A New Research on Sima Qian's Literary Criticism

Sima Qian leaves a rich legacy in literary criticism,which is characterized by his overthrow of the traditional idea of three immortals. He raised the status of the men of letters,opened preliminary discussions on the relationship between style and author.He advocated Confucius's words—it is better to act than to put down in meaningless words—and defended the narrative works,pointing out the merits of the literary style,and at the same time he showed negative attitude to the pure narration.Besides,much of Sima Qian's ideas of literary criticism came from Yi Zhuan(an interpretation on The Book of Change),which is discussed briefly in the paper.