1. Written historical materials: These historical materials are recorded in words, including historical books, archives, thoughts or academic works, literary works, newspapers and magazines, and written remains in daily life. History books are written by people close to the time to be studied, such as Hanshu in Hanshu and Tang Shi in Tongdian.
2. Physical historical materials: This kind of historical materials includes all kinds of relics, sites, paintings, etc. Physical historical materials, such as the Egyptian pyramids and the Great Wall in Wan Li, China, can truly reflect history and have an intuitive image.
3. Oral historical materials: This kind of historical materials refers to people's oral memories of the past. Before written records, oral historical materials have certain historical value. Oral historical data, also known as oral history, is a method or branch of discipline to study history by collecting and using oral historical data.
Other historical materials
Oracle Bone Inscriptions and stone inscriptions: Oracle Bone Inscriptions wrote on tortoise shells and animal bones in Shang and Zhou Dynasties; Shang and Zhou bronzes are the main inscriptions on bronzes. They are precious historical materials for studying Shang and Zhou Dynasties. Guo Moruo's Textual Research on Two Weeks Inscriptions and The Complete Works of Oracle Bone Inscriptions are a collection of Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Stone carvings include stone scriptures, statues, epitaphs, memorials, etc. The historical materials of the memorial are of the highest value, and they often record important historical facts that are unknown.
Images: such as paintings, murals, embroidery patterns, etc. It is helpful to understand people's life and aesthetics at that time. The most famous historical image is The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, which is helpful to study urban life in Song Dynasty.
Physical objects: including ancient buildings, furniture, clothes, utensils, ornaments, coins and tombs, used to explore people's lives and concepts at that time. Most of these historical materials were excavated by archaeology.