The Era of Simaqian (司馬遷) and Qinshihuangdi (秦始皇帝) : The Historical Background of Compilation of Qinshihuang Benji (本紀) in ‘shiji’

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  • 司馬遷の時代と始皇帝：秦始皇本紀編纂の歴史的背景
  • シバ セン ノ ジダイ ト シコウテイ シンシコウ ホンギ ヘンサン ノ レキ

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Abstract

Simaqian the historian compiled the Xia (夏) Yin (殷) Zhou (周) Qin (秦) and Qinshihuang Benji as pre-history of the Han (漢) in order to write the Wudi (武帝) Benji as a modern history. Both Wudi and Qinshihuang’s behavior patterns were similar according to Simaqian’s account. As Qinshihuang’s image in Qinshihuang Benji is unacceptable as the real image, the purpose of this paper is to clarify the real image of Qinshihuang by analyzing the historical background of the writing. Descriptions of Qinshihuang Benji are classified into a chronological section, the traditional section of the Warring States and a section on the legend that Simaqian himself collected from various places. There is no difference in the quantity among chronological descriptions, but Simaqian put legends, inscriptions, imperial edicts and memorials to the Throne in the section of a chronicle with emphasis. We must recognize that Qinshihuang Benji is a Qin history written from a stand-point of Simaqian, seeing how an increased description was inserted. When Simaqian was twenty years old, he visited historic sites and recorded legends of Qinshihuang. Though this trip was not intended to visit the historic sites of Qinshihuang, the route was similar to Qinshihuang’s inspection tour. Simaqian attended Wudi as a government official from the second tour of the total seven tours and during these tours he saw more of Qinshihuang’s ruins. Other than these experiences, he referred to a discussion on the history for destinies of Qin dynasty advocated by the bureaucrats in the beginning of the former Han, such as Jiayi (賈誼). But he had initiated an original viewpoint that the era of unified empire is distinguished from the era of Warring State Qin, for he had lived in the era of Wudi. Simaqian had drawn a conclusion to the history of the Qin Empire, dividing it into Qin Benji and Qinshihuang Benji.

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