Research On Wang Mang's Historical Evaluation

As a special historical figure who seized power by way of"abdication"but failed rapidly in Chinese history,Wang Mang appeared as a usurped image of“disorderly subject and thieve”in the official history of the Former Han Dynasty which written by Ban Biao and Ban Gu.Since then,Wang Mang has been denied and criticized by historians and scholars in the past two thousand years.However,both Chinese and Western scholars have appeared positive views of praising Wang Mang,or even fully affirming him by influence of western academic thoughts since the 20th century.The evaluation of historical figures,as Wang Mang was the representative one,has become a long-term focus in the academia since the founding of the People's Republic of China.The research on Wang Mang's have accumulated more abundant and in-depth,and his evaluation is more fair and objective.However,there have been some historical figures turning over the case in recent years,and there have been some negative tendencies of over praise and flattery in Wang Mang's evaluation.All the above problems are worthy of our careful analysis.Has divided into three historical stages,this research systematically enumerates the evaluation of Wang Mang by the representative historians at all times and in all countries since the History of Former Han Dynasty was written in the 1^st century A.D.Combined with the ideological trend of the times and the mainstream ideology in each historical stage,the author takes Wang Mang as an example,compares the differences of his historical evaluation,and analyzes the reasons in depth,aiming to reflect and summarize the basic theoretical methods of historical character evaluation.