The descriptions of war scenes in "Historical Records" are colorful and magnificent. Compared with orthodox historical biographies such as "Zuo Zhuan" and "Han Shu", its battlefield descriptions have not only increased in quantity but also improved in quality, showing a "novelization" tendency. If compared with war novels such as "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", its historian's characteristics are highlighted. Taking historical biographies and war novels as reference, the description of war scenes in "Historical Records" shows the following characteristics:

1. Clean and simple, without branches or branches

Liu Zongyuan used " "Clean" came to praise "Historical Records", he said: "Gu Liangzi" and "Tai Shi Gong" are very clean and can be accessed." ("Reporting to Yuan Jun and Chen Xiucai's Famous Book of Avoiding Masters") He also said: "Consult "Tai Shi Gong". "For its purity". ("Reply to Wei Zhongli on Master Taoism") Liu Zongyuan did not further explain the meaning of "clean". Fang Bao, the leader of the Tongcheng School, elaborated on this. He said: "Zihou called Tai Shigong with 'clean', which is not a unique word without any waste." That is, it is clear about righteousness and law, and the things it contains are not complicated, so its gas is the cleanest." ("Records of the History of Gui Fang Commentary·Jianghou Zhoubo Family") Zeng Guofan, a remaining member of the Tongcheng School, also explained this: "Things. There are many threads and clear narratives, which is what Liu Zihou calls Taishi's "clean"" (Volume 3 of "Qiuquezhai Study Record"). Based on the comments of previous sages, Liu Zongyuan's so-called "clean" refers to Sima Qian's superb knowledge and narrative ability. Grasping the key points, you can use the least number of words to write the complicated history in an orderly manner, with unobstructed and clean language.

The battle formation at Gaixia described in "The Chronicles of Gaozu" embodies Sima Qian's "severe and clean" approach to battles:

In the fifth year, Gaozu and the princes attacked Chu The army defeated Xiang Yu in Gaixia. The Marquis of Huaiyin will be in charge of three hundred thousand men. General Kong is on the left, General Fei is on the right, the emperor is behind, and Jianghou and General Chai are behind the emperor. Xiang Yu's soldiers numbered one hundred thousand. Huaiyin combines first, which is unfavorable, but it fails. General Kong and General Fei were in control, but the Chu army was at a disadvantage. The Marquis of Huaiyin took advantage of it again and defeated Gaixia. [1] (P378-379)

Chen Renxiyun: "The Marquis of Huaiyin was very proud of the formation, and Taishi Gongji wrote about it with his intention. He said: "'General Kong is on the left, General Fei is on the right', and the left and right wings are opened. Also; the Marquis of Huaiyin, Xiaoque, is to lure the enemy; to "take advantage of him again" is to fight together. As the saying goes, "Use righteousness to harmonize, use miraculousness to win, and miraculousness and righteousness bring about mutual rebirth." " [2] (P718) The Gaixia battle formation described by Sima Qian only has six characters, but the formation and fighting methods are full of wonders. The words are simple but the content is rich, and the tigers are full of vitality, which makes people feel like hundreds of thousands of people are rolling in the iron flow. The army came over like an overwhelming force, and there was an elusive mystery lurking in the tidal formation. When Ban Gu wrote this period of history, he abandoned this passage in "Historical Records", which completely lost its charm. p>

Wu Minshu once lamented the simplicity of "Historical Records": "Historians originally only recorded facts and could not deal with them arbitrarily. However, things became complex and complicated, and changes in right and wrong occurred one after another. The most important thing is not to have insight, but to sweep away all the side branches and tangles, and not to write in any detail, so that the whole story of the person and the story can be truly revealed, and the reader will be alarmed and sad, and it will be like yesterday's event for thousands of years. ... Therefore, I wrote thousands of words, rolling and rolling, like the Yangtze River, with rocky beaches high, winding mountains and pools, fish and dragons in and out, and boats flying horizontally. If it flows eastward, it will travel thousands of miles in an instant, and there will be no stagnation in the end. A good historian has always put his first priority in recording events, and Liu Zi's comment on the historian, calling him "clean", is really insightful. As long as the scholar can understand the outline in detail from what is there and what is not, then he will be successful in the preface. " [3] (P297-298) Compared with classical war novels such as "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the characteristics of the war scenes in "Historical Records" are even more obvious. The novel can be copied without being limited by the historian's writing style. The conflict between the complicated content and the limited space forced the historian to write more than 3,000 words in a concise way. Years of history, we must work hard on "cleanliness", and the simplicity and simplicity in the description of war scenes is what it should be.

2. Combat descriptions, venting depression and anger

Historians write that war focuses on the formulation and implementation of strategic policies, and rarely touches on specific tactical combat levels, but Sima Qian went beyond this. This is reflected in Dongcheng Kuai Zhan and Li Guang's battle with This is especially obvious in the descriptions of several battles between the Xiongnu and Xiangnu. Let’s first look at the quick battle in Dongcheng in "The Chronicles of Xiang Yu": King Xiang then led his troops east again, and when they reached Dongcheng, there were twenty-eight Han cavalry. Thousands of people were chasing him, but King Xiang could not escape. He said to him: "I have been fighting for more than seventy years since I started the army. I have defeated those who attacked me and surrendered. I have never been defeated, and I have conquered the world." However, if we are trapped here today, the reason why we will be killed here is not because of war. I will definitely die today because I want you to fight quickly and win three times. I want you to break the siege, kill the generals, and cut down the flag, so that you know that God will destroy me, and it is not a crime of war. Then he divided his cavalry into four teams and four villages. The Han army surrounded them heavily. King Xiang said to his cavalry: "I am the Duke and take one of the other generals." "He ordered his cavalry to ride down from all sides, with three places in Shandong. King Xiang then rode down with a loud shout, and the Han army was invincible, so he killed a Han general. At this time, Chiquanhou was a cavalry general and chased King Xiang. King Xiang scolded with angry eyes. Afterwards, Chiquanhou's men and horses were all frightened. They separated Yi and his cavalry into three places. The Han army did not know where King Xiang was, so they divided their troops into three and encircled him again. He reunited his cavalry and killed two of his cavalry ears. [1] (P334-335)

Look again at "The Biography of General Li" about a battle between Li Guang and the Huns:

The Xiongnu invaded Shangjun, and the emperor sent the nobles from Guangle to train troops to attack the Xiongnu.

The nobles will ride dozens of columns, see three Xiongnu, and fight with them. The three of them shot again, injuring the noble man, and killed him and all his riders. The noble ones go wide. Guang said: "This is the one who must shoot the vulture." Guang Nai then went from Baiqi to Chi with three people. The three of them lost their horses and walked for dozens of miles. Guang ordered his rider to spread his left and right wings, and Guang himself shot the three of them. He killed two of them and gave birth to one, just like the Xiongnu who shot the vultures. The horses were tied up, and I saw that there were thousands of Huns riding on them. They saw the vast area and thought they were luring the horses. They were all frightened and went up the mountain to show off. All the hundreds of horsemen in Guangzhi were frightened and wanted to gallop but still ran away. Guang said: "I have been marching for tens of miles, and now I am leaving with hundreds of horses. The Huns are chasing me and shooting me to death. Now that I am staying, the Huns will regard me as a lure for the army and will not dare to attack me." Guang ordered the horses to say: "Forward!" Before the Xiongnu arrived at Chen Erli, they stopped and ordered: "Everyone dismount and unsaddle!" The rider said: "There are many captives and they are close, so we are in a hurry. What can we do?" Guang said: "The captives are waiting for me. In order to move, everyone untied their saddles to show that they were not going to move, and to strengthen their intentions." So Hu Qi did not dare to attack. A general on white horse came out to protect his troops. Li Guang mounted his horse and more than ten cavalrymen and shot General Hu on white horse. Then he returned to his horse, unsaddled and ordered all the soldiers to lie down on their horses. It will be dusk, and the Hu soldiers will eventually be surprised and dare not attack. [1] (P2868-2869)

Li Guang pursued the Xiongnu vulture shooters and was surrounded. He ordered his soldiers to dismount and unsaddle to scare off the enemy. "The Biography of General Li" also writes that Li Guang was captured by the Huns and escaped by seizing his horse, and that Li Guang was trapped in a tight siege and shot and killed the Huns' general. The descriptions of these battles are stern and vigorous. As at the present time, they do not involve strategies. What they focus on is the tactics adopted by the heroes on the battlefield to cut down generals, flags, and make the enemy invincible. Generally speaking, historians write strategic plans so that future generations can learn from them the wisdom of running an army and a country. Vivid descriptions of tactical battles are not relevant here. But why was Sima Qian still keen on describing battlefields? The answer lies in his using these descriptions to describe characters and express feelings. The reason why Xiang Yu and Li Guang, two war-god-like figures, are so deeply rooted in the hearts of the people is inseparable from Sima Qian's descriptions of their bravery and fierceness on the battlefield. If these battlefield descriptions are stripped away, the fullness of the characters will be greater. discount. Sima Qian still had a lot of anger to vent, and the hearty battlefield battles of the heroes became a breakthrough for him to vent his emotions. He narrated the hearty battles in a hearty and hearty way, expressing his feelings about the life and destiny of the tragic heroes. Deep emotion.

Sima Qian has a clear understanding of the cruelty of war. There are no bloody and heinous "original" descriptions of battles in his works. Sometimes it is really impossible to avoid the cruelty of war. He Just follow the writing method already used in "Zuo Zhuan" and so on, which is to mention it in one stroke without making detailed records. For example, "The Weizi Family of the Song Dynasty" writes that the Song city was besieged, and "the bones were broken to cook, and the sons were exchanged for food."; "The Jin Family" describes the defeat of the Jin army, and the tragic scene of the soldiers who fell into the water scrambling to escape was "The people in the boat were pointing very hard." "The Chronicles of Xiang Yu" writes that after the defeat of the Han army, the bodies of the Han army "stopped the flow of the Ju River". There are no bloody and horrific scenes of corpses flying around in Sima Qian's works. Although he also wrote about heroes charging into battle and killing countless people, we do not think they are cruel. What readers feel is the hero's bravery and might, and what they experience is war. The iron-blooded pride in his heart, the same surging passion as a hero's, surges in his chest. This is also an important aspect that distinguishes ancient Chinese war literature from Western war literature. Works such as the ancient Greek epic "Iliad" and the Indian epic "Mahabalada" use a large amount of pen and ink to illustrate the scenes of fighting and killing, making a "naturalistic" restoration of the battlefield. The ancient Chinese used freehand brushwork to exaggerate the atmosphere and momentum of the battlefield. Although Sima Qian wrote about specific battles, his writing style was not a "photographic representation" but still a "freehand expression." It seems to be at the level of "shu" in form, but in fact it still belongs to the category of "Tao".

3. Natural description, stop there

There is almost no place for description of the natural environment in ancient Chinese historical biographies. This does not mean that historians cannot describe the natural environment, but that they are limited to The "hidden rules" of the historical biography style cannot be written. "The focus of biographies and records is social life, especially social life with far-reaching influence and significance. The description of scenery has left almost no trace in the official history. Paying a little attention to the development of Chinese landscape literature, it is not difficult to notice the fact that people have great The pursuit of landscape often means escaping from society; as an aesthetic object, landscape is often associated with a transcendent spirit...China's official history does not pay attention to natural scenery, not for technical reasons, but because: A genre that focuses on social life must draw a clear line between its cultural character and "Quanshi Aoxiao". [4] Sima Qian was also restricted by this "unspoken rule" invisibly, but Sima Qian was, after all. Sima Qian was sometimes a bit unruly. When writing about war scenes, he would include a few descriptions of the natural environment. Although there were very few such words, he was extraordinary in his writing, and its significance in literary history cannot be underestimated. Please look at the description of the natural environment of the battlefield in the Battle of Pengcheng in "The Chronicles of Xiang Yu":

King Xiang went from Xiao in the west, attacked the Han army in the morning, and went east to Pengcheng. In the middle of the day, he defeated the Han army. The Han army all left and followed each other into the valley and Sishui River, killing more than 100,000 Han soldiers. The Han soldiers all walked south into the mountains, and Chu pursued them to the Suishui River east of Lingbi. However, the Han army was crowded by Chu and killed many people. More than 100,000 Han soldiers entered the Sui River, and the Sui River stopped flowing. Surround the King of Han three times. Then a strong wind came from the northwest, breaking down the wooden houses, blowing up sand and stones, and greeted the Chu army in the dim light of day. The Chu army was in chaos and dispersed, but the King of Han had to escape with dozens of cavalry.

[1] (P321-322)

The Battle of Pengcheng is a typical example of the weak defeating the strong and the small defeating the many. Xiang Yu defeated Liu Bang's 560,000 army with 30,000 elite troops, and Liu Bang almost became a fool. captive. What we are concerned about here is not its military significance, but Sima Qian's description of the sudden strong wind on the battlefield. This strong wind broke trees, opened rooms, and raised sand and stones. For a time, the sky was dark and the earth was dark. Sima Qian used a few words to The scene of the battlefield with roaring wind and sand, the sky and the dark sky are displayed before your eyes. Let's look at the description of the decisive battle in Mobei between the Han and Hungarians in "The Biography of General Wei's Hussars":

At the time when the general's army was more than a thousand miles away from the fortress, he saw the Shan Yu's troops waiting, so the general ordered Wu Gang to drive away. The ring is a camp, and five thousand horses are sent to serve as the Huns. The Xiongnu can also ride thousands of horses. As they entered the meeting day, a strong wind blew up, and sand and gravel hit their faces. The two armies did not meet each other, and Han Yi moved his left and right wings to surround Chanyu. The Chanyu thought that there were many Han soldiers, but the soldiers and horses were still strong, and the battle was at a disadvantage for the Xiongnu. Bo Mo, the Chanyu then rode six naked men with hundreds of strong horsemen, and galloped directly to the northwest of the Han siege. It was already dark, and the Han and Huns took advantage of each other, killing a lot of people. The left colonel of the Han army captured Yan Shanyu and left without fainting. The Han army sent out light cavalry to pursue him at night, and the general's army followed him. The Huns soldiers also dispersed. In the late Ming Dynasty, after traveling more than 200 miles, there was no Shanyu, and more than 10,000 people were captured, beheaded, and captured. Then they arrived at Zhao Xin City in Naoyan Mountain, where they captured the Xiongnu's grain army. The army stayed for a day and then returned, burning the remaining grain in the city before returning. [1] (P2935)

"The Biography of the Huns" also describes the decisive battle in Mobei, but the text is slightly inferior to "The Biography of General Wei's Hussar". The Battle of Mobei was a strategic decisive battle between Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and Yi Zhixie Shanyu, and was the pinnacle of Wei Qing's military exploits. Lu Lun of the Tang Dynasty wrote "Song of Saixia": "The wild geese fly high in the dark moon, and the Chanyu escapes at night. When I want to drive the Qingqi away, the bow and knife are covered with heavy snow." This is the case. Ling Zhilong commented: "There has been no war in a thousand years, and there has been no writing in a thousand years. But the poets and poets have found the original way to go out of the fortress with songs and join the army with poems. It is not without dazzling. Tai Shigong's unparalleled appearance, Therefore, the "Book of Han" does not add or delete a single word." [2] (P5514) The reason why the narrative of the Battle of Mobei has become an eternal masterpiece has something to do with the wonderful descriptions of desert wind and sand. Although these descriptions are short in words. It's not much, but it plays a key role in creating an atmosphere where the setting sun on the battlefield is like blood and wind and sand rolling, and it can still shake the soul after thousands of years.

Sima Qian wrote about the natural scenes on the battlefield not only because he wanted to write about the natural background of the war, but also because these natural scenes were an objective force that affected the course of the war. If he wanted to write about the war truly and comprehensively, he could not turn a blind eye to it. , in other words, Sima Qian did not write about natural scenery for the sake of writing about natural scenery. He did not have the conscious awareness to use natural scenery as the object of description like a writer, but he had his own historian's intention. Even so, we cannot underestimate the significance of the description of the natural scenery on the battlefield in "Historical Records". On the one hand, it set a model for later official history. In the future, official history will not write war scenes outside the cage of "Historical Records"; on the other hand, it also influenced ancient war novels. They rarely elaborate on the natural scenery of war, and most of them just stop at the point. The influence of "Historical Records" cannot be said to be one of the reasons why ancient Chinese novels lack environmental description, especially the description of the natural environment. Whether it is a historical biography or a war novel, the simplicity of the text has been refined into a style for describing the natural scenery of the battlefield.

4. The tendency of novels, with some fiction in reality

Commentators in the Ming and Qing Dynasties began to compare "Historical Records" with novels. In fact, they saw an important feature of "Historical Records": Fictional tendency. The description of war scenes in "Historical Records" also has the characteristics of novelization tendency. For example, Mao Zonggang compared the "Siege of Gaixia" in "Historical Records" with the "Changban Slope" section in Chapter 41 of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms". He said:

Any difficulty in narrative is not difficult It’s difficult to gather together, but it’s difficult to be separated. For example, in the Dangyang Changban chapter, Xuande, the generals and the second lady fight against each other, three in the east and four in the west, seven breaks and eight continuations. If it is detailed, it cannot be detailed, if it is brief, it cannot be omitted. At this point, the mediocre writing is almost tied up. Now the author narrates Mi Fang's arrow in Xuande's eyes; Jian Yong's gun and Mi Zhu's being tied in Zhao Yun's eyes; the whereabouts of Mrs. Gan are detailed through the mouths of the sergeants; and the whereabouts of Mrs. Mi and Adou are detailed through the mouths of the common people. There are many differences, no one is busy, no one is missed. There are also side stories about autumn wind, autumn night, and cries in the wilderness, all of which are embellished and described with thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of people. I tried to read "Historical Records" until Xiang Yu's next battle in Gai. He wrote about Xiang Yu, Yu Ji, Song of Chu, Jiuli Mountain, Eight Thousand Disciples, Han Xin's deployment of troops, generals ambushing from all sides, Wujiang committed suicide, and thought it was an article. There is nothing more wonderful about the chronicle than this; when I read Dangyang Changban's article in "Three Kingdoms", I couldn't help but sigh at the resurrection of Longmen. [5]

The influence of "Historical Records" on "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is multifaceted, among which war scenes are one aspect worth mentioning. Although the two have different genres and different writing purposes, they do have many similarities in their writing techniques. "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is the "official history" among novels, and "Historical Records" is the "novel" among official histories. The ancients often compared novels with "Historical Records" to improve the "social value" of the novel. We might as well reverse it and compare "Historical Records" with later classic novels to see clearly the "literary value" of "Historical Records". The novelization tendency of "Historical Records" has at least two meanings. First, it means that the artistic effect of "Historical Records" has reached the level of the first-class war novels of later generations, making people endless aftertaste; second, it means that "Historical Records" is as interesting as a novel. "imaginary". Let's take a look at the description of the "Fire Bull Formation" in "The Biography of Tian Dan":

Tian Dan collected more than a thousand cattle from the city, made them into silk clothes, painted them with colorful dragon inscriptions, tied his weapons to their horns, and Fill it with fat and tie a reed to its tail, then burn its ends.

Dozens of caves were drilled into the city, and oxen were ridden at night, followed by five thousand strong men. The cow's tail was hot and it ran towards the Yan army in anger. The Yan army was frightened at night. The ox-tailed torches showed off brightly, and the Yan army regarded them as dragons, and all those who touched them were killed or injured. Five thousand people struck it with their titles, and the city made a noise. The old and the weak all struck the bronze vessel to make a sound, which moved the heaven and earth. The Yan army was horrified and defeated. [1] (P2455)

The Fire Bull Formation is not unsplendid, but its historical authenticity is quite questionable. Yuan Junde pointed out the flaw: "This small town has been besieged for three years, and the number of people who have not been able to 'analyze the bones and change the sons' has been reduced. How come there are still more than a thousand cattle in the city? The incident of the fire cattle happened that day. Forgiveness may be the case, but the historians only used it as a gloss, which only opened up the doubts of future generations." [2] (P4469) Tian Dan's deeds are not recorded in the "Warring States Policy", but the most exciting specific plot of the Fire Bull Formation is unknown today. This "Warring States Policy" does not contain it. The current version of "Taiping Yulan" contains the story of the Fire Bull Formation, which is said to be quoted from "Warring States Policy". Whether the ancient version of "Warring States Policy" is different from the current version, or whether the editor of "Taiping Yulan" mistook Sima Qian's "Tian Dan Zhuan" for "Warring States Policy" and mistakenly included it in "Taiping Yulan" has now become a mystery. Let's look at the description of Maling Road in "The Biography of Sun Tzu Wu Qi":

As Sun Tzu went about his journey, he should arrive at Maling Road in the evening. The Maling Road leads to Shaanxi, and there are many obstacles on the side, where troops can ambush. So he cut a big tree and wrote in white, "Pang Juan died under this tree." So he ordered the Qi army, who were good at shooting ten thousand crossbows, to lie down along the road, saying, "When they see the fire at dusk, they will all fire." Pang Juanguo went to the tree at night and saw the white letter, so he put a candle on it. Before he finished reading his book, the Qi army fired all their crossbows, and the Wei army was in chaos. Pang Juan knew that he was too resourceful and defeated, so he committed suicide. He said: "So he became known as Zhuzi!" The book becomes more and more strange, and the copying is even more amazing. When the reading is not completed, it becomes the name of Zhuzi. The situation is so vivid that it is amazing and amazing." [2] (P3808) Maling's Taoist affairs are not recorded in detail in "Warring States Policy" and are only mentioned jointly in "Wei Ce". Malingdao's description of the battlefield is not a "real record" and is full of coincidences. Sun Bin is quite like Zhuge Liang in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", with uncanny calculations and a hundred tricks. This clearly shows that Sima Qian has intentionally used the coincidences commonly used by later novelists. Brushwork. "Historical Records" has novel elements. It not only uses novel writing techniques, but also has obvious "fiction". However, it cannot be said that "Historical Records" "is" a novel. "Historical Records" has a "novelization tendency" which is a response to this phenomenon. A more accurate summary, as is the description of war scenes in "Historical Records".

The reason why these war scenes have such great artistic appeal is closely related to Sima Qian's breakthrough in the general historian's concept. "Learning from history" is a utilitarian attitude towards history. It is the unshirkable responsibility of historians to summarize the success and failure of history and provide wisdom to the contemporaries and future generations. This requires historians to clearly explain the ins and outs of each historical fact. Historians may either embed their conclusions in the prologue, or directly express their attitudes. The purpose is to summarize the laws of the world from historical appearances and allow people to learn from them. lesson. With such purpose and motivation, summary narratives supplemented by narratives and discussions have become the most commonly used expression method by historians. Sima Qian wrote books not only to draw lessons from history, but also to "get angry". He not only wanted to write down the historical context, experiences and lessons, but also had the conscious awareness to vividly reproduce what had happened in his writing. In order to achieve this goal, he not only used general narrative language, but also used a large number of descriptive techniques. In a sense, descriptive techniques are literary techniques. The use of a large number of descriptive techniques is an important feature that distinguishes "Historical Records" from many other historical books. This is also an important reason why the characters and scenes in "Historical Records" are so lifelike.

The success of the battlefield descriptions in "Historical Records" also stems from Sima Qian's extensive learning from the artistic experience of previous generations. "Shang Shu·Mu Oath" describes the oath-taking meeting held by King Wu of Zhou Dynasty before the Battle of Muye. The scene was grand and the atmosphere was solemn. It was the first time to write about a major war scene. The "National Sorrow" in Chu Ci has a sonorous tone, vigorous and sad, and vividly expresses the horror of the tragic battlefield. It can be called an eternal masterpiece of battlefield description. The great Han odes represented by Sima Xiangru's "Ode to the Emperor's Hunting" are also full of grandeur in laying out the grand scene of the emperor and the princes' hunting. The hunting scene and the war scene are only separated by a piece of paper. The description of the post-war battlefield in "Battle City South" in Han Dynasty Yuefu is tragic and desolate, almost artistically transformed. Actively absorbing the artistic experience of previous generations, coupled with his own genius creation, Sima Qian finally picked the yellow battlefield flower that faced the wind and frost.