Abstract:
Chinese and Western views of history resemble in the fact that they both rationally explored nature and society in terms of primitive religions, and established developed reasoning and views of history. They differ in the fact that Western historians presented the contradiction between practice and reason with emphasis on theoretical reasoning, whereas Chinese historians paid attention to practical reason and integrated practice and rationale on the basis of practical reasoning, hence resulting in different views of history between China and the West. Under the guidance of the historical program of “penetrating historical changes”, Sima Qian showed developed and profound historical thinking by integrating changability and stability, combining history and theorizing, associating the figure to the happening, and integrating history and literature and the true and the good.
