Biography
Sima Qian was born at Longmen on the Yellow River (present-day Hancheng, Shaanxi) around the transition from the reign of Emperor Jing to that of Emperor Wu of the Western Han. His family traced a long lineage. Its remote ancestry was said to reach back to the Chong and Li line of celestial officials in the age of Zhuanxu. His ninth-generation ancestor Sima Cuo was a noted Qin general of the Warring States period who debated Zhang Yi over the strategy of conquering Shu, an episode recorded in the “Qin Strategies” of the *Strategies of the Warring States*. His grandfather Sima Xi obtained the ninth-rank title of Wudafu under Emperor Wen of Han by contributing four thousand shi of grain, which exempted the family from corvée labor.
His father Sima Tan was learned in astronomy and calendrical calculation. He studied celestial administration under Tang Du, received instruction in the *Book of Changes* from Yang He, and studied Daoist thought under Master Huang. During the Jianyuan era of Emperor Wu he served as Grand Historian. Sima Tan was broadly learned and wrote the “Essential Discussion of the Six Schools,” a systematic assessment of the Yin-Yang, Confucian, Mohist, School of Names, Legalist, and Daoist traditions. His scholarship had a profound influence on Sima Qian's intellectual development.
Sima Qian learned reading and writing under his father's guidance from childhood. By age ten he could read and recite ancient-text works including the *Book of Documents*, *Zuo Tradition*, *Discourses of the States*, and *Shiben*. In his youth at the family's Longmen home he combined study with farming and herding. After Sima Tan became Grand Historian, Sima Qian followed him to the capital Chang'an. At his father's arrangement, he studied the Gongyang interpretation of the *Spring and Autumn Annals* under Dong Zhongshu and consulted Kong Anguo on difficult points in the ancient-text *Book of Documents*, thereby building a strong foundation in the classics and historiography.
In 126 BCE, the third year of the Yuanshuo era, the twenty-year-old Sima Qian began a wide-ranging journey under his father's instructions. Leaving Chang'an, he passed through Wuguan to Wan, traveled south through Xiangfan to Jiangling, crossed the Yangtze and followed the Yuan River into western Hunan, then turned southeast to Mount Jiuyi and north to Changsha, where he visited Miluo to mourn at the place where Qu Yuan had drowned himself. He crossed Dongting Lake, returned to the Yangtze, traveled downstream, climbed Mount Lu to inspect the legendary works by which Yu controlled the Nine Rivers, proceeded to Qiantang, and ascended Kuaiji to investigate Yu's cave. Returning through Wu, he visited the palace remains of Lord Chunshen and climbed Gusu to look out over the Five Lakes. He then crossed the Yangtze northward, passed Huaiyin, and traveled to Linzi and Qufu to investigate the culture of Qi and Lu and observe the legacy of Confucius. He encountered difficulties around Po, Xue, and Pengcheng, then followed sites associated with figures of the Qin-Han transition and battlefields of the Chu-Han struggle, passing through Pengcheng, Pei, Feng, Dang, and Suiyang before returning by way of Liang (present-day Kaifeng, Henan). These years of travel exposed him to regional customs, historical sites, and a large body of local traditions and oral accounts, providing rich firsthand material for his later writing of *Records of the Grand Historian*.
After returning from his travels, Sima Qian entered government service as a palace gentleman, aided by his father's position. In 111 BCE, the sixth year of the Yuanding era, Marquis Chiyi He Yi was ordered to pacify the Southwestern Yi. Han forces captured Qielan and subdued the Southern Yi, Yelang submitted, and the Han established five commanderies: Wudu, Zangke, Yuexi, Shenli, and Wenshan. Emperor Wu then sent Sima Qian on a mission south of Ba and Shu to organize the newly established commanderies. He subsequently pacified Qiong, Zuo, and Kunming before returning to court the following year.
In the spring of 110 BCE, the first year of the Yuanfeng era, Emperor Wu traveled east toward Bohai and performed the feng and shan sacrifices at Mount Tai. Sima Tan, who had participated in planning the ceremonial program, was detained by illness at Zhounan (present-day Luoyang) and could not attend. Deeply frustrated, his illness worsened. After completing his southwestern mission, Sima Qian hurried toward Mount Tai, but in Luoyang he encountered his father on his deathbed.
Sima Tan took his son's hand and wept. Recalling that their ancestors had served the Zhou as grand historians and hereditary celestial officials, he charged Sima Qian to continue the family vocation and complete the historical work. He said: “When I die, you will surely become Grand Historian. When you become Grand Historian, do not forget what I wished to set forth in writing.” He also invoked Confucius's compilation of the *Spring and Autumn Annals* to emphasize the historian's responsibility. Sima Qian bowed his head in tears and replied: “Though I am not talented, I ask to set forth fully the old accounts arranged by my father and dare omit nothing.”
In 108 BCE, the third year of the Yuanfeng era, Sima Qian succeeded his father as Grand Historian. His official position gave him access to texts in the imperial collection and enabled him to gather lost accounts from across the realm as systematic preparation for his history. In 104 BCE, the first year of the Taichu era, he joined Grand Master of Remonstrance Gongsun Qing, Husui, the celestial observer She Xing, calendrical specialist Deng Ping, fangshi Tang Du, Luoxia Hong, and several dozen others in formulating the Taichu Calendar. By making the first lunar month the beginning of the year, they changed the Qin-era system that had treated the tenth month as the beginning of the year and established a calendrical framework that influenced the following two millennia. Sima Qian then formally began composing *Records of the Grand Historian*.
In 99 BCE, the second year of the Tianhan era, Li Ling, grandson of the general Li Guang, volunteered to attack the Xiongnu. Leading five thousand infantry deep into the northern steppe, he encountered eighty thousand cavalry under the Chanyu. His troops fought for days until their arrows were exhausted, their route was cut off, and reinforcements failed to arrive; they were defeated and Li Ling was captured. Emperor Wu was enraged, while officials at court broadly declared that Li Ling had surrendered as a traitor and that his entire family deserved execution. Sima Qian had no close personal relationship with Li Ling, but he believed that Li Ling “was naturally a remarkable man, filial toward his parents, trustworthy with officers, incorruptible in matters of wealth, righteous in giving and receiving, yielding in distinctions, respectful and frugal toward inferiors, and constantly ready to sacrifice himself for the urgent needs of the state.” He argued that Li Ling's surrender had occurred only because “his arrows were exhausted, his path was cut off, and relief troops did not arrive,” and that “the enemies he destroyed were enough for his achievement to be known throughout the realm.” Sima Qian hoped that Li Ling “intended to find an appropriate opportunity to repay the Han.”
Sima Qian's frank defense angered Emperor Wu. The emperor interpreted it as an indirect attack on Li Guangli, the commander of the campaign and brother of the emperor's favored Lady Li, and thus as criticism of his own appointments. In 98 BCE, the third year of the Tianhan era, Sima Qian was imprisoned and sentenced to death for “deceiving and slandering” the throne. At that time there were two ways to commute a death sentence: paying 500,000 cash or undergoing castration. Sima Qian was poor and could not afford redemption. Because *Records of the Grand Historian* remained unfinished and he was determined to fulfill his father's dying wish, he accepted castration. In his “Letter in Reply to Ren An,” he later wrote in anguish: “No disaster is more painful than the desire for advantage; no sorrow is more grievous than a wounded heart; no conduct is uglier than bringing shame upon one's ancestors; and no disgrace is greater than castration. Those left after punishment are beyond counting, and this has not been so for only one age.”
In 96 BCE, the first year of the Taishi era, Sima Qian was released and appointed Director of the Palace Secretariat. The office handled confidential matters and gave close access to the emperor, but because it was commonly held by eunuchs the appointment was itself humiliating to Sima Qian. He nevertheless endured the indignity and concentrated all his effort on completing *Records of the Grand Historian*, persisting through arduous writing until the work was finished.
Historical sources do not clearly record the year or circumstances of Sima Qian's death. The Eastern Han scholar Wei Hong wrote in the *Notes on the Old Institutions of the Book of Han*: “Sima Qian, in writing the ‘Basic Annals of Emperor Jing,’ spoke at length of the emperor's shortcomings and of Emperor Wu's faults. Emperor Wu was angered and deleted it. Later, because he spoke in support of Li Ling after Li Ling surrendered to the Xiongnu, Qian was sent to the silkworm chamber. He uttered resentful words and was imprisoned and died.” This account therefore held that he ultimately died in prison after making resentful remarks. Another view places his death around 86 BCE, the first year of the Shiyuan era of Emperor Zhao of Han; still another claims that after finishing *Records of the Grand Historian* he withdrew into the countryside and that his final fate is unknown. Wang Guowei, in *A Chronological Study of the Life of the Grand Historian*, concluded that the date of death “absolutely cannot be determined... yet regarding his life as roughly beginning and ending with the reign of Emperor Wu is probably not far wrong.”