Shiji

The Shiji is a monumental history of China from legendary antiquity through the early Han dynasty, written by Sima Qian in the first century BCE. Its linked biographies, chronological tables, and institutional accounts shaped later Chinese historical writing.

Sima Qian: A Han dynasty historian who composed the Shiji after inheriting the office of court historiographer. His authorship and personal ordeal shaped the work’s composition and perspective.
Records of the Grand Historian (Han dynasty office): A Han court office responsible for calendrical, astronomical, and historical duties. Sima Qian inherited its historiographical responsibilities from his father.
Twenty-Four Histories: A traditional collection of official histories covering Chinese dynasties from antiquity through the Ming. The Shiji stands at the beginning of this canonical sequence of dynastic histories.
Xiang Yu: A military leader who contested Liu Bang for control of China after the Qin dynasty fell. His biography presents a defeated rival with grandeur rather than reducing him to a rebel.
Zizhi Tongjian: A chronological history of China from 403 BCE to 959 CE compiled by Sima Guang. It organizes political history as continuous chronology rather than the Shiji’s five-part framework.
Annals (Shiji): The Shiji’s chronological chapters, each centered on a ruler or dynasty. They provide the work’s chronological backbone, from early rulers to the Han.
Sima Tan: A Han court historian and Sima Qian’s father, who began a project to record the past. His unfinished historical project became the inheritance Sima Qian pledged to complete.
Book of Han: A history of the Former Han dynasty compiled chiefly by Ban Gu and his family. It adopted and adapted the Shiji’s biographical and institutional approach for one dynasty.
Emperor Gaozu of Han: The founder of the Han dynasty, born Liu Bang, who defeated Xiang Yu. His account contrasts the successful founder’s origins and political skill with Xiang Yu’s fate.
Spring and Autumn Annals: A terse chronicle of the state of Lu, traditionally associated with Confucius and covering 722–481 BCE. Its compressed annalistic record differs sharply from the Shiji’s expansive narratives and biographies.

Linked from 18 pages