A creative interpretation of Sima Qian’s “knowing the truth of the changes from past to present”has important theoretical values and practical significance in the contemporary scholarly context. Sima Qian’s outstanding historical insight was rooted in Chinese ancient culture. By comparison of the kinds of political ambitions and policy making，Sima Qian included the experience and lessons about Liu Bang’s victory and Xiang Yu’s failure in the articles of “Xiang Yu Benji” and “Gaozu Benji” in Shiji. Sima Qian had the consciousness of a historical mission on “recording the post and considering the future”and searched for the laws of social development by recording history. All of these can enlighten us that we should not be content with merely recording history and should overcome the tendency of “fragmentation”.

Sima Qian； Shiji； “knowing the truth of the changes from past to present”； the consciousness of history recording