Sima Qian’s Bias
Many people will not find it surprising that there are many errors in the recording of history. But what is alarming is the fact that our history could be completely wrong and may even have large gaps in between them. Our place in history is essentially many small events that are strung together and accumulated over time; for this reason an unbiased history is regarded highly. However, an unbiased history is hard to attain. In entry level history courses in college we learn to distinguish the historians tone as well as perspective; is he Asia-centric, eurocentric, is he crediting or discrediting a certain event or people.Some biases may be blatant and seek to distort the past and as such we can say that history might just be a propaganda of the winners. For this paper, a definition of “bias: is crucial to understanding this topic. Often times “bias” implies deliberately or involuntarily ignoring some random facts. Because of this any historian can choose to influence his readers perception for a given period of history by what he/she chooses to include or exclude. Thus recordings of history provides not only information about the past but also a reflection of the historian's perspective. As a matter of fact, the ancient Chinese historians are very selective when it comes to organizing portions of history. They do this in order to bring about a specific point or message. Many accounts of Chinese history thus provide insight to the historian's perception of the past as well as the influences of the historian from their own time and culture. Examples of this can be found in the Records of the Grand Historian or Shiji; written by Sima Qian. Sima Qian’s Shiji offers insights as a historian as well as his plea to resolve one life changing event that he tries to justify through a way that may have seemed objective, but nonetheless it was one filled with many biases. To understand how Sima Qian’s experiences motivated his compilation of the Shiji it’s essential to analyze the history and events surrounding Qian.
Sima Qian was born around 145 B.C during the Han dynasty of China. The Qin dynasty had previously ruled China; they relied on a legalist system, emphasizing military power and made the emperor a dictator of sorts that did not require any legitimization from his people (De Bary 369). The Han however established an empire that was arguably more success than the Qin in terms of its longevity and prosperity. The Han made the Confucian ideologies especially important as they stressed the importance of music and rituals, and their aim to provide ways to unify the people in order to ensure the Mandate of Heaven (belief that Heaven would expel the government if they did not carry out the will of Heaven) (De Bary 43). In Sima Qian’s Shiji it is obvious that he has somewhat of a personal bias against the Qin dynasty and its legalist system. He favors Confucianism because it seems to be a more preventative method to maintain prosperity amongst the lower class. If a ruler is just and fair, the lower class will also be just and fair; a cycle of peace that is obtained. This is contradictory to the legalist ideology where ‘peace’ is created and maintained through a tyrannical government system that mistreats its people as well as officials. Sima Qian depicted the Qin empire as sort of an evil empire and made it a point that legalist ideology did not work to the benefit of anyone unlike Confucianism (Sima Qian 172, 273).
Sima Qian lived a life of filial piety, loyalty, and fairness yet he still felt his life insignificant. In his letter to Ren An, he explains how he had disgraced himself in front of the king for defending his friend, General Li Ling. With no money or acquaintances to absolve his punishment, he chose to be castrated instead of death (which was a more honorable choice at the time). He states in his letter, “If even a captive slave girl can take her own life, certainly someone like me could do the same when all was lost.” (Owen 140). Qian rhetorically asks what can possibly stop him from committing suicide to avert a shameful life to which he answers in the next line that it’s because he does not want to die unfulfilled (referring to his project, Shiji). He also tries to assuage himself by providing examples of accomplished individuals who have also encountered hardships in their lives; hoping his life would take a similar path by having a legacy in through his work of Shiji (Owens 140). Shiji should best be described as a compilation of previous sources and some original work from Sima Qian (De Bary 368). The strengths of it is it’s intrinsic encyclopedic essence, it approaches a lot of its events from different angles. It’s weakness however, is that it’s hard to find a synthetic view of events. It could be argued that this ‘weakness’ is a sign of nonbias and neutrality since Sima Qian uses a lot of different sources to balance the biases, making the overall work more objective. We know that he didn’t write all of Shiji so it’s important to distinguish between the “Records” and Sima Qian. So Qian’s role as a historian can be summarized by De Bary’s statement, “...select the most pertinent documents and arrange them in a way best calculated to demonstrate the cause and effect of events.” (De Bary 368). Through this Qian is able to carefully insert pieces of history in which he felt a personal connection through. This is best exemplified in the last section of Shiji. The last and longest section of the “Records” is made of biographies that were selectively organized and chosen to bring about a particular message. One common theme of this chapter is that of people who followed their principles and virtues, but were nonetheless seen as a failure by the government. One of his most famous biographies was that of General Li Kuang, a Han general for which he had immense respect for. General Li Kuang was described as brave, loyal, and generous: his people always came before him. When he led his troops found water in a barren region, he would not drink any of the water until all his men had finished drinking. Similarly, he wouldn’t eat until all of his men are fed. Even so, Qian noted that Li Kuang’s life was filled with misery and misfortune since the Han government often mistreated him. At some point Li Kuang got lost during a mission and was discharged for his disobedience. Instead of bearing the shame in court, he shortly committed suicide by cutting his throat; restoring his honor. It is apparent that Qian saw these stories as a mirror to his own experiences. The important thing to note here is why would he deliberately include these kind of stories. His commentary in the stories does provides us with some clues. In the story of Li Kuang, Sima Qian adds, “if he is an upright person, he will act whether he is ordered to or not; if he is not upright he will not obey even he ordered. It refers no doubt, to men like General Li.”(Watson 133). What Sima Qian was trying to convey was that he (as well as the others he mentioned in Shiji) tried to live a moral lifestyle by Confucian values, but the government nor the Heaven rewarded them. Qian may believe that if Heaven had not rewarded these people, that responsibility was transferred to the rulers. By not rewarding these people the ruler was susceptible to losing his Mandate of Heaven. Thus what Sima Qian was trying to accomplish by including these biographies was because he saw himself as one of those individuals who possessed Confucian ideals but was betrayed by the government. He may have focused on times in the past in which the rulers failed to recognize the accomplishments, dedication, and virtues of their people in order to allow future rulers to learn from past mistakes. Sima Qian’s Shiji was much more than just a compilation and retelling of events in the past. He had organized his record of history in a way satisfactory to the Han’s requirement as well as attempted to resolve a crisis in his own life. There Shiji was inherently bias because we can’t consider this a primary source. The biases are not all Qian’s own but the biases of the sources in which he chose to use. The second type of bias was represented through Qian’s personal life. Despite all these biases his intentions were clear cut and genuine. He wanted to unify the people of China, provide insight into the world, and remind people of the importance of morals and values that are overlooked by not just rulers, but sometimes also by Heaven.

Works Cited
De Bary, Wm. Theodore, and Irene Bloom, comps. Sources of Chinese Tradition. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. New York: Columbia UP, 1999.
Owen, Stephen. An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911. New York: W.W. Norton,
1996. Print.
Qian, Sima. Records of the Grand Historian: Han Dynasty I. Trans. Burton Watson.
Columbia UP, 1961.