Historical Records records the history of more than 3,000 years from the time of the Yellow Emperor in the ancient legend of China to the first year of founding ceremony, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. The book includes 12 biographies, 30 families, 70 biographies, 10 forms and 8 books, with a total of 130 articles and more than 526,500 words. Sima Qian, the author, made Historical Records the first and most famous biographical general history of China with his historical knowledge of "studying the relationship between man and nature, connecting the changes from ancient times to modern times, and making a family statement".

Historical Records is divided into five parts: biography, table, book, family and biography. It takes emperors and other political center figures in history as the main line of compiling history books, and the division of labor in various styles is clear. The Chronicle records the rise and fall of emperors and major historical events. "Table" is the memorabilia of each historical period presented in tabular form; Book is a special history about astronomy, calendar, water conservancy, economy and culture. "aristocratic family" is the activity and deeds of princes and nobles in past dynasties; Biographies are biographies of influential people from all walks of life, and a few chapters record the history of ethnic minorities. Among them, "biography", "family" and "biography" account for most of the book's length, and all of them record history with writing characters as the center. As a result, Sima Qian created a new style of history books-"Biography".

Zuozhuan and Chunqiu are chronologies. It is narrated according to time.