Sima Qian Essays

could also be viewed as a literary work, not merely a record of historical events. I would say that Sima Qian, as a writer, has his own unique style, and acts not only as a compiler of historical records, but also as a story-teller. I thought that if Shiji can be seen as a literary work, then the historical figures described by the author can be seen as literary characters. If so, then how does Sima Qian create his characters, does he provide his own opinion, does he praise and criticize or does he

Shiji by Sima Qian provides invaluable insight into the history of the Qin dynasty, while the movie Hero directed by Zhang Yimou presents a modern interpretation of Qin’s successful unification of China. Therefore, Shiji and Hero reflect historians’ different attitudes toward government power: Shiji demonstrates the importance of centralizing government power in Qin’s reforms as well as the danger of abusing power shown in Qin’s totalitarian governance, while Hero conveys the necessity and legitimacy

are known around the world today. Their names are Herodotus and Sima Qian. Sima Qian was a historian from ancient China while Herodotus was from Greece. We all play a part in life and these two were no exception. If it wasn’t for them the history we can look back at now might not be there and we would never have known it happened. Herodotus knew that to be a historian you must want to have the ability to inquire about stories. Sima Qian had the role of telling of the great Chinese dynasties. We only

The Roman Empire, The Han Empire, and Relations to Neighboring Groups: A Comparison of Tacitus’s Germania Excerpt and Sima Qian’s Excerpt on the Xiongnu by Alex Prindle The definition of civilization or whether a culture is considered civilized or not has been argued throughout the course of history. Groups such as the Mongols, the ethnic groups surrounding the Roman Empire, and just about every group of people not part of a large, unified, strong empire in ancient history especially, has been thought

gentlemen listed in the analects are that a gentlemen was fair, kind (2.3), kept his word (2.13), was a good speaker (4.24), an avid studier (2.15), and thinks of the big picture (2.14). He also argued these gentlemen should run the government. Sima Qian makes many absolute statements in the Records of the Grand Historian. He claims

and a means for virtue politics was invented by two historians from two sharply different cultures: Sima Qian from China and Herodotus from Greece. Interestingly, they are both interested in frontier regions, the local people there, and their customs. Through their discussions of the Chinese/non-Chinese, Greeks/non-Greeks, we can acquire some insights into ancient history. There are two things that Sima Qian’s Shiji and Herodotus’s histories have in common: a strong interest in frontier regions and

History had to start somewhere and that one of the earliest record keepers where Herodotus and Sima Qian. Herodotus recording the history of the Greece while Sima Qian recording China’s early history. Thought these men were not the most accurate and unbiased record-keeper, it does shine a light into the mindsets of the people of the time. In these two own way, the do display the events of their time with their own unique view on the their surroundings. These two only have one thing in common, their

instances of historical writing? Let us briefly look at another example of historical chronicling as comparison. Sima Qian’s title was “The Grand Historian.” It was his job to record the happenings of the courts, kings, and administration of the kingdom. As a result, we are left with extremely detailed documents that, by many accounts, are quite accurate for their time. Naturally, Sima Qian also has to deal with these foreigners in his records. So how does he do it compared to our Grecian

In the past, a man’s honor meant everything. It was the most important thing to have and it determined what kind of person one would be. Commonly, a man with honor would be recorded into history and reach immortality, in a sense. With no honor, one was not much better than an animal. In modern society, honor no longer holds the same importance as it once did. In a realistic world where there are many things to worry about, idealistic values such as honor cannot be sustained as easily. In much of

historical content demonstrates how much class roles affected the way people of that time period looked at or acted towards certain people. In early China there was a grand historian named Sima Qian. While looking at this historical figure, people can see a sense of class roles. While being a grand historian, Sima has a higher class status than an average farmer would have. In early China when people are given certain titles they were also given a class role and status. Taking a look into an “extract

year, along with their future effects on China (221). Altogether, Huang advocates for the noteworthiness of 1587 as a connecting point of Chinese history. Telling the story of 1587, Huang displays the year in a similar fashion to Sima Qian’s The First Emperor. Like Sima Qian, this telling of history focuses on one specific character for each chapter. It is chronological for each chapter, but each chapter overlaps, in part, with the ones before and following it in a more cyclical format. This means that

There is a common theme of unifying armies and peoples to overcome war and discourse amongst all the readings. The legacy of unifying a nation and/or peoples to come together and focus on a problem as one instead of fighting amongst each other was prominent especially all the readings were in reference to wars and battles that were occuring for each empire/leader at the time. The unifications in all of the readings was usually done through a democractic process where the majority vote amongst the

be afraid of their leader and without outside influence, rulers aren’t picked properly which can lead to the downfall of an empire Firstly, too much power can cause people to be afraid of their leader. Throughout The Basic Annals of Empress Lü by Sima Qian, readers can see Empress Lü’s power become an unstoppable force. Because her husband was the emperor, when he died, the power was transferred to Empress Lü. According to the source, one of the first things Empress Lü did was torture and kill Lady

Herodotus was a Greek historian, who never stopped asking questions. He observed everything and everyone he came in contact with. The book, Herodotus and Sima Qian the First Great Historians of Greece and China, contains short documentaries that Herodotus wrote himself about things he witnessed and things he was informed about. These documentaries distinguish ideas and judgments that Herodotus experienced during his travel. One judgment that the text mentions is Herodotus’ opinion of a civilized

BOB VANASSEN ART 101/ELLIS THIRD SHORT ESSAY March 10, 2018 ART ANALYSIS/CRITICISM-THIRD SHORT ESSAY THE EMPEROR’S TOMB INTRODUCTION: Although there were a number of other art works that I found of interest, in particular works of the building architects, I was fascinated by the sheer size and detail of the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang (fig 12-12, page 282 of “A World of Art”) which incidentally gives a slightly different spelling than all the other sources I investigated. The Emperor’s tomb is

In Sima Qian’s records, he presents the Xiongnu as a hostile barbarian tribe that “have no walled cities, fixed abodes, or agricultural occupations.” Sima Qian continues that “they have no written documents, and they use spoken words to seal pacts” and that “during crises their men practice warfare and invade and plunder. Further, he attributes these traits to the Xiongnu’s “inborn nature” stating that “they do not understand ritual propriety and benevolence” From this quote, it can be seen that

run a smooth government. The Han Dynasty built its foundation from the Qin by continuing with standardization, as well as adapting the bureaucracy to align with their Confucian beliefs, especially with the civil service exams. The Grand Historian Sima Qian details some of Shihuangdi’s accomplishments, including “Tools and measures are made uniform, / The written

The first source directly describes the story of the Qin Dynasty, and its subsequent rise from a group of lowly soldiers in the far-west of the old Zhou Kingdom to its unification of all the Chinese States to become the very first of the Chinese Empires. The mastermind of this unification was Ying Zheng, who would later give himself the title Qin Shi Huang-Di which translates to, “First Sovereign Emperor of Qin.” Ying Zheng, and his short-lived dynasty, would create the foundation of all Chinese

ordinary person? Why great men in history can be engraved on people’s minds? That’s because of their missions which were different from those ordinary people. Qin Shihuang's mission is to unify the seven countries and establish the Qin Dynasty. Sima Qian in Han Dynasty, he devoted all his life to write the Historical Record. As a general in Song Dynasty, Yue Fei contributed a lifetime to fight against the country Jin. The mission of Chairman Mao is to lead Chinese to build a new China—the People’s

She worked at court, serving as the chief (and most influential) advisor of the time. FOOTNOTE. She was the first known female Historian in the world, completing a history of the Han dynasty, mirrored after Sima Qian’s Records. She was a poet, librarian, astronomer, and archivist. She taught two of the most famous Confucian scholars to have lived, and she invented the famous style of commentary where original characters are written within larger columns and