"The treasure show is finally back!" "Finally, the four great classics are here!" Recently, the promotional video for the new season of "China in Classics" was released and sparked heated discussions. The film innovatively presents famous scenes from four ancient Chinese classics, such as Wu Song fighting a tiger, borrowing arrows from a straw boat, and Daiyu burying flowers, igniting the expectations of "classic fans" for the new season of the show: How can classic works that carry the common memory of readers achieve innovative expression in a modern context?
At 20:00 on October 4, the new season of the China Central Radio and Television Station's large-scale cultural program "China in Classics" will premiere on the CCTV Integrated Channel (CCTV-1). The program will accompany the audience to understand 11 ancient classics handed down from ancient times in a new way, including "Zizhi Tongjian", "Hai Guo Tu Zhi", "Yan Family Instructions", "Zuo Zhuan", "Huayang Guo Zhi", "Huainanzi", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Journey to the West", "Water Margin" and "Dream of Red Mansions", making the words written in ancient books "come alive".
The first episode of the program goes into China's first chronicled general history "Zi Zhi Tong Jian". By telling the story of the Northern Song Dynasty historian Sima Guang's nineteen years of writing history, Hao Shou Qi Jing, together with the audience, learn about the past and present, learn history wisely, and accumulate wisdom and strength for the future while looking back at history.
Interpret the profound wisdom that can be used to govern in light of past events
The only surviving manuscript of "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" was revealed on site
The program will follow the mighty river of Chinese history, interpret the profound wisdom of "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" in light of past events, and explore the governance thoughts and philosophy contained in the book.
"Zi Zhi Tong Jian" has a total of 294 volumes and more than 3 million words in the text. The content begins with King Weilie of Zhou conferring the three families of Han, Zhao and Wei as princes, and ends with the Five Dynasties, covering 1362 years of history in 16 dynasties. The "Summary of the General Catalog of Siku Quanshu" commented that it "has a vast and rich network, a large body and a refined mind, which is unprecedented in ancient times." This historical masterpiece builds a historical context that lasts for thousands of years, establishes a historical paradigm of using history to inform government, and is regarded as a must-read for educating people about government. In the book, Sima Guang has a total of 119 historical remarks starting with "Chen Guang said", which concentratedly expresses his view of history. Among these comments, maxims such as "Talent is the asset of virtue; virtue is the commander-in-chief of talent", "The root of cure is to win people, to win people is to review, and to review is to verify the truth" and other maxims are still widely recited to this day. They are not only the essence of his political history, but also show the profoundness of his arguments.
The compilation of "Zizhi Tongjian" took 19 years, and the manuscripts alone once filled two rooms. However, as thousands of years have passed, only fragments of these manuscripts remain. The program will display the "Treasure of the National Library of China" and the only surviving manuscript of Sima Guang's "Zizhi Tongjian" compiled by Sima Guang, demonstrating Sima Guang's thoughtful and meticulous scholarly spirit.
According to Zhang Zhiqing, former deputy director of the National Library of China, this manuscript fragment has 29 lines and 465 words, and contains historical facts covering the entire first year of Yongchang during the Eastern Jin Dynasty. On the manuscript, there are a dazzling array of seals from past dynasties, as many as 119, which clearly outlines its circulation trajectory over thousands of years. From the dense traces of alterations, we can see that Sima Guang's writing is rigorous and well-organized. Huang Tingjian, who was ordered to edit the "Zizhi Tongjian", once lamented: "Although hundreds of volumes were written upside down and scrawled, not a single word was written in the end." He also praised Sima Guang as "a scholar in the world." This comment not only confirms his historical attainments, but also reflects Sima Guang's scholarly style of being cautious and consistent.
Drama reproduces the compilation process of "Zi Zhi Tong Jian"
Vividly interpret the historical scene of "Three Families Divided into Jin" in the book
How did "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" come into being? Nowadays, academic circles generally believe that the first eight volumes were written by Sima Guang, and the subsequent volumes were derived from the "history compilation team" he personally formed. This team is full of talents. Among them, Liu Shu specializes in handling the most complicated parts of historical events, and Liu Tong is mainly responsible for the long editing part of "Han Ji". Based on the historical materials collected by his assistants, Sima Guang integrated and deleted them, and finally formed the "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" we see today. The drama part of the program will reproduce the process of Sima Guang and his assistants exchanging letters and working together to compile "Zizhi Tongjian", focusing on the historical scene of "Three families were divided into Jin" in the opening chapter, and revealing the essence of his thought of "learning from the rise and fall of the past and examining the gains and losses of today".
When it comes to Sima Guang, the first thing most people think of may be the story of him smashing a urn to save his friends. This is of course far from the whole story of his life. Sima Guang and Sima Qian are both known as the "Two Sima of Historiography". Sima Guang was early, intelligent, studious, and ambitious. He read Shangshu at the age of 6, studied Zuozhuan at the age of 7, and by the age of 13, he had "heard the teachings of the saints, recited them in the morning and thought about them at night." After becoming an official, he served as a collation and admonishment officer, presided over local government affairs, and rose and fell in officialdom for decades. It was these rich life experiences and profound knowledge accumulation that laid a solid foundation for his future compilation of "Zi Zhi Tong Jian". Following "contemporary scholar" Sa Beining, the audience will step into the history-writing time of Sima Guangvoltaic and start a heart-to-heart dialogue with this master of history.
How to interpret the ups and downs of Sima Guang's life over decades from youth to old age is the primary problem faced by Huang Xuan, who plays Sima Guang. Sima Guang was intelligent by nature, and he was admitted to the A-level examination in high school when he was just 20 years old. He was a veritable "academic master"; Sima Guang was extremely stubborn, and even Su Shi joked that he was "Sima Niu"... As he read more historical materials, Sima Guang's image gradually became clear in Huang Xuan's heart: "Sima Guang is extremely intelligent, and is as persistent and tenacious as an ox. With these two qualities, I have a starting point when shaping him."
Zhang Zhiqing, the former executive deputy director of the National Library of China, Meng Man, a professor at the School of History and Culture at the University for Nationalities of China, and Ding Wanming, a professor at the Party School of the Hebei Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (Hebei Administration College), were guests on the program. During the interview, they talked about the thousand-year thoughts of "Zi Zhi Tong Jian".
Open the classics and read about China. At 20:00 on October 4, the new season of CCTV-1's "China in Classics" will return as scheduled. Follow the program and read "Zi Zhi Tong Jian", through Sima Guang's writings during the Spring and Autumn Period, you can see the past and present, illuminate the future, and absorb the spiritual power that travels through time and space!
