The Evolution of the Political Status of Historians from the Pre-Qin Period to the Western Han Dynasty and Its Causes

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-611-6_134How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Pre-Qin Period to Early Western Han Dynasty; The Political Status of Historians; Evolution

Abstract

The official historians of ancient China held the authority to compile historical records and played a pivotal role in the nation’s political life. However, from the pre-Qin period to the Western Han dynasty, the political standing of historians fluctuated with the times, exhibiting an overall decline. This shift was rooted in profound social, political, and cultural factors. Since the turn of the century, numerous scholars have conducted detailed studies on the status of historians. Nevertheless, these investigations have varied in focus and have been constrained by factors such as the time periods examined, subjects studied, and research perspectives, resulting in a scarcity of systematic analyses. This paper employs a literature review methodology to examine relevant materials and scholarly works, analyzing the evolution of the political status of historians from the Xia and Shang dynasties through the Western Han period and the underlying causes behind these changes. It identifies a discernible pattern: from the perspective of historical materialism, the decline in the political standing of historians from the pre-Qin era to the Western Han period was an almost inevitable consequence of historical progress. This will make research in the relevant areas more systematic.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Enqi Wang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/07
TI  - The Evolution of the Political Status of Historians from the Pre-Qin Period to the Western Han Dynasty and Its Causes
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 12th International Conference on Digital Humanities and Frontiers in Social Sciences (DHFSS 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 1256
EP  - 1265
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-611-6_134
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-611-6_134
ID  - Wang2026
ER  -