Sima Qian and Records of the Grand Historian

Sima Qian (c. 145 BC-87 BC), with the courtesy name of Zichang, lived in the Western Han Dynasty. He began to read classics in his childhood, travelled around China at the age of 20, toured with Emperor Wu many times, was ordered to serve as an envoy in the southwest, and succeeded his father as the Court Astrologer at the age of 38. Sima Qian's completion of Records of the Grand Historian was closely related to these spot surveys, his life experiences, his thorough understanding of ancient and current history, his familiarity with cultural classics and customs, his knowledge about astronomy, geography and ethnic customs, etc.

In the 2nd year of the Tianhan Period (99 BC), Sima Qian was imprisoned for defending Li Ling's defeat and surrender to Huns, and suffered humiliating castration. After being released from prison, Sima Qian continued to write Records of the Grand Historian despite his mental and physical agony. Imprisonment and humiliation greatly influenced Sima Qian's life and his writing of Records of the Grand Historian. In this period, he wrote a famous article entitled Letter to Ren An to recount Emperor Wu's lack of sympathy with pain, expose jailers' cruelty, analyze people's snobbishness and unreservedly express the attitude and purpose of writing Records of the Grand Historian: the history of more than 3,000 years recorded by Records of the Grand Historian is for "investigating patterns of the nature and human society and understanding the changes of both ancient times and present." This shows that Sima Qian wrote Records of the Grand Historian to explore great changes in the history of 3,000 years and probe into the causes and consequences of these changes. It not only records history, but also contemplates and reflects on history.

The style of Sima Qian's book Records of the Grand Historian, his attitude towards treatment of history and his articles' literary form were all of important pioneering significance and exerted far-reaching influence on later generations.

First, the first biographical history Records of the Grand Historian systematically and comprehensively reveals historical events, describes and depicts historical figures' images and exposes the essence and connotations of historical development from the five aspects of imperial biographies, treatises, tables, biographies of the feudal houses and eminent persons, and biographies and collective biographies. Among them, imperial biographies, biographies of the feudal houses and eminent persons, and biographies and collective biographies are the main lines of Records of the Grand Historian focusing on people and events. Besides, "treatises" in Records of the Grand Historian mainly record important laws of past dynasties and their development; "tables" mainly include chronological tables of important events and chronological tables of people.

Another main aspect of the value of Records of the Grand Historian is Sima Qian's attitude of treating and recording history truthfully "without overstating virtues and understating evils," his critical spirit, and his clear understanding of what to love and what to hate. Sima Qian treated historical materials meticulously and cautiously, recording true materials, omitting false ones and leaving space between truth and falsehood. Thanks to this attitude and practice of refusing to fabricate history and mislead later generations, materials with true referential value were left to later people. In writing Records of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian never concealed his clear subjective emotions and value judgments, and manifested his intention of taking the past as a mirror of the present throughout the book. He ruthlessly denounced and criticized those deceitful, crafty, dissolute, selfish, cruel and shameless people in history, and even sharply criticized Liu Bang, the highest ruler of the Han Dynasty, and he warmly praised and eulogized those knights-errant true in word and resolute in deed, those honest people who were slandered because of their loyalty and died without regret, and those righteous people who valued justice more than life and died as martyrs. These praise and disparage embody Sima Qian's character, belief and social ideal.

Photo of Records of the Grand Historian

Another prominent aspect of the value of Records of the Grand Historian is its literary achievements. It not only narrates events vividly with concise language, but also depicts people with emphasis. This represents great development in comparison with past historical books such as Chronicle of Zuo and Strategies of the Warring States. Throughout Records of the Grand Historian, historical materials mostly focus on people and events, and lifelike images of people reveal true history vividly. Records of the Grand Historian not only depicts many different kinds of people, but also describes different lots and personalities of different individuals belonging to the same kind, and these people's personalities and fates make historical narratives full of ups and downs. For example, The Imperial Biography of Xiang Yu shows sudden changes in the period between the late Qin Dynasty and the early Han Dynasty through the heroic but tragic life of Xiang Yu. Sima Qian made efforts to shape Xiang Yu's heroic image of "having strength to lift mountains and spirit to take on the world" in the article, and meanwhile did not avoid the weaknesses in his personality such as violence, bloodthirstiness, suspicion and foolhardiness. Sima Qian, despite his in-depth criticism of these tragic people, more often felt sorry for and sympathized with them. The section "Hongmen Banquet" vividly describes many people with different shapes and personalities and fascinating dramatic conflicts arising one after another, and can be called a classic literary description.

Modern Chinese writer Lu Xun (1881 — 1936) called Records of the Grand Historian "the unique work of all historians, the songs of Qu Yuan without rhyme," highly confirming the historical and literary value of Records of the Grand Historian.