中国古代文史的分合

神话是人类重要的一种原始文化形态,是每个国家或民族文化发展的重要起点与基础,然而随着社会的继续发展,每个国家或民族的文化发生了很大的差异。中国的文化就走了一条与西方不同的发展道路,从周代起,便对神话进行了历史化的改造,以至形成其他国家难以与之比肩的历史文学。这种历史文学发展至《史记》,文史的结合达到了高度的成熟与完美。之后,文史逐渐易辙,然而中国文学,特别是小说,已打上了“史”的印记。

Ancient Chinese Literature and History: Division and Combination

Mythology is an important primitive cultural form as well as an important origin and base for a country or a nation to develop its culture. But as societies develop, cultures of different countries have developed in different ways. And the Chinese culture has covered a way different from that of the Western culture. Since the Zhou Dynasty, Chinese mythologies have been historicalized, as finally led to the emergence of a new literary form - historical literature, which cannot be matched by other cultures. Such historical literature reached its culmination in Historical Records (Shi Ji), a perfect combination of literature and history. Thereafter, literature and history began to separate and go different ways. But anyway, Chinese literature, especially novels, has since been branded by history.