Research On The Image Of "General" In "Historical Records"

During the long history from the legendary Three Emperors and Five Sovereigns to Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty,war was an important topic that could not be avoided in each era.The Historical Records,as the first people-oriented historically literary masterpiece in the history of China,not only systematically recorded more than 500 wars that broke out in these three thousand years,but also created a large number of vivid and perceptive generals with distinct personality.The generals under Sima Qian's writings came from different historical periods.They were the leaders of the wars and the witnesses of the times.They had the same characteristics endowed by the same identity.They were inevitably stamped with the distinctive personality of the times.They had become the model of a certain class of generals under Sima Qian's various artistic techniques.In addition to introduction and conclusion,this paper is divided into three chapters.Chapter I Common Characteristics of the General Images in The Historical Records.The generals in The Historical Records were all direct participants in major military activities in history.They were generally equipped with the basic military qualities such as being smart and brave,suiting the action to the word,being strict in governance and being generous and loving as well as the excellent qualities of loyalty,patriotism and unyieldingness.At the same time,they had personality deficiencies such as arrogance and fierceness.They were a series of three-dimensional flesh-and-blood and trusted figures.Chapter II Personality Characteristics of the General Images in The Historical Records.According to Sima Qian's statements,the three-thousand-year history recorded in The Historical Records can be divided into five historical periods,Three Emperors and Five Sovereigns,the Spring and Autumn Period,the Warring States Period,the Qin and Chu Period and the Western Han Dynasty.The generals living in different historical periods have also displayed distinctive personality characteristics influenced by their own times.In the Spring and Autumn Period,the generals who came from the aristocratic class were either honest or modest and courtly under the influence of the Rites of Zhou and their words and actions showed the Gentleman's demeanor of the nobility.During the Warring States period,as various vassal states frequently launched tragic and complicated mergers,commanding the war had become a special skill and the full-time military commanders who were proficient in military affairs had become the protagonist of history.During the Qin and Chu Period,the civilian generals who came from the bottom of society were deeply greedy for their personal interests and were short-sighted greenwood heroes because of thelimitations of their own class.During the Western Han dynasty,with the continuous strengthening of the “Monarchian” autocratic monarchy,the generals who lived in this historical period generally had the dual identities of the battlefield admirals and humble ministers.Chapter III Shaping Techniques of the General Images in The Historical Records.The Historical Records,as a master of historical literature,Sima Qian inherited the successful experience of history-biography literature of the pre-Qin period in character shaping and boldly innovated to use personalized character languages to reproduce the characters' inner world and character traits.By quoting other people's comments and using foreshadowing,he captured details of the characters' lives,looks and actions to create vivid characters and depicted typical and wonderful wars to set off the charisma of the characters and highlight the character images through combination of positive and negative foils.