A Comparative Study Of The Biographies Of Greek And Roman Celebrities And Historical Records From The Perspective Of Contemporary Biographical Theory

The Biographies of Greek and Roman Celebrities and Historical Records are representative works of European and Chinese ancient biographical literature respectively.The Biographies of Greek and Roman Celebrities is famous for its meticulous depiction of the celebrities and heroes of the upper class in the Greco-Roman period.Historical Records is well-known both at home and abroad for portraying the characters of various classes in China’s three thousand years of history.This article attempts to study the similarities and differences in historical sources and writing strategies of the two works under the guidance of contemporary biographical theory,and explore the enlightening significance of the two works to contemporary biographical literature.The sources of historical materials for the two works are mainly analyzed from the two authors’ selection of biographical characters,the handling of biographical materials,and the truth and fiction of historical materials.Plutarch basically chooses heroes and celebrities with high social status and noble morals,while Sima Qian mentions figures from all walks of life,but the two authors seldom portray female biographical protagonists.From the perspective of the death of the biography,Plutarch is not attached to the death of the biography,and most of the biography in Sima Qian’s works are tragic.The two authors differ greatly in their handling of biographical materials.First of all,Plutarch deliberately concealed the exact time when the event occurred,and never mentioned the larger historical events.And Sima Qian gave a detailed description of the time of historical events and ensured continuity in time.Secondly,the two authors are very good at interspersing "iron matters" and "dictionary jokes" in their works.In addition,the heirs in Plutarch’s works all come from the ancient big family and are related to gods,which puts a layer of mystery on the heirs.In the view of Si Ma Qian,any biography is less related to mythology,but part of the plot is related to sacrifices and blessing rituals.In terms of writing strategies,the two works have the characteristics of difference,mutual insight and criticism.The Biographies of Greek and Roman Celebrities believes that there are some similarities between the personal experience or personality of the Greek and Roman legends.The results are often "similar than the same".There are similarities to compare,but the result is "sameness greater than differences." Because the ambitions and goals of person who are the main character of biography have similarities to compare,the result is "sameness greater than differences".The works all reflect a certain degree of mutual insight.They split up a complete story and placed them in two or more chapters.The details are appropriate and mutually corroborated,highlighting their superb writing skills.However,due to the commentary intervention of the two authors on the text,part of the content of the text deviated from the original intention of recording.The Biographies of Greek and Roman Celebrities and Historical Records not only provide valuable writing experience for contemporary biographical literature,but also call on people to treat moral powers correctly and establish a positive image for people.