author
Qian Sima
A pioneering historian of the Han dynasty, he transformed China’s past into vivid narrative and biography. His masterpiece, the Shiji or Records of the Grand Historian, shaped the way Chinese history would be written for centuries.
1 Audiobook
史記
by Qian Sima
About the author
Born around 145 BCE, Sima Qian served at the Han court and inherited the post of Grand Historian from his father, Sima Tan. That role gave him access to official records, astronomy, and court life, and it also deepened his ambition to create a sweeping history of China.
His great work, the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian), traces more than two thousand years of history, from legendary rulers to his own time. Rather than writing a simple chronicle, he combined biographies, annals, and thematic chapters, giving later generations a model for historical writing and earning a lasting reputation as the father of Chinese historiography.
Sima Qian is also remembered for the personal cost behind his work. After defending a disgraced general, he was punished at court, yet he continued writing and completed the history he believed he owed to both his father and the truth of the past. That determination helps give his writing its unusual moral force and human depth.