An Inter-textual Inquiry on the Historian Narration of Emperor Hanwen and King Changyi

Abstract: History concerns events and meanings, while the method of narration has an indissoluble bound with literature. However, in the present edition of Historical Records, the “Biographic Sketches of Emperor Xiaowen” is a later text. Although it is an independent text, just like the “Biography of King Changyi” in History of Han Dynasty, there is an inter-textual relationship. Owing to that Emperor Hanwen was set up as a model emperor in the Early Han Dynasty, but King Changyi was a loser, supported and later abolished by Huo Guang. Because Liu De, father of Liu Xiang, took part in abolishing King Changyi, so the narration in “Biographic Sketches of Emperor Wen” in History of Han Dynasty was written according to “Biography of King Changyi”. One success and one failure contrast finely with each other. Even in the description of details, what protruded was the wise and farsighted former and the decrepit and muddleheaded latter. This “Biographic Sketches of Emperor Wen” in History of Han Dynasty was removed in the “Biographic Sketches of Emperor Xiaowen” in Historical Records, and the author was no other than Liu Xiang who joined that matter.