Thinker · TH-0382
Sima Qian
Sima Qian was a Chinese historian of the Western Han dynasty who succeeded his father as Grand Historian at the court in Chang'an. After…
司馬遷
Also known as Ssu-ma Ch'ien, the Grand Historian
c. 145 – 86 BCE · Longmen (Xiayang); Chang'an
Traditions: Chinese
Sima Qian was a Chinese historian of the Western Han dynasty who succeeded his father as Grand Historian at the court in Chang'an. After defending a disgraced general he was sentenced to castration, and chose to endure it in order to complete his work. His Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) covers Chinese history from legendary times to his own day and established historiography as a discipline with a method, combining annals, tables, treatises and biographies, and weighing sources critically.
Key ideas
- History should be written from critically compared sources, documents and travel.
- Annals, tables, treatises, hereditary houses and biographies together give a full picture of an age.
- The historian judges character and conduct, including that of rulers.
- Fortune and virtue do not always coincide, which history must record honestly.
Major works
- Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji 史記)
- Letter to Ren An (報任安書)
In the conversation
- Reading group Reading group: Sima Qian’s postface and his letter to Ren An
- Debate The fall of Qin refutes Legalism itself, not merely its excesses
In the Coordinates
The questions of philosophy where Sima Qian takes a place, from The Coordinates of Thought.
- 6.6 Philosophy of History Is history going anywhere?