Sīmǎ Qiān 司馬遷
Zì Zǐcháng 子長, conventionally referred to as Tàishǐ gōng 太史公 (“the Grand Scribe”). Native of Xiàyáng 夏陽 (modern Hánchéng 韓城, Shǎnxī). Son of Sīmǎ Tán 司馬談 (?–110? BCE), whom he succeeded as Tàishǐ lìng 太史令 (Grand Scribe and Astronomer) in 108 BCE.
Birth date is conventionally given as 145 BCE following Wáng Guówéi 王國維 (based on Zhāng Shǒujié’s Zhèngyì) but 135 BCE has also been argued (Lǐ Chángzhī 李長之 and others, on the basis of the chronology in Sīmǎ Zhēn’s Suǒyǐn); the question is unsettled. Death date around 86 BCE is reconstructed from the extant terminus of his autobiographical work and the absence of references to him after Wǔdì’s death.
In his early twenties, Sīmǎ Qiān undertook an extensive empire-wide tour of historical sites, collecting oral and material evidence. He participated with Hú Suì 壺遂 and others in the promulgation of the Tàichū 太初 calendar reform of 104 BCE. In 99 BCE he spoke at court in defence of the surrendered general Lǐ Líng 李陵, was sentenced to death, and chose castration in lieu, in order to complete his father’s project. Re-employed as Zhōngshū lìng 中書令 (Court Documentalist), he carried the Shǐjì (KR2a0001 Shǐjì) to substantial completion before dying ca. 86 BCE; one copy was deposited at the imperial archive and another at “the famous mountain” (likely the Sīmǎ ancestral home at the foot of Mt. Huá). His grandson Yáng Yún 楊惲 (d. 54 BCE) was the first to circulate the work outside the imperial collection.
The letter to Rèn Ān 任安 (Bào Rèn Ān shū 報任安書), preserved in Hànshū 62, is the principal first-person narrative of his ordeal and rationale for the work. The autobiographical postface (Tàishǐ gōng zì xù 太史公自序, Shǐjì 130) is the other primary source.