Study On Niu Yunzhen's Notes On Shiji

Since it was finished, Shiji had attracted many scholars'attention in all ages. There is no lack of researchers on Shiji from Han Dynasty. The over two-thousand years study on Shiji has got great achievements. The study on Shiji has experienced a continuously developing process that includes clearing out the meaning of article, studying on documents of codes and regulations, examining traditional patterns and discourse on historical system and literary achievements. In the study of Shiji, we can easy find that it got more praise and less slander. In Qing Dynasty, when textual research became the mainstream of academic after springing up of Qian Jia School, the comment on Shiji was rare in literary field. Besides Fang Bao, Liu Dakui and Lin Shu, only few works like Tang Xie's Few Explanation to Shiji, Wu Xiansi's Thesis on Shiji and Niu Yunzheng's The Comment on Shiji refer to the art study of Shiji. Therefore, Niu Yunzheng's The Comment on Shiji, together with Wu Xiansi's Thesis on Shiji were regarded as two greatest works on literary study of Shiji in Qing Dynasty which had powerful effect on the following generations. The dissertation would like to make a full study for Niu Yunzheng and his The Comment on Shiji.The dissertation mainly divided into five parts. First one is introduction which did a simple review of the research history of Shiji and briefly described the occurrence of The Comment on Shiji in it and also stated the necessity and importance of the research on this work.The second part is the first chapter of the thesis. It simply introduced the lifetime of Niu Yunzhen and his work by the order of time from three aspects: he was bom in a well-to-do family and had read lots of books; after ten years of working as an official he developed great reputation; he spent his time writing his work without being interrupted by the outside world.The third part is the second chapter of the thesis and also the main body of it. It discussed the comment of his book to the quality of Shiji from the three aspects of narrating, expressing thoughts and using of language. The narration includes reiteration, foreshadowing, agreement, synecdoche, cross-reference, brief and clip, falseness and truth, figure of speech, and the discussion of various ways of narration; expression of thoughts is divided into expressing in the process of narration and expressing thoughts intertwined with narration; research of choosing language is about the words and syntax. Besides, it also analyzed the study of appreciation of the work to Shiji and some of the rhetoric in it.The forth part is the third chapter of dissertation which discusses the study on other fields such as study of history, annotation and comparative research in The Comment on Shiji.The fifth part is the conclusion which makes a brief summarization on main character of The Comment on Shiji based on the former three sections and fixes its position on the history of Shiji criticism. The author thinks that no matter in narrative statement or language Mr. Niu gave a high opinion on the method of writing which is suitable to "literary law" in classical language for it has complex but flexible narrative style and owns simple but meaningful language. Therefore, though comments and criticisms of The Comment on Shiji seem too complicated, there exists a main line to connect them together. In addition, Mr. Niu's work absorbed all theories and methods in aspects of literary criticism like prose, novel, drama etc. from Song Dynasty to Ming and Qing Dynasty. He also particularized and concreted them in criticism so that he could form a set of design and construction in method and build up his particular and complete comment system. The value of The Comment on Shiji reflects its literary explanation on Shiji, its correction of words and sentences of Shiji published by Zhong Hua Book Company and its influence to the following generations in style, method and comment etc.. Its inadequacy is mainly manifested when he comments in the view of orthodox which would make his conclusions are not fitted to the facts in Shiji and Mr. Shi's intention.All in all, the study of The Comment on Shiji not only inherits the predecessors'theories, but also has its own particular perception and opinion which confirm its position in the study of Shiji.