Sima Qian Research Paper

Sima Qian was a very important man in Chinese history. He was born in 145 BC in Longmen, Xiayang(Current day Hancheng, Shaanxi province) during the Han Dynasty. He was the Grand Astrologer in the Imperial Court of Emperor Wu. Through this position, he had access to the Imperial Archives, so he started collecting fragments of history, and piece them together creating a better, more organized, and understood records of China’s past. This made him the father of Chinese Historiography, but this didn’t happen automatically, he didn’t have an outstanding life, it actually contained quite a bit of sadness and loss.

Sima Qian’s father, Sima Tan, was a very important person in Qian’s life. Infact, he was really the only important person to him (that we know of). Tan was also the Grand Astrologer of the Imperial Court. He was working on a big project, the very thing that Qian finished, and is famous for. The day came, when Qian’s father died, it struck him
“The Records of the Grand Historian”. This book was almost literally as long as the Bible, over ½ a million chinese characters, all written down but one man. This book took him over a decade to make and contained the histories of the first ruler of China to the end of the Han Dynasty. Now, he technically didn’t “write” all this. He took fragments of the past that he had and put them in a more orderly and understood manner. This book represented everything that was important to him, and most importantly, his father.

Sima Qian was an outstanding individual, and was a very important man in Chinese history. Though he died in 87 BC , his legacy lives on, by providing the early history of China. Without him, and his works, we probably wouldn’t have all the history presented so clearly and whole. I think that it’s truly amazing that he chose something so disgraceful to happen to him in order to achieve the dream of his father, keeping his