Han times brought forth some interesting contradictions and the first systematic attempt to record the history of the Chinese people.
The thinkers of two millennia ago had been influenced by Hsun Tzu's rationalism. So they set out to explain all things, to give man an orderly place in an orderly world. Theirs might be called a primitive approach to science; they sought to explain the unknowable so man might cope with his environment. The trouble was that they really knew so little. Relying on the yin and yang and the five agents and other portents and miracles, they succeeded mostly in augmenting superstition.
Han's apocryphal literature included the prophetic ch'an books and the exegetical wei books. The former were records of prophecies, miracles and magic equations that sometimes influenced the emperors. Such writings were utilized to justify the usurpation of Wang Mang and gave rise to a virtual deification of Confucius. The wei were more respectable and usually took the form of commentaries or explanations of the ancient classics. In later times (Sui and T'ang) the apocrypha were proscribed and burned; only fragments remain.
This is one of the Confucius legends from a post-Han work that may have been influenced by legends of the birth of Buddha:
"The night Confucius was born two azure dragons came down from the heavens and coiled about Cheng-tsai's room. When she had given birth to Confucius as her dream had said, two goddesses appeared in the sky bearing fragrant dew with which they bathed her. The Emperor of Heaven came down and performed the Music of Heavenly Tranquility, filling the rooms of the Yen family. A voice spoke, saying: 'Heaven is moved and gives birth to this sage child. Therefore I have descended and celebrate it with music', and the sound of the pipes and bells was unlike any heard in this world. In addition there were five old men ranged about the court of Cheng-tsai's house who were the spirits of the five stars. Before Confucius was born there was a unicorn which spat up a jade document before some people in Confucius' village of Ch'ueh-li and on it was written: 'In the decline of the Chou the descendant of the spirit of water shall be an uncrowned king. Therefore the two dragons encircled the room and the five stars fell in the courtyard.' Cheng-tsai, being wise and understanding, recognized these things as holy and wonderful and she took a multicolored cord and bound the horn of the unicorn and kept it for two nights, but then it went away. A physiognomist examined Confucius and said, 'This child is descended from King T'an of the Yin dynasty. He shall become an uncrowned king under the power of the agent water and, as the scion of kings, attain the highest reverence.'"
Yang Hsiung (53 B.C.-18 A.D.) was a Confucian scholar, statesman and poet. In his Aphorisms, modeled after the Confucian Analects, he provides an antidote to the supernaturalism of the Han Apocrypha. Yang was among a number of scholars who believed that superstition and belief in sorcery were undermining the humanism and rationalism of Confucianist belief. These are selections from the fictional dialogue of his Fa yen:
"Someone asked about fate. Fate, I replied, is the will of Heaven and not man's doing. When man acts, it is not fate. What are man's doings? he asked. A man can choose preservation or destruction, life or death. These are not fate. Fate is inexorable. What then of the early deaths of Yen Yuan and Jan Po-niu (Confucius' disciples)? These were inexorable. But a man who deliberately stands under a shaky wall courts injury as he moves and invites death when he walks. Is this fate? So-called lucky people often turn their good luck into bad, while unlucky people turn their bad luck into good.
"Someone asked whether it is true that a sage is born every 500 years. I replied that the sages Yao, Shun and Yu succeeded one another, while the King Su and the Duke of Chou were both sons of King Wen. On the other hand sages like King T'ang and Confucius were born a great many hundred years apart. If you try to predict the future on the basis of the past, you cannot tell whether even one sage will be born in the course of a thousand years.
"Someone asked if the sage pays attention to strange happenings. I replied that the sage in his practice of virtue considers the observation of strange happenings as of secondary importance. Thus I consider that to practice virtue constantly is fundamental but to reform suddenly and practice virtue after seeing some wonder is second-rate.
"Someone asked about the strange tales concerning the Yellow Emperor. They are merely attributed to his name, I replied. In olden times when Emperor Yu directed the control of the flood he injured his foot and since then all the sorcerers go around limping. The ancient physician Pien Ch'ueh was a native of Lu and now all doctors claim to be from Lu. People who are trying to sell a fake always endeavor to make it look genuine.
"Someone asked whether those who study because they covet long life may be said to love learning. They have no love of learning, I replied, for in learning there is no covetousness.
"Someone asked whether immortals really exist as people claim. Ha! I said. I have heard that Fu Hsi and Shen Nung died, that Yao and Shun passed away, that King Wen was buried at Pei and Confucius was buried north of the city of Lu. Should you alone grumble at death? There is nothing man can do about it. Immortality does not apply to the likes of us. The sage worries that in this world there is still something he does not understand; the seeker of immortality worries that in this world he may lose one day of life. Life, life! They call it life but in truth it is death! But, my questioner continued, if there is no such thing in this world as immortality, why do people talk of it? Those who talk so, I said, are idle chatterers. With their idle chatter they try to make what does not exist come into existence. What is born must die, what has a beginning must have an end. That is the way of nature.
"Someone asked whether the feudal lords in his day knew that Confucius was a sage. They knew it, I replied. If they knew it, then why did they not employ him? They could not, I said. Can you explain how one can recognize a man as a sage and still not be able to use him? If you employ someone, I said, you ought to follow his advice. If they had followed Confucius' advice, they would have had to abandon their usual ways, go against what they were accustomed to and strengthen their weak points at the expense of their strong ones so that they would have become very confused. Only a person of great virtue could have employed Confucius."
Latter Han philosopher Wang Ch'ung (27-97? A.D.) summed up his Critical Essays with the remark that he hated all fictions and falsehoods. He was one of the first Chinese thinkers to demand experimental proof, although he often ignored his own scientific recommendation and fell back on reasoning from analogy. He was a fatalist and went back to the early Taoist concept that the natural order is without purpose, that what happens amounts to a colossal accident and that man is no more than a mite in the folds of the universal garment. These are selections from the Essays:
"When the vital force of Heaven and earth come together, all creatures are born spontaneously, just as children are born spontaneously when the vital force of husband and wife unite. The creatures thus born with blood in their veins experience hunger and cold. Seeing that the five grains can be eaten, they gather and eat them; seeing that silk and hemp can be worn, they make clothes of them. Some people insist that Heaven produced the five grains purposely to feed man and silk and hemp to clothe him. But this is to make Heaven the farmer or the mulberry girl of man, which is incommensurate with the principle of spontaneity.
"A worthy ruler orders the state as a loving father orders his family. A loving father may instruct and enlighten his children and grandchildren but he cannot make them all filial and good. When children are good the family will prosper, and when the people are at peace the nation will flourish. But that which flourishes must decay and that which prospers must decline. If prosperity is not caused by the success of virtue, then decline is not caused by its failure. Thus good government is not due to the efforts of worthies or sages nor is disorder the result of immorality. When a nation faces decline and disorder, worthies and sages cannot restore it to glory, and when it is well ordered, evil men cannot bring it to ruin. The fact that an age is ordered or disordered is due to its seasons of growth and not to its government. Whether the ruler be worthy or unworthy, whether his government be enlightened or unenlightened can have no effect. What is the reason an age becomes disordered? Is it not because robbers grow numerous, rebels arise and the people discard decorum and righteousness and revolt against their superiors? All these come from the fact that there is a scarcity of grain and people cannot endure hunger and cold. The causes of good and evil conduct lie not in human character but in the death or affluence of the year. We may say then that the observance of decorum and righteousness depends upon a sufficiency of grain. As we know, the grain produce depends upon the year. If the year is one of flood and drought then the five grains are spoiled. This is not caused by the government but is the result of seasonal cycles. If one is to say that flood and drought are caused by the government, then in the times of Chieh and Chou there should have been constant flood and drought, for no one governed worse than they did. But as a matter of fact at that time there were no calamities of famine or dearth. Calamities such as these have their cycles of occurrence which on the contrary occasionally come during the reigns of sage rulers."
Wang was the first Chinese thinker of record to express doubts about a conscious life after death. This is part of his discussion:
"People say that when men die they become ghosts with consciousness and the power to harm others. If we try to test this theory by comparing men with other creatures, however, we find that men do not become ghosts, nor do they have consciousness or power to harm. Man lives because of his vital force (ch'i) and when he dies this vital force is extinguished. The vital force is able to function because of the blood system, but when a man dies the blood system ceases to operate. With this the vital force is extinguished and the body decays and turns to clay. What is there to become a ghost then? If a man is without ears or eyes he lacks faculties of consciousness. Hence men who are dumb and blind are like grass or trees. But when the vital force has left a man it is a far more serious matter than simply being without ears or eyes. The vital force produces man just as water becomes ice. As water freezes into ice, so the vital force coagulates to form man. When ice melts it becomes water and when a man dies he becomes spirit again. He is called spirit just as ice which has melted changes its name to water. People see that the name has changed, but they then assert that spirit has consciousness and can assume a form and harm others, but there is no basis for this assertion.
"People see ghosts which in form appear like living men. Precisely because they appear in this form, we know that they cannot be the spirits of the dead. How can we prove this? Take a sack and fill it with millet or rice. When the millet or rice has been put into it, the sack will be full and sturdy and will stand up in clear view so that people looking at it from a distance can tell that it is a sack of millet or rice. Why? Because the shape of the sack bespeaks the contents. But if the sack has a hole in it and all the millet or rice runs out, then the sack collapses in a heap and people looking from a distance can no longer see it. The spirit of man is stored up in his bodily form like the millet or rice in the sack. When he dies and his body decays, his vital force disperses like the grain running out the sack. When the grain has run out, the sack no longer retains its shape. Then when the spirit of man has dispersed and disappeared, how could there still be a body to be seen by others?
"Since the beginning of Heaven and earth and the age of the sage rulers until now there have been millions of people who died of old age or were cut off in their prime. The number of men living today is nowhere near that of the dead. If men become ghosts when they die, then when we go walking we ought to see a ghost at every step. If men see ghosts when they arc about to die, then they ought to see millions of them crowding the hall, filling the courtyards and jamming the streets, not just one or two of them. It is the nature of Heaven and earth that, though new fires can be kindled, one cannot rekindle a fire that has burned out, and though new human beings can be born, one cannot bring back the dead. Now people say that ghosts are the spirits of the dead. If this were true, then when men see them they ought to appear completely naked and not clothed in robes and sashes. Why? Because clothes have no spirits. When a man dies they all rot away along with his bodily form, so how could he put them on again?
"If dead men cannot become ghosts, then they also cannot have consciousness. How do we prove this? By the fact that before a man is born he has no consciousness. Before a man is born he exists in the midst of primal force and after he dies he returns again to this primal force. The primal force is vast and indistinct and the human force exists within it. Before a man is born he has consciousness, so when he dies and returns to this original unconscious state how could he still have consciousness? The reason a man is intelligent and understanding is that he possesses the forces of the five virtues (humanity, righteousness, decorum, wisdom and faith). The reason he possesses these is that he has within him the five organs (heart, liver, stomach, lungs and kidneys). If these five organs are unimpaired, a man has understanding, but if they are diseased, then he becomes vague and confused and behaves like a fool or an idiot. When a man dies, the five organs rot away and the five virtues no longer have any place to reside. Both the seat and the faculty of understanding are destroyed. The body must await the vital force before it is complete and the vital force must await the body before it can have consciousness. Nowhere is there a fire that burns all by itself. How then could there be a spirit with consciousness existing without a body?
"Confucius buried his mother at Fang. Later there was a heavy rain and the grave mound collapsed. When Confucius heard of this he wept bitterly and said: 'The ancients did not repair graves,' and he never repaired it. If the dead had consciousness then they would surely be angry that people did not repair their graves, and Confucius, realizing this, would accordingly have repaired the grave in order to please his mother's spirit. But he did not repair it. With the enlightenment of a sage he understood that the dead have no consciousness."
Confucianism gradually became China's philosophical orthodoxy under Han. Except on the mainland under the Communists, the way of Confucius is still that of China. Tung Chung-shu, a teacher and government official under Emperor Wu, was the chief architect of the Confucian restoration. His recommendations to the emperor were presented in a series of answers to questions on government policy. In one of these Tung wrote:
"The great principle of unity of the Spring and Autumn Annals is a constant warp binding Heaven and earth, a moral law pervading past and present. But the teachers of today have different doctrines and men expound diverse theories; the various schools of philosophy differ in their ways and their principles do not agree. The ruler has no means by which to achieve unity, the laws and institutions undergo frequent changes and the people do not know what to honor. Your unworthy servant considers that all that is not encompassed by the Six Disciplines and the arts of Confucius should be suppressed and not allowed to continue further, and evil and vain theories stamped out. Only then will unity be achieved, the laws be made clear and the people know what to follow."
Tung Chung-shu also supported establishment of a university to train government functionaries along Confucianist lines. Such an institution was founded in 124 B.C. After a year of study, graduates were taken into the bureaucracy. A quarter of a century later the enrollment was 3,000 and the number rose to more than 30,000 in the Latter Han.
Although Emperor Wu and his successor, Emperor Hsuan, turned to Confucianism as an ideology, in practice they stuck with Legalist absolutism. Reproached by the Crown Prince for not abiding by Confucianist principles, Emperor Hsuan said: "The House of Han has its own institutions and laws based on a combination of the ways of the overlords and the sage kings. How could we rely solely upon moral instruction and the governmental system of the Chou? The common lot of Confucianists do not understand what is appropriate to the times but applaud everything ancient and criticize the present. They cause people to confuse names and realities so that they do not know what to abide by. How could they be trusted with responsibility?" Emperor Yuan's reign finally brought to the throne a ruler in accord with Confucianist ideals. However, the tendency toward influence by the emperor's maternal relatives and the eunuchs had become too strong and the fall of the dynasty was already ordained.
Under Wang Mang and the Latter Han emperors, Confucianism was not challenged in theory, despite the many departures in practice. In the later years, Buddhism was introduced and Taoism was revived with Buddhist overtones. From that time on China was influenced by the "Three Teachings".
Han thought was not as original as that of late Chou. But the Hans were good at collection and systematization. Confucianist scholars set about repairing the losses resulting from the Ch'in book-burning. Books took the form of bamoo slips inscribed in lacquer and bound together with thongs. Many of these books survived the Ch'in but their editing and the reconciliation of various versions were difficult tasks. Texts differed and scholars themselves could not agree. Another complication was the emergence of the so-called Old Texts of the Classics (by legend found in the wall of Confucius' home). These were written in the archaic characters of the Chou and not in the more modern writing of the Ch'in and Han. The Old Texts were closer to Confucianism, whereas the New Texts included the thinking of Tung Chung-shu and made use of yin and yang and magic portents. Emperor Wu established an imperial commission to recover and edit texts in 136 B.C. In 53 B.C. Emperor Hsuan summoned a conference of scholars to discuss the various versions of the texts. It lasted for two years and the emperor himself made final decisions. Under Emperor Ch'eng, the scholar Liu Hsiang led a group of literati in collecting and copying all the literature extant. Liu Hsin, the son of Liu Hsiang, carried on the project after his father's death and eventually presented the throne with a bibliography of all the major books of the empire.
This selection from the historian Pan Ku gives some indication of the scholars' problem: "From the time when Emperor Wu set up learned doctors for the Five Classics and appointed disciples for them, established competitive examinations and encouraged men to study for official positions, until the era Yuan-shih (1-5 A.D.) was a period over 100 years. During this time the teachers of classical studies increased like the branches and leaves of a spreading tree. The explanations of one Classic ran to over a million words and the number of professors grew to more than a thousand, for this was the way to official position and profit.
"Scholars of ancient times while farming and taking care of their families were able to complete their study of one Classic in three years because as they went through the text they concentrated only upon the general meaning. Thus they spent little time and reaped great benefit. By the time they were 30 they had mastered all Five Classics. In later times when the Classics and their commentaries had already become diverse and contradictory, the scholars of wide learning forgot the advice of Confucius to 'hear much and put aside the points of which you are in doubt'. They worked to twist the meaning of passages in order to avoid difficulties of interpretation and with glib phrases and contrived theories destroyed the integrity of the text. Explanations of five characters of the text ran to 20,000 or 30,000 words. In time this situation became worse and worse until a youth who spent all his time on the Classics could not speak with authority until his head had grown gray. Scholars rested complacently upon what they had learned and attacked anything unfamiliar so that in the end they condemned themselves to sterility. This is the great danger of scholarship."
Another council of scholars was held after the Wang Mang period. From this emerged the work known as Discussions in the White Tiger Hall, setting forth the orthodox interpretation of the Classics. This is Confucianism as it was handed down to the present. Silk scrolls had replaced bamboo slips as writing material by the end of the Han era and paper supposedly was invented in 105 A.D. Nevertheless, Han authority was taking no chances. Near the end of the dynasty the texts of the Five Classics and the Analects were engraved on stone tablets and set up at the imperial university.
Two great histories were written in the Han period: Records of the Historian (Shih chi), begun by Ssu-ma T'an (died 110 B.C.) and completed by his son, Ssu-ma Ch'ien (145?-90? B.C.) and the History of the Former Han Dynasty (Han shu) by Pan Ku. History has appealed to the Chinese since the beginning of their civilization; two of the Confucian Classics are works of history. In general, Chinese history has been more descriptive and textual than critical. Historians frequently were part of the imperial house and thus in a position to present documentary materials. Moral judgments were usually left to the sages.
The Records of the Historian was the first comprehensive Chinese history from the Yellow Emperor to the Han. The 130 chapters are divided into sections on Basic Annals, Chronological Tables, Treatises, Hereditary Houses and Memoirs. This arrangement was followed by most subsequent historians. Treatises included important social and cultural history. The treatises in Shih chi are Rites, Music, Pitch-pipes, Calendar, Astronomy, Sacrifices of Feng and Shan, Yellow River and Canals and Economics. Those of Han shu are Calendar, Rites and Music, Punishments and Laws, Food and Money, State Sacrifices, Astronomy, Five Agents, Geography, Land Drainage and Literature.
This excerpt is from the autobiography of Ssu-ma Ch'ien and represents the counsel of his dying historian father, Ssu-ma T'an: "The Grand Historian grasped my hand and said weeping: 'Our ancestors were Grand Historians for the House of Chou. From the most ancient times they were eminent and renowned when in the days of Yu and Hsia they were in charge of astronomical affairs. In later ages our family declined. Will this tradition end with me? If you in turn become Grand Historian, you must continue the work of our ancestors. When you become Grand Historian you must not forget what I have desired to expound and write. Now filial piety begins with the serving of your parents; next you must serve your sovereign; and finally you must make something of yourself, that your name may go down through the ages to the glory of your father and mother. This is the most important part of filial piety... After the reigns of Yu and Li the way of the ancient kings fell into disuse and rites and music declined. Confucius revived the old ways and restored what had been abandoned. From that time until today men of learning have taken the Odes and Book of History and the Spring and Autumn Annals as their models. It has now been over 400 years since the capture of the unicorn (481 B.C., end of the Spring and Autumn period). The various feudal states have merged together and the old records and chronicles have become scattered and lost. Now the House of Han has arisen and all the world is united under one role. I have been Grand Historian and yet I have failed to make a record of all the enlightened rulers and wise lords, the faithful ministers and gentlemen who were ready to die for duty. I am fearful that the historical materials will be neglected and lost. You must remember and think of this.'
"I bowed my head and wept, saying, 'I, your son, am ignorant and unworthy but I shall endeavor to set forth in full the reports of antiquity which have come down from our ancestors. I shall not dare to be remiss."
"This our House of Han has succeeded the descendants of the Five Emperors and carried on the task of unification of the Three Dynasties. The ways of Chou fell into disuse and the Ch'in scattered and discarded the old writings and burned and destroyed the Odes and the History. Therefore the plans and records of the Illustrious Hall and the stone rooms, of the metal caskets and jade tablets, became lost or confused.
"Then the Han arose and Hsiao Ho put in order the laws and commandments; Han Hsin set forth the rules of warfare; Chang Ts'ang made the regulations and standards; and Shu-sun T'ung settled questions of rites and ceremonies. At this time the art of letters began again to flourish and advance and the Odes and History gradually reappeared. From the time when Ts'ao Ts'an put into practice Master Kai's teachings of the Yellow Emperor and Lao Tzu, when Chia Sheng and Ch'ao Ts'o expounded the doctrines of the Legalist philosophers Shan and Sheng, and Kung-sun Hung achieved eminence for his Confucian learning, a period of some hundred years, the books that survived and records of past affairs were all without exception gathered together by the Grand Historian.
"I have sought out and gathered together the ancient traditions of the empire which were scattered and lost. Of the great deeds of kings I have searched the beginnings and examined the ends; I have seen their times of prosperity and observed their decline. Of the affairs that I have discussed and examined, I have made a general survey of the Three Dynasties and a record of the Ch'in and Han, extending in all back as far as Hsien Yuan (the Yellow Emperor) and coming down to the present, set forth in 12 Basic Annals. After this had been put in order and completed, because there were differences in chronology for the same periods and the dates were not always clear, I made the 10 Chronological Tables. Of the changes in rites and music, the improvements and revisions of the pitch-pipes and calendar, military power, mountains and rivers, spirits and gods, the relationships between Heaven and man, the economic practices handed down and changed by age, I have made the 8 Treatises. As the 28 constellations revolve about the North Star, as the 30 spokes of a wheel come together at the hub, revolving endlessly without stop, so the ministers, assisting like arms and legs, faithful and trustworthy, in true moral spirit serve their lord and ruler; of them I made the 30 Hereditary Houses. Upholding duty, masterful and sure, not allowing themselves to miss their opportunities, they made a name for themselves in the world: of such men I made the 70 Memoirs. In all 130 chapters, 526,500 words, this is the book of the Grand Historian, compiled in order to repair omissions and amplify the Six Disciples. It is the work of one family, designed to supplement the various interpretations of the Six Classics and to put in order the miscellaneous sayings of the hundred schools."
Ssu-ma Ch'ien was sentenced by Emperor Wu to castration for defending a disgraced military leader. This is part of a famous letter in which he preferred to suffer the punishment rather than commit suicide:
"My father had no great deeds that entitled him to receive territories or privileges from the emperor. He dealt with affairs of astronomy and the calendar, which are close to divination and the worship of the spirits. He was kept for the sport and amusement of the emperor, treated the same as the musicians and jesters, and made light of by the vulgar men of his day. If I fell before the law and were executed, it would make no more difference to most people than one hair off nine oxen, for I was nothing but a mere ant to them. The world would not rank me among those men who were able to die for their ideals, but would believe simply that my wisdom was exhausted and my crime great, that I had been unable to escape penalty and in the end had gone to my death. Why? Because all my past actions had brought this on me, they would say.
"A man has only one death. That death may be as weighty as Mt. Tai, or it may be as light as a goose feather. It all depends upon the way he uses it. It is the nature of every man to love life and hate death, to think of his relatives and look after his wife and children. Only when a man is moved by higher principles is this not so. Then there are things which he must do. The brave man does not always die for honor, while even the coward may fulfill his duty. Each takes a different way to exert himself. Though I might be weak and cowardly and seek shamefully to prolong my life, yet I know full well the difference between what ought to be followed and what rejected. How could I bring myself to sink into the shame of ropes and bonds? If even the lowest slave and scullery maid can bear to commit suicide, why should not one like myself be able to do what has to be done? But the reason I have not refused to bear these ills and have continued to live, dwelling among this filth, is that I believe that I have things in my heart that I have not been able to express fully, and I am shamed to think that after I am gone my writings will not be known to posterity.
"Too numerous to record are the men of ancient times who were rich and noble and whose names have yet vanished away. It is only those who were masterful and sure, the truly extraordinary men, who are still remembered. When the Earl of the West was imprisoned at Yu-li, he expanded the Changes; Confucius was in distress and he made the Spring and Autumn Annals; Ch'u Yuan was banished and he composed his poem 'Encountering Sorrow'; after Tso Ch'iu lost his sight he composed the Narratives of the States; when Sun Tzu had his feet amputated he set forth the Art of War; Lu Pu-wai was banished to Shu but his Lu-lan has been handed down through the ages; while Han Fei Tzu was held prisoner in Ch'in he wrote 'the difficulities of Disputation' and 'The Sorrow of Standing Alone'; most of the 300 poems of the Book of Odes were written when the sages poured forth their anger and dissatisfaction. All these men had a rankling in their hearts, for they were not able to accomplish what they wished. Therefore they wrote of past affairs in order to pass on their thoughts to future generations.
"I too have ventured not to be modest but have entrusted myself to my useless writings. I have gathered up and brought together the old traditions of the world which were scattered and lost. I have examined the deeds and events of the past and investigated the principles behind their success and failure, their rise and decay, in 130 chapters. I wished to examine into all that concerns Heaven and man, to penetrate the changes of the past and present, completing all as the work of one family. But before I had finished my rough manuscript, I met with this calamity. It is because I regretted that it had not been completed that I submitted to the extreme penalty without rancor. When I have truly completed this work I shall deposit it in some safe place. If it may be handed down to men who will appreciate it and penetrate to the villages and great cities, then though I should suffer a thousand mutilations, what regret would I have?"
This is an excerpt from Ssu-ma Ch'ien on historiography: "The chronicles of the Five Emperors and the Three Dynasties extend back to high antiquity. For the Yin dynasty and before, we cannot compile any genealogical records of the feudal lords, though from the Chou on down they can usually be constructed. When Confucius arranged the Spring and Autumn Annals from the old historical texts, he noted the first year of a reign, the time when the year began and the day and month for each entry; such was his exactitude. However, when he wrote his prefaces to the Book of History, he made only general references and did not mention year and month. Perhaps he had some material, but in many cases there were gaps and it was impossible to record exactly. Therefore, when there was a question of doubt, he recorded it as doubtful; such was his circumspection. I have read the genealogical records which have complete dates entered from the Yellow Emperor on down. I have examined these chronologies and genealogies, as well as the Record of the Cycle of the Five Agents. But these ancient texts disagree and contradict each other throughout. I can hardly consider as meaningless the example of the Master in not attempting to assign the exact year and month to events. Thus, basing my work on the 'Virtues of the Five Emperors', I have made this chronological table of the generations from the Yellow Emperor down to the era Kung-ho (841 B.C.)."
Han historians could be critics, too. This is the judgment of Pan Ku (32-92 A.D.) on the work of Ssu-ma Ch'ien: "When it comes to the way in which he has extracted from the Classics, selected from the commentaries and assessed and disposed of material from the various schools of philosophy, Ch'ien is often careless and sketchy and takes improper liberties with his sources. With his diligence he had browsed very widely in books, threading his way through the Classics and commentaries and galloped up and down from the past to the present, covering a period of several thousand years. Yet Liu Hsiang, Yang Hsiung and other men of wide learning all praise Ch'ien as a man of excellent ability as an historian and testify to his skill in setting forth events and their causes. He discourses without sounding words; he is simple without being rustic. His writing is direct and his facts sound. He does not falsify what is beautiful, nor does he conceal what is evil. Therefore his may be termed a 'true record'."