Editing Sima Guang (section)

===Historiography===
Sima rejected the roles of the [[dynastic cycle]] and [[Wuxing (Chinese philosophy)|Five Phases]] in legitimizing dynastic succession. For Sima, dynastic succession was instead a result of power struggles; dynasties rose and fell according to consistent factors. He believed that history was a "mirror" for the present and could provide the government with historical context for their current situation. [[Scholar-official|Literati]] could thus use history as an aid to governance. His histories are structured in a way that promotes these theories.{{sfn|Chaffee|Twitchett|2015|pp=690-691}} 

Sima and the other Yuanyou faction conservatives (except for [[Su Shi]], who had an unorthodox interpretation of the [[Tao]]) would be positively associated with [[Neo-confucianism]].{{sfn|Chaffee|Twitchett|2015|pp=728-729}} [[Liu Anshi]], an important Neoconfucian, was Sima's disciple.{{sfn|Chaffee|Twitchett|2015|p=756}}