The reason why Records of the Historian is called "a historian's swan song, leaving Sao without rhyme" is because Mr. Lu Xun evaluated it from its historical and literary values. Among them, "the swan song of historians" refers to its historical value, and "Li Sao Wu Yun" refers to its literary value.

Historical Records is China's first biographical general history. In time, it describes the historical evolution from the Yellow Emperor to the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty for 3,000 years. Geographically, it records the political, economic, cultural and military aspects of this country.