The moral character of the Chinese people has been passed down through hundreds of generations. The brilliance of their grand moral integrity shines through the five thousand years of history. In China today, people have become indifferent to moral integrity due to the Chinese Communist Party's cultural devastation. A famous poem, "Song of Righteousness," by Mr. Wen Tianxiang (1236 – 1283 AD), a prime minister of the Song Dynasty and one of the most famous patriotic heroes in Chinese history) mentions a story about a historiographer's family. This is the story.

Cui Zhu, an officer of the Qi Dynasty, murdered King Zhuanggong of Qi in 548 BC. Cui Zhu supported the former emperor's brother Chujiu as the new King Jinggong. After King Jinggong became the new emperor, he appointed Cui Zhu as the prime minister. To cover up the truth, Cui Zhu ordered the historiographer (the officer who recorded royal activities into historic chronicles) to record the cause of King Zhuanggong's death as malaria. The historiographer, in compliance with traditional
professional ethics of "recording history in a straightforward and factual manner," sternly refused. He seriously carved on the bamboo slip that Cui Zhu murdered his king on the specific day. (Paper had not yet been invented at that time so characters were engraved on bamboo slips.) Cui Zhu was furious, and he killed the historiographer and destroyed that piece of bamboo slip.

The historiographer's younger brother was filled with indignation after hearing of his elder brother's death. According to law, he succeeded his elder brother as historiographer. He also recorded history according to the facts. Cui Zhu took advantage of his power and killed the new historiographer.

The historiographer had another younger brother. The youngest one then succeeded his two elder brothers as the historiographer. This brother did not flinch at all, but instead followed his two brother's unfulfilled wishes and recorded the true facts on the bamboo slip.

Although Cui Zhu had power as the prime minister, he was frightened by the three brothers' great courage to uphold justice. With the newly engraved bamboo slip in hand, Cui Zhu asked the youngest brother, "Don't you treasure your life? As long as you follow what I told you to write, you will not die like your two elder brothers." The young man answered solemnly, "To record history according to the facts is the inherent responsibility of a historiographer. I cannot just treasure my life and not treasure the historical facts!"

Facing such a righteous young man who was loyal to his responsibility, Cui Zhu was fearful in his mind. He gave in and returned the bamboo slip to the young historian to be preserved in the historic collection.

In this way, justice defeated evil, the righteous defeated the villain, and truth defeated deceit.

Si Maqian (145 – 90 BC) was a historian of the Han Dynasty, and is regarded as the father of Chinese historiography. He highly admired the three brothers' heroic and dauntless deeds of recording historic facts with the integrity of their lives. He wrote their story in his famous work, Records of the Grand Historian.

史家直笔 宁死不屈

我们中华民族有承传百代的民族品德，有光耀千秋的浩然正气。文天祥在〈正气歌〉中写道：「天地有正气，杂然赋流形：时穷节乃见，一一垂丹青，在齐太史简，在晋董狐笔……凛烈万古存。当其贯日月，生死安足论！」但现在的中国，由于中共的摧残，对于这民族正气，却十分淡薄了。今天就来讲一下〈正气歌〉里，首先提到的太史简的故事。

公元前548年，齐国大夫崔杼杀死了齐庄公，拥立齐庄公的异母之弟杵臼为齐景公。齐景公即位后，任命崔杼为右相。为了掩盖事实真相，崔杼命令史官：把齐庄公之死，写成「害疟疾而亡」。齐国的太史，本着「直笔写史」的传统的职业道德，予以严词拒绝。他在竹简（当时没有发明纸，文字都是刻在竹简上）上认真的写道：「夏五月乙亥，崔杼弑其君光」（齐庄公名字叫光）。崔杼看了大怒，立刻斩杀了这位太史，并把他写的竹简毁掉了。

齐太史的弟弟，听说兄长因如实写史而被杀害，义愤填膺。他依据律例，继任史官，按照兄长所写的内容，如实的又记写了下来。崔杼依仗着自己大权在握，又凶横的把他也杀害了。

不料，齐太史还有个小弟，他并不退缩，毫不怯懦，不畏生死，继承他两位哥哥的遗志，再次原封不动的写下史实。

崔杼身为右相，手握生死大权，这时，见到他们兄弟三人，如此的大义凛然，真的害怕了起来。他拿着刚刚写好的竹简，对齐太史的小弟弟（古时史官是继承制）说：「你也不惜性命吗？只要你按照我说的去写，就可免走你两个哥哥的死路。」这位年轻人十分严正的回答：「根据事实写史，这是史官的天职。我不能只顾性命，而不顾史实！」

面对如此忠于天职、充满正气的这位小青年，崔杼居然内心恐惧，知难而退，把如实书写的竹简，归还给他，让史馆保存了下来。

这就叫：正义战胜了邪恶，君子战胜了小人，真理战胜了谬误。

司马迁对于齐太史兄弟们，用生命书写史实的英勇无畏，甚为感佩，便把此事写入《史记》。