Bai Shouyi on Sima Qian and Ban Gu
abstract
This article discusses a paper by the renowned contemporary Chinese historian Bai Shouyi written shortly before the so-called Cultural Revolution. Bai Shouyi’s text deals with the differences between the views of the two Han historians Sima Qian and Ban Gu, at first sight an apolitical subject. A closer look reveals that when writing this article, that appeared not only in a scholarly journal but also in the newspaper «People’s Daily», Bai Shouyi’s probably had in mind political issues of his own day. Thus, it turns out to be a famous article of the practice of «to use the past for the present» (gu wei jin yong).
Keywords: Gu wei jin yong • Sima Qian • Bai Shouyi • Ban Gu
permalink: http://doi.org/10.14277/6969-095-2/SV-3-2