司马迁对太史令职责的理解与《史记》写作

Sima Qian's Understanding of Taishiling and His Writing of Shiji

太史令在西汉时期社会地位低下,其主要职责是掌管天文历法;而太史在西周时期则享有尊崇的地位。司马迁父子因为祖上曾是周之太史,因此他们认为西汉的太史令也理应享有太史在周室时的尊崇地位。他们出于对祖先尊崇社会地位的追慕,从而希望通过论载天下"史文"来达到比肩先祖的目的,这正是司马迁写作《史记》的信心所在。但是汉代大一统的政治格局限制了司马迁对历史经验的解读和表达,因此,"亦欲……成一家之言"实际上是司马迁欲比附先祖周之太史的期望与西汉太史公地位卑下之间不对称关系的一种妥协表达。由于司马迁的写史思想和自武帝后占主导地位的儒家思想有所出入,因此,在赵宋之前,"成一家之言"的初衷并没有得到人们的理解和认同。

Taishiling has a low social status. His primary responsibility is to manage the Astronomy and Calendar in the Western Han Dynasty. However, in the Western Zhou Dynasty, Taishi has a high status. Sima Qian＇ s ancestor is a Taishi in the Western Zhou Dynasty; therefore, Sima Qian and his father consider that Taishiling should have a high social status in the Western Han Dynasty. They are proud of their ancestor＇s high status, so they consider they can also write the history to get people＇s respect and have a high social status as their ancestor. This is just his motive of writing Shiji. But the political pattern of unification restricts his understanding and expression of history therefore, a thought of ＂becoming the single opinion＂ is actually a compromising expression of dissymmetry relation between the hope that Sima Qian and his father are respected as their ancestor and the fact of Taishiling＇s low social status. And because Sima Qian＇s historical thought is different from Confucianism after Emperor Wu in Western Han Dynasty;therefore,before the Song Dynasty, Sima Qian＇s motive of writing Shiji is not understood and accepted by people.