 As a Prefect of the Grand Scribes ( 太史令 ) of the Han Dynasty ( 汉朝 ) , Sima Qian ( 司马迁 ) is regarded as the father of Chinese historiography because of his highly praised work, Shiji ( 史记 Records of the Grand Historian ) , an overview of the history of China covering more than two thousand years from the Yellow Emperor ( 皇帝 ) to Emperor Han Wudi ( 汉武帝 ). His work laid the foundation for later Chinese historiography.
The 130-chapter text classifies all information into several categories:
12 chapters of Benji ( 本纪 ) contain all biographies of the prominent rulers from the mythical Yellow Emperor to Qin Shi Huang ( 秦始皇 ) and the kings of Xia dynasty ( 夏朝 ) , Shang dynasty ( 商朝 ) , and Zhou Dynasty ( 周朝 ) . The biographies of four emperors and one empress dowager of the Han Dynasty before his age are also included.
30 chapters of Shijia ( 世家 ) 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 ( 列传 ) contain all biographies of important figures including Lao Zi ( 老子 ) , Mozi ( 墨子 ) , Sun zi ( 孙子 ) , and Jing Ke ( 荆轲 ) .
 8 chapters of Shu ( 书 ) are the economic and cultural records of the time covered in the book.
10 chapters of Biao ( 表 ) are timelines of events.
Unlike subsequent official historical texts that adopted Confucian d octrine, 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 ( 列传 ) 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.
As the first systematic Chinese historical text, t he Records of the Grand Historian tremendously influenced Chinese historiography and prose. |
