Sima Qian's Self-Conception in Claims of Legitimacy

Zusatztext

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Orientalism / Sinology - Chinese / China, grade: 1,7, University of Heidelberg (Sinologisches Seminar), course: Beginnings of Chinese Historiography, language: English, abstract: What we know today of Sima Qians (145 90 BCE) life and especially of the way he saw himself is drawn mainly from two sources of Chinese historiography the Records of the Grand Historian or Shiji, written by himself and his father Sima Tan (164 110 BCE), and the History of the Former Han or Han Shu, written by Ban Gu (32 92 CE) . Chapter 130 of the former, i.e. the authors postface, provides us with an autobiography of Sima Qian, whereas Ban Gu offers a biography of him in the Han Shu that is mostly copied from the Shijis postface. Additionally, after the biography Ban Gu added a letter to Ren An, a friend of Sima Qians, which was written as a response to Ren Ans own letter to the Grand Historian. The two mentioned accounts of Sima Qians life and his self-conception differ strongly from each other. Whereas his postface serves as a biography both for his father Sima Tan as well as his reasons for writing, or rather completing, the Shiji, his letter offers a great deal of insight into his situation at court and the way he perceived it.The purpose of this paper is to give some insight into Sima Qians self-conception and especially into his ways of legitimising his life and work. Thus, I will argue that the reason for his Confucian agenda of self-legitimation can be found in his self-conception displayed in his letter to Ren An.

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