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Title: Records of the Grand Historian
Original price: 696 yuan
Author: Compiled by Sima Qian during the Western Han Dynasty
Publisher: Liaohai Publishing House
Publication date: December 1, 2010
ISBN：9787545110197
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Basic Information
Title: Records of the Grand Historian
Original price: 696 yuan
Author: Written by Sima Qian
Publisher: Liaohai Publishing House
Publication date: December 1, 2010
ISBN：9787545110197
Word count:
Page number: 1480
Version: 1
Binding: hardcover
Format: 16 format
Product weight:
Editor's Pick
The "Records of the Grand Historian" consists of 130 chapters and over 526500 words, including
Twelve Chronicles (recording the lives and achievements of emperors throughout history);
Thirty aristocratic families (recording the rise and fall of feudal states and Han dynasty lords and nobles);
Seventy Biographies (recording the words and deeds of important figures, mainly recounting officials, with the last one being a preface);
Ten tables (chronology of major events);
Abstract
The Records of the Grand Historian, written by Sima Qian, is the first biographical general history of China and the foremost of the twenty-four historical books. The book is divided into 12 volumes, 10 tables, 8 books, 30 families, and 70 biographies, totaling 130 chapters and more than 520000 words. It records the history of China from the legendary Yellow Emperor to Emperor Wu of Han, spanning over 3000 years. The Records of the Grand Historian is a model of Chinese biographical literature. At first, the Records of the Grand Historian did not have a title and was referred to as the "Book of the Grand Historian" or "Biography of the Grand Historian" by the public, with the provincial name being "Grand Historian". 'Records of the Grand Historian' was originally a general term for ancient historical books. Starting from the Three Kingdoms period, 'Records of the Grand Historian' gradually evolved from a general term for historical books to a specialized term for 'Official Records of the Grand Historian'. The Records of the Grand Historian, along with the Book of Han (Ban Gu), the Book of Later Han (Fan Ye, Sima Biao), and the Records of the Three Kingdoms (Chen Shou), are collectively referred to as the "Four Histories". Liu Xiang and others believe that this book is "well ordered and logical, with arguments that are not flashy, and quality that is not vulgar". Together with the "Zizhi Tongjian" compiled by Sima Guang in the Song Dynasty, it is known as the "twin gems of historiography". Lu Xun called it "the masterpiece of historians, the rhyming 'Li Sao'".
