"Historical Records: The Family of the Marquis" records the legendary life of Zhang Liang, one of the "Three Masters of the Early Han Dynasty".
Sima Qian was listed separately in the thirtieth family, and in other chapters such as "Historical Records: Xiang Yu Benji" and "Historical Records: Gaozu Benji", he also focused on depicting Zhang Liangqi, creating an image of a brave and resourceful emperor's teacher: "In strategizing, winning is invisible." The ovary is scheming, no well-known, no bravery. ”
This evaluation shows the author's attitude and the importance of Zhang Liangqi to Liu Bang's ability to win the world in the dispute between the princes.
As can be seen from the depiction of the characters,From the description of the details of events such as "Bigu" to the portrayal of major historical scenes such as "borrowing and planning"., the author can write freely and meticulously, and vividly depicts Zhang Liang's image characteristics while narrating historical facts.
The success of the character creation of "Records of the Historian" is due to Sima Qian's unique ideas and mature creative techniques for the selection and tailoring of the historical materials to be described, from the creation of characters.
Different from historical classics such as the Book of Han, although the Records of the Historians adheres to the principle of "actual records", the author uses the creative technique of "wanting to see them as people" on the basis of actual records to depict the souls of historical figures, fill in the gaps in historical materials, and also make the writing more fluent and the characters more vivid and distinct.
According to the British historian Macaulay, "A perfect historian must be imaginative enough to make his narrative both vivid and moving." ”
Sima Qian's imagination and fiction in the shaping of some characters and plots can be regarded as a kind of supplement and restoration of historical truth through the rational use of imagination, which is particularly prominent in "Historical Records: The Family of the Marquis".
Throughout "Historical Records: The Family of the Marquis", the whole article is full of legendsMany of these plots are imaginary and fictional, but both the characterization and the narration of historical events seem to complement each other more and are just right.
The author's opening plot highlights Zhang Liang's bravery with "the young Zhang Liangguo broke his family but his younger brother died without being buried, and he sought an assassin to snipe Qin Huang's car without success" highlights Zhang Liang's bravery.
This historical event is real, but some of the narratives contain certain elements of fiction and exaggeration, such as "Higashimi Kurumi-kun." Delux, for the iron spine weighs one hundred and twenty pounds", this detail is debatable.
Sima Qian didn't see the hammer with his own eyes, so he couldn't know if it really weighed one hundred and twenty catties, and he couldn't verify the authenticity of Canghaijun's existence.
Perhaps Zhang Liang only found a strong man to assassinate the Qin Emperor with him in the people's heavy money, but after the author's artistic processing, this plot is legendary, and it can better show Zhang Liang's extraordinary courage and resentment towards Qin after the collapse of the country and the family.
Although the result of the assassination was a failure, this act of scattering his wealth only for revenge is in stark contrast to his calm and calm strategizing in the later text, which makes the character more distinct and allows the reader to explore the character's personality characteristics from more angles.
Zhang Liang's bravery and fearlessness embodied in this incident were also praised and emulated by later generations of literati.
For example, Li Bai praised this behavior in "Huai Zhang Zifang on the Pi Yuan Bridge", believing that although he failed to avenge Han, the assassination made the world shake, which was really a great feat.
The Ramie family also said: "The ovary avenges Han, a period of loyalty and bravery, is a hero through the ages, so the bizarre flashes in the biography, the people you meet, and the things you do are mostly between the solvable and the incomprehensible." ”
The fifth prime minister Han was finally brought to the point of ruin by the violent Qin, Zhang Liangyan could not be angry, but the act of pouring all his family wealth just to assassinate the Qin Emperor could not find a few people in history.
Therefore, the legends of later generations, some swordsmen and swordsmen in the script, or the images of monks and Taoists who come and go like the wind are all based on this and then processed.
Zhang Liang's assassination failed, and the Qin Emperor, who had palpitations, "searched the world and was in a hurry to seek thieves", so he had to live in seclusion in Xiapi to hide from the world and lie dormant. During this period, there was a very famous "pick-up" incident.
The author used a considerable length to describe the scene of the "old man on the wall" talking to Zhang Liang three times, and finally giving away the military book, and mentioned this Huangshi Gong again in the later text, saying that exactly thirteen years later, Gaozu passed through this place in Jibei and saw the Huangshi under the mountain, so he "took the ancestral hall".
This echoes with what the old man said when he donated the book, "Thirteen years of children see me in Jibei, and Huangshi under Gucheng Mountain is me", which makes the mystery of Zhang Liang's character permeate the whole article.
Han Zhaoqi said: "The Records of the Historian: The Family of the Marquis has a kind of vague and ephemeral color throughout the text, so that Zhang Liang has a mythical and legendary nature. "This plot is so strongly subjective that you almost forget that it is a history book.
This is Sima Qian's intention": scholars say that there are no ghosts and gods, but there are things. As for the old father who stayed in the marquis to give a book, it can also be strange! When the author portrayed this plot, he added legendary elements such as strange people, strange things, and strange books at the same time, in order to show that Zhang Liang was a person chosen by God and passed the test of the gods, so he could help Liu Bang seize the world.
Although there is only one sentence in the language description of Zhang Liang in this plot, "kneeling and saying 'no'", it can give a glimpse of the change in Zhang Liang's personality.
is not panicked by accidents, and can calmly face insulting behaviors for no reason, which is exactly the transformation process of Zhang Liang from a reckless warrior to a generation of soldiers and ministers.
The vivid and interesting description of the process of Zhang Liang picking up the "Taigong Art of War" for his father, implying that Sima Qian's narrative of Zhang Liang's personality change and ideological changes laid the groundwork.
The author's clever arrangement of this plot not only allows us to clearly see Zhang Liang's character transformation and growth process, but also makes the characters have a mysterious color, and can better show the Taoist thought that Zhang Liang respects.
After Zhang Liang followed Liu Bang, he made many important plans for Liu Bang, such as helping Liu Bang to attack Xianyang with a small number of troops, and telling Liu Bang when he was obsessed with money and beauty that if he wanted to unify the world, end the strife, and ascend to the supreme position, he could not covet the petty profits in front of him.
As Liu Bang's right-hand man, he exerts his talents all the time. Among them, in the famous Hongmen Banquet, Zhang Liang, as an important role, not only saved Liu Bang's career, but also saved Liu Bang's life.
The author recounts at the beginning of the Hongmen banquet that Xiang Yu listened to the villain's informant and wanted to attack Pei Gong, and Xiang Bo, who had previously received Zhang Liang's favor, privately contacted Zhang Liang and wanted to flee with Zhang Liang.
Obviously, Xiang Bo privately told Zhang Liang in order to repay his past kindness, but Zhang Liang refused and said: "I sent Pei Gong for King Han, and now it is an emergency, and it is immoral to run away alone." ”
From here, it can be seen that Zhang Liang's concept of loyalty to the monarch, he did not leave Liu Bang at the moment of crisis, but informed Liu Bang of what Xiang Bo said, and solved the crisis for Liu Bang.
Zhang Liang introduced Xiang Bo to Liu Bang, and then "Pei Gong and Drink for Shou and get married". This is him using Xiang Bo's mouth to tell Xiang Yu that Liu Bang did not dare to betray Xiang Yu, although the one who attacked Xianyang first was called king, but Liu Bang was just a fluke and had no ambition to be king.
After hearing what Xiang Bo said, Xiang Yu dispelled the idea of attacking Liu Bang, so that he had a chance to turn around.
Liu Kun wrote in "Regift to Lu Chen": The White Emperor is fortunate to be rebellious, and the Hongmen Lai Liuhou. The word "Lai" subtly shows Zhang Liang's wisdom and bravery, and also shows his importance in this invisible war.
In this episode, Zhang Liang and Xiang Bo's private secret words are only known to the two of them, and the author has no way of knowing, which should be processed by Sima Qian according to the development of the Hongmen Banquet incident and the mastery of the characters' own personalities.
Zhou Lianggong, a scholar of the Qing Dynasty, commented: "I call the person who speaks this number, no matter whether there is anything or not, it should be the Taishi Gongpen to make up and convey the gods." ”
The author used his imagination to process with imagination according to the development process of real historical events, and used a few words to create a loyal person.
Second, the image of a courtier who sacrifices his life for righteousness makes the characters flesh and blood; And the tense atmosphere was just right, which paved the way for the official opening of the Wenhongmen banquet, which made us have to admire.
After Zhang Liang helped Liu Bang to obtain Guanzhong, the capital of the world, it seemed that he had the intention of retiring after success.
Taishi Gong said: "Staying in the Hou is sick, that is, the Tao does not eat grain, and Dumen does not live for more than a year." "But let's look at it in combination with other materials, is Zhang Liang really because he is weak and sick, so he wants to cultivate and become an immortal behind closed doors?
Looking at the founding heroes of the Han Dynasty and Xiao He and Han Xin in "The Three Heroes of the Early Han Dynasty", they were either crowned kings or officials worshiped as prime ministers, and only Zhang Liang refused Liu Bang's reward and made a small stay.
He said that he was sick and did not come out, and threatened to "abandon the affairs of the world and want to swim from the red pine nuts"; He also practiced the techniques of "Dao Yin" and "Bigu", and was forced by Empress Lu to start eating without reluctance, etc., all of which showed his rapid retreat.
Therefore, Zhang Liang was able to retreat unharmed when Han Xin was killed and Xiao He was imprisoned, and this principle of not seeking fame and fortune and retiring from the world is inseparable from the Taoist ideas he believes.
It is precisely because the author is proficient in the analysis of characters that the sentence "Tao leads to not eat grain" to pass it asideIt not only writes his indifferent outlook on life and values of fame and fortune, but also conforms to the Taoist thought that he admires and disdains "utilitarianism".
Later, the article once again mentioned Zhang Liang's "Bigu" behavior. He said that he "took the three-inch tongue as the emperor's teacher, sealed ten thousand households, and ranked as a marquis", and had realized the value and ideals of life, so he wanted to cultivate the Tao and become an immortal and not eat.
At this time, when Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, died, and Empress Lu took power to exclude dissidents, what Zhang Liang said was actually afraid of harming himself, so he once again showed that he had no intention of going to court, and only wanted to live in seclusion. The act of pretending to cultivate immortals is actually to avoid trouble, which is exactly his cleverness.
The author skillfully uses behaviors such as "Bigu" and "cultivating immortals" to show the character characteristics of the characters who do not fight for fame and fortune and avoid disasters, which is very consistent with the legendary color of the fictional plot mentioned above, and runs through the characters, showing the author's extremely high skill in portraying the characters.
In addition, Sima Qian also recorded the plot of Zhang Liang giving advice to Empress Lu and Emperor Hui, who was still the crown prince at that time, and asking "Shangshan Sihao" to go out of the mountain in order to stabilize the status of the prince.
The author meticulously portrayed the images of the four of them: "They are all more than eighty years old, with bright eyebrows, and very well-dressed", and said that they hid in the mountains for the sake of morality and did not become hermits of Hanchen.
As for whether these four people are really Shangshan Sihao, we don't know, Wang Shouren suspects that the person who accompanied the prince was not really Sihao, but Zhang Liang and others found an old man with white eyebrows, and Wei Qi dressed to deceive Emperor Gao. Sima Guang also believes that this is the author's admiration of strange people and strange things, and should not be regarded as historical facts.
This plot and "Shangshan Sihao" were written into "Historical Records: Liuhou Family".It can reflect Zhang Liang's planning ability as a strategist, and when Gaozu wanted to change the throne of Prince Yi several times, he kept the prince's precarious position with only four people.
This also reveals from the side that Zhang Liang's understanding of Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, is very accessible, he knows that Liu Bang is a person who is "cunning rabbit dies, lackeys cook", although he used to be his most important strategist, but after all, he is only a courtier, he can fight the world together, but he can't share the results.
The author has this stroke, and it is a good hint of the following behavior of seclusion and valley, which shows that he made this choice in order to avoid disaster.
In the process of portraying the characters, Sima Qian not only used techniques such as "mutual seeing", but also "wanted to see others", adding his own imagination and fiction of the characters, making the characters distinct and prominent.
This kind of fiction is different from the fiction of later generations, and Mr. Qian Zhongshu clarified this point of view: "Historians recount real people and facts, and every time they have to understand the human feelings, suspense the situation, put themselves in the bureau, concentrate on the cavity, and think about it, so as to figure it out, and it is reasonable." ”
He emphasized that the fiction and fiction of ** have something in common with the fiction of historical biography, but they cannot be compared, because the fiction of historical biography needs to add their own subjective judgment within a reasonable range.
Adding some rumors and reasonable fictional imagination in the process of compiling biography can make up for the lack of historical data, and the rumors themselves have elements of historical facts, and are not groundless speculations and wanton fiction.
In order to ensure the integrity of the narrative plot, the fullness of the characters and the brilliance of the biographical content, the use of imagination and fiction in the "Historical Records" is inevitable.
The fiction and imagination of Zhang Liang's historical events in "Historical Records: The Family of the Marquis" are indispensable for the portrayal of Zhang Liang's character, which connects the scattered plots in the way of supplementation and decoration, while ensuring the integrity of the narrative of historical events, it also allows us to see the whole process of Zhang Liang's growth from a brave and reckless avenger to a wise man who strategizes and looks down on the world.