Sima Qian

Sima Qian was born about 145 BC at Longmen in Xiayang; his father Sima Tan was Grand Historian of the Han court. From the age of twenty he travelled throughout the empire, visiting famous mountains, rivers and ancient sites and collecting records and traditions. On his deathbed his father charged him to complete a history of the world as the Chinese knew it, and when he succeeded to the office he began to write. In 99 BC he angered Emperor Wu by defending the general Li Ling, who had surrendered to the Xiongnu, and was sentenced to castration. He bore the disgrace in order to finish his work, writing that 'every man must die, but one death is weightier than Mount Tai and another lighter than a feather', and at last completed the Records of the Grand Historian. Lu Xun called it 'the supreme song of the historians, a Li Sao without rhyme'.