With reference to the acceptance aesthetics and acceptance theory,this paper examines the characteristics of different historical periods regarding such processes as the occurrence, development and evolution of different groups in disseminating and accepting Historical Records in different historical periods prior to the Tang Dynasty from the perspective of literature acceptance by focusing on the readers.Owing to the differences in such factors as subjective status,cultural cultivation,aesthetic tastes,world outlook and life outlook,the value and significance revealed in specific social,political and cultural settings and their condensed epochal spirit are decided.The purport,inner factors and outer conditions of Historical Records being accepted are explored,while the original historical appearances in different eras are traced.The paper is made up of eight chapters.The first chapter is The Dissemination of Historical Records Prior to the Tang Dynasty,which mainly introduces the dissemination courses and approaches as well as the constituent characteristics of the recipients and accepting styles,summarizes the significance of the modification of book name of Historical Records and its dissemination features,and reveals the courses of the significant change of book name of Historical Records from a defamed book to a book of typical feudal official history,with the value-added cultural phenomenon as the argumentative basis.The second,third and forth aspects are basically discussed through extending around this phenomenon.The second chapter is The Acceptance and Transcending of Historical Records Prior to the Tang Dynasty in terms of historical study.Historians basically used Historical Records as their original version in terms of compiling formats,composing ideas,and writing techniques.The subsequent history of the twenty-four dynasties had all been compiled in biographical style. Historians integrated epochal and social features whilst inheriting the format of biographies.For example,Ban Gu created the dynastic history in biographical style and historians created "taishigongyue",which further perfected the format of biographies.The third chapter is The Acceptance and Transcending of Historical Records Prior to the Tang Dynasty in terms of poetry,which mainly discusses the influence of Historical Records on the longitudinal and latitudinal development of Historical Records by literary works,with the plentiful historical facts contained in Historical Records as prototype,emanated many traditional Chinese literature themes.The poets accepted Historical Records in varied ways by expressing their sentiments and inner thoughts,by voicing their opinions of ancient and current affairs,with different periods taking on a different characteristic.Poetry preferred to reflect social ideological developmental trend from the perspective of spiritual and psychological aspects,whereas novels preferred to reflect social reality from the perspective of ordinary people regarding their trivial life.The fourth chapter is The Acceptance and Transcending of Historical Records Prior to the Tang Dynasty in terms of novels prior to the Tang Dynasty,which mainly discusses the influence of Historical Records on the longitudinal and latitudinal development of Historical Records by literary works,with the plentiful historical facts contained in Historical Records as prototype,emanated many traditional Chinese literature themes.novels,in the category of history,were based on history as their basic quality.The creative purpose,social functions,historical roles,and academic research were basically put to a halt at the sphere of history,with an imitation of Historical Records from format to writing techniques.Hence,literary works alongside "the official history",could reflect social reality in a multi-dimension,multi-layer,and multi-perspective way.The fivfh chapter is The Acceptance and Evolution of "Writing Due to Suppressed Resentment". "Writing Due to Suppressed Resentment" is Sima Qian's outstanding contribution to literary creation. On the basis of writers' practice,literary critics creatively expanded their interpretations,which enabled Historical Records to render sublime aesthetically and accomplish artistic nature transformation,which makes an important law for literary creation,and was more conducive to the promulgation of Sima Qian's historical spirit.The sixth chapter is Two The Research and Evaluation of Historical Records by Scholars Prior to the Tang Dynasty.While the rulers framed all kinds of crimes regarding Historical Records, scholars wrote their own works expressing their own individual ideas,among which the evaluation of Yang Xiong's Fayan,Wang Chong's Lunheng,Pei Yin's Annotations of Historical Records,and Liu Xie's Wenxindiaolun.The four books revealed the attitude of scholars to Historical Records.The acceptance of scholars with regard to the interpretation of Historical Records is the deepening of acceptance behavior,which laid a foundation for people to accurately understand the ideological contents and correctly evaluate Historical Records.The seventh chapter is The Evolutionary Cause and Effect of Comparison of Historical Records and History of the Former Han Dynasty Prior to the Tang Dynasty.Comparison of Historical Records and History of the Former Han Dynasty had been a traditional research subject for over two thousand years.It had been a dynamic process from favoring Historical Records to putting down History of the Former Han Dynasty,or from favoring History of the Former Han Dynasty to putting down Historical Records,which had profound reasons and could not be settled once and for all.The eighth chapter is The Confucianizational Phenomenon in the course of dissemination and acceptance of Historical Records Prior to the Tang Dynasty.The Confucianization of Historical Records is realized through an analysis of the formats and content of Historical Records,a revival of the ever-usefulness of Historical Records in terms of social functions and the purpose of writing by praising the good and disapproving the bad so that the profound reason for Historical Records transformed from a defamed book to a book of typical feudal official history.To sum up,through the diachronic and synchronic examination of the dissemination,influence, interpretation,and research subjects of Historical Records in the eyes of different groups of different classes prior to the Tang Dynasty,the paper determines that the establishment of Historical Records in the position of a book of typical feudal official history is co-created by the significance value implied in the paper and the active acceptance of the recipient masses.The indeterminateness of literary works decides that the revelation of all its significance lies in it being interpreted in a specific way cumulatively by readers in different periods,which had a far-reaching effect upon later generations. |