Chronological style is a genre of China's traditional history books, which arranges related historical events in chronological units. Chronological history books take time as the center and record historical events in the order of year, month and day. Because it takes time as longitude and historical events as latitude, it is easier to reflect the connection of various historical events in the same period.
Biography, a form of East Asian history books, narrates historical facts in the form of biographies of people (biographies of emperors are called records, biographies of ordinary people are called biographies, characters in special circumstances are called records, records of systems, customs and economies are called records, and historical events are arranged in tables.
2, the content is different:
Biographical history book "Biography" is the most extensive in the book.
Chronological history books are very convenient to understand the general trend of the rise and fall of a generation. Events are related to Japan, and Japanese time (season) is related to the year.
3. Different roles:
The advantage of chronological style is that it gives people a clear concept of time and easily reflects the background of historical events. The disadvantage is that it is not easy to reflect the connection before and after the same historical event. This genre takes time as the center, and its description of characters' lives, laws, regulations and culture is too brief and fragmented, and things with unknown dates can't even be written into the book, which affects the use value of chronological history books.
Biographical history books mainly record the narrative of characters' lives, laws and cultures.
Extended data:
Classification of history books:
I. Classification by authenticity
1. Official History: A historical book that records the achievements of emperors, the history of dynasties, biographies of people, economy, military affairs, culture and geography in a biographical and chronological way is called official history. Such as the so-called twenty-four histories. Except for a few personal writings (such as Sima Qian's Historical Records, Ye Fan's History of the Later Han Dynasty, Chen Shou's History of the Three Kingdoms and Ouyang Xiu's History of the New Five Dynasties), most official histories are compiled by officials.
2. Other history: mainly refers to the historical books that record historical facts of past dynasties or generations, such as "Dong Guan Han Ji", "Du Dong Shi Lue", "Daikin Guo Zhi" and "Tong Zhi", etc.
It can be seen that other history is actually an important supplementary part of the official history and still a branch of the official history. Therefore, there is a saying that there are many branches of official history in the catalogue of the History Department of Sikuquanshu. Created by famous scholars, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish it from miscellaneous history. Such as Hanshu Jin Chunqiu.
3. Miscellaneous History: A history book with anecdotes, which only records the whole story, a moment's experience or a family's private record. It is different from the official history with complete style, such as discipline, biography, expression and ambition, and it is also different from other histories that have been in power for a time. Not limited by style. Although miscellaneous and superficial, it can make up for the omissions and shortcomings of official history books, including family history, foreign history, mini-history, unofficial history, unofficial history, anecdotes and other categories.
4. unofficial history: Historical books written by the people are different from the official history.
5. History of barnyard grass: usually refers to the historical records that record the customs of alleys, folk trivia and old news, such as Song Barnyard Grass Banknote written by Pan Yongyin in Qing Dynasty and Qing Barnyard Grass Banknote written by Tsui Hark in modern times. Sometimes it means "unofficial history".
Second, according to the style classification:
1. Biography: Biographical history books were founded in Historical Records written by Sima Qian in the Western Han Dynasty, with biographies as the center and biographies describing emperors. Use "aristocratic family" to describe princes and special people; Use "table" to unify the age, lineage and figures; Record laws and regulations with "books" or "records"; Record people, nationalities and foreign countries with biographies. All previous dynasties used this as a model for compiling history.
Another example is Hanshu. Some official histories have no books or records, such as The History of the Three Kingdoms.
2. Chronological style: Chronological history books take the year, month and day as the order, the year and month as the longitude, and the facts as the latitude, which makes it easier to reflect the connection of various historical events in the same period. The method of chronicle recording history originated in China. For example, Zuo Zhuan and Zi Tong Zhi Jian both belong to this category. Chunqiu is the earliest chronological history book in China.
3. Chronology of the Last Age: Yuan Shu's Chronology of Jinghuayuan was founded in the Southern Song Dynasty. This genre is characterized by taking historical events as the key link and listing important historical events separately. Each article is written in the order of year, month and day. There are nine ancient books in the chronicle.
4. Country style: Country style history books are written in Mandarin. Country history books are historical essays written by some countries. It contains the history of many countries. For example, The Warring States Policy falls into this category.
Three, according to the time and space classification:
1, General History: Historical books that describe the historical facts of each era coherently are called General History, such as Historical Records written by Sima Qian in the Western Han Dynasty. Because he recorded the historical facts that lasted more than 3,000 years from the legendary Yellow Emperor to the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
2. Chronicle: A historical book that records the history of a generation is called Dynastic History, which was founded in Han Shu in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The twenty-four histories belong to dynastic history except Historical Records.
Four, according to the discipline classification:
Historical books that record the history of various specialized disciplines are called special history, such as economic history, ideological history, literary history, historiography history and so on.
The development of history books:
At the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty, there were historical records in various vassal states in China, such as the success of Jin State, the branch of Zheng State, Xun of Chu State and the Spring and Autumn Period of Lu State. In Mozi, it is said that Mo Zhai has seen hundreds of countries in the Spring and Autumn Period.
Early history books:
They all exist in the form of chronicles, and the chronicles of bamboo books unearthed in central Hebei during the Taikang period of Jin Dynasty are also chronicles. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Xun Yue wrote "Han Ji", which created a chronicle.
In the Northern Song Dynasty, Sima Guang wrote Zi Tong Zhi Jian, which lasted from the 23rd year of Zhou Weilie (403 BC) to the 6th year of Zhou Shizong's showing virtue in the Five Dynasties (959 BC). The advantage of chronological style is that it is convenient to inspect the specific time of historical events, understand the relationship between historical events, and avoid duplication of narrative. The success of Zi Tong Zhi Jian initiated the climax of chronicle writing.
Chen Yinque once said: "China historiography flourished in the Song Dynasty." . Chronological style became popular, resulting in outline style and chronological style. Liang Qichao thought: "Gai Ji's biography is mainly about people, the chronicle is mainly about years, and the chronicle is mainly about events." The reason why my husband asked for monuments is that it is useful to learn ancient times, and it is important. "
When Ye Fan wrote the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, he made a comparison between biographical style and chronological style. He said: "The Spring and Autumn Annals is short because it is always short and pithy, and it has a good rapid formation. Today, people plan to write them. Ji Chuanti, the change of Shi Ban, also caught a generation, and it is appropriate to learn after learning. This is excellent, so I will do it. "
Zhang Fu evaluated the author according to the number of words in Records of the Historian and Hanshu, saying that "move with work, promise with promise, and act with deeds", so he thought Records of the Historian was superior to Hanshu. Gan Bao's "Jin Ji", "Its book is concise, straightforward and graceful, and salty as a good history."
When talking about writing motivation, Justin said: "I was tired of reading the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, but I couldn't sleep and had a rest, so I compiled a collection called the Book of the Later Han Dynasty." Yuan Songshan wrote the Book of the Later Han Dynasty. He concluded: "There are five difficulties in the book: annoying and incomplete, difficult; Vulgar but not classical, two difficult also; If books are not recorded, it will be difficult; There are four difficulties in rewarding and punishing the lost; There are five difficulties in writing without quality. "
After Du You published General Canon, the canon system was added to the history books, and the essentials system was also derived.
Zhang Taiyan advocates writing history in five styles: table, canon, collection, textual research and other records. Liang Qichao advocated four writing methods in China: Chronology, Record, Record and Biography.
In the New History, Liang Qichao divided the historical records into ten kinds and twenty-three categories, namely, official history (official books, special history), chronology, chronicle background (complete book, special book), political book (complete book, special book, small book), miscellaneous history (comprehensive record, trivial notes, imperial edict memorial) and biography (complete book, special book II).
History books may not be able to record history truthfully, but collect local events and then compile an integrated book.
The authenticity of the history of China dynasty was questioned and accused as a tool for rulers to govern the country.
Liu Zhiji called it: "Since the Warring States period, the resigners have been literary, and they all pretend to be guests and pretend to answer them."
Many of them are unreasonable or described by ghosts and gods. For example, the emperor was surrounded by dragons before he was born. At that time, when compiling books, the emperor would certainly control historians, increase flattering remarks and delete negative events, such as the memorial of Emperor Taizong. Later emperors would tamper with the history of the former dynasty to ensure the legitimacy of the country, while the history of the Qing Dynasty was accused of praising Manchu's contribution to China.
Even in modern times, no matter how developed the information is, news is often blocked, so scholars believe that there are many fictional elements in history books.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-Biography General History
Baidu Encyclopedia-Chronological General History