celebrity's evaluation of Sima Qian:

1. Lu Xun introduced Sima Qian in his book A Brief Introduction to the History of Chinese Literature. Lu Xun said: "Emperor Wudi was a scholar, endowed with Mo Ruo Sima Xiangru and Wen Ruo Sima Qian."

Sima Qian wrote an article that was "not limited to historical methods, not confined to words, but originated from feelings, and was written from the heart", so Historical Records can be regarded as "Li Sao, a masterpiece of historians." Lu Xun's evaluation has become an immortal famous saying in the commentary of Historical Records.

2. Mao Zedong said in "Serving the People": "People always die, but the meaning of death is different. In ancient China, a writer named Sima Qian said,' People are inherently mortal, which is heavier than Mount Tai or lighter than a feather'.

To die for the people's interests is heavier than Mount Tai, and to work hard for fascism is lighter than a feather. " Mao Zedong admired Sima Qian very much, thinking that "Sima Qian visited Xiaoxiang, Pan-West Lake, calendar Kunlun and Zhou visited famous mountains and rivers, but his mind was wide".

3. Guo Moruo especially appreciated Sima Qian's literary talent. He said: "Sima Qian, a master of history, is really worthy of our boast. His Historical Records is no less than an ancient epic in China, or it can be a collection of historical novels."

In p>1958, Guo Moruo wrote an inscription for Sima Temple, praising Sima Qian for "outstanding writing" and "pursuing his father with great achievements". Thus, Guo Moruo thinks that the literary achievements of Historical Records are extremely high.

4. Jian Bozan thinks that Sima Qian is the founder of China's historiography, and Historical Records is a society-centered history. He said: "China's history has become an independent learning since the Western Han Dynasty, and the founder of this learning is Sima Qian, a great historian. Historical Records is an immortal monument on the starting point of China's historical history. "

He also said: "Although Historical Records is biographical, it is a society-centered history." Sima Qian "almost noticed the dynamics of every stratum, every corner and every aspect of society in history, and gave a concrete and vivid description." So I think, "Historical Records" is the first large-scale social history in China.

5. Zheng Zhenduo thinks that history has been regarded as an encyclopedia of the times since Sima Qian, so the materials taken by Sima Qian are very wide, including politics, economy, war and academics, and the scope of his network is extremely broad. The so-called "literary history" is often included in this all-encompassing "encyclopedia of the times" by the Internet.

Extended information:

Memory of later generations:

South of hancheng city, Shaanxi Province, there is a building dedicated to Sima Qian at the northern end of Liangshan overlooking the Yellow River. Sima Qian Temple, which was built here, began in the 4th year of Yongjia in the Western Jin Dynasty (31). The county prefect built stone chambers, erected monuments and planted cypress trees. Sima Chi, Emperor Huaidi of the Western Jin Dynasty, offered sacrifices to Sima Qian with the same surname. In the seventh year of Xuanhe in the Northern Song Dynasty (1125), the tomb walls were repaired, and bedrooms, temples and mountain gates were built.

Later, in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was continuously repaired and rebuilt, and became today's ancestral temple. Behind the bedroom of Sima Qian Temple, there is Sima Qian's tomb. In fact, this is not a burial tomb, but was built by later generations and repaired in the Western Jin Dynasty. The existing circular mound is 2.15 meters high and 13.19 meters around, and the wall is paved with gossip and patterned bricks. Above the grave is a big cypress with five branches.

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-Sima Qian (historian and essayist of Western Han Dynasty)