The Birth of Sima Qian (145 B.C.)

Sima Qian was born in 145 B.C. His role is vital to Chinese culture because he wrote the first cumulative history of China. Prior to his endeavor, most of thewritten hisotries about the dynasties were written by a particular dynasty’ssucessor, ensuring a skewed view of the previous government.

Sima Qian began his 130 chapter epic history with a chapter called “BasicAnnals of the Five Emperors” addressing the dawn of Chinese history. Hethen wrote about the Qin, Shang and Zhao Dynasties and continued all the wayto the reign of Han Wudi. The history included not only important events butalso important personages; he even talked about non-Han Chinese peoples. Thishistory is important because there are few surviving texts from earlier periods.The Qin dynasty bibliocaust compounded this problem—both for Sima Qianand later scholars.

The goal to complete this history was not his own idea – but that of hisfather, Sima Tan, who charged his son on his death bed with its completion. Later,Sima Qian’s promise brought about personal tragedy. When Sima Qian spokeout in defense of the disgraced general Li Ling to the emperor, Sima Qian wassentenced to death. Sima Qian, unable to commute his sentence with ransom, pleadedfor leniency and was given the choice between suicide and castration. Althoughit was the more shameful of the two punishments, Sima Qian chose castration inorder to finish the history, accepting personal humiliation for the sake of filialpiety. (Lydia Jung)

Patricia B. Ebrey, The Cambridge Illustrated History of China (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1996).

Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian: The Qin Dynasty, trans. Burton Watson(New York and Hong Kong: Columbia University and Chinese University of Hong Kong,1993).

Last modified: October 15, 2004