Person
Sima Qian
Sima Qian (c. 145–c. 86 BCE) was a historian of the Western Han dynasty who completed the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), a history of China from the legendary sage kings to the reign of Emperor Wu. Castrated as punishment after defending a disgraced general, he chose to live on to finish the work. Its arrangement of annals, treatises and biographies became the model for China's official dynastic histories.
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- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Sima Qian. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/sima-qian
- MLA
- “Sima Qian.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/sima-qian. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Sima Qian.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/sima-qian.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Sima Qian’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/sima-qian (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻