Person145 BC
Sima Qian
Also called: Ssu-ma Ch’ien, Grand Historian
Western Han historian who endured castration to complete the Records of the Grand Historian, the first annals-and-biographies history; some date his birth to 135 BCE
As a young man he travelled across China collecting relics and oral traditions. He succeeded his father Sima Tan as Grand Historian, in charge of astronomy and the calendar, and helped create the Taichu calendar. After being castrated for defending Li Ling, he wrote to his friend Ren An that "every man must die, but some deaths are weightier than Mount Tai", explaining that he had chosen to live in order to finish the Shiji. The annals-and-biographies form he created became the model for history writing across East Asia.