Selections from Records of the Historian

Selections from Records of the Historian
-Library of Chinese Classics Chinese-English
Written by Sima Qian (Han Dynasty), edited and translated into modern Chinese by An Pingqiu, translated into English by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang

Published by Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 2008
Library binding book, dimensions 960 x 640, 1/16, 3 Volumes, 1241 pages
ISBN: 9787119050904

Written by Sima Qian of the Western Han Dynasty, the Records of the Historian was the first general history in the form of a series of biographies to appear in China. It records the history of China from the most remote past, the era of the legendary founder of the Chinese nation Huangdi (Yellow Emperor) in prehistoric China to the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. The book has 130 chapters, recording the progress of history by means of biographies of historical figures. It marked the start of biographical literature in China and had a far-reaching influence on the development of the historical and literary works of later generations. Sima Qian aimed at telling the whole truth, insofar as he could discover it, and in pursuit of that truth he scoured all available archives. As he composed his work, he included verbatim many of the records he had found, thereby providing modern historians with a wealth of documentary evidence that would otherwise have been lost, for many of the sources Sima Qian quoted, paraphrased, and cited exist today only in his history. The book is also a remarkable commentary on human pride, intrigue, strategy and revenge; it also has an eye for detail and anecdote. To cite just one case, a minister is humiliated and driven from his kingdom; and ultimately takes revenge, as prime minister of a neighboring kingdom, by forgiving his persecutor, inviting him to a banquet, and then forcing him eat a meal of hay and water. There is also a detailed description of the tomb of China's First Emperor (the central figure of this book, whose career becomes exemplary of the folly of brutality and suppression of free thought); which has since been made famous by the discovery of the ceramic army of Xian.