녹록하지 않은 공신에 대한 평가: 사기 ｢소상국세가｣의 贊語 읽기

초록

Sima Qian divided his carefully selected figures into benji, shijia, and liezhuan. Among these, shijia contains the deeds of the ministers who assisted the emperor. In this paper, we examine Sima Qian's evaluation of Xiao He, who is listed at the beginning of shijia, among the founding officials who helped Liu Bang establish the Han Dynasty. Xiao He, a low-ranking official of the Qin Dynasty, had known Liu Bang since he was a commoner, and after he joined the Qin dynasty, he faithfully assisted him until he defeated Xiang Yu and unified the country. As a result, he was recognized for his greatest achievements, beating out Zhang Liang and Han Xin. Sima Qian's evaluation of Xiao He is interesting. ‘He had no special integrity, but he carried out his duties faithfully under the aura of the king’s authority and was obedient to the public sentiment. He avoided the purges of the early dynasty, rose to the highest position, and his reputation was passed down to later generations. This assessment sums up his life well, but at the same time leaves us with something to think about.

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