Communications in Humanities Research
- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences
Communications in Humanities Research
Vol. 11, 31 October 2023
Open
Access | Article
A Study on Sima Qian’s View of Life and Death and the Principle and Influence of His Writing
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Abstract
As one of the most significant historians in Chinese history, Sima Qian is well known for his great work Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian). His personal life, however, was full of difficulties and hardships. Because of the disagreement and conflict with Emperor Wu of Han, Sima Qian was punished by being castrated, which made him suffer a deep sense of shame. However, in his letter to Ren An, a friend and colleague of him, Sima Qian still expressed that he had no regret being a historian and that he had made up his mind to preserve the Confucian ideals of devotion and integrity. This paper tries to examine the legacy of this unique individual in Chinese history by analyzing Sima Qian's view of life and death based on his letter to Ren An, as well as his writing principles and influences. Conclusions can be drawn that Sima Qian chose to live in shame for the reason that he intended to fulfill his duty as a son and a historian. He committed to Confucian principles when writing, and his works have had a great impact on Chinese history, literature, and cultural memory.
Keywords
East Asian study, Shiji, Records of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian
References
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Data Availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
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- Volume Title
- Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Educational Innovation and Philosophical Inquiries
- ISBN (Print)
- 978-1-83558-045-5
- ISBN (Online)
- 978-1-83558-046-2
- Published Date
- 31 October 2023
- Series
- Communications in Humanities Research
- ISSN (Print)
- 2753-7064
- ISSN (Online)
- 2753-7072
- DOI
- 10.54254/2753-7064/11/20231398
- Copyright
- 31 October 2023
- Open Access
- This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited