Sima Guang is a great historian in our country, and the reason why he was able to complete the historical masterpiece "Zizhi Tongjian" is inseparable from his down-to-earth and diligent study since childhood.
The young Sima Guang was very smart and witty, once, a group of children played a game of hide and seek, everyone was having fun chasing and playing, and suddenly a child accidentally fell into the water tank.
At that time, the water tank used in the general family was very large, and the children who fell into the tank struggled in the roofless water, and the other children did not know what to do, so they were so frightened that they cried.
Sima Guang, who was reading in the house, ran over, and when he saw this scene, he quickly picked up a big stone from the ground and smashed the water tank with all his might. The water flowed out of the broken tank, the child was saved, and everyone praised Sima Guang for being smart and witty, and not chaotic in the face of danger.
After Sima Guang became an official, he decided to compile a complete historical work, which was later called "Zizhi Tongjian".
As the editor-in-chief, he wrote day and night, forgetting to eat and sleep, and sometimes just after falling asleep, he suddenly remembered something, so he immediately got up from the bed, took out the pen and ink and recorded the thoughts in his head, so as not to forget them later.
In order to avoid oversleeping, Sima Guang designed a log pillow for himself, he slept on it, and when he turned over slightly, the log pillow would roll and fall, making a loud noise to wake up the owner, and Sima Guang gave it a name"Police pillows"。
Zizhi Tongjian" is the first chronicle in the history of our country, the so-called chronicle, is a genre form of describing historical events in the order of year, month, day and hour.
Sima Guang was ingenious, and in a time span of 1,362 years, he comprehensively summarized the rise and fall of the dynasties and the joys and sorrows of the common people.
Zizhi Tongjian" has high historiographical and literary value, and is called together with "Historical Records"."Historiography is a double masterpiece"。
In September of the first year of Xining (1068 AD), when Wang Anshi and Sima Guang were appointed as scholars of Hanlin at the same time, there was a dispute over financial management.
All the measures implemented by the reformers were opposed by some ** led by Sima Guang, who also criticized Wang Anshi for violating the way of Confucius and Mencius.
In order to oppose the implementation of the new law, Sima Guang resolutely resigned from the appointment of the Privy Councillor, and his close friend Fan Zhen also cooperated closely with him, and resigned to join the Yintai Division, and the controversy between the reformers and the conservatives reached a climax.