lastly, the thesis discusses the shortcomings of Xiangjun Zhi, with the comparison among Wang Kaiyun’s Xiangjun Zhi, Subjectively speaking, Wang Kaiyun also faces the problem of gathering as abundant historical materials as possible.But he’s affacted by his personal emotions when asked to evaluate historical events or figures. Objectively speaking, the shortcomings are partially due to the social situation and limits at that period when Xiangjun Zhi was written.