A New Exploration of Qian Qianyi's Historiographical Thought and Theory——On the Historicity of Biographies in the Poetry Collection of Dynasties

Abstract

As a leader of the literary world at the time of the transition from Ming to Qing, Qian Qianyi also made important contributions and influences in the field of historiography. He paid much attention to and focused on the history of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and formed a core purpose based on official documents with "national history" as the core at the theoretical level, and widely adopted various materials from different sources and attributes. The "History of Ming", which was compiled over two dynasties and has a volume of 250 volumes, is the most important achievement of Qian's life. His advocacy and promotion of the method inherited from the "Tongjian" long compilation in the practice of historiography also has outstanding significance. The biographies of the characters in the "Collection of Poems of Various Dynasties", which are of the same origin as the "History of Ming" and form a high-low combination, show a distinct and unique historical nature in terms of writing purpose, text content and narrative perspective. After the "History of Ming" was destroyed by the crimson cloud, it may become another excellent entry point for the analysis and interpretation of Qian's historiography.