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The '''''Records of the Grand Historian''''' or the '''''Records of the Grand Historian of China''''' was the ''opus magnum'' of
Sima Qian, in which he recounted
Chinese history from the time of the mythical
Yellow Emperor until his own time. ''Records of the Grand Historian'' is a modern Western name; The original
Chinese title is '''史記''' (
pinyin: shi ji), which means "Historical Records". As the first systematic Chinese historical text, it tremendously influenced Chinese historiography and prose, and is comparable to
Herodotus and his ''Historiai''.
The 130-chapter text classifies all information into several categories:
# 12 chapters of '''Benji''' ('''本紀''' pinyin ben3ji4) contain all biographies of the prominent rulers from the mythical
Yellow Emperor including
Qin Shi Huang Di and the kings of
Xia dynasty,
Shang dynasty and
Zhou Dynasty. The biograhies of four emperors and one empress dowager of the
Han Dynasty before his age are also included.
# 30 chapters of '''Shijia''' ('''世家''' pinyin shi4 jia1) contain all biograghies of notable rulers, nobility and bureaucrats mostly from the
Spring and Autumn Period and
Period of the Warring States.
# 70 chapters of '''Liezhuan''' ('''列傳''' pinyin lie4 zhuan4) contain all biographies of important figures including
Lao zi,
Mocius,
Sun Tzu and
Jing Ke.
# 8 chapters of '''Shu''' ('''書''' pinyin shu1) are the economic and cultural records of the time covered in the book.
# 10 chapters of '''Biao''' ('''表''' pinyin biao3) are
timelines of events
Unlike subsequent official historical texts that adopted
Confucian doctrine, proclaimed the divine rights of the emperors, and degraded any failed claimant of the throne, Sima Qian's more liberal and objective prose had been renowned and followed by poets and novelists. Most chapters of Liezhuan were vivid descriptions of events and persons, a reason for which is that the author critically used stories passed on from antiquity as part of the sources, balancing reliability and accuracy of the records. For instance, the material on Jing Ke's assassination of Qin Shi Huang Di was an eye-witness story passed on by the great-grandfather of his father's friend, who served as a low-ranked bureaucrat at
Qin court and happened to be attending the diplomatic ceremony for Jing Ke.
==English Translation==
*Ssu-ma Ch'ien, ''Records of the grand historian of China. Translated from the Shih chi of Ssu-ma Ch'ien by Burton Watson.'' New York: Columbia University Press, 1961,
ISBN 0231081650
*Various titles by
Burton Watson.
See also:
Twenty-Four Historiesko:사마천의 사기
ja:史記
zh-tw:史記
zh-cn:史记
