On The Shi Ji's Remodling Of The Zuo Zhuan's Historical Characters

This thesis can be divided into five parts.The first part is the introduction. It serves to introduce the object, status quo, angle, and meaning of the study.The second part is about the comparison between the historical characters of Zuo Zhuan and Shi Ji in the Spring and Autumn period. The article compares the differences between the historical figures of Zuo Zhuan and Shi Ji in the Spring and Autumn period through the connotative nobleman image of controlling oneself and observing polite ways; the connotative sage image of making contributions and start one's career and the connotative force of character of bearing and working energetically. The figures of Shi Ji are inheritance and modification from the figures of Zuo Zhuan. Shi Ji eliminates the unreasonable part on etiquette (Li) in Zuo Zhuan, emphasizing the positive and enterprising character images.The third part is about the two main reasons for Szuma Chien's remodling of the charactesr image. The first reason is that"etiquete"was developed the useful and discarded the useless during the process of historical development. In Spring and Autumn period, the word"etiquete"contains two meanings, namely, the ceremony of etiquette and the virtue of etiquette. Zuo Zhuan attaches importance to the ceremony of etiquetteas well as the virtue of etiquette. However, in the beginning of Western Han Dynasty, the ruler advocated the thoughts of Yellow Emperor and Lao Tzu, paying no attention to the Confucian scholar and etiquette system. The military force was the main means of getting and keeping the world. What's more, because of the long history and long-term war, the etiquette system itself was incompletely vague. These factors of time deeply affected Szuma Chien's sense of value so that he can look on the etiquette system in Zhou Dynasty cut in two and accepting or rejecting things after reflection. The second reason is his creative motivation of creating a philosophy of his own. The shaping of character image in Zuo Zhuan is to show the good and evil of historical human, as a result, it regards the"etiquete"as yardstick. Szuma Chien did not merely want to restate the past history when he reorganized the materials of Zuo Zhuan. He intended to unscramble people in the history to study the relation among nature, human and things seeing through the regularity for change of the ebb and flow of empires through the ages, forming his own notion. Studying the old time and talking about the new time is a kind of ideas guiding creation reflecting on the meaning of human himself and the regime. In life, Szuma Chien thinks that the value of survival is to gain reputation. And to achieve the goal, people should bear patiently and work energetically. In political aspect, Szuma Chien pays much attention to the self-cultivation of the top ruler's quality, advocating courtliness and ability to know people and make use of people.The forth part is about the appraisal of the Szuma Chien's remodling of the historical characters in Zuo Zhuan. The first chapter considers that although Shi Ji thinks that it recorded and summarized the history. The parts of Chun-Chiu do not intend to keep the historical materials of Zuo Zhuan but to abandon lots of somewhat typical historical persons during the process of accepting or rejecting the materials of Zuo Zhuan, abandoning a great deal of materials about some kingdoms. The second part considers that the reflection of Szuma Chien's unfinished thought about life, which includes the confusion between self-controlling ,cultivating himself and tragic destiny, the contradiction between abiding courtesy and positive behavior, and the quandary with a modest political ideal. The third parts consider that it is great progress of remolding Zuo Zhuan character's in the time of change by Szuma chien. Szuma Chien has built an entirely new model of the value of life, putting forward the unique philosophy of not bothering about trifles and being magnificent person, not judging a hero by victory or defeat and daring to break with the notion of secular etiquette and laws.The fifth part is a conclusion which concludes the above statement.