In China's historical tradition, no matter in practice or in moral requirements, it is not considered that historians should take other people's money to wipe powder and wash the floor for them; Many ethical historians don't think so, such as Sima Qian. At the same time, there are some restrictions on the specific system, such as the current emperor is not allowed to look at the current residence note, and so on;
Take the twenty-four histories as an example, a considerable part of which is the history of the former dynasty compiled by later generations, with the purpose of clarifying the name of this dynasty and summing up the experience and lessons that can be used for reference by this dynasty. Moreover, since it is necessary to sum up the experience and lessons, it is not enough to write too far, and it is easy to pit yourself. Therefore, many political issues that may involve the differences between the old and new dynasties can be demonstrated and properly suspected by the evaluation of people and things or some details of events, rather than saying that the description of the whole process must be unreliable.
In fact, this is still the case at present, and regardless of China and foreign countries-for example, the most reliable and least nonsense records of a war or battle are often the summary reports written by readers inside the military or within the system, that is, the so-called internal information. It's unnecessary and boring to show yourself such things that are too watered or too flashy ~
Let's take the twenty-four histories as an example. In fact, most of the materials used in history books are not recorded by official decrees, but collected from various channels intentionally or unintentionally. Those who intend to take the initiative to accept letters from many parties, such as Sima Qian, use official books and archives, unofficial and private writings and even interviews and field trips to write a historical book; The History of Song Dynasty, which was inadvertently adopted by many parties, is actually a collection of various historical materials (mostly privately written) from the Northern Song Dynasty to the Southern Song Dynasty.
Finally, a little divergence, absolutely objective historical records, whether past or present, do not exist and will not exist in the future. Because people themselves can't be without their own emotions, positions and value judgments. Many times some narrators say that they have no position, just to express their opposition or disdain for another position. It may even be worse-for example, the narrator wants to lie and fool people for some ulterior purpose, so he declares that he "has no position" and "I am objective and neutral".