書名由來

《太史公書》最初無固定書名，或稱《太史公記》、《太史公傳》、《太史記》、《太史公》。《史記》本來是古代史書的通稱，從三國時期開始，逐漸成為「太史公書」的專稱。

作者與成書

司馬遷著《史記》，其史學觀念在於「究天人之際，通古今之變，成一家之言」。司馬遷探求的天人之際，並非承認天的神秘力量反而重視天人之間關係的演變，從而了解「古今之變」的關鍵，探求出歷史動態發展變化的層面，最終完成「一家之言」。而他的撰述動機，主要有以下三方面：

• 司馬遷為了繼承其父司馬談編訂史書的遺志，完成撰述《史記》的宏願。司馬氏在周朝時世為史官，春秋時期雖然失去官職，司馬談卻把修撰史書視為自己的神聖職責，一心繼承先人久絕的世業—太史令，重現孔子撰述《春秋》的精神，整理和論述上代歷史。《隋書·經籍志》說：「談乃據《左氏春秋》、《國語》、《世本》、《戰國策》、《楚漢春秋》，接其後事，成一家之言。」可見司馬談有意繼續編訂《春秋》以後的史事。漢武帝元封元年，武帝進行封禪大典，司馬談身為太史令，卻無緣參與當世盛事，引為終生之憾，憂憤而死。他死前將遺志囑咐兒子司馬遷說：「今天子接千歲之統，封泰山，而余不得從行，是命也夫！余死，汝必為太史，無忘吾所欲論著矣……」司馬遷則回答道：「小子不敏，請悉論先人所次舊聞。」可知司馬遷乃秉承父親的遺志完成史著。而《史記》以「封禪書」為其八書之一，即見其秉先父之意。

• 司馬遷想繼承《春秋》精神。司馬遷在zh-hans:《太史公自序》; zh-hant:〈太史公自序〉;說：「先人有言，自周公卒，五百歲而有孔子，孔子卒後，至於今五百歲，有能紹明世，正《易傳》、繼《春秋》、本《詩》、《書》、《禮》、《樂》之際，意在斯乎？意在斯乎？小子何敢讓焉？」此正暗示其有明道義，顯揚志業人物的使命。《春秋》的下限，到魯哀公獲麟之年，此後的史事就沒有完整的史籍記載。司馬遷是紹繼《春秋》，並以漢武帝元狩元年「獲麟」及太初元年改曆下限，撰寫史記。然而，司馬遷繼承《春秋》，不僅是要形式上承繼周公以來的道統，反而是重視《春秋》的性質，他在《太史公自序》說：「夫《春秋》，上明三王之道，下辨人事之紀，別嫌疑，明是非，定猶豫，善善惡惡，賢賢賤不肖，存亡國，繼絕世，補敝起廢，王道之大者也……《春秋》以道義，撥亂世，反之正，莫近於《春秋》。」可見司馬遷對「春秋之義」和「春秋筆法」心儀已久，這是他要承孔子的真意、秉承《春秋》褒貶精神，撰述《史記》。

• 司馬遷要肩負史家職責。據《後漢書·百官志》載，「太史令」只是俸祿六百石的小官，職責僅在於管理圖籍，掌管星象天文，最多也只是記錄上代及當代事情，並無著述的責任。然而，司馬談和司馬遷明顯不滿足於「拾遺補蓺」。司馬談早有整理上代歷史的計劃，可惜卻「發憤而卒」，臨終前叮囑司馬遷，認為「自獲麟以來，史記放絕。今漢興，海內一統，明主、賢君、忠臣、死義之士」甚多，身為太史令，有完成論載上代歷史的任務。司馬遷在《太史公自序》也指出身為太史的職責說：「且余嘗掌其官，廢明聖盛德不載，滅功臣、世家、賢大夫之不述，隳先人之言，罪莫大焉。」因此，司馬遷一心秉承先人世傳及「述往事以思來者」的責任感，決意撰述《史記》。在《報任安書》中亦透露著述《史記》的目的，他說「凡百三十篇，亦欲以究天人之際，通古今之變，成一家之言。」可見他不但要完成太史令的責任，更要盡史學家的職責。

呂思勉認為《史記》當中有一大部分甚至是極大部分並非司馬遷所作，而是司馬遷抄篡古書所得，《序》和《論贊》部分基本可以肯定是他自己所作，但仍然有可能為其父親司馬談所作，無法加以考証。

史料來源

• 簡牘。《諜記》、《五帝系諜》、《世本》、《尚書》、《秦記》、《山高》、《乘馬》、《輕重》、《九府》及《晏子春秋》、《司馬兵法》、《春秋歷譜諜》、《春秋左傳》、《春秋》、《國語》、《戰國策》、《離騷》、《天問》、《韓非子》等；

• 檔案。司馬氏世為史官，司馬遷當任太史，因此能見到漢初檔案如詔令、記功冊等，並且用作寫史的資料；

• 見聞。比如文中有諸如「吾聞之周生曰，『舜目蓋重瞳子』，又聞項羽亦重瞳子」、「吾聞馮王孫曰：『趙王遷，其母倡也……』」、「公孫季功，董生與夏無且游，具知其事，為余道之如是」等；

• 遊歷。比如文中有諸如：「余嘗西至崆峒，北至涿鹿，東漸于海，南浮江淮」（《五帝本紀》）；「余登廬山」（《河渠書》）；「吾過大梁之墟」（《魏公子列傳》）等。

內容

《史記》內容記載自傳說中的黃帝以來至漢武帝時期以來的歷史，全書分成〈本紀〉、〈表〉、〈書〉、〈世家〉和〈列傳〉五個主題，加上最後的〈太史公自序〉，又細分成一百三十卷（篇）。其中，〈本紀〉記載「天下」統治者的事蹟，「網羅天下放失舊聞，王跡所興，原始察終，見盛觀衰……著十二本紀，既科條之矣。」；〈表〉以表格的方式排列整理事件次序或歷史動態，「並時異世，年差不明，作十表。」；〈書〉的內容有關歷代典章制度，「禮樂損益，律歷改易，兵權山川鬼神，天人之際，承敝通變，作八書」；〈世家〉描述影響深遠的家系、周代的諸侯國和漢代的王侯貴族事蹟，「二十八宿環北辰，三十輻共一轂，運行無窮。輔拂股肱之臣配焉，忠信行道，以奉主上，作三十世家。」；〈列傳〉呈現的是歷史上各類人物的歷史表現與社會的種種樣貌，「扶義倜儻，不令己失時，立功名于天下，作七十列傳。」。不同於以往的史書，《史記》的寫作方式首開紀傳體之先河：以描寫人物的生平為主，年代先後為副。至此以後，尚有《漢書》、《三國志》和《後漢書》等史著仿效該體，讓紀傳體成為唐代以後官方史著所採用的主流寫作方式。趙翼《廿二史劄記》-{云}-：「司馬遷參酌古今，發凡起例，創為全史，本紀以序帝王，世家以記侯國，十表以繫時事，八書以詳制度，列傳以誌人物，然後一代君臣政事賢否得失，總彙於一編之中。自此例一定，歷代作史者，遂不能出其範圍，信史家之極則也。」

《史記》各篇結構大致由引言、正文和評論組成。〈書〉有引言、正文和評論，〈表〉只有引言和正文表格，〈本紀〉、〈世家〉和〈列傳〉只有正文和評論：正文前是引言，記述寫作動機；正文記述歷史事件、人物的生平描述，這部分皆以代表性事件或逸事銜接交雜而成；正文後面是評論，通常以「太史公曰」為開頭，內容或有作者的個人經歷，或有對人物的評價，或有收集資料的過程，但仍以評論題材人物的性格與行事為主，這也呼應司馬遷在自序中「究天人之際」的寫作目標。

《史記》全文一百三十篇，自司馬遷歿就有十篇散失。當時補缺而知其名者有十八家之多，但唯存西漢博士褚少孫之作。但其中有些也有可能更有後人補之，如《孝武本紀》摘抄于《封禪書》，褚少孫雖才識不足也不至于如此。另有唐司馬貞補《三皇本紀》。

文學風格

《史記》有豐富的思想內容，不虛美不隱惡，善寫奇節及壯採偉行，也善於諷刺和暴露現實，有所寄託，善寫悲壯，筆鋒帶感情，抒發憤思，愛憎分明，被魯迅譽為「史家之絕唱，無韻之離騷」。

《史記》長於敘事，善於鋪敘及渲染氣氛，把歷史事件和人物事跡故事化，故事情節曲折跌宕，製造戲劇場面，氣勢雄奇，富於變化，有濃烈的藝術感染力。

《史記》善於描寫人物，刻畫人物心理活動，用對比、襯托手法強化人物性格，選擇歷史人物一生中最有典型意義的事件，來突出人物的性格特徵，並善於細節描寫，以瑣事烘托出人物的性格，用符合人物身份的口語，表現人物的神情態度和性格特點。

《史記》文詞精鍊，詞彙豐富，語言精切淺白，有精粹的語言藝術特色，善用虛字，語氣傳神，並善用民歌與諺語。句式則靈活多變，長短錯落，駢散並用，具參差之美。

司馬遷為了讓每篇傳記避免重複、具備統一審美價值和更加完整，遂創造了嶄新敘事手法「互見法」來撰寫《史記》；「互見法」即是將一個重要人物的事跡透過不同地方分述，而以其本傳為主；或將同一事件分述於不同地方，但以一個地方的敘述為主。

版本

現存最古老的史記殘卷為日本藏南北朝時期的抄本殘卷。而最古老的完整版史記為現藏於台灣中央研究院歷史語言研究所的北宋「景祐本」（其中有十五卷為別版補配）、及日本藏南宋版黃善夫三家注史記。

白話文則有韓兆琦譯注的《新白話史記》（簡體字本由中華書局出版，繁體字本由台灣三民書局出版），張烈等人譯注的《史記》（簡體字本由貴州古籍出版社出版，繁體字本由台灣古籍出版社出版）。

其他工具書則有哈佛燕京社編《史記及注釋綜合引得》、黃福鑾編《史記索引》、李曉光、李波編《史記索引》、鍾華編《史記人名索引》、段書安編《史記三家注引書索引》、倉修良主編《史記辭典》等。

現羅列歷代重要善本如下。

• 十四行本。刊刻于北宋真宗景德年間（1004—1007）。半頁十四行，行二十四至二十七字不等。原刻本現藏日本大阪杏雨書屋，僅存六十九卷。南宋覆刻本一百三十卷（有別本補配）藏中國國家圖書館，1955年文學古籍刊行社影印刊行。

• 十行本。《史記》的最早刻本刊于北宋太宗淳化五年（994），半頁十行，每行十九字。今已亡佚。北宋仁宗景祐二年（1035），國子監據淳化舊本重刊，即後世所說的「景祐本」，流傳至今。原刻本（其中有十五卷為別版補配）現藏台灣中央研究院歷史語言研究所；

• 日本藏南宋版黃善夫三家注史記（簡稱「黃善夫本」）

• 明朝嘉靖、萬曆年間南北監刻二十一史本（簡稱「監本」）

• 明朝毛氏汲古閣刻十七史本（簡稱「毛刻本」或「汲古閣本」）

• 清朝乾隆年間武英殿刻二十四史本（簡稱「武英殿本」或「殿本」）

• 清朝同治年間張文虎整理，金陵書局刊行史記集解索隱正義合刻本一百三十卷（簡稱「金陵局本」）

• 民國初年張元濟編輯，商務印書館影印百衲本史記（簡稱「百衲本」）

目錄

本紀

表

書

世家

列傳

流傳狀況

據《漢書》記載，司馬遷的外孫楊惲公開發表了《史記》，後因怨望被漢宣帝腰斬。

司馬遷的《史記》在漢朝、三國期間屬於禁書，官民不得自由閱讀，即使是王公諸侯亦沒有此權利，而且刪去《史記》的《孝景本紀》、《孝武本紀》等10篇，其他篇章亦多有篡改。今日《史記》的版本與司馬遷的原稿差別很大。東漢明帝、魏明帝曹叡等君主都曾痛批司馬遷誹謗漢武帝。例如班固在他的著作《典引》稱，永平十七年某日，漢明帝曾在雲龍門召見他、傅毅、賈逵、杜矩、展隆及郗萌等人，派個宦官拿了篇司馬遷的《秦始皇本紀》，詢問他們是否覺得司馬遷的史論有不對的地方，班固指司馬遷引述賈誼過秦論：「假設子嬰有中人之才，秦的社稷還可以保住」，這番話相當有問題。

漢明帝劉莊對他的回答很滿意，其後派人召見班固，再次問他對司馬遷的看法是否故意投其所好，班固否認。這時漢明帝指，司馬遷這人思想很有問題，不是忠臣，漢武帝治過他的罪，他就在史書里把漢武帝寫得很不堪；雖然別人都說司馬相如浮薄無行，但總比司馬遷強。

魏明帝曹叡亦曾批評過司馬遷，認為司馬遷因為受過宮刑而著《史記》貶損漢武帝，令人痛恨，但大臣王肅卻肯定司馬遷善於敍事，乃良史之才，不虛美，不隱惡。王肅稱漢武帝聽說司馬遷寫了《史記》後，閱到《孝景本紀第十一》和《今上本紀第十二》後，不禁勃然大怒，命人削去了書簡上的字，並把這些書簡扔掉了。由于漢武帝的毀損，流傳到曹魏時代的《史記》，其中的這兩篇《本紀》，只有目錄，而沒有具體文字。王肅稱司馬遷對漢武帝的撰寫「不隱惡」，令漢武帝惱羞成怒，故迫害司馬遷。

此外，自董卓死後文學家蔡邕因同情董卓被下獄，太尉馬日磾為此向王允求情，但王允指當年漢武帝不殺司馬遷，結果司馬遷卻寫下誹謗漢武帝的《史記》，流傳後世，影響極壞。如今朝政不振，事態多變，類此蔡邕的士人絕不可讓他們在皇帝身邊記錄重大事務，否則將來受到非議的，只會是那些反董的士人，由此可見時人對《史記》的看法。

註疏

歷代對《史記》的評註主要有三家，劉宋裴駰的《史記集解》，唐司馬貞的《史記索隱》和張守節的《史記正義》，合稱「史記三家注」，常與《史記》共同刊行。

清梁玉繩的《史記志疑》是有清一代史記研究的集大成之作。近代有日本學者瀧川資言的《史記會注考証》較為著名。當代有韓兆琦的《史記箋証》，以三家注和《史記會注考証》為基礎，是史記注釋詳盡之作。以下羅列歷代部分重要註家。

影響

文學方面，唐代韓愈、柳宗元，宋代歐陽修、三蘇，明代歸有光，清代桐城派的散文，均受《史記》影響。後世傳記的體制，以及在傳記之後用論贊表達作者見解的形式，都源於《史記》。而《史記》人物及相關歷史事件，成為後世小說、戲曲、詩詞的寫作素材。

評論

• 班固批評《史記》，說它「是非頗謬于聖人，論大道則先黃老而後六經，序遊俠則退處士而進奸雄，述貨殖則崇勢利而羞貧賤，此其所蔽也。然自劉向、揚雄博極群書，皆稱遷有良史之材，服其善序事理，辨而不華，質而不俚，其文直，其事核，不虛美，不隱惡，故謂之實錄」。

• 幹寶對《史記》不滿，《史通·二體篇》：「晉世幹寶著書，乃盛譽丘明而深抑子長。其義-{云}-能以三十卷之約括囊二百四十年事，靡有遺也。」又「及幹令升史議，歷詆諸家而獨歸美《左傳》。-{云}-丘明能以三十卷之約，括囊二百四十年之事，靡有孑遺。斯蓋立言之高標，著作之良模也。」

• 劉知幾曾說：「自戰國以下，辭人屬文，皆偽立客主，假相酬答。」劉知幾甚至說《史記》將寓言、神話、傳說當作史料，「至於屈原《離騷》辭，稱遇漁夫于江渚；宋玉《高唐賦》，云夢神女于陽臺。夫言並文章，句結音韻。以茲敍事，足驗憑虛。而司馬遷、習鑿齒之徒，皆採為逸事，編諸史籍，疑誤後學，不其甚邪！」

• 周亮工在《尺牘新抄》中表示：「垓下是何等時？虞姬死而弟子散，匹馬逃生，身迷大澤，亦何暇更作歌詩？既有作，亦誰聞之，而誰記之歟？吾謂此數語者，無論事之有無，應是太史公筆補造化代為傳神。」

• 黃震在《黃氏日抄》中說：「凡看衛霍傳，須合李廣看，衛霍深入二千里，聲振華夷，今看其傳，不值一錢。李廣每戰輒北，困躓終身，今看其傳，英風如在。史氏抑揚予奪之妙，豈常手可望哉。」

注釋

古代文獻參考

研究書目

• 李長之：《司馬遷的人格與風格》（上海：開明書店，1948）。

• 藤田勝久著，曹峰、廣瀨薰雄譯：《《史記》戰國史料研究》（上海：上海古籍出版社，2008）。

• 呂世浩著，《從《史記》到《漢書》－轉折過程與歷史意義》，台北市：國立臺灣大學出版中心，2009。

• 倪豪士：〈史公和時勢——論《史記》對武帝時政的委曲批評〉。

• 柯馬丁：〈《史記》裡的『作者』概念〉。

• 柯馬丁：〈漢史之詩：《史記》、《漢書》敘事中的詩歌含義〉。

• 葉嘉瑩：〈神龍見首不見尾——談《史記·伯夷列傳》的章法與詞之若隱若現的美感特質〉。

• 町田三郎：〈《史記·傅靳蒯成列傳》研究〉。

• 周建渝：〈從《史記評林》看明代文人的敘事觀〉。

• 楊燕起：《史記與中國史學》（北京：北京師範大學出版社，2015）。

延伸閱讀

History

The work that became Records of the Grand Historian was begun by Sima Tan, who was Grand Astrologer (Taishi 太史) of the Han dynasty court during the late 2nd century. Sima Tan drafted plans for the ambitious work and left behind some fragments and notes that may have been incorporated into the final text. After his death in 110, the project was continued and completed by his son and successor Sima Qian, who is generally credited as the work's author. The exact date of the Records completion is unknown, but it is certain that Sima Qian completed it before his death about 86, with one copy residing in the imperial capital of Chang'an (present-day Xi'an) and the other copy probably being stored in his home.

The original title of the work, as given by the author in the postface is Taishigongshu (太史公書), or Records of the Grand Historian, although it was also known by a variety of other titles, including Taishigongji (太史公記) and Taishigongzhuan (太史公傳) in ancient times. Eventually, Shiji (史記), or Historical Records became the most commonly used title in Chinese. This title was originally used to refer to any general historical text, although after the Three Kingdoms period, Shiji gradually began to be used exclusively to refer to Sima Qian's work. In English, the original title, Records of the Grand Historian is in common use, although Historical Records, The Grand Scribe's Records, and Records of the Historian are also used.

Details of the Records early reception and circulation are not well known. A number of 1st-century BC authors, such as the scholar Chu Shaosun (褚少孫; fl. 327), added interpolations to the Records, and may have had to reconstruct portions of it: ten of the original 130 chapters were lost in the Eastern Han period (AD 25220) and seem to have been reconstructed later.

Beginning in the Northern and Southern dynasties (420589) and the Tang dynasty (618907), a number of scholars wrote and edited commentaries to the Records. Most 2nd-millennium editions of the Records include the commentaries of Pei Yin (裴駰, 5th century), Sima Zhen (early 8th century), and Zhang Shoujie (張守節, early 8th century). The combined commentaries of these three scholars is known as the Sanjiazhu (三家注, "commentaries of the three experts"). The primary modern edition of the Records is the ten-volume Zhonghua Book Company edition of 1959 (revised in 1982), and is based on an edition prepared by the Chinese historian Gu Jiegang in the early 1930s and includes the Sanjiazhu.

Manuscripts

There are two known surviving fragments of Records manuscripts from before the Tang dynasty, both of which are preserved in the Ishiyama-dera temple in Ōtsu, Japan. Portions of at least nine Tang dynasty manuscripts survive: three fragments discovered among the Dunhuang manuscripts in the early 20th century, and six manuscripts preserved in Japanese temples and museums, such as the Kōzan-ji temple in Kyoto and the Tōyō Bunko museum in Tokyo. A number of woodblock printed editions of the Records survive, the earliest of which date to the Song dynasty (9601279).

Contents

In all, the Records is about 526,500 Chinese characters long, making it four times longer than Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War and longer than the Old Testament.

Sima Qian conceived and composed his work in self-contained units, with a good deal of repetition between them. His manuscript was written on bamboo slips with about 24 to 36 characters each, and assembled into bundles of around 30 slips. Even after the manuscript was allowed to circulate or be copied, the work would have circulated as bundles of bamboo slips or small groups. Endymion Wilkinson calculates that there were probably between 466 and 700 bundles, whose total weight would have been , which would have been difficult to access and hard to transport. Later copies on silk would have been much lighter, but also expensive and rare. Until the work was transferred to paper many centuries later, circulation would have been difficult and piecemeal, which accounts for many of the errors and variations in the text.

Sima Qian organized the chapters of Records of the Grand Historian into five categories, which each comprise a section of the book.

Basic Annals

The "Basic Annals" (běnjì 本紀) make up the first 12 chapters of the Records, and are largely similar to records from the ancient Chinese court chronicle tradition, such as the Spring and Autumn Annals. The first five cover either periods, such as the Five Emperors, or individual dynasties, such as the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties. The last seven cover individual rulers, starting with the First Emperor of Qin and progressing through the first emperors of the Han dynasty. In this section, Sima chose to also include de facto rulers of China, such as Xiang Yu and Empress Dowager Lü, while excluding rulers who never held any real power, such as Emperor Yi of Chu and Emperor Hui of Han.

Tables

Chapters 13 to 22 are the "Tables" (biǎo 表), which are one genealogical table and nine other chronological tables. They show reigns, important events, and royal lineages in table form, which Sima Qian stated that he did because "the chronologies are difficult to follow when different genealogical lines exist at the same time." Each table except the last one begins with an introduction to the period it covers.

Treatises

The "Treatises" (shū 書, sometimes called "Monographs") is the shortest of the five Records sections, and contains eight chapters (23–30) on the historical evolution of ritual, music, pitch pipes, the calendar, astronomy, sacrifices, rivers and waterways, and financial administration.

Hereditary Houses

The "Hereditary Houses" (shìjiā 世家) is the second largest of the five Records sections, and comprises chapters 31 to 60. Within this section, the earlier chapters are very different in nature than the later chapters. Many of the earlier chapters are chronicle-like accounts of the leading states of the Zhou dynasty, such as the states of Qin and Lu, and two of the chapters go back as far as the Shang dynasty. The later chapters, which cover the Han dynasty, contain biographies.

Ranked Biographies

The "Ranked Biographies" (lièzhuàn 列傳, usually shortened to "Biographies") is the largest of the five Records sections, covering chapters 61 to 130, and accounts for 42% of the entire work. The 69 "Biographies" chapters mostly contain biographical profiles of about 130 outstanding ancient Chinese men, ranging from the moral paragon Boyi from the end of the Shang dynasty to some of Sima Qian's near contemporaries. About 40 of the chapters are dedicated to one particular man, but some are about two related figures, while others cover small groups of figures who shared certain roles, such as assassins, caring officials, or Confucian scholars. Unlike most modern biographies, the accounts in the "Biographies" give profiles using anecdotes to depict morals and character, with "unforgettably lively impressions of people of many different kinds and of the age in which they lived." The "Biographies" have been popular throughout Chinese history, and have provided a large number of set phrases still used in modern Chinese.

Style

Unlike subsequent official historical texts that adopted Confucian doctrine, proclaimed the divine rights of the emperors, and degraded any failed claimant to the throne, Sima Qian's more liberal and objective prose has been renowned and followed by poets and novelists. Most volumes of Liezhuan are vivid descriptions of events and persons. Sima Qian sought out stories from those who might have closer knowledge of certain historical events, using them as sources to balance the reliability and accuracy of historical records. For instance, the material on Jing Ke's attempt at assassinating the King of Qin incorporates an eye-witness account by Xia Wuju (夏無且), a physician to the king of Qin who happened to be attending the diplomatic ceremony for Jing Ke, and this account was passed on to Sima Qian by those who knew Xia.

It has been observed that the diplomatic Sima Qian has a way of accentuating the positive in his treatment of rulers in the Basic Annals, but slipping negative information into other chapters, and so his work must be read as a whole to obtain full information. For example, the information that Liu Bang (later Emperor Gaozu of Han), in a desperate attempt to escape in a chase from Xiang Yu's men, pushed his own children off his carriage to lighten it, was not given in the emperor's biography, but in the biography of Xiang Yu. He is also careful to balance the negative with the positive, for example, in the biography of Empress Dowager Lu which contains startling accounts of her cruelty, he pointed out at the end that, despite whatever her personal life may have been, her rule brought peace and prosperity to the country.

Source materials

Sima's family were hereditary historians to the Han emperor. Sima Qian's father Sima Tan served as Grand Historian, and Sima Qian succeeded to his position. Thus he had access to the early Han dynasty archives, edicts, and records. Sima Qian was a methodical, skeptical historian who had access to ancient books, written on bamboo and wooden slips, from before the time of the Han dynasty. Many of the sources he used did not survive. He not only used archives and imperial records, but also interviewed people and traveled around China to verify information. In his first chapter, "Annals of the Five Emperors," he writes,

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 barbarian tribe defeated King You of Zhou 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 in Hunan for his loyalty to Gaozu. See article on Zhao Tuo). In his chapter on the patriotic minister and poet Qu Yuan, Sima Qian writes, "I have read 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."

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. 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."

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. Sima Qian sifted out the 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.

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):

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.

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." These numbers are likewise given in the postface to Shiji.

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.

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 Records of the Grand Historian, 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 are:

Notable translations

English

• 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, .

　　• Han dynasty, Volume 1, .

　　• Han dynasty, Volume 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.

• 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.

• 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), .

　• II. The Basic Annals of the Han Dynasty (2018), .

　• V. part 1. The Hereditary Houses of Pre-Han China (2006), .

　• VII. The Memoirs of Pre-Han China (1995), .

　• VIII. The Memoirs of Han China, Part I (2008), .

　• IX. The Memoirs of Han China, Part II (2010), .

　• X. The Memoirs of Han China, Part III (2016), .

　• XI. The Memoirs of Han China, Part IV (2019), .

Non-English

• Chavannes, Édouard, trans. (1895–1905). Les Mémoires historiques de Se-ma Ts'ien 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."

• Chavannes, Édouard, Maxime Kaltenmark Jacques Pimpaneau, translators. (2015) Les Mémoires historiques de Se-Ma Ts'ien Historical Memoirs of Sima Qian, 9 vols.; Éditions You Feng, Paris. This is the completed full translation of the Shiji

• full translation in 9 vols: Vyatkin, Rudolf V., trans. . Istoricheskie Zapiski (Shi-czi) , 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.

• 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 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). Ershisishi quanyi: Shiji 二十四史全译：史记, 2 vols. Beijing: Hanyudacidian chubanshe.

• Mizusawa, Toshitada 水澤利忠; Yoshida, Kenkō 吉田賢抗, trans. (1996–1998). Shiki 史記 Shiji, 12 vols. Tokyo: Kyūko.

• Svane, Gunnar O., trans. (2007). Historiske Optegnelser: Kapitlerne 61-130, Biografier 1-70. Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag.

• Gregor Kneussel, Alexander Saechtig, trans. (2016). Aus den Aufzeichnungen des Chronisten, 3 vols. Beijing: Verlag für fremdsprachige Literatur (Foreign Languages Press); .