The Grand Scribe's Records: The Basic Annals of Pre-Han China

by Sima Qian, Weiguo Cao (Translation), Zhi Chen (Translation)

"An essential source for the study of events in early China, a guide to the moral philosophy of the gentlemen of Han, and a splendid work of literature which may be read for the pleasure of its style and the power of its narrative. ... This work makes Shi ji and its scholarship accessible to any reader of English, and it is a model for any work in this field and style." --Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

"Through such work as this, the scholarly and literary community of the West will learn more of the splendour and romance of early China, and may better appreciate the lessons in humanity presented by its great historian." --Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

"Nienhauser's new translation is scrupulously scholarly... the design of this series is nearly flawless... the translation itself is very precise..." --Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews

This project will result in the first complete translation (in nine volumes) of the Shih chi (The Grand Scribe's Records), one of the most important narratives in traditional China. Ssu-ma Ch'ien (145-c.86 B.C.), who compiled the work, is known as the Herodotus of China.

Genres: History

478 pages, Hardcover

Published October 18, 2018

About the author

Sima Qian (Szu-ma Chien; 司馬遷 c. 145 or 135 BC – 86 BC) was a Chinese historian of the Han dynasty. He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his work, the Records of the Grand Historian, a Jizhuanti-style (纪传体) general history of China, covering more than two thousand years from the Yellow Emperor to his time, during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. Although he worked as the Court Astrologer (Chinese: 太史令; Tàishǐ Lìng), later generations refer to him as the Grand Historian (Chinese: 太史公; taishigong or tai-shih-kung) for his monumental work. (Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Erik Champenois · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume is the beginning of a series of volumes aiming for a complete translation of Sima Qian (the volume consists of less than 10% of the work). Covering mythical times, the Xia, the Shang, the Zhou, the Qin, and the first Han Emperor, the book gets more interesting over time as more extensive narratives are possible for times closer to Sima Qian. I found the chapter on Xiang Yu particularly interesting, given his role in destroying the remnants of the Qin, his enthronement as King of Western Chu, and his contest for power with Liu Bang, the first Han Emperor. I particularly appreciated the artistic way in which Sima Qian opens and closes his chapter on Xiang Yu by reflecting on his inability to finish his studies of war and his inability to achieve complete victory through war (being defeated by Liu Bang and subsequently committing suicide).

The format of the book has some weaknesses: first of all, the book uses the older Wade-Giles rather than the more modern pinyin, making it sometimes difficult to follow and compare characters and kingdoms with other books. As the work aims to (at some point) be the complete modern translation of Sima Qian, it really should have used pinyin. Secondly, there are some spelling errors throughout - particularly in parts of the introduction, which over multiple pages contained an embarrassingly large amount of spelling errors that shouldn't exist in this type of academic book. I also personally find the notes too extensive, though I understand that the translators are writing to scholars and trying to be more detailed in their notes than an average reader might appreciate.

Apropos of nothing, one of my favorite quotes in the book was the following defense of free(r) speech: "This is [merely] blocking up criticism. To block peoples' mouths is worse than blocking a river. When an obstructed river bursts its banks, it will surely hurt a great number of people. People are like this, too." (Zhou, Basic Annals 4, p. 145).