SIMA Qian’s view of the Huang Emperor(PDF)
《长安大学学报（社科版）》[ISSN:1671-6248/CN:61-1391/C]
- Issue:
- 2019年04期
- Page:
- 51-59
- Research Field:
- 长安学
- Publishing date:
Info
- Title:
- SIMA Qian’s view of the Huang Emperor
- Author(s):
- ZHANG Maoze
- Institute of Chinese Ideology and Culture, Northwest University，Xi’an 710069, Shaanxi, China
- Keywords:
- SIMA Qian; Huang Emperor; view of the Huang Emperor; Historical Records; Martial emperor of Han dynasty; historical view on morality; community of Chinese nation; awareness of national community
- PACS:
- I207.5
- DOI:
- -
- Abstract:
- SIMA Qian wrote the Historical Records, in which the Huang Emperor was considered the most important ancestor, and the concept of the Huang Emperor has a farreaching impact on future generations and deserves dedicated research. Academic circles mostly use SIMA Qian’s records as basic materials to study the Huang Emperor, but so far there have been no works specializing in SIMA Qian’s view of the Huang Emperor. According to the text and based on the materials of SIMA Qian’s Historical Records, this paper uses historical methods to generalize and summarize the content of SIMA Qian’s view of the Huang Emperor, and analyses and reveals the historical background and conditions behind the view, which is helpful for people today to scientifically understand the view of the Huang Emperor in history. It is found that before SIMA Qian, the Huang Emperor was only a myth and legend. SIMA Qian changed the myth into an official historical record, which fundamentally reformed the writing form of the origin of Chinese civilization and improved the system of the history of Chinese civilization. From SIMA Qian’s description of the Huang Emperor, we can see that the Huang Emperor was a real person with residence, land, family and descendants, and that he had actually lived and died. “The Huang Emperor passed away, and was buried in Qiaoshan”. A legendary figure thus became an objective historical figure. Martial emperor of Han dynasty in the same era as SIMA Qian, however, was obsessed with immortal magic and believed that the Huang Emperor had casted a tripod and flown up to heaven. SIMA Qian’s view of the Huang Emperor suppressed the negative tendency of some mystifying historical figures at that time with a rational description. His description also implies the concept of moral history. In his view, the reason of the Huang Emperor made outstanding historical contributions was that the Huang Emperor “cultivated morality”. Therefore, SIMA Qian praised the Huang Emperor in that he “promoted and exhibited morality”. This concept inherited the tradition of moral history since the Western Zhou dynasty and highlighted the role of morality in history.
Last Update: 2019-07-25