关键词: 《史记》, 史体, 庄雅, 老致, 神致

Abstract: Early Qing historian Niu Yunzhen concluded that grave elegance of style, sophisticated maturity of expression and inspired originality of appeal were three foremost qualities of the history-writing genre, through his reading of Han historian Sima Qian's exemplary work Records of the Grand Historian. With these qualities as criteria for historical criticism, Niu Yunzhen not only reinforced the status of Records of the Grand Historian as a classic, but also attached importance on emotion as an intrinsic attribute of historical writing. As a result, the expression of personal feelings was gradually legitimized and eventually became equally important to narrative method and moral implication in history writings thereafter.

Key words: Records of the Grand Historian, history-writing genre, grave elegance of style, sophisticated maturity of expression, inspired originality of appeal