🐉HistoryChinese History
🏠 Home🌐 中文
Chinese HistoryDYNASTIES
📖

Sima Qian

Given / Temple NameThe Grand Historian

The father of Chinese historiography, who wrote the Records of the Grand Historian through disgrace

Vessels of the Civilization · Pathfinders & Historians
The Records of the Grand HistorianThe biographical formWriting through indignation

Who they are

Sima Qian inherited from his father Sima Tan the office of Grand Historian and the dying charge to write history; he traveled the famous mountains and rivers gathering material firsthand and set to work on a general history. In 99 BC, when Li Ling was defeated and surrendered to the Xiongnu and the whole court denounced him, Sima Qian alone defended him, angered Emperor Wu, and was punished by castration. Under this extreme disgrace he chose to live and finish the Records of the Grand Historian: from the Yellow Emperor down to his own dynasty, one hundred and thirty chapters, originating the person-centered biographical form that every dynastic history followed for two thousand years. He placed Xiang Yu among the "Annals," wrote biographies for assassins and knights-errant, and in his "Letter to Ren An" wrote the line "a man has but one death; it may be weightier than Mount Tai or lighter than a feather" — the backbone of Chinese historiography was set upright by this man who had suffered castration.

Primary sourcesRecords of the Grand Historian, "Preface of the Grand Historian""Letter to Ren An"Book of Han, "Biography of Sima Qian"

Key stories

A word for Li Ling

Li Ling led five thousand foot soldiers deep into Xiongnu territory, fought for eight days until his arrows and grain ran out, and surrendered. Emperor Wu was furious, and all the officials called for his clan’s extermination. Sima Qian spoke up: Li Ling had fought across a thousand miles, inflicting losses beyond his numbers, and might have surrendered to await a chance to repay the Han. Emperor Wu convicted him of "slandering the emperor" and had him castrated. He later wrote in the "Letter to Ren An" that he "endured and clung to life, hidden in filth without refusing," only because "I grieved that my private heart had not fully expressed itself, that I might pass from the world in obscurity with my writing unshown to later ages."

Hiding it in the famous mountains

The Records of the Grand Historian holds much plain writing about the reigning dynasty — the absurdity of Emperor Wu seeking immortality, the cruelty of the harsh officials — and Sima Qian, knowing the book could hardly be tolerated in his time, arranged to "hide it in the famous mountains, with a copy in the capital, to await the sages and gentlemen of later ages." After his death the manuscript was brought out and made public by his grandson Yang Yun in the reign of Emperor Xuan. Whether the original was ever cut is disputed to this day — but the act itself, "writing down the truth to pass to the future," became the defining spirit of the Chinese historian.

Relationships

Sovereign
🌅Emperor Wu of Han　Convicted over a single word, and disgraced by castration

Echoes today

Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.

"The swan song of historians, an unrhymed Li Sao"Lu Xun’s definitive verdict on the Records of the Grand Historian, still the standard quotation in secondary-school textbooks.

Appears in

The Qin and Han EmpiresSima Qian Writes the Records of the Grand Historian
← Back to Figures