Sima Qian
| Sima Qian's names | ||
|---|---|---|
| Given name | Style name | |
| Traditional | 司馬遷 | 子長 |
| Simplified | 司马迁 | 子长 |
| Pinyin | Sīmǎ Qiān | Zichang |
| Wade-Giles | Ssŭma Ch'ien | Tzu-ch'ang |
Sima Qian (BC 145-about BC 90), the Prefect of the Grand Scribes (太史令) in the Han Dynasty, is regarded as the father of Chinese historiography. He was a historian, as well as an astrologer. He was praised for his work of the Shiji (史記), which is the the first official record of the general history of China, covering more than two thousand years of history from Yellow Emperor to Emperor Han Wudi, as well as the Taichuli (太初曆), one of the most advanced calendars of his time.
Biography of Sima Qian
A portrait drawing of Sima Qian ( Source:Journey to the east[[1]])
Early life and Education
Sima Qian was born and grew up in Longmen near the present-day Hancheng. He was raised in a family of historiographers. His father, Sima Tan (司馬談) served also as the Prefect of the Grand Scribes of Emperor Han Wudi. His main responsibilities were managing the imperial library and calendar. Under the influence of his father, at the age of 10, Sima Qian was already well versed in old writings. He was the student of the famous Confucians Kong Anguo (孔安國) and Dong Zhongshu (董仲舒).
Travels
At his 20, with the support of his father, Sima Qian started a journey through the country. In this journey, Sima Qian collected the useful first-hand historical records for his main work, the Shiji. The purpose of his journey was to verify the ancient rumor and legends and to visit ancient monuments, including the renowned graves of the ancient sage kings Yu and Shun. Places he had visited include Shandong, Yunnan, Hebei, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Jiangxi and Hunan.
Succeeding his father
After his travels, he was chosen to be a Palace Attendant (郎中, Lang Zhong) in the government. As a Palace Attendant, his duties were mainly to inspect different places of the country with Emperor Han Wudi. Later in 110 BC, at the age of 35, Sima Qian was sent westward on a military expedition against some "barbarian" tribes.
In 110 BC, Sima Tan fell ill for not being allowed to attend the imperial Feng Sacrifice. Suspecting his time was running out, he summoned his son and ordered him back to carry on the family tradition, that is, to complete the historical work he had begun. Sima Tan had the ambition to follow the Annals of Spring and Autumn and to continue to recount the history. Therefore, in 109 BC, Sima Qian started to compile the Shiji and inherited his father's inspiration.
Li Ling Affair
Other than a senior imperial official, Sima Qian was also in the position to offer counsel to the emperor on general affairs of the state. In 99 BC, Sima Qian got involved into the Li Ling (李陵)affair. Li Guangli (李廣利) and Li Ling, the military officers, were ordered to lead a campaign against the Xiongnu(匈奴)in the north. The army of Li Ling was defeat by the Xiongnu and was taken captive. This military failure aroused the wrath of Emperor Han Wudi who attributed the defeat to Li Ling. When all the officials in the government condemned Li Ling for the defeat, Sima Qian was the only person who defended Li Ling, who had never been his friend but whom he respected. Emperor Han Wudi thought Sima Qian’s defence for Li Ling was an attack on Wudi's brother-in-law who was fighting against Xiongnu without much success. Because of Sima Qian’s defence for Li Ling, he was sentenced to death. At that time, execution could be replaced either by money or mutilation (i.e. castration). Although political corruption was widespread throughout the country, Sima Qian devoted all his energy to writing Shiji and he did not have enough money to atone his fault. Without any choice, Sima Qian chose the latter.
Contribution on the later development of journalism
Shiji’s influence over Chinese historiography was tremendous. Sima Qian’s Shiji is the first official general history of China and it is the first book in the Twenty-Four Histories (《二十四史》). His way of writing Shiji not only affected the later historians in China, more importantly, from the journalistic perspective, the writing process of Shiji had actually undergone "The three levels of reporting" and has a tremendous influence on journalism in later generations. It is no exaggeration to say that Sima Qian was the "Pioneer of journalism".
Level 1 Collecting information
The historical data in Shiji was mainly derived from three main sources. Firstly, from documents and books found in the Imperial Library, including authoritative sources like The Six Classics(《六經》),Analects of Confucius(《論語》), Mencius(《孟子》) and Zhanguoce(《戰國策》). Secondly, from manuscripts that inherited from Sima Tan. Thirdly, from firsthand data collected by Sima Qian through travelling the relics.
Level 2 Verifying information
Sima Qian insisted on the truthfulness of the data and would not put an unproven data in Shiji. That is why he used the firsthand data that he collected during his travels to verify the truthfulness of the ancient rumours and legends. For instance, he had been to the birthplace of Confucius and the place where mythical Yellow Emperor rose to power.
Level 3 analysing information
Sima Qian analysed the historical records and sorted out those which could serve the purpose of Shiji. He intended to find out the patterns and principals of the development of human history by writing Shiji so as to find out the relationship between heavenly law and human. That is why Sima Qian adopted a new method in sorting out the historical data and a new approach in writing the historial record.
He also paid great attention to trim the superflous parts. For instance, he avoided mentioning deity and supernatural subjects as these could not be verified, except in the first few books of Benji. However, he paid special attention in recording the social culture as well as the life of people in different social strata in order to draw lessons from the past and criticize the present.
Sima Qian evaluates his work in the ‘Grand Historian Remarks’. Here it speaks on the validity of his narrative, confirming related sources, as well as bringing the author's voice - including his father - to the reader, providing a critical analysis of his work.
Sima Qian and his Shiji had a tremendous influence on Chinese historiography and prose, well comparable to Herodotus and his Historiai.
Meeting the elements of Journalism
Though Shiji was written thousands of years ago, it is actually a role model of journalistic articles as it fulfils some of the elements of journalism, which makes its tremendous influence timeless.
Journalism's first obligation to the truth
Sima Qian not only visited the relics in person to verify the truthfulness of the rumours and historical data, he also aimed to reveal the truth in writing Shiji. Unlike the historical records of the previous dynasty, Shiji not only covered those of high rank but every strata in the society so as to form the true picture of the history. For instance, he wrote 'Biography of Assassinators' and 'Biography of Chivalrous Men' in order to reflect the history comprehensively from different angles.
Pursuit in objectivity
It is not difficult to see that Sima Qian had maintained a neutral attitude in his writing. In Shiji, which is not exactly a journalistic literature, his effort in balancing different opinions is reflected. One example is that he had appreciated the achievement of Emperor Han Gaozu in unifying the country, meanwhile criticizing his cunning and dishonest personality. Reference can be made in http://www.twbm.com/window/liter/chlit/ch2/ch2_7.htm.
Sima Qian also adopted an objective method in the selection of data. In "Chronology of Six Kingdoms", he stated that as the chronological order of the Six Kingdoms is so confused that he would not take any unproven data as real. Besides, in dealing with the data that could not be proven, Sima Qian clearly listed out all versions by using the word "or".
Maintain independence from those covered
Unlike Ban Gu's(班固)Hanshu (漢書),which was written under the supervision of the Imperial Dynasty, Shiji was a privately written historiography. Though Sima Qian was the Prefect of the Grand Scribes in the Han government, he refused to write Shiji as an official historiography. That is why Shiji not only covered those of high rank but also people of lower class so as to portray the darker side of the dynasty. Besides, the language used in Shiji was more neutral and objective as compared with Hanshu, which was written in the interest of the Imperial government.
Significance of his life
The greatest historian
From the selection of historical data to the completion of Shiji, Sima Qian used 15 years in writing Shiji.
In writing Shiji, Sima Qian initiated a new writing style by presenting history in a series of biographies. Before Sima Qian, histories were written as a dynastic history, his idea of a general history affected later historiographers like Zhengqiao(鄭樵) in writing Tongci(通史) and Sima Guang(司馬光) in writing Zizhi Tongjian(資治通鑑). Sima Qian also affected the writing style of histories in other places, like 'The History of Korea', which was written as a general history.
Although the style and form of Chinese historical writing varied through the ages, Sima Qian’s Shiji had since dictated the proceeding quality and style. Not only is this due to the fact that Chinese historical form was codified in the second dynastic history by Ban Gu’s [Pan Ku’s] History of the Han (Han Shu), but historians actually seek Sima Qian’s work as their model, which stood as also the ‘official’ history of China.
Sima Qian and his Shiji had a tremendous influence on Chinese historiography and prose, well comparable to the entire Old Testament in the Bible, Herodotus and his Historiai
A literary author
Sima Qian's Shiji is respected as a model of biographical literature and has high literary value.
Skillful Depiction
Its artistry is mainly reflected in the skillful portrait of many distinctive characters which are based on true historical information. Sima Qian is also good at illustrating the response of the character by placing him in a sharp confrontation and letting his words and deeds speak for him. The use of a large proportion conservation also helps to make the descriptions sound more realistic.
Innovative Approach
Sima Qian also initiated a new approach in writing historiography. He made his own comments while recounting the historical events. In writing the biographies in Shiji, he avoided making general descriptions. Instead, he tried to catch the essence of the events and portrayed the characters concretely and thus the characters in Shiji give the readers a vivid image with strong artistic appeal.
Concise Language
Sima Qian formed his own simple, concise, fluent and easy-to-read style. The language used in Shiji is informal, humorous and full of variations. This is an innovative way of writing. Therefore it has always been esteemed as the highest achievement of classical Chinese writing and even Lu Xun(魯迅) respected Shiji as 'the peak of poetic perfection' in his Zhongguo Xiaoshuo Shilue(中國小說史略).
Influence to Literature
The simplicity and power of Sima Qian’s writing style was influential to Chinese historical writing, which would become a model for various types of prose within the neo-classical (fu gu [fu kku]) movement of the Tang-Song [Tang-Sung] period. The great use of characterization and plotting also influenced fictional writing, including the classical short stories of the middle and late medieval times (Tang-Ming [T'ang-Ming]), as well as the vernacular novel of the late imperial times. The Records up till today still stands as a ‘textbook’ for studies of the classical Chinese worldwide.
Other works
Apart from Shiji, Sima Qian had written eight rhapsodies(Fu賦), which compiled in Ban Gu's Hanshu. Sima Qian expressed his suffering during Li Ling Affair and his perseverance in writing Shiji in these rhapsodies.
An astrologer
Sima Tan and his son Sima Qian were both court astrologers(taishi)太史 in the Former Han Dynasty. At that time, astrologer was an important post because they were responsible for interpreting and predicting the course of government according to the influence of the Sun, Moon, stars, as well as phenomena like sun eclipses, earthquakes, etc.
Before compiling Shiji, in 104 BC, with the help of his colleagues, Sima Qian created 'Taichuli' (which can be translated 'The first calendar') on the basis of Qin calendar. Taichuli was one of the most advanced calendars of the time as it stated that there were 365.25 days in a year and 29.53 days in a month. The creation of Taichuli was regarded as a revolution in the Chinese calendar tradition.
Books about Sima Qian in English
Records of the grand historian of China (Burton Watson). New York: Columbia University Press, 1961.
Records of the Historians (Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang). Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 1974.