Sima Qian and the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji)

Sima Qian was a court official of the Han dynasty who wrote the Shiji, or Records of the Grand Historian, the first comprehensive history of China. Working in the capital, Chang’an, from about 104 to 91 BC, he traced events from the legendary Yellow Emperor to his own day in 130 chapters. He completed it after suffering castration as punishment for offending Emperor Wu, and his work became the model for Chinese historical writing for two thousand years.

Background: a family of historians

Sima Qian was born in Longmen, near modern Hancheng in Shaanxi, in about 145 BC; some scholars argue for 135 BC, and the date remains disputed. His father, Sima Tan, held the post of taishi ling, usually translated Grand Historian or Grand Astrologer. The office combined astronomy and calendar-making with keeping court records.

Sima Tan planned to write a history that would bring together the records of the past, from the time of Confucius’s Spring and Autumn Annals onward. As a young man Sima Qian studied the classics and, at about 20, travelled widely through central and southern China, visiting historic sites, including places linked to Confucius and the founders of the Han.

In 110 BC Sima Tan fell ill. According to the postface of the Shiji, he begged his son to continue his work, saying that failing to record the deeds of worthy rulers and loyal ministers would be a great crime against history. Sima Qian promised to do so.

The Grand Historian at work

Sima Qian succeeded his father as Grand Historian in about 108 BC. He gained access to the imperial library and archives, which held histories of the old states, genealogies, edicts and documents. In 104 BC he helped devise the new Taichu calendar, and around this time he began writing in earnest.

He drew on a wide range of sources: the Confucian classics, the Zuo zhuan and Guoyu chronicles, the Zhanguo ce (Strategies of the Warring States), official records, and his own interviews with people who had known the founders of the Han. Where sources disagreed, he often recorded both versions or noted his doubts.

Disgrace: the Li Ling affair

In 99 BC the general Li Ling, grandson of the famous Li Guang, led 5,000 infantry deep into Xiongnu territory. After days of fighting against a much larger enemy, he surrendered. Emperor Wu was furious, and courtiers hurried to condemn the general.

When asked his view, Sima Qian spoke in Li Ling’s defence, pointing to his past loyalty and the courage of his stand. The emperor took this as an attack on his favourite commander, Li Guangli, and as deceiving the throne. Sima Qian was sentenced to death.

Under Han law, a condemned man could redeem himself with a large payment or accept castration. Sima Qian could not afford the payment and his friends did not help. Rather than take his own life, the conventional choice for a gentleman, he accepted castration, probably in 98 BC, so that he could finish his history. He was later appointed zhongshu ling, a palace secretary, an office often held by eunuchs.

The Letter to Ren An

Sima Qian’s reasons are known from a letter to his friend Ren An, written probably in 91 BC when Ren An himself was facing execution. Preserved in Ban Gu’s Book of Han, it is one of the most famous texts in Chinese literature.

In it Sima Qian describes his humiliation and explains that he chose to live because his work was unfinished. He contrasts deaths that are weighty and meaningful with those that are trivial, a passage often paraphrased as saying that death may be heavier than Mount Tai or lighter than a goose feather. He lists earlier figures who produced great works after misfortune, such as the poet Qu Yuan and the strategist Sun Bin, and says he has completed 130 chapters.

The structure of the Shiji

The Shiji contains about 526,500 characters in 130 chapters, arranged in five parts:

• 12 Basic Annals (benji): the reigns of dynasties and rulers, from the Yellow Emperor through Xia, Shang, Zhou and Qin to the Han.
• 10 Tables (biao): chronological charts of states, rulers and officials.
• 8 Treatises (shu): rites, music, calendars, astronomy, the feng and shan sacrifices, waterways and economics.
• 30 Hereditary Houses (shijia): the ruling families of states and great noble lineages, plus Confucius.
• 70 Biographies (liezhuan): individuals and groups, from statesmen and generals to assassins, merchants, jesters and foreign peoples such as the Xiongnu.

Each chapter often ends with a comment introduced by “The Grand Historian says”, in which Sima Qian gives his personal judgement.

Method and style

The Shiji’s great strength lies in its biographies. Sima Qian wrote with drama and sympathy about figures such as the general Han Xin, the failed rebel Xiang Yu, whom he placed among the Basic Annals despite his defeat, and the assassin Jing Ke, who tried to kill the future First Emperor during the unification of China by Qin.

He was willing to criticise powerful people, including, indirectly, Emperor Wu of Han. His treatise on economics questioned the emperor’s monopolies and fiscal policies, and his chapter on Emperor Wu’s sacrifices shows the ruler’s obsession with immortality.

Historians also note his limits. He included speeches and dialogues that he could not have known word for word, and his account of the earliest periods mixes history with legend.

Fate of the text

Sima Qian’s death date is unknown; he probably died around 86 BC. The Shiji circulated slowly, partly because of its sensitive content. It was made more widely known under Emperor Xuan through his grandson Yang Yun.

A few chapters were lost early on and replaced by later writers, notably the scholar Chu Shaosun in the 1st century BC. Even so, the bulk of the text is accepted as Sima Qian’s work. Major translations include Édouard Chavannes’s French version (1895–1905) and the English translations of Burton Watson.

Legacy

Ban Gu’s Book of Han, completed around AD 111, adapted Sima Qian’s structure to the history of a single dynasty. This became the standard form for the official “Twenty-Four Histories” of imperial China. The Shiji’s biographies also influenced Chinese fiction and drama for centuries.

Today Sima Qian is often compared with Herodotus as a founder of history writing. His temple and tomb at Hancheng, first built in the Western Jin period, remain a place of pilgrimage. Archaeology has partly confirmed the reliability of his work: the list of Shang kings in the Shiji closely matches names found on Shang oracle bones.

Timeline

• c. 145 BC (or 135 BC): Sima Qian born at Longmen, near Hancheng.
• 110 BC: Sima Tan dies, asking his son to complete the history.
• c. 108 BC: Sima Qian becomes Grand Historian.
• 104 BC: The Taichu calendar is adopted; the main writing begins.
• 99 BC: Sima Qian defends Li Ling and is condemned.
• c. 98 BC: He is castrated in place of execution.
• c. 91 BC: Letter to Ren An; the history is essentially complete.
• c. 86 BC: Probable date of his death.

Why it matters

The Shiji gave China a unified account of its past and a lasting method for writing history. Sima Qian’s decision to endure disgrace in order to finish it made him a symbol of integrity and dedication to truth.