1.Circumstances
Favourable for the Growth of Historiography in Ancient china.
Chinese civilization has an abiding
taste for history. China has been called “the paradise of historians”. Chinese
histiography develop independent of all outside influenc. Certain circumstances
did much to shape the chinese mentality and dispose it towards the practice of
history.First, from very early times the
recording of past events was regarded as important for writing itself seems to
have been thought by the Chinese as a way of communicating with the divine order.
Every temple had its archivist who looked after such documents as a register,
family trees, records of contracts, and decision of the oracles. Secondly,there was in ancient china a growing
movement which we may label ‘rationalist’ , which brought incidental support to
history by insisting on the ‘immortality’ that men might secure in the memory
of future ages. Under the Tung dynasty from the early 7th century
there emerged a history office which was an organ of the government ,and
history became an important subject ,such in brief factors which made history
the most popular and respectable form of literature in china.
2.Some chinese historian
Confucius (c.551-478BC)
Confucius
stressed the importance of history in
promoting reverence for the past and respect for the examples set by ancestors.
The three subject which formed the curriculum for his pupils were history,
poetry and the rule of propriety. He left behind him, apparantly written and
edited by his own hand ,the Five Ching or Canonical Books which are
deemed to constitute the surviving textual reflection of the golden age. Two of
his books-the fourth and the fifth- are historical works. The fourth, the Ch’un
Ch’ieu or Spring and Autumn Annals, is abrief chronical of the reigns of twelve
dukes of Confucius’s own state of conduct,the Annals was also a guide to moral
conduct . In the fifth, the Shu-Ching or Book of History or Book of Documents
–which is a collection of royal speeches, edicts, memorials, feudal
documents,etc.
Szuma Ch’ien(c.145-85 B.C)
Szuma Ch’ien was
the son of Szuma Tan,the grand historian –astrologer at the court of Han
emperor, Wu. It was his father dying wish that his son complete the historical
record he had begun. Szuma submitted to the worst of penalties-castration-in
lieu of death so that he might live to complete the Shih chi. His
masterpiece the Shih chi (Historical Record) ran to 526,000 Chinese
characters patiently scratched on bamboo tablets.
The Shih chi is the history of the
world as known by its author. Its 130 chapters cover the history of China and a
number of lands on its borders from the time of the legendary Yellow Emperor to
Szuma Chien’s own times-a period of 3,000 years.Szuma chien refuses to swallow
the information that is unbelievable.He organized his great history into five
sections: 1.Basic Annals the emperors; 2. Chronological Tablets; 3.Eight
chapters or treaties, intnded to be of particular use to officials-one each on
rites,music,the piych-pipes,the calendar,astrology,imperial sacrifices,water
courses and political economy; 4.Annals of the Feudal Nobles; and 5.Biographies
ofEminentMen.
Its was through Szuma Chien Historical
Record that Chinese histiography came to exert a profound influence on
Japanese,Korean and Vietnamese history writing.
Pan Ku (AD 32-92)
Pan ku, the
Chinese historian who lived in the first century AD,followed Szuma Chien’s
pattern of organizaton for his History of the Former Han Dynasty. But
in writing the history only of the
former Han Dynasty, Pan KU was unknowingly setting a pattern himself.
Thereafter, it became a practice for each dynasty to compile historical
materials for its successor. The Diaries of Activity and Repose reproduced the
utterances of the emperor and the business that he transacted, day by day.
These were abridged so that when the emperor died ,there emerged the Veritable
Record, a survey of his whole reign. When a dynasty came to an end ,a commprehensive
account of the former dynasty would be written under the suceeding dynasty.
Such Standard Histories were produced for nearly two thousand years on the
pattern set initially by Pan Ku.
Szuma Kuang (AD
1019-1086)
The chronical form and the role
of the individual historian reached their culmination in Szuma Kuang who
attempted again a universal history of Chin of the Szuma Chien model. Kuang
ransacked three hundred sources and the resultant material formed the basis of
his Tzu-chih t’ung-chien .The book is magisterial survey of almost fourteen
centuries down to the author’s own time.-from the late Chow to the beginning of
Sung periods. Didactic in the extreme and given to much “praise and blame”,
this travesty of Szuma Kuang became established as the best known history
textbook in china.
3. A critical Assessement of
Chinese Historiography
No nation has producted such
voluminious, contionus, varied and accurate
records so long past as China-------imperial history , local and dynastic
histories, gazetters, chronicles on the dependies of China, histories of
non-Chinese peoples within China, histories of foeieng relation, and specialist
histories on different aspect of Chinese life.
Yet, European historian and philosophers of history did not condecent to
consider China even for purpose of comparision in matters historical. Marx’s
theuoryof the Asiatic mode of production erroneously held that China suffered
from the system of producton and governmental despotism peculiar to asia. A
grea part of so rich a crop of historical literature
Textual
Criticism
The ancient Chinese historian
excelled in textual criticism historical writings of the pre-Confucian days had
survived and the genuineness and the textual accuracy of those that did survive
had become a matter of controversy. As a result of the vicissitudes that had
been sufferd by these texts, these emerged a subtle technique of textual
criticism which developed greatly.
Internal
criticism
Butthis finesse in external
criticism did not lead to like finesse in external criticism. Chinese historian
seems to have accepted as true any
statement in chronicles or documents if it had not been contradicted anywhere. Sometimes
if they opted for one or two documents, they would give no reasons for doing so
and would leave the rejected documents unmentioned . Even when satisfied about the
genuineness of a document, they did not care to interpret it in terms of the people or situation behind it.
REFERENCES
E.Sreedharan,A
textbook of Historiography 500 Bc to AD 2000,Orient Longman Pvt LTd,New Delhi, 2004.
Chinese historiography hi
historiography dangte laka tla hrang leh tihdan bik nei tak a ni. A hmasaber ah chuan, thil hlui
dahthat hi Chinese te chuan an thlah te zel hriat atan a hrilhlawkna tha berah
an ngai a,temple zawng zawng ten an thil pawimawh dah tha tu tur archivist an
nei vek bawk a ni.Heng archivist- astrologer te hian Emperor Court-ah hmun
pawimawh tak chang in emperor secretary atan puar ak ber a ni bawk.A pahnihna
ah chuan, ancient Chinese hun lai hian rationalist hi rawn thang lian em em in,
hun lo la awm tur a mite rilru ah thi thei lo ang a ngaih tir an tum tlat a ni.
2.Chinese Historian te
:-Confurius
Confucius
a chuan hun kal tawh a thil thleng te hmer bik in a ngai pawimawh a ni.An thlah
tu ten an thil lo hnutchiah chu zah hi a ni.Zirtirtu chuan an ram in a thil lo
tawn tawh te chu a pawimawh ber a ngai in a naupang te chu an hnam thawnthu
hmangin a chawk phur thin a ni.
SZuma CHien
Szuma Tan a fapa nnin apa thi
turin a historical lo ziah tan tawh chhunzawm turin achah a, mahse a ziah lai
hian buaina tam tak a hmachhawn a amaherawh chu a record bu Shih Chi cju a
thihhma ngei a ziah zawh a tum ruh hle ani. Chinese calendar siam chhuak tu
hmasa ber niin, apa kuthnu thil hi angaisang ber bawk a ni.
Pan KU
Chinese historian zinga mi
niin Szuma CHien a ziah dan zulzuiin a lehkhabu “History of the former Han
Dynasty” chu a chhuah ve a , chutatang chuan dynasty tin te chuan an thlahtu te
nundang phung leh engkim chhuilet a an tan history ziah chu an tih makmawh a
ngaih a nit a ani.
Szuma Kuang
Thil inchherchhuan dan a thil
thleng tawh a mimal ngaihdan a Szuma Kuang an a lehkhabu “Universal history of
China” ah chuan szuma Chien a model a beihna chuan a vawrtawp a thleng a. Thil
bul chhuina 300 chuang chu a chik nasa zual a chumi tanga a thil hmuhchhuah chu
a lehkhabu “Tzu chih lung chien” tih ah a dah a, he lehkhabu hi kum zabi 14 hun
lai a mi leh a ziaktu hun lai ngei a mi
leh Chow hun tawp atanga Sung hun tir a thil thleng te an ni
Textual Criticism
(thuchanglam sawiselna)
Ancient Chinese historians te am
thuchanglam danah duhkhawp lohna a awm a. Confucian hun lai hma a thil thleng
diktak te chu a tha in inhnialna chawk chhuak nasa bawk ani. Hetiang hnialna
chhuahna tamtak avang hian CHinese
textual hi thil har take maw fing tak a ngaih ani.
Internal criticism
Heng textual
sawiselna hian achhung lam bik tak tak duhkhawp lohna apumpelh chuang lo ani.
Chinese historians te chuan an thil pawimawh dah that te chu thalo leh thil
felhlel leh inmillo awm pawh in an hrelo a mahse , thil hrilhfiah theihloh an neih chuan dahtha in tihzawm
torah an ngai lo a,chutiang documents chu sawichhuah loh ah an tlak thin a ni.
A tak a thil thleng ni tih hre mahse tih rik loh atha zawk ah an ngai ani.
REFERENCES
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