Shakespeare should be first regarded as an artist, or more exactly, a dramatic artist. But he should also be viewed as a historian, or a sort of historicist. In speaking of Shakespeare as a historicist, we usually think of his history plays like King John, Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, etc., for the playwright has created some unforgettable historical figures in these plays based on real people. Actually, if we have a comprehensive reading and understanding of all Shakespeare’s plays, tragedies, comedies and history plays, we can easily find that he actually plays the role of a historicist apart from his superb artistic achievements, not only because he has created quite a few history plays, but more important, his best tragedies and comedies could also be regarded as a sort of history plays. Although, from today’s point of view, his theatrical narrations are not always faithful to the real historical records, they are indeed "textualized" or "dramatized" historical narratives. As compared with the study of Shakespeare’s history plays in the West, the study of Shakespeare’s drama in China is far from comprehensive. However, ironically speaking, on today’s Chinese screen, we easily find so many "invented" "history plays" produced as TV dramas based on real people although in an ironic and parodic way of representation, but very few could be regarded as effective and successful. Thus we should say that Shakespeare’s role as a historicist has not yet been recognized, at least in the Chinese context, although all his superb plays on history have more or less anticipated the rise of Chinese TV history plays.