There are two main aspects to be discussed in this paper. The first is to explore the in-fluence of the family background and life experience of Sima Tan and Sima Qian on the creation process of "Shiji". The second is to investigate the dissemination process of "Shiji" from the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty after Sima Qian's death, as well as the history of acceptance and research by intellectuals.
Historically, when scholars discussed the motivation and purpose of Sima Tan and Sima Qian's historical works, they mostly analyzed and summarized them based on the text of "Shiji" and "Bao Ren An Shu"(報任安書). There is no doubt about this method, but the fly in the ointment is that it often lacks diachronic considerations. In other words, from the research results of scholars, we can indeed grasp the creative concept of "Shiji" and the historical methods, historical viewpoints and historical thoughts embed-ded in it; but how the above-mentioned creative concepts, historical methods, etc. were formed, the relevant academic discussions are relatively lacking. Furthermore, it is un-deniable that people's thoughts are often not static, and are easily affected by real life experiences, and even cause completely different changes. According to this logic, ac-cording to the investigation and analysis of this paper, the initial motivation that trig-gered Sima Tan to engage in historical research was actually the reality of the gradual decline of the family, forcing him to urgently need a specific achievement to restore the glory of the declining family.
Looking at the process of Sima Tan's pursuit of honor and achievement, he has expe-rienced two major turning points: one is the death of Empress Dowager Dou, and the Yellow Emperor and the Laozi school lost the support of political power and weakened. With the support of the emperor, Confucianism became the new mainstream of political thought. Driven by the trend of the times, Sima Tan changed from a Taoist standpoint to a Confucian standpoint. This is a change at the level of thinking. The second change occurred when Sima Tan was forced to stay in Luoyang(洛陽) on the eve of Emperor Wudi's Conferring Ceremony and could not participate in the Conferring Ceremony. This incident broke Sima Tan's ideals of establishing concrete achievements in the polit-ical field. So Sima Tan turned his hope to cultural achievements, and used this to en-courage his son Sima Qian. This is a change in Sima Tan's mentality. Sima Qian also took his involvement in the "Li Ling case" and encountered disasters as a watershed in his life, which further affected his perspective and attitude when examining the achievements of the Han family. Sima Qian, who was originally a close minister and fa-vored minister of Emperor Wu, should be proud of Emperor Wu's great achievements in defeating enemies who invaded the country and establishing a complete national system; but the "Li Ling case" made Sima Qian realize that the relationship between monarch and minister is inherently unequal , as a subject, to the emperor, he is actually like a buf-foon, who can be discarded anytime and anywhere. It is this level of understanding that enables Sima Qian to discuss with a more detached and objective standpoint when evaluating the achievements of emperors, generals and ministers. Later generations said that "Shiji" is straightforward, matter-of-fact, not vain, and not concealing evil, so praise him as a true historical record is the reason for this.
The writing of history and the development of historiography are often closely related to "politics", especially in ancient society. Although "Shiji" enjoys a very high academic evaluation and status in modern times, it was not like this at the beginning of its spread in the Han Dynasty. Because of his status as an eunuch, Sima Qian was despised by Confucian scholars in the Western Han Dynasty. In addition, there are many value judgments in the book that are different from the mainstream thoughts of Confucian classics in the Han Dynasty. As a result, until the demise of the Western Han Dynasty, "Shiji" still could not get the attention of intellectuals. Time came to the transition stage between the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty. After the dissemina-tion and acceptance of famous scholars such as Liu Xiang(劉向) and Yang Xiong(揚雄), "Shiji" attracted a wave of discussions. The specific result was the completion of Ban Gu's "Hanshu".
Since the completion of "Hanshu", intellectuals often refer to "Shiji" and "Hanshu" together. However, in fact, the research on "Shiji" is obviously not as popular as "Hanshu". "Suishu‧Jingjizhi"(隋書‧經籍志) "Official History Book" preface said: "There are very few researchers on "Shiji", Sima Zhen(司馬貞), a scholar of the Tang Dynasty, also said in "An Investigation of the Thought Hidden in Shiji"(史記索隱) preface: "("Shiji") compared to Ban Gu's "Hanshu", the content tends to be classical and simple, so intellectuals in the Han and Jin Dynasties did not pay attention to it." According to the "Official History" records in "Sui Shu‧Jing Ji Zhi", the ratio of research on "Shiji" and "Hanshu" is as much as four or five times different. The Han and Jin Dynasties worship "Hanshu" and despise "Shiji" phenomenon is evident.
The reason for this phenomenon is that Sima Qian's value is different from main-stream Confucianism. As well as the words in "Shiji" mentioned by Sima Zhen are clas-sical and simple, which does not conform to the elegant and gorgeous literary aesthetics of intellectuals in the Han and Jin Dynasties. Moreover, "Shiji"'s satirical criticism of the politics of the time cannot be tolerated by the ruling class. Therefore, the "Hanshu" de-scribes the previous dynasty and does not involve the current principle of dating, that is, euphemistically reflects the interference of imperial power in the writing of history by scholars. In particular, Ban Gu was arrested and imprisoned for writing the history of the Han Dynasty privately. After he was released from prison, he was ordered to go to the court to compile the national history. Completed historical work had to pass the re-view of Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty before he was allowed to go home and complete the "Hanshu". This shows that the imperial power has emerged to strictly con-trol the power of historical narrative discourse, and does not allow the people to have discussions and opinions beyond their control. The imperial power's overall control over the power of history writing is reflected in the establishment of the official history book revision system in the Tang Dynasty.
Due to the tight control of the ruling class over the power to write history, and the incompatibility between scholars and the ideological value of "Shiji", the focus of re-search on "Shiji" in the Han and Jin Dynasties is mostly focused on the phonetic and in-terpretation of "Shiji". The research methods, propositions and concepts of "Shiji" in an-cient China were laid at this time. Until the end of the Qing Dynasty and the turn of the Republic of China, before the fundamental changes in the academic research system, the research on "Shiji" hardly deviated from the models established in the Han and Jin Dynasties.