Abstract

In FanYe’s time—South Dynasties，regime alternated frequently. The Elite Intellectuals didn’t blindly worship the power of regime any longer，which had be thought to be endowed by the Gods；and often roused to oppose the rulers of regime. On the other hand，with the failing struggle to the rulers of regime，the governing ability of the Elite Intellectuals gradually degenerated. Because that nothing can obtain from political area，the Elite Intellectuals changed their pursuit to the circle of culture and art，more and more Elite Intellectuals became to like writing the books about history.Borne in this background which indirectly leaded his rebellion and death，FanYe was well trained and educated in many kind of arts as literature、calligraphy、music，and accomplished famous work—Houhanshu. With earnest tradition of Confucian scholarship，Fan’s family that came from NanYang，handed down ChunQiu through generations. Fan’s family was a cultural family which put impact on FanYe. He seriously criticized Buddhism，insisted on Confucism，attached much importance to Confucian idea in his work Houhanshu.He called for gentle and peaceable style of politics，extolled Confucian norms as loyalty、filial piety、faith. Sometimes，he wasn’t respectful to emperor，and couldn’t hold together with colleagues. He was so careless and frivolous that fell into the snare of royal faction，at last lost his precious life. FanYe’ tragedy reflected degeneration of the the Elite Intellectuals in South Dynasties. Due to growing up in the Elite Intellectuals，he was very proud and self-conceited，in spite of his being short of real ability and courage that were essential for somebody to achieve great power，and at end，he had to accept the fate of failure.

The purpose of FanYe’ writing Houhanshu was to pass judgement on Eastern Han Dynasty’ policy. Framework and character of Houhanshu mainly derived from Dongguanhanji and other previous works concerning the history of Eastern Han Dynasty. Moreover，Houhanshu absorbed former achievements about historical biography，added some new kind of biographies as Wenyuanliezhuan、Duxingliezhuan、Yiminliezhuan、Lienvzhuan. Refering to former historical biography，Houhanshu used many kind of means as detail、concentration、model、side face、comparison、background foiling to depict and shape historical character.Most kind of character in Houhanshu had his（her） own personality，and the type of character was rich and colorful in Houhanshu. The abundance and richness of character type in Houhanshu almost can compare with ShiJi. Adapting “relevancy method”，（牵连法）Houhanshu connected the stories of various characters that the combining biographies （合传）recorded. Although clues of events were quite tanglesome，some long biographies were rather elegant to organize the stories of characters and structure of narration，and the clues of narration of these long biographies were very clear and fluent. The narration language of Houhanshu added complexity and embellishment to simplicity.In FanYe’ mind，Houhanshu’ Xu（序）、Lun（论）、Zan（赞） were the most valuable parts in whole book. Xu（序）、lun（论） clearly had tendency of Pianlihua（骈俪化）that was consistent to the vogue and style of literature writing in early Song Dynasty.

In a word，FanYe was a controversial person，his Houhanshu acquired much accomplishments.

Keywords：FanYe Houhanshu Historical biography