Sima Qian and “Historical Records”
7 min readThe Making of the Literary Giant Sima Qian lived from145 to about90BC From his father he inherited the position of grand historian to the Emperor，which had been a position largely concerned with keeping astronomical records.However，Sima Qian also took on an ambitious project started by his father-production of the first full history of China.This broad ranging work ex tending over 130 chapters is not in historical sequence but di vided into particular subjects，including annals，chroniclestreatises–on music，ceremonies，calendars，religion，econom ics-and extended biographies.
In this way，Records of the His torian（si）covers the period from the five sages of pre historic times，through the Xia，Shang，Zhou，and Qin dynas ties to the Han Dynasty of Sima Qians own time.The Zhou dynasty，probably founded just before 1，000 BC，represents the beginning of the historic period and has provided archeological evidence that confirms some of Sima Qian’s historyBeing the Prefect of the Grand Scribes of the Han Dynasty，he was regarded as the father of Chinese histo riography because of his highly praised work，Shiji，an overview of the history of China covering more than two thousand years from the yellow emperor to emperor han Wudi .His work laid the foundation for later Chinese historiography Sima Qian was born and grew up in Longmen ，near present-day Hancheng in Shanxi Province.He was raised in a family of historiographers.His father，Sima Tan served as the prefect of the grand scribes of Emperor Han Wudi.His main responsibilities were managing the imperial library and calendar.Under the influence of his father，at the age of 10，Sima Qian was already well versed in old writings.He was the student of the famous Confucians Kong anguo and Dong Zhongshu.
At the age of 20，with the support of his father，Sima Qian started a journey throughout the country，collecting useful firsthand historical records for his main work，Shiji.The purpose of his journey was to verify the ancient rumors and legends and to visit ancient monuments，including the renowned graves of theancient sage kings Yu and Shun Places he had visited included Shandong，Yunnan，Hebei，Zhejiang，Jiangsu，Jiangxi and Hunan .
After his travels.he was chosen to be the palace attendant，Lang Zhong in the government，whose duties were to inspect different parts of the country with Emperor Han Wudi In 110 BC，at the age of 35，Sima Qian was sent westward on a military expedition against some”Barbarian tribes
In 110 BC，Sima Tan fell ill.Suspecting his time was running out，he summoned his son back to carry on the family tradition，that is，to complete the historical work he had begun Sima Tan had the ambition to follow the Annals ofSpring and Autumn the first chronicle in the history of Chinese literature.Therefore，from 109 BC，Sima Qian startedto compile shiji and inherited his father’s inspiration.As a senior imperial official，Sima Qian was also in the position to offer counsel to the emperor on general affairs of the state.In 99 BC，Sima Qian got involved in the Li Ling Affair Li guangli and Li Ling，two military officers，wereordered to lead a campaign against the Xiongnu in the north.Having been defeated and taken as captives，Emperor Han Wudi attributed the defeat to Li Ling While all the officials in the government condemned Ling for the defeat，Sima Qian was the only person who defended Li ling，who had never been his friend but whom he respected.Emperor Han Wudi thought Sima Qians defense for Li Ling was an attack on Wudi’s brother-in-law who was fighting against Xiongnu without much success.Subsequently，he was sentenced to death.At that time.execution could be replaced either by money or mutilation i.e，castration Since Sima Qian did not have enough money to atone his fault，he chose the latter and was then thrown into the prison in which he languished a lot In 96 BC，Sima Qian was released from prison.He re called the days in his letter to one of his friend：When you see the jailer you abjectly touch the ground with your forehead.At the mere sight of his underlings you are seized with terror Such ignominy can never be wiped away.The three-year ordeal in prison did not frighten Sima Qian away.On the con trary，it became a driving force compelling him to succeed his family’s legacy of recounting history.
The Significance of His Life In the first place，Sima Qian was a great historian.Al though the style and form of Chinese historical writings varied through ages，Sima Qian’s Shiji has since dictated the procee ding quality and style.Not only is this due to the fact that the Chinese historical form was codified in the second dynastic history by Ban gu’s The History of Han ，but historians regard Sima Qian’s work as their model，which stands as the official format of history of China In writing Shiji，Sima Qian initiated a new writing style by presenting history in a series of biographies.His work ex tends over 130 chapters–not in historical sequence，but was divided into particular subjects，including annals，chronicles，treatises–on music，ceremonies，calendars，religion economics–and extended biographies.Before Sima Qian，histories were written as a dynastic history，his idea of a gener al history affected later historiographers like Zhengqiao in writing A General History and Sima Guang in writing The Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in government.
Sima Qian even affected the writing style of histories in other places，as seen in The History of Korea，which was written as a general history Secondly，he was a remarkable literary author.Sima Qian s Shiji is respected as a model of biographical literature with high literary value.The book is known for its skillful depic tion：Its artistry was mainly reflected in the skillful portrayal of many distinctive characters which were based on true historical information.Sima Qian was also good at illustrating the response of the character by placing him in a sharp confrontation and letting his words and deeds speak for him.The use of conversations in his writing also makes the descriptions more vibrant and realistic His work is also famous for the innovative approach：Sima Qian also initiated a new approach in writing history.The lan guage used in Shiji was informal，humorous and full of varia-tions.This was an innovative way of writing at that time and thus it has always been esteemed as the highest achievement of classical Chinese writing；even Lu Xun（a itL）regarded Shiji as”the first and last great work by historian，poems of Qu Yuan without rhyme.”i his book A Concise History ofChinese Novels.
Sima Qians writing style was influential to Chinese writing，which become a role model for various types of prose within the neo-classical movement of the Tang Song period.The great use of characterization an plotting also influenced fictional writing，including the classi cal short stories of the middle and late medieval times as wellas the vernacular novel of the late imperial times.Shiji still stands as a textbook for the studies of classical chinese worldwide .
Qian expressed his suffering during Li Ling Affair and his perseverance in writing Shiji in these Rhapsodies Finally，he was an outstanding astrologer at the time Sima Tan and later his son，Sima Qian were both court as trologers（*s）in the Former Han Dynasty.At that time，astrologer was an important post，responsible for interpreting and predicting the course of government according to the influence of the Sun，Moon，stars，as well as other phenomena like sun eclipses，earthquakes，etc Before compiling Shiji，in 104 BC，with the help of his colleagues，Sima Qian created The first calendar on the basis of Qin calendar.Taichuli was one of the most advanced calendars of the time as it stated that there were 365.25 days in a year and 29.53 days in a month.The creationof Taichuli was regarded as a revolution in the chinese calen dar tradition .
Sima Qian analyzed the historical records and sorted out those which could serve the purpose of Shiji.He intended to find out the patterns and principles of the development of human history by writing Shiji so as to find out the relationship between heavenly law and men.This is why Sima Qian adopted a new method in sorting out the historical data and a new approach in writing the historical record Unlike ban gu’s Han shu ，which was written under the supervision of the Imperial Dynasty，Shiwas a privately written historiography.Although Sima Qianwas the Prefect of the Grand Scribes in the Han government he refused to write Shiji as an official historiography This is why Shiji not only covered those of high rank，but also people of the lower class so as to portray the seamy side of the dy nasty，and thus Shiji is regarded as a veritable record”.The great historian began the approach of”Seeking truth from facts which is adopted with reluctance even nowadays Some cynical people who have read history like to callthe Glorious Dynasties”Dirty Tang，Stinky Han，Qing is not clean and ming is not bright”.
