The macro-temporal structure in Records of the Grand Historian (《史记》) was primarily manifested in three chronological tables predating the Qin Dynasty. In these tables, Sima Qian (司马迁) divided the history of the Zhou Dynasty into two parts with the first year of the reign of Gongbohe (841 BCE, 共和元年) as the demarcation point. The first part was incorporated into The Chronicle of the Three Dynasties (《三代世表》) without chronological organization, while the second part was incorporated into The Chronological Table of the Twelve Feudal Lords (《十二诸侯年表》), where systematic chronology was started and substantive chronological connection was made in the first year of the Han Dynasty (206 BCE, 汉元年). The period before this demarcation represented the “ancient history” prior to the decline of the Zhou Dynasty, while the period afterward constituted the “modern history” spanning from the fall of the Zhou Dynasty to the rise of the Han Dynasty. Records of the Grand Historian was fundamentally a history centered on the “rise of Han”, with its temporal framework symbolizing the succession from Zhou to Han. This symbolic approach to historical interpretation in Records of the Grand Historian was originated from Zuozhuan (《左传》). The narrative of the beginning and ending of history in Zuozhuan already revealed the indicative significance of its events. The Series of Years (《系年》) in the collection of bamboo slips from Tsinghua University demonstrates that such modes of historical writing emerged around 400 BCE. Compared with Spring and Autumn Annals (《春秋》) and Zuozhuan, Records of the Grand Historian endowed time with a unique narrative function, allowing it to signify historical evolution.