Brief Study on Sima Qian's Economic Thought and Its Origin -And on His Attitude to and Evaluation on the Political Renovators

As to the economic policy, Sima Qian proposed that the social economy shall develop naturally without too many administrative interventions Such economic thought of Sima Qian has its origin in Confucianism, Taoism and Legalism. He accepted more theories from Guanzi, Laozi and Xunzi but took the theories of Mencius and Hanfeizi as negative reference. Sima Qian's attitude to the Political Renovators is mainly associated with his economic thought. The author of this article tries to explain the reason why Sima Qian's evaluation on the Political Renovators involves both praises and criticisms by studying Sima Qian's attitude to Shang Yang's political reform.