ShijiArticle Free Pass Shiji, ( Chinese: “Historical Records”)
Wade-Giles romanization Shih-chi, early history of China written
about 85 bce by Sima Qian. A two-volume English translation,
Records of the Grand Historian of China, was published in 1961.
A masterpiece that took 18 years to produce, the Shiji deals
with major events and personalities of about 2,000 years (down
to the author’s time), comprising 130 chapters and totaling more
than 520,000 words. The Shiji not only was the first general
history of its kind attempted in China, but it also set a
pattern in organization for dynastic histories of subsequent
ages. An artist as well as a historian, Sima Qian succeeded in
making events and personalities of the past into living
realities for his readers; his biographies subsequently became
models for authors of both fiction and history. Sima Qian
organized the events of the past into a new five-part plan. The
“Basic Annals” gives a dated chronological outline centred on
events at the court considered to ha