Shiji Stories - Biographies - Part 1

Author: Wang Wenxin (Editor)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-14
Features: Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian) was originally titled Shiji Gongshu and was composed by Sima Qian of the Western Han Dynasty. It consists of 130 chapters and is considered the first chronicle-style general history of China. It was completed around the years Da Chu Yuan to Zheng He Er (104 BC – 91 BC) during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. Sima Qian held the position of Grand Historian and drew upon works such as Zuo Zhuan (Zuo's Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals), Guoyu (Discourses of the States), Shiben (Genealogies), Zhan Guo Ce (Strategies of the Warring States), Chu Han Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn Annals of Chu and Han), and the writings of the Hundred Schools of Thought. He utilized state-collected documents and supplemented them with field research, resulting in a rich source of material. The narrative begins with the legendary Yellow Emperor and ends with Emperor Wu of Han, covering approximately 3,000 years in total, with particular emphasis on the Warring States period, the Qin Dynasty, and the Han Dynasty. The structure includes biographies, chronicles, ancestral histories, and genealogies, with eight treatises detailing institutional changes and ten tables outlining the historical context. These conventions were adopted by later historians. Shiji is also highly regarded in literary history for its vivid and vivid descriptions of certain historical figures, making it a significant work in literature.