On Three Characteristics Of "Han History"

Traditionally, historic-biography works possess a combination of Jingxue(studies of Confucian classics), historiography and literature. Only coordinating them in terms of the works' historical background and on the basis of analysis can we explore the real historical connotation of the historic-biography works. This article scans the existence of the "Han History" from three factors: Jingxue, historiography and literature.The author of "Han History", Ban Gu, lives in a time when Jingxue is prosperous. He is influenced by it so deeply that his works "Han History" holds a clear Jingxue characteristic, such as a strong notion of hierarchy, a deep consciousness of unity of nation, and a deep belief that monarchal power is given by God and an acute concern about masses' living. The author's springboard is for sake of historiography, and the historiography characteristics of his works "Han History" are: to change Tong (continuous) into Duan (broken) but also contain Tong within Duan; to demean the past while honor the present and to make the past serve the present; based on the reality, to observe history from outer objective reality; to record on the concentration of human and meanwhile to record their spiritual products. The whole book is written by literature, and its literary characteristics, under the co-effect of Jingxue and historiography, lie in the aesthetics of real and imaginative characters, of brief and elegant express, of concise and detailed plots, and of he grave and exquisite style. Its general style can be summarized as: the aesthetics of the golden mean.Within the "Han History", Jingxue, historiography and literature mix up and affect one another. Before or after "Han History", the cultural products have a clear difference as for the component of Jingxue, historiography and literature. Before "Han History", history works contain heavy flavor of historiography and literature, but when "Han History" appears, there is a comparatively increasing components of historiography and...