Records of the Grand Historian
No empty praise, nothing concealed
The credit and the damage in one paragraph
Ban Gu's assessment in the History of the Han; the biographies
Six characters from a later historian, and still the standard for the form. What makes doing it so hard.
What actually happened?
Ban Gu's verdict on the Records: the writing is straight, the facts checked, no empty praise and no concealment of evil, and so it may be called a true record. The weight of that shows only in the entries. He wrote Li Guang as the general beneath whom a path wore itself smooth, and also as the man who put eight hundred men who had surrendered to death, and who cut his own throat after losing the way and missing the rendezvous. He wrote Huo Qubing's indifference to his soldiers. He wrote his own emperor hunting immortality.
Concealing nothing is hardest about your own side
Recording the faults of people you dislike is easy. Recording the faults of people you admire is very hard, because it amounts to admitting your own judgement was not pure. He plainly sympathised with Li Guang and set the problems down anyway.
Reviewing a project you pushed for, the part most easily skipped is how badly the reasons you gave at the time have aged.
No empty praise is a protection for the reader
Write someone as flawless and the reader takes nothing usable away, because flawless people do not exist and there is no way to tell which part to copy. Set out where a person was strong and how exactly they wrecked things, and the record becomes usable.
An internal case study with only the good parts teaches nothing. Put the holes and the near-miss back in and it turns into an asset.
The standard has to bind the most powerful subject too
He wrote Emperor Wu while serving under Emperor Wu, including the cost of the sacrifices, the magicians and the campaigns. The credibility of any recording system is decided by whether it still applies to the one person you cannot afford to offend.
Every incident review drives to root cause, except where a senior executive's decision is involved and it becomes external factors. After that, no review is worth reading.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: you have to write something up, and a person or a decision you backed is inside it.
Ask first: is there a line in this record I would rather not put down?
Where it goes wrong: reading objectivity as severity towards enemies, and making one exception for the person you cannot afford to offend.
Lines to keep
No empty praise, no concealment of evil: therefore, a true record.
Peach and plum trees do not speak, yet a path forms beneath them.
Objectivity that stops at your own side is only selection.
Same situation, other people are asking
It was my fault and I can't move past it.The more I explain, the worse it gets.I can't say why I did it.I've never told anyone. I've carried it for years.I'm the one who did wrong · all 7 questions →If this one named what you are going through,
send it to someone who needs it, or keep it somewhere you will find it again.