Sima Qian was born in 145 BCE in Hejin. A Chinese historian of the Han dynasty, Sima Qian held the post of Grand Historian at the court of Emperor Wu, which he inherited from his father Sima Tan. He completed the Records of the Grand Historian, the Shiji, a vast work covering Chinese history from the legendary Yellow Emperor to his own time, which combines annals, chronological tables, treatises and biographies. After he defended a disgraced general before the emperor, he was condemned and punished by castration, and he chose to endure it rather than die so that he could finish his history. His book became the model for later dynastic histories and is also admired as literature.
Before and after
- from 149 BCE to 146 BCEThird Punic War
- from 149 BCE to 146 BCESiege of Carthage
- 147 BCERome destroys Carthage
- from 146 BCE to 330 CERoman Greece
- 145 BCEBirth of Sima Qian
- 141 BCEPaper
- 2nd century BCEVenus de Milo
- 139 BCEZhang Qian's mission opens the Silk Road
- 134 BCETiberius Gracchus is murdered and the Republic enters its crisis
More in Art, literature & culture
- from c. 776 BCE to 500 CEAncient Olympic Games
- c. 375 BCEWriting of the Allegory of the Cave
- June 313 CEEdict of Milan
- 381 CEFirst Council of Constantinople
- from 22 June 431 CE to 31 July 431 CEFirst Council of Ephesus
- 1 November 451 CECouncil of Chalcedon
The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires. You can also browse everything in the 2nd century BCE.