The historical view of "studying the relationship between man and nature, linking the changes from ancient times to modern times" has long dominated the history of China, creating a biographical era of China's history books, and the twenty-third history after Twenty-four History is biographical.

(1) "Studying the relationship between man and nature" refers to abandoning historical myths and providence, trying to restore and explain historical phenomena from the perspective of personnel and implementation, and becoming a historian of past dynasties. Sima Qian's spirit of "recording" has become a fine tradition in China's history circle. For example, The Book of the Later Han Dynasty brings together the great achievements in the development of Han Dynasty historiography from Sima Qian to Ban Biao in the past 200 years, inherits the Historical Records, and creates the compilation method of biographical chronology, which is regular in genre, intensive in compilation, realistic in writing history, detailed in chronology, and strives to restore historical facts, and so on.

(2) The concept of "connecting the preceding with the following" refers to criticizing the theological view of history (the theory of the unity of man and nature at that time), trying to seek the track of historical evolution and explain human social activities from the perspective of economic interests. The most typical is the historical view that "the world is bustling, and the world is bustling, all for profit", trying to explain people's social status, ideology and political system from the perspective of economic conditions. For example, in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, the idea of being without gods and ghosts is discussed, and attention is paid to summing up experiences and lessons, so as to "gain and loss in the positive generation". Wei Zhi's "Sui Shu" and other Five Dynasties histories pay attention to the rise and fall of the country and think that there is no "destiny". Pay attention to the influence of people, especially people's hearts, on history. In Shi Tong, Liu Zhiji criticized the theological conception of history, such as the unity of man and nature and the divine right of monarch. He believes that the rise and fall of dynasties and the success or failure of characters are not determined by fate, but by personnel. He criticized the Confucian classics thought that "the past is not the present" and thought that "the past and the present are different, and the situation makes it so". Du You's "General Code" advocates that "the foundation of education is to care about food and clothing", "taking into account the needs of the past and learning to use the present", and so on.