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| Sima Qian and the Record of
the Great Historian |
 Life
Story of Sima Qian
From ancient times the Chinese seem to have had a deep
love and respect for history. Historical works were
valued and studied by all scholars and rulers. From
the earliest dynasties there were official historians
in the court. It was their duty to make faithful records
of important events that happened in their day. Confucius
helped to develop this sense of history by editing the
Spring and Autumn Annals, in which he gave appraisals
to important historical figures and events. Another
book, the Book of History, of the five Confucian classics,
is also a work of history. In ancient China, history
not only provided information about the past, but also
gave political and moral instruction. Several historical
works were produced in the pre-Qin period, but no attempt
was ever made to compile a comrehensive history of the
entire past of the nation. The first work of this type
was written by Sima Qian of the Western Han. He was
the son of an official historian called Sima Tan. On
his deathbed the father asked the son to do what he
had desired but failed to do-writing a history dealing
with all the past events of the whole nation, and the
son promised to do that. Sima Qian was appointed the
Grand Historian of the court three years after his father's
death. Before this he had travelled far and wide in
the country, collecting material for the book he was
to write. In his official postion he was able to read
the books and documents stored in the court. He began
writing his book in 104 BC. Five years later, for some
reason he incurred the anger of the emperor (Wu Di),
who made him suffer the punishment of castration. He
decided to put up with the shame instead of committing
suicide, because he was determined to complete his great
work, which he did in 92 BC. Not long after that he
died. TOP
The Record of the Great Historian
Records of the Grand Historian, which he wrote, consists
of five parts, 130 chapters, in half a million words.
The five parts are: Basic Annals, Chronological Tables,
Treatises, Hereditary Houses, and Biographies. The first,
fourth and fifth parts deal with emperors, big feudal
families and famous men respectively. The Chronological
Tables are essays devoted to the history and description
of various subjects, such as rites, music, and the economy.
With minor changes, this arrangement was followed by
almost all later official historians in writing dynastic
histories. The book was the first general history published
in China, and possibly in the whole world. It covers
the major events and personalities of nearly 3,000 years,
from the Yellow Emperor down to the writer's day. The
book has greaat literary value, for it is written in
an excellent style. It strenthened the relationship
between history and literature. All kinds of people
are described in it: emperors and ministers, sages and
philosophers, generals and adventures, assasins and
criminals. Their biographies are very color- ful and
full of life, with a lot of conversations in direct
speech. They have the charm of fiction.
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