\tThe Shiji \u53f2\u8bb0 "Records of the [Grand] Scribe" is a very famous universal history of early China and the first of the official dynastic histories (zhengshi \u6b63\u53f2). It is the first history of China written in a biographic-thematic style (jizhuanti \u7eaa\u4f20\u4f53) in which biographies of different type, treatises and tables are combined.\u3000The original name of the book was Taishigong shu \u592a\u53f2\u516c\u4e66 "The book of the Master Grand Scribe" or Taishiji\u3000\u592a\u53f2\u8bb0 "Records of the Grand Scribe". These titles are derived from the office the two compilers occupied, namely that of the official dynastic court scribes (taishi\u3000\u592a\u53f2) of the Former Han dynasty \u524d\u6c49 (206 BC- 8 AD), Sima Tan \u53f8\u9a6c\u8c08 (d. ca. 110 BCE) and his son Sima Qian \u53f8\u9a6c\u8fc1 (145-86 BC). Sima Tan who had access to the imperial library and the official documents stored there planned to write a universal history but was not able to finish his work and entrusted the completion to his son.<\/p>\n
\tThe Shiji covers a very long time period, ranging from the mythological "Yellow Emperor" Huangdi \u9ec4\u5e1d (trad. r. 2697-2597 BCE), the Xia \u590f (17th-15th cent. BCE, trad. 2205-1766), Shang \u5546 (17th-11th cent. BCE, trad. 1766-1122), Zhou \u5468 (11th cent.-221 BCE, trad. 1122-221) and Qin \u79e6 (221-206 BC) dynasties down to the contemporary period. It ends in the year 93 BCE. The main focus is on the Warring States period \u6218\u56fd (5th cent.-221 BCE) and the Qin and the Han dynasties.<\/p>\n
\tAccording to the postface (130 Taishigong zixu \u592a\u53f2\u516c\u81ea\u5e8f), the autobiography of Sima Qian, the book contains 130 juan "scrolls", of which 12 juan are imperial biographies (\u672c\u7eaa benji), ten juan tables (\u8868 biao), eight juan treatises (\u4e66 shu), 30juan biographies of the feudal houses of the Zhou period as well as of eminent persons (\u4e16\u5bb6 shijia), and 70 juan normal and collective biographies (\u5217\u4f20 liezhuan).<\/p>\n
\tThe imperial biographies are internally arranged like annals where the most important events and edicts are recorded. For the oldest periods of time the dynasties are treated in one juan, while from the First Emperor of Qin \u79e6\u59cb\u7687 (r. 246\/221-210 BCE; 6 Qin Shihuang benji \u79e6\u59cb\u7687\u672c\u7eaa) on each person has his\/her own imperial biography. Two surprises catch the reader concerning the imperial biographies. Firstly, after the downfall of the Qin dynasty there were several warlords contesting for emperorship. One of them was Liu Bang \u5218\u90a6 (Emperor Han Gaozu \u6c49\u9ad8\u7956, r. 206\/02-195 BCE), the eventual founder of the Han dynasty, and another was Xiang Yu \u9879\u7fbd, the "hegemonial king of West-Chu" (Xichu bawang \u897f\u695a\u9738\u738b) who at that time was a superior of Liu Bang. Although eventually becoming the loser of the game Xiang Yu is granted an own imperial biography (7 Xiang Yu benji \u9879\u7fbd\u672c\u7eaa). This circumstance shows that historiography can also be truthful, as Xiang Yu was the more or less official ruler of China between 206 and 202 BCE (he appointed the various warlords to their royal fiefs), and not Liu Bang, but it also shows that Sima Qian did probably not favour Liu Bang as a person. Another rebel against the Qin dynasty, Chen She \u9648\u6d89, is dealt with in a hereditary biography (48Chen She shijia \u9648\u6d89\u4e16\u5bb6). Secondly, Emperor Huidi \u6c49\u60e0\u5e1d (r. 195-188 BCE) is not granted an own imperial biography but his reign is included into the biography of his mother (9 Lü taihou benji \u5415\u592a\u540e\u672c\u7eaa), the Empress Dowager Lü \u5415\u592a\u540e who, even after her son's death and the subsequent reign of two infant emperors, never ruled officially but was entrusted with the affairs of government as a regent (linchao shezheng \u4e34\u671d\u6444\u653f).<\/p>\n
\tThe tables provide a lot of information about the genealogies of the feudal lords during the Warring States period, the war between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu for the empire, as well as the various princes, noblemen and highest officials of the early Han dynasty.<\/p>\n
\tThe treatises give an overview of the most important matters of statecraft. Most of them served as models for the later dynastic histories, but the treatise of the offerings for Heaven and Earth (28 Fengshan shu \u5c01\u7985\u4e66) are unique because very few emperors undertook the travel to the summit of Mt. Tai \u6cf0\u5c71. It occupies a very important place in the Shiji because Emperor Wu \u6c49\u6b66\u5e1d (r. 141-87 BCE) invested a huge state ceremony for this undertaking.<\/p>\n
\tThe shijia hereditary biographies are in first instances the chronicles of the feudal states of the Zhou period. Their titles normally include the founder of the feudal house, in most cases the person enfeoffed with the feudal domain at the beginning of the Zhou period. For the feudal state of Qi \u9f50 two biographies are presented (32Qi Taigong shijia \u9f50\u592a\u516c\u4e16\u5bb6 and 46 Tian Jingzhong Wan shijia \u7530\u656c\u4ef2\u5b8c\u4e16\u5bb6) because the house of Tian usurped the throne of Qi. The chapters 50-52 and 58-60 are the biographies of imperial princes of the Han dynasty. Another category of persons for which hereditary biographies are written are the high ministers serving the Han dynasty in her founding period. Those were Xiao He \u8427\u4f55, Cao Shen\u3000\u66f9\u53c2, Zhang Liang\u3000\u5f20\u826f, Chen Ping\u3000\u9648\u5e73, and Zhou Bo\u3000\u5468\u52c3\u3000(chapters 53-57). Another hereditary biography is dedicated to the empresses and their relatives (49 Waiqi shijia \u5916\u621a\u4e16\u5bb6). In this chapter Empress Dowager Lü shows up again. Another very important person whose biography is reported in a hereditary biography, isConfucius (47 Kongzi shijia \u5b54\u5b50\u4e16\u5bb6).<\/p>\n
\tThe normal biographies are arranged chronologically and are either dedicated to one single person, as for instance that for the mighty minister of Qin, Sima Rangju(64 Sima Rangju liezhuan \u53f8\u9a6c\u7a70\u82f4\u5217\u4f20), or as collective biographies to a group of persons who belong together, like the generals Bai Qi and Wang Jian (73 Bai Qi Wang Jian liezhuan \u767d\u8d77\u738b\u7fe6\u5217\u4f20) or Mengzi and Xunzi \u8340\u5b50, both disciples of Confucius (74 Mengzi Xun Qing liezhuan \u5b5f\u5b50\u8340\u537f\u5217\u4f20). The titles of the chapters do not always refer to all persons included, like chapter 63 Laozi Han Fei liezhuan \u8001\u5b50\u97e9\u975e\u5217\u4f20 which does not only deal with Laozi and Han Fei also presents the lifes ofZhuangzi \u5e84\u5b50 and Shen Buhai \u7533\u4e0d\u5bb3. Very typical for the Shiji are nevertheless the collective biographies of otherwise not very famous persons. Many of these have been adopted as a model by later dynastic histories, like the collective biography of benevolent officials (119 Xunli liezhuan \u5faa\u540f\u5217\u4f20), that of cruel officials (122 Kuli liezhuan \u9177\u540f\u5217\u4f20), or that of the "Forest of scholars" (121 Rulin liezhuan \u5112\u6797\u5217\u4f20). Yet there are also many collective biographies uniquely to be found in the Shiji, like the assassins (86 Cike liezhuan \u523a\u5ba2\u5217\u4f20), the wandering knights (124 Youxia liezhuan \u6e38\u4fa0\u5217\u4f20), the flatterers (125 Ningxing liezhuan \u4f5e\u5e78\u5217\u4f20), the humorists (126Huaji liezhuan \u6ed1\u7a3d\u5217\u4f20), or the profiteers (129 Huozhi liezhuan \u8d27\u6b96\u5217\u4f20). A last group of "biographies" is to be mentioned. This are the descriptions of foreign peoples and foreign countries, genres imitated by all later dynastic histories. These chapters describe the Xiongnu (110 Xiongnu liezhuan \u5308\u5974\u5217\u4f20), the Southern (113Nanyue liezhuan \u5357\u8d8a\u5217\u4f20) and Eastern Yue (114 Dongyue liezhuan \u4e1c\u8d8a\u5217\u4f20), the Yi barbarians in the southwest (116 Xinanyi liezhuan \u897f\u5357\u5937\u5217\u4f20), and the foreign countries of Korea (115 Chaoxian liezhuan \u671d\u9c9c\u5217\u4f20) and Dayuan (123 Dayuan liezhuan \u5927\u5b9b\u5217\u4f20).<\/p>\n
\tFor the compilation of the Shiji father and son Sima made use of a vast treasury of sources. For the Spring and Autumn (770-5th cent. BCE) and the Warring states periods they used sources also otherwise known, like the Chunqiu-Zuozhuan \u6625\u79cb\u5de6\u4f20 "Zuo Qiuming's commentary to the Spring and Autumn annals", the Guoyu \u56fd\u8bed "Discourses of the states" and Zhanguoce \u6218\u56fd\u7b56 "Stratagems of the Warring States", but also sources long since lost, like the Chu-Han chunqiu \u695a\u6c49\u6625\u79cb or theShiben \u4e16\u672c "Generational records" which is only transmitted in several reconstructed versions. For the contemporary events archival sources were at their disposal.<\/p>\n
\tFrom the beginning the Shiji was occupied an eminent position in historiography and was read by dozens of generations and imitated by later historians. After the death of Sima Qian it was his relative Yan Yunzu \u6768\u607d\u7956 who kept the original and helped distributing it. Nevertheless during the Later Han period there were already 10 juan missing. Zhang Yan \u5f20\u664f from the Cao-Wei empire \u66f9\u9b4f (220-265) identified the missing chapters (the biographies of the emperors Jing \u6c49\u666f\u5e1d and Wu, the treatises on ritual, on music, and one on military [Bingshu \u5175\u4e66, missing], a table on generals and prime ministers from the beginning of the Han period [Han xing yilai jiangxiang nianbiao \u6c49\u5174\u4ee5\u6765\u5c06\u76f8\u5e74\u8868, missing], and the biographies of the soothsayers [127 Rizhe liezhuan \u65e5\u8005\u5217\u4f20], the diviners [128 Guice liezhuan \u9f9f\u7b56\u5217\u4f20], the biography of Fu Kuan and Jin She [98 Fu Jin liezhuan \u5085\u9773\u5217\u4f20], as well as that of the Three Princes [60 Sanwang liezhuan \u4e09\u738b\u4e16\u5bb6]) and found out that they had been supplemented by the late Former Han period historian Chu Suiliang \u891a\u9042\u826f (courtesy name Shaosun \u5c11\u5b59) and were not originally written by Sima Qian, at least not a part of the chapters. That a part of the missing chapters has indeed been added is clear from the words "Master Chu says" which are inserted in the respective chapters.<\/p>\n
\tThree important commentaries (sanjia zhu \u4e09\u5bb6\u6ce8) have been written to the Shiji. These are the Shijie jijie \u53f2\u8bb0\u96c6\u89e3 by Pei Yin \u88f4\u9a83 from the Liu-Song period \u5218\u5b8b (420-479), in 80 juan, the Shiji suoyin \u53f2\u8bb0\u7d22\u9690 by Sima Zhen \u53f8\u9a6c\u8d1e from the Tang period\u5510 (618-907), in 30 juan, and the Shiji zhengyi \u53f2\u8bb0\u6b63\u4e49 by the Tang period historian Zhang Shoujie \u5f20\u5b88\u8282 in 30 juan. Although originally separately written they are normally inserted into the corresponding chapters of the main text. There are some newer commentaries of which the following shall be mentioned: Shiji zhiyi \u53f2\u8bb0\u5fd7\u7591 by the Qing period \u6e05 (1644-1911) scholar Liang Yusheng\u3000\u6881\u7389\u7ef3, and Shiji huizhu kaozheng \u53f2\u8bb0\u4f1a\u6ce8\u8003\u8bc1 by the Japanese scholar\u3000Takigawa Sukenobu \u6cf7\u5ddd\u8d44\u8a00, with a supplement by Mizusawa Toshitada\u3000\u6c34\u6cfd\u5229\u5fe0.<\/p>\n
\tThe oldest surviving print was made by the Southern Song period \u5357\u5b8b (1127-1279) scholar Huang Shanfu \u9ec4\u5584\u592b. This excellent print served as the origin for the Bona edition\u3000\u767e\u8872 of the Shangwu yinshuguan press \u5546\u52a1\u5370\u4e66\u9986. Other good printings are the Nanbeijian \u5357\u5317\u76d1 print of the 21 dynastic histories from the Ming period \u660e (1368-1644), the print of the 17 dynastic histories by the Jiguge Library \u6c72\u53e4\u9601, and the print of the 24 dynastic histories from the Wuying Hall \u6b66\u82f1\u6bbf, the imperial library of the Qing dynasty. In the 19th century the Jinling press \u91d1\u9675\u4e66\u5c40 made another print, based on Zhang Wenhu's \u5f20\u6587\u864e\u3000composition of different editions of the Shiji, based on Qian Taiji's \u94b1\u6cf0\u5409 revision. This edition contains many printing errors. The Zhonghua press \u4e2d\u534e\u4e66\u5c40 published a modern edition in 1959.
\t <\/p>\n