Sima Qian

Sima Qian
司馬遷
Born	c. 145 BC Longmen, Han dynasty (now Hancheng, Shaanxi)
Died	c. 86 BC
Occupations	Historian astronomer astrologer poet
Known for	Records of the Grand Historian
Relatives	Sima Tan (father)
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	司馬遷
Simplified Chinese	司马迁
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Sīmǎ Qiān Bopomofo ㄙ ㄇㄚˇ ㄑㄧㄢ Wade–Giles Ssŭ1-ma3 Ch'ien1 IPA [sɹ̩́.mà tɕʰjɛ́n] Wu Shanghainese Romanization Sy-ma Tshie Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Sī-máh Chīn Jyutping Si1 maa5 Cin1 IPA [si˥.ma˩˧ tsʰin˥] Southern Min Hokkien POJ Su-má Chhian Tâi-lô Su-má Tshian Middle Chinese Middle Chinese Sɨ-mæX Tshjen  Old Chinese Baxter–Sagart (2014) *s-lə mˤraʔ [tsʰ]ar
Courtesy name
Traditional Chinese	子長
Simplified Chinese	子长
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zǐzhǎng Bopomofo ㄗˇ ㄓㄤˇ Wade–Giles Tzu3-chang3 IPA [tsɹ̩̀.ʈʂàŋ] Wu Shanghainese Romanization Tsy-tsan Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Jí-jéung Jyutping Zi2 zoeng2 IPA [tsi˧˥.tsœŋ˧˥] Southern Min Hokkien POJ Tzú-tiúnn Middle Chinese Middle Chinese TsɨX-drɨang Old Chinese Baxter–Sagart (2014) *tsəʔ Cə-[N]-traŋ

Sima Qian (Chinese: 司馬遷; ([sɹ̩́mà tɕʰjɛ́n]); c. 145 – c. 86 BC) was a Chinese historian during the early Han dynasty. He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his Records of the Grand Historian, a general history of China covering more than two thousand years beginning from the rise of the legendary Yellow Emperor and the formation of the first Chinese polity to the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, during which Sima wrote. As the first universal history of the world as it was known to the ancient Chinese, the Records of the Grand Historian served as a model for official history-writing for subsequent Chinese dynasties and the Sinosphere in general until the 20th century.^[1]

Sima Qian's father, Sima Tan, first conceived of the ambitious project of writing a complete history of China, but had completed only some preparatory sketches at the time of his death. After inheriting his father's position as court historian in the imperial court, he was determined to fulfill his father's dying wish of composing and putting together this epic work of history. However, in 99 BC, he would fall victim to the Li Ling affair for speaking out in defense of the general, who was blamed for an unsuccessful campaign against the Xiongnu. Given the choice of being executed or castrated, he chose the latter in order to finish his historical work. Although he is universally remembered for the Records, surviving works indicate that he was also a gifted poet and prose writer, and he was instrumental in the creation of the Taichu calendar, which was officially promulgated in 104 BC.

Sima was acutely aware of the importance of his work to posterity and its relationship to his own personal suffering. In the postface of the Records, he implicitly compared his universal history of China to the classics of his day, the Guoyu by Zuo Qiuming, "Li Sao" by Qu Yuan, and the Art of War by Sun Bin, pointing out that their authors all suffered great personal misfortunes before their lasting monumental works could come to fruition. Sima Qian is also depicted in the Wu Shuang Pu by Jin Guliang.