Records of the Grand Historian

"Shi Ji" redirects here. For the Three Kingdoms period general, see Shi Ji (Eastern Wu). For the goddess, see Shiji Niangniang.

余嘗西至空桐，北過涿鹿，東漸於海，南浮江淮矣，至長老皆各往往稱黃帝、堯、舜之處，風教固殊焉，總之不離古文者近是。

I myself have travelled west as far as Kongtong, north past Zhuolu, east to the sea, and in the south I have sailed the Yangtze and Huai Rivers. The elders and old men of these various lands frequently pointed out to me the places where the Yellow Emperor, Yao, and Shun had lived, and in these places the manners and customs seemed quite different. In general those of their accounts which do not differ from the ancient texts seem to be near to the truth.

— Sima Qian, translation by Burton Watson ^[24]

The Grand Historian used The Annals of the Five Emperors (五帝系諜) and the Classic of History as source materials to make genealogies from the time of the Yellow Emperor until that of the Gonghe regency (841–828 BC). Sima Qian often cites his sources. For example, in the first chapter, "Annals of the Five Emperors", he writes, "I have read the Spring and Autumn Annals and the Guoyu ." In his 13th chapter, "Genealogical Table of the Three Ages", Sima Qian writes, "I have read all the genealogies of the kings (dieji諜記) that exist since the time of the Yellow Emperor." In his 14th chapter, "Yearly Chronicle of the Feudal Lords", he writes, "I have read all the royal annals (chunqiu li pudie春秋曆譜諜) up until the time of King Li of Zhou." In his 15th chapter, "Yearly Chronicle of the Six States", he writes, "I have read the Annals of Qin (qin ji秦記), and they say that the Quanrong [a barbarian tribe] defeated King You of Zhou [ca 771 BC]."

In the 19th chapter, he writes, "I have occasion to read over the records of enfeoffment and come to the case of Wu Qian, the marquis of Bian...." (The father of Marquis Bian, Wu Rui, was named king (wang) of Changsha for his loyalty to Gaozu.) In his chapter on the patriotic minister and poet Qu Yuan, Sima Qian writes, "I have read [Qu Yuan's works] Li Sao , Tianwen ("Heaven Asking"), Zhaohun (summoning the soul), and Ai Ying (Lament for Ying)". In the 62nd chapter, "Biography of Guan and of Yan", he writes, "I have read Guan's Mu Min (牧民 - "Government of the People", a chapter in the Guanzi ), Shan Gao ("The Mountains Are High"), Chengma (chariot and horses; a long section on war and economics), Qingzhong (Light and Heavy; i.e. "what is important"), and Jiufu (Nine Houses), as well as the Spring and Autumn Annals of Yanzi." In his 64th chapter, "Biography of Sima Rangju", the Grand Historian writes, "I have read Sima's Art of War." In the 121st chapter, "Biographies of Scholars", he writes, "I read the Imperial Decrees that encouraged education officials."

Chapter 2, Annals of Xia (Ming dynasty edition)

Sima Qian wrote of the problems with incomplete, fragmentary and contradictory sources. For example, he mentioned in the preface to chapter 15 that the chronicle records of the feudal states kept in the Zhou dynasty's archive were burnt by Qin Shi Huang because they contained criticisms and ridicule of the Qin state, and that the Qin annals were brief and incomplete. ^[25] In the 13th chapter he mentioned that the chronologies and genealogies of different ancient texts "disagree and contradict each other throughout". In his 18th chapter, Sima Qian writes, "I have set down only what is certain, and in doubtful cases left a blank." ^[5]

Reliability and accuracy

Scholars have questioned the historicity of legendary kings of the ancient periods given by Sima Qian. Sima Qian began the Shiji with an account of the five rulers of supreme virtue, the Five Emperors, who modern scholars, such as those from the Doubting Antiquity School, believe to be originally local deities of the peoples of ancient China. ^[26] Sima Qian sifted out elements of the supernatural and fantastic which seemed to contradict their existence as actual human monarchs, and was therefore criticized for turning myths and folklore into sober history. ^[26]

However, according to Joseph Needham, who wrote in 1954 on Sima Qian's accounts of the kings of the Shang dynasty (c. 1600 – c. 1050 BC):

It was commonly maintained that Ssuma Chhien [Sima Qian] could not have adequate historical materials for his account of what had happened more than a thousand years earlier. One may judge of the astonishment of many, therefore, when it appeared that no less than twenty-three of the thirty rulers' name were to be clearly found on the indisputably genuine Anyang bones. It must be, therefore, that Ssuma Chhien [Sima Qian] did have fairly reliable materials at his disposal—a fact which underlines once more the deep historical-mindedness of the Chinese—and that the Shang dynasty is perfectly acceptable.

— Joseph Needham ^[27]

While the king names in Sima Qian's history of the Shang dynasty are supported by inscriptions on the oracle bones, there is, as yet, no archaeological corroboration of Sima Qian's history of the Xia dynasty.

There are also discrepancies of fact such as dates between various portions of the work. This may be a result of Sima Qian's use of different source texts. ^[28]

Transmission and supplementation by other writers

After ca. 91 BC, the more-or-less completed manuscript was hidden in the residence of the author's daughter, Sima Ying (司馬英), to avoid destruction under Emperor Wu and his immediate successor Emperor Zhao. The Shiji was finally disseminated during the reign of Emperor Xuan by Sima Qian's grandson (through his daughter), Yang Yun (楊惲), after a hiatus of around twenty years.

The changes in the manuscript of the Shiji during this hiatus have always been disputed among scholars. That the text was more or less complete by ca. 91 BC is established in the Letter to Ren'an (報任安書), composed in the Zhenghe (征和) era of Emperor Wu's reign. In this letter, Sima Qian describes his work as "spanning from the time of the Yellow Emperor to the present age and consisting of ten tables, twelve basic annals, eight treatises, thirty chapters on hereditary houses, and seventy biographies, together totaling 130 chapters." ^[29] These numbers are likewise given in the postface to Shiji. ^[30]

After his death (presumably only a few years later), few people had the opportunity to see the whole work. However, various additions were still made to it. The historian Liu Zhiji reported the names of a total of fifteen scholars supposed to have added material to the Shiji during the period after the death of Sima Qian. Only the additions by Chu Shaosun (褚少孫, c. 105 – c. 30 BC) are clearly indicated by adding "Mr Chu said," (Chu xiansheng yue, 褚先生曰). Already in the first century AD, Ban Biao and Ban Gu claimed that ten chapters in Records of the Grand Historian were lacking. A large number of chapters dealing with the first century of the Han dynasty (i.e. the 2nd century BC) correspond exactly to the relevant chapters from the Book of Han (Hanshu). It is unclear whether those chapters initially came from the Shiji or from the Hanshu. Researchers Yves Hervouet (1921–1999) and A. F. P. Hulsewé argued that the originals of those chapters of the Shiji were lost and they were later reconstructed using the corresponding chapters from the Hanshu. ^[31]

Editions

The earliest extant copy of Records of the Grand Historian, handwritten, was made during the Southern and Northern Dynasties period (420–589 AD). The earliest printed edition, called Shiji jijie (史記集解, literally Scribal Records, Collected Annotations), was published during the Northern Song dynasty. Huang Shanfu's edition, printed under the Southern Song dynasty, is the earliest collection of the Sanjiazhu commentaries on Records of the Grand Historian (三家注, literally: The Combined Annotations of the Three Experts).

In modern times, the Zhonghua Book Company in Beijing has published the book in both simplified Chinese for mass consumption and traditional Chinese for scholarly study. The 1959 (2nd ed., 1982) Sanjiazhu edition in traditional Chinese (based upon the Jinling Publishing House edition, see below) contains commentaries interspersed among the main text and is considered to be an authoritative modern edition.

The most well-known editions of the Shiji (all woodblock printed) are:

Records of the Grand Historian

1982 printed edition by the Zhonghua Book Company
Author	Sima Qian
Language	Classical Chinese
Subject	History
Publication date	c. 91 BC
Publication place	China
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	史 記
Simplified Chinese	史 记
Hanyu Pinyin	Shǐjì
Literal meaning	"Scribal Records"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Shǐjì Wade–Giles Shih3-chi4 IPA [ʂɻ̩̀.tɕî] Wu Romanization Sy-ci Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Sí-gei Jyutping Si2-gei3 IPA [si˧˥ kej˧] Southern Min Hokkien POJ Sú-kì Middle Chinese Middle Chinese ʂí-kì Old Chinese Baxter–Sagart (2014) s-rəʔ C.krəʔ-s

Year	Publisher	Notes
Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279)	Huang Shanfu	Abbreviated as the Huang Shanfu edition (黄善夫本)
Ming dynasty, between the times of the Jiajing and Wanli Emperors (between 1521 and 1620)	The Northern and Southern Imperial Academy	Published in 21 Shi. Abbreviated as the Jian edition (监本)
Ming dynasty	Bibliophile Mao Jin (毛晋), 1599–1659) and his studio Ji Gu Ge (汲古閣 or the Drawing from Ancient Times Studio)	Published in 17 Shi. Abbreviated as the Mao Ke edition (毛刻本) or the Ji Gu Ge edition (汲古閣本)
Qing dynasty, in the time of the Qianlong Emperor (1711–1799)	Wu Yingdian	Published in the Twenty-Four Histories , abbreviated as the Wu Yingdian edition (武英殿本)
Qing dynasty, in the time of the Tongzhi Emperor (1856–1875)	Jinling Publishing House (in Nanjing)	Proofreading and copy editing done by Zhang Wenhu. Published with the Sanjiazhu commentaries, 130 volumes in total. Abbreviated as the Jinling Ju or Jinling Publishing edition (金陵局本)

Notable translations

English

• Herbert J. Allen, Ssŭma Ch‘ien's Historical Records, The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1894, p. 269-294; 1895, p. 93-110, 601-611, available online. (The first English translation of the first three chapters).
• Watson, Burton, trans. (1961). Records of the Grand Historian of China. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Second edition, 1993 (Records of the Grand Historian). Translates roughly 90 out of 130 chapters.
    • Qin Dynasty, ISBN   978-0-231-08169-6.
    • Han Dynasty, Volume 1, ISBN   978-0-231-08165-8.
    • Han Dynasty, Volume 2, ISBN   978-0-231-08167-2.
• Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang (1974), Records of the Historians. Hong Kong: Commercial Press.
  • Reprinted by University Press of the Pacific, 2002. Contains biographies of Confucius and Laozi. ISBN   978-0835106184
• Raymond Stanley Dawson (1994). Historical Records. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Reprinted, 2007 (The First Emperor : Selections from the Historical Records). Translates only Qin-related material. ISBN   9780199574391
• William H. Nienhauser, Jr., ed. (1994– ). The Grand Scribe's Records, 9 vols. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Ongoing translation, and being translated out of order. As of 2020, translates 92 out of 130 chapters.
  • I. The Basic Annals of Pre-Han China (2018), ISBN   978-0-253-03855-5.
  • II. The Basic Annals of the Han Dynasty (2018), ISBN   978-0-253-03909-5.
  • V. part 1. The Hereditary Houses of Pre-Han China (2006), ISBN   978-0-253-34025-2.
  • VI. The Hereditary Houses, III (2022), ISBN   978-0-253-06418-9. (edited with Masha Kobzeva)
  • VII. The Memoirs of Pre-Han China (1995), ISBN   978-0-253-34027-6.
  • VIII. The Memoirs of Han China, Part I (2008), ISBN   978-0-253-34028-3.
  • IX. The Memoirs of Han China, Part II (2010), ISBN   978-0-253-35590-4.
  • X. The Memoirs of Han China, Part III (2016), ISBN   978-0-253-01931-8.
  • XI. The Memoirs of Han China, Part IV (2019), ISBN   978-0-253-04610-9.

Non-English

• (in French) Chavannes, Édouard, trans. (1895–1905). Les Mémoires historiques de Se-ma Ts'ien[The Historical Memoirs of Sima Qian], 6 vols.; rpt. (1967–1969) 7 vols., Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve. Left uncompleted at Chavannes' death. William Nienhauser calls it a "landmark" and "the standard by which all subsequent renditions... must be measured.". ^[32] Accessible online at Se-ma Ts'ien: Les Mémoires Historiques - Bibliothèque Chine ancienne and La bibliothèque numérique Les Classiques des sciences sociales - Collection «Les auteur(e)s classiques» - La Chine ancienne - Les auteurs chinois.
• (in French) Chavannes, Édouard, Maxime Kaltenmark Jacques Pimpaneau, translators. (2015) Les Mémoires historiques de Se-Ma Ts'ien[The Historical Memoirs of Sima Qian], 9 vols.; Éditions You Feng, Paris. This is the completed full translation of the Shiji
• (in Russian) full translation in 9 vols: Vyatkin, Rudolf V., trans. . Istoricheskie Zapiski (Shi-czi) [Исторические записки (Ши-цзи)], 8 vols. Moscow: Nauka (1972–2002); 9th volume: Vyatkin, Anatoly R., trans. (2010), Moscow: Vostochnaya literatura. This is the first complete translation into any European language. Full text available online: Сыма Цянь. Исторические записки (Ши цзи).
• (in Mandarin Chinese) Yang, Zhongxian 杨钟贤; Hao, Zhida 郝志达, eds. (1997). Quanjiao quanzhu quanyi quanping Shiji全校全注全译全评史记[Shiji: Fully Collated, Annotated, Translated, and Evaluated], 6 vols. Tianjin: Tianjin guji chubanshe.
• (in Mandarin Chinese) Yang, Yanqi 杨燕起; eds. (2001). “Shi Ji Quan Yi" 史记全译, 12 vols. Guiyang: Guizhou renmin chubanshe 贵州人民出版社 .
• (in Mandarin Chinese) Xu, Jialu 许嘉璐; An, Pingqiu 安平秋, eds. (2003). Ershisishiquanyi: Shiji 二十四史全译：史记, 2 vols. Beijing: Hanyudacidian chubanshe.
• (in Japanese) Mizusawa, Toshitada 水澤利忠; Yoshida, Kenkō 吉田賢抗, trans. (1996–1998). Shiki史記[Shiji], 12 vols. Tokyo: Kyūko.
• (in Polish) Mieczysław J. Künstler, trans. (2000). Sy-ma Ts'ien, Syn smoka. Fragmenty Zapisków historyka, Warszawa: Czytelnik; ISBN   83-07-02780-2. Selected chapters only.
• (in Danish) Svane, Gunnar O., trans. (2007). Historiske Optegnelser: Kapitlerne 61-130, Biografier 1-70. Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag.
• (in German) Gregor Kneussel, Alexander Saechtig, trans. (2016). Aus den Aufzeichnungen des Chronisten, 3 vols. Beijing: Verlag für fremdsprachige Literatur (Foreign Languages Press); ISBN   978-7-119-09676-6.
• (in Italian) Cannata, Vincenzo, translator. (2024) Memorie Storiche di Sima Qian[Historical Memoirs of Sima Qian], 4 vols.; Luni Editrice, Milano This is the completed full translation of the Shiji; ISBN   9-788879-848220.

See also

• Twenty-Four Histories

Notes

1. The Three Kingdoms period scholar Wang Su (AD 195–256) appears to be among the earliest to apply the name Shiji to Sima Qian's work.

References

Citations

1. Nienhauser (2011), pp.  463-464.
2. Hardy (1999), p. xiii.
3. Hardy (1999), pp. xiii, 3.
4. Durrant (1986), p. 689.
5. Sima, Qian (December 1992). Records of the grand historian. Han dynasty. Translated by Watson, Burton (Rev. ed.). Hong Kong: Columbia University Press (published 1993). ISBN   0231081642. OCLC   26674054.
6. Sima, Qian (1994). Historical records. Translated by Dawson, Raymond Stanley. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN   0192831151. OCLC   28799204.
7. Sima, Qian (1994). The grand scribe's records. Translated by Nienhauser, William H.; Cheng, Tsai Fa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN   0253340217. OCLC   30508745.
8. Sima, Qian (1969). Records of the historian; chapters from the Shih chi of Ssu-ma Ch'ien . Translated by Watson, Burton; Takigawa, Kametarō. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN   0231033214. OCLC   332024.
9. Hulsewé (1993), pp. 405–06.
10. Durrant (2001), pp. 502–03.
11. Knechtges (2014), p. 897.
12. Kern (2010), p. 102.
13. Knechtges (2014), p. 898.
14. Hulsewé (1993), p. 407.
15. Hulsewé (1993), p. 409.
16. Hardy, Grant (1994). "Can an Ancient Chinese Historian Contribute to Modern Western Theory? The Multiple Narratives of Ssu-Ma Ch'ien". History and Theory. 33 (1): 20–38. doi:10.2307/2505650. JSTOR   2505650.
17. Wilkinson (2012), p. 708.
18. Wilkinson (2012), p. 706.
19. Watson (1958), pp. 111–112.
20. Shiji 130: 3319, cited in Wilkinson (2012) , p. 706.
21. Watson (1958), pp. 191, 240.
22. Watson (1958), pp. 95–98.
23. "Annals of the Five Emperors" 五帝本紀. ctext.org. Chinese Text Project. 余嘗西至空桐，北過涿鹿，東漸於海，南浮江淮矣，至長老皆各往往稱黃帝、堯、舜之處，風教固殊焉，總之不離古文者近是。
24. Watson (1958), p. 183.
25. 六國年表 [Chronological table of the six kingdoms]. ctext.org. Chinese Text Project. 秦既得意，燒天下詩書，諸侯史記尤甚，為其有所刺譏也。詩書所以復見者，多藏人家，而史記獨藏周室，以故滅。惜哉，惜哉！獨有秦記，又不載日月，其文略不具。
26. Watson (1958), pp. 16–17.
27. Needham, Joseph. (1954). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 1, Introductory Orientations. Cambridge University Press. p. 88. ISBN   0-521-05799-X.
28. Watson (1958), p. 113.
29. 報任少卿書 [Letter to Ren'an]. Wikisource (in Chinese). 報任少卿書：『上計軒轅，下至于茲，為十表，本紀十二，書八章，世家三十，列傳七十，凡百三十篇。』
30. Watson (1958), pp. 56–67.
31. Hulsewé, A. F. P. (1979). China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC – AD 23: an annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty. E. Brill, Leiden. pp. 8–25. ISBN   90-04-05884-2.
32. Classe, Olive, ed. (2000). Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English. Fitzroy Dearborn. p. 1282. ISBN   9781884964367.

Sources

Works cited

• Durrant, Stephen (1986). "Shih-chi史記". In William H. Nienhauser Jr. (ed.). The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, Vol. 1. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN   978-0-253-32983-7. OCLC   11841260.
• Durrant, Stephen (2001). "The Literary Features of Historical Writing". In Mair, Victor H. (ed.). The Columbia History of Chinese Literature . New York, NY: Columbia University Press. pp.  493–510. ISBN   0-231-10984-9.
• Hardy, Grant (1999). Worlds of Bronze and Bamboo: Sima Qian's Conquest of History. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN   978-0-231-11304-5.
• Hulsewé, A. F. P. (1993). "Shih chi史記". In Loewe, Michael (ed.). Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Berkeley, CA: Society for the Study of Early China; University of California, Berkeley. pp. 405–414. ISBN   1-55729-043-1.
• Kern, Martin (2010). "Early Chinese literature, Beginnings through Western Han". In Owen, Stephen (ed.). The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume 1: To 1375. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–115. ISBN   978-0-521-11677-0.
• Knechtges, David R. (2014). "Shi ji史記". In Knechtges, David R.; Chang, Tai-ping (eds.). Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature, A Reference Guide: Part Two. Leiden: Brill. pp. 897–904. ISBN   978-90-04-19240-9.
• Nienhauser, William (2011). "Sima Qian and the Shiji". In Feldherr, Andrew; Hardy, Grant (eds.). The Oxford History of Historical Writing: Volume 1: Beginnings to AD 600. Oxford University Press. pp. 463–484. ISBN   978-0-19-103678-1.
• Watson, Burton (1958). Ssu Ma Ch'ien Grand Historian Of China. Columbia University Press.
• Wilkinson, Endymion (2012). Chinese History: A New Manual. Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series 84. Cambridge, MA: Harvard-Yenching Institute; Harvard University Asia Center. ISBN   978-0-674-06715-8.

Further reading

• Schaab-Hanke, Dorothee. Review of 'Politik und Geschichtsschreibung im alten China: Pan-ma i-t’ung 班馬異同' by Hans van Ess (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2014). T’oung Pao 102-1-3 (2016), pp. 225–235.
• Yap, Joseph P, (2019). The Western Regions, Xiongnu and Han, from the Shiji, Hanshu and Hou Hanshu. ISBN   978-1792829154.

External links

• Xu Jialu (許嘉璐); An Pingqiu (安平秋), eds. (2004). Records of the Grand Historian, Original and Modern Chinese Translation (in Chinese). Century Publishing Group – via Internet Archive.
• "Shiji" 史記 (in Chinese and English). Chinese Text Project. "Shiji (Simplified Chinese version)" 史记 (in Chinese and English). Chinese Text Project.
• The Original Text in its Entirety (Chinese)
• CHINAKNOWLEDGE Shiji史記Records of the Grand Scribe.
• Ssuma Ch'ien at Internet Sacred Text Archive. Chapters 1–3, Ssuma Ch'ien's Historical Records, translated by Herbert J. Allen:
  1. "Introductory Chapter" (1894), Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society26 (2): 269–295. doi : 10.1017/S0035869X00143916. (text)
  2. "The Hsia Dynasty" (1895), Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society27 (1): 93–110. doi : 10.1017/S0035869X00022784. (text)
  3. "The Yin Dynasty" (1895), Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society27 (3): 601–615. doi : 10.1017/S0035869X00145083. (text)
• Part of chapter 63 The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, Volume XII: Medieval China , ed. Charles F. Horne, 1917, pp. 396–398.