Sima Qian and the Shiji;

A lesson in historiography by a contemporary of the Xiungnu:

Izabella Horvath,
Hangzhou, China

Sima Qian* (145-87 BC) is the most famous professional historian in China and
should deserve the distinction of possibly being the first such historian in the world. His
methods of data collecting, his fastidiousness and thoroughness, and his obvious attempt
at objectivity, as well as his integrity earned him the title, Father of Chinese
historiography. Among western scholars he is probably best known as the earliest
chronicler of the Asian Huns, the Xiongnu. Indeed, his records on the Xiongnu are all the
more invaluable, since he was their contemporary when the Xiongnu Empire was a
formidable political and military force and the northern neighbor of China. For over 500
years (~300 BC-200 AD) they challenged the power and authority of both the Qin and
Han empires. The 110th volume of the Shiji deals with the history, customs, and the
relationship between the Xiongnu and the China. Discounting the limitations of the times,
which are present at all times in all eras, and because Sima Qian was a Xiongnu
contemporary, this data can be considered as one of the most credible of all that has been
written about them since.
Having said that, the credibility of Sima Qian will be further strengthened if we know
more of the tradition of history writing in China as well as his method of collecting,
compiling, and recording historical data. This article will endeavor to highlight these
aspects as well as the social environment in which he worked over 20 years to write his
opus magnum, the Shiji. His groundbreaking method springs from a long tradition of
historical record keeping in China. The significance and prominent position of an
imperial court historian, closely linked to Chinese history writing, must also be examined
to fully appreciate the value of the Shiji. This huge work of 130 volumes can serve as an
outstanding example for global historiographic methodology, as well as provide better

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appreciation of Volume 110, the Biography of the Xiongnu, as a chronicle-based credible
document.

1. The Historiographic tradition in China

a. The purposes of history writing in China

Since ancient times writing in literate societies had been considered a mystical,
often supernatural phenomenon. It was knowledge wielded only by a chosen few skilled
in this art and often used as a channel of communication between the natural and the
supernatural world. The Egyptian priests who were scribes are good examples of this. In
China the ancestors, especially the ancestors of rulers, were a major component of the
supernatural world. It was the ancestors in the realm of the dead who were consulted for
how the living should behave, solve problems, and avoid disasters. Their advice,
transmitted through mediums, was written down onto various surfaces. The texts found
on Shang oracle bones and later on the Shang and Zhou bronzes are vivid examples of the
purposes of early writing in China.
Following the examples and suggestions of ancestors maintained the balance
between the living material world and heaven i.e. the spiritual world and the realm of the
dead. If this balance was maintained through correct behavior, then social order and life
could continue to survive. Lack of balance, discord, and upheaval—natural or man made
—meant the destruction of life, and therefore the harbinger of death for mankind. This
was in keeping with what later was known as Taoist philosophy, which promotes the
harmony of the universe of which the world of man is an integral part.
Early records tell of the wisdom of ancestors, who in time were elevated to
divinity for instructive purposes. These can be found in the Shang Shu (=Ancient
History), the 100 -volume work edited by Confucius, based on Xia, Shang, and Zhou
records housed in the Zhou imperial library (Li 1982 37). In these volumes there are
accounts of divine ancestor heroes whose deeds have contributed to human welfare, often
at the cost of their own lives. The Yellow Emperor, Pan Gu, Yi the Archer, and Shen
Nong are examples of such divine ancestors. They are credited with taming the waters of
the Yellow River, inventing agriculture and sericulture, and founding the science of

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Chinese medicine. Later Confucius and Lao Zi were also honored as semi-divine. Their
lives and deeds have served to instruct the living so they too could strive for harmony
between man and nature.
Leaders, such as kings and emperors were responsible for maintaining the balance
in the universe through correct and benevolent deeds. The Chinese considered the fall of
dynasties as the result of the lack of balance between heaven and earth. When heaven
disapproved of objectionable imperial behavior, it withdrew its support and allowed the
dynasty to fall. This was called losing the “mandate of heaven”.
Thus, even in early times, kings and emperors–claiming divine origin, and
destined to become ancestors themselves--set up royal and imperial history departments
to record the details of their reign, and the condition of the empire during their
administration. These deeds were to serve as examples and protocol for future
generations. It behooved emperors to record as much of their problem solving abilities
and daily deeds as possible, and to take note of all events that ensured the prosperity of
the country. The records were proof of their fulfilling their responsibility of maintaining
the balance of the universe and the mandate of heaven.
Since every aspect of life was involved in the maintenance of the balance of the
universe, detailed records were kept and used as reference material, to be consulted in
times of need. This included every area of life: politics, social etiquette, agricultural
practices, astronomy as well as medicine, the culinary, performing, and visual arts.

b. The methods of Chinese data collection and historiography

Little is known by western scholars of the tradition and system of historiography in

China. This is a unique tradition that continues even today as this paper is being written.
As early as the Shang times, there have been records of events kept on turtle shells and
later on bamboo strips, silk, and paper. The county, city, provincial, and national
governments have had departments of history since the Zhou dynasty. These offices are
manned by hundreds of trained historians. They are responsible for collecting, writing,
organizing, keeping records, and cross-referencing data for accuracy of events considered
worthy of recording. Political, social, and cultural events, as well as natural occurrences,

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such as floods, draughts, famine, or earthquakes were—and still are—all carefully
recorded and filed. Similarly, the activities of famous people, specifically those who
contribute to the well being of society, are written down and filed. The data collected
were housed in libraries. In the Qing dynasty there were several imperial libraries: two in
Beijing, one in Chengde, one in Hangzhou, one in Shenyang, one in Yangzhou, and one
in Zhenjiang. The libraries contained a number of collections (Li 1982 465) :
1. There were the works of famous scholars, such as Confucius, Manfucius, Lao
Zi, and the Book of Changes, the Yi Qing.
2. There were collections on mathematics, music, astronomy, the culinary arts,
architecture, and metallurgy.
3. Collections of various belief systems such as Taoism, Buddhism and the sacred
texts were also housed in the libraries.
4. History books included the yearbooks of the kingdoms, folk customs,
ceremonies and information of neighboring countries.
5. Finally, the archives housed the imperial diaries, daily records of the emperors’
activities in great detail, as well as imperial correspondence.
The Chinese have a unique method of writing history. When one dynasty, or era is
succeeded by another, the data about the previous regime is amassed and a league of
historians is given the task of writing the history of the country for the previous dynasty
or political period. This means collecting, organizing, and archiving the data from all
local levels and adding these to the data recorded at the imperial court. Then the court
historians spend years writing the history of the previous dynasty. This practice was
designed to assure that the data was as objective, thorough and as accurate as possible
and the writers recounted the events to the best of their knowledge, without having to fear
retaliation.
Today this practice is still in place. Hundreds of historians were involved in
writing the history of the Qing dynasty when it was overthrown. Then started the
collection of the events of the early republics and then the current Republic of China
since its inception in 1949. In the future, when this regime will be succeeded by another
one, historians will then amass the archived data recorded since 1949 from every level of
government, and proceed in writing the history of the Republic.

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 Two historians, personally known by the author, exemplify various levels of local
historical record keeping. One is Mr. Xue Chang Nian, a historian, as well as the now
retired secretary general of Jiayuguan city government in Gansu province. He chronicled
and edited the history of the city from its establishment in 1955 until 1985 when he
worked in the city government. To illustrate the extent of the details of the records,
Yaxiong Du (the Chinese ethnomusicologist who was first after Bartok to point out the
similarities between Hungarian and Yugur folksongs (Du 198) collected Jiayuguan
folksongs in the city. He is therefore mentioned in the Jiayuguan history book as a
contributor to the cultural life of the city (Xue 1990 316-318).
The historical volume is available to anyone in China who wants to know about
the life of the city (Xue 1990). When he retired, a new historian of the city took his place
and is in the process of continuing the city’s chronicle (personal communication with
Xue Chang Nian).
Another acquaintance of the author is Mr. Cheng Dao Hong, director of the
Archives of Hulunber League of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Working with
dozens of historians, he was responsible for editing a three volume historical account of
Hulunber League, Inner Mongolia (Cheng 1999).
Not only have the Chinese been keeping detailed records of local and domestic
events, but they have also recorded the history of neighboring peoples, such as those of
Korea, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and India. Even today, Indian scholars come to
China to gather data on their own early history, since the palm leaf documents on which
early Indian history was recorded have long since disintegrated. However, in China
Indian history was carefully recorded and archived.
There are many books about the early history of India. The earliest book, now
housed in the Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi’an, is a manuscript written by Xuan Zhuang, the
famous Tang Dynasty monk (602-664). He wrote the first factual account of India in his
12-volume historical record called, Datang xiyu ji (The Record of the Western Region
During the Great Tang Dynasty) published in 646. The history is based on his 17 years
of travel to and in that continent (Ci Yuan 1998 721). Xuan Zhuang’s practice of
accurate record keeping based on field experience, followed the method established in the
Shiji by Sima Qian, ca.100 years before the birth of Christ.

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 Often historical data were carved into stone. The Orchon Turkic inscriptions
found in Mongolia-- a late document (7-8th c.) written on stone stele, adopting the
Chinese practice of carving records into stone--is a famous example. In China even
today, many such collections of stone stele exist in temples, museum halls or gardens,
and special stele museums. These ancient stele have been used as an early “copy center”,
as it were, for anyone who wanted to study the contents. One simply paid a small sum to
be allowed to lay a thin layer of rice paper onto the stone face, rub black ink on it and
when dry, peel it off. Then this copy could be taken away to be studied. The stele
contains anything from exquisite etchings of famous calligraphers, to proverbs, poems,
essays, and also historical records.
In Hangzhou, where the author lives, the temples and museums abound in such
stele, and anyone can obtain rubbings for a small fee. The recently refurbished ancient
Temple of Confucius, located in the center of Hangzhou, is one such place. The temple
houses hundreds of stele. These contain the historically significant Confucian classics
(Fig 1), poems, essays and commentaries by prominent figures, such as erudite scholars
and well educated accomplished emperors. Many of these inscribed stones are as old as
1200 years.

2. The Role of the imperial court historian

From the aforementioned, it becomes clear that Sima Qian was born into a society in
which historiography was of paramount importance, and where a well-developed system
of historical record keeping was already in place. Within this system, the imperial
historians held a very prominent position, for obvious reasons. It carried with it great
responsibilities and not a small degree of power. A historian was an important cog in the
wheel that kept the universe in balance and the society functioning and running smoothly.
Let us therefore examine the role of a royal historian in more detail.
It is recorded that the Shang emperors already employed historians. In the Zhou
dynasty the imperial court had five different official historians whose duty was to keep
records of events. Lao Zi, the writer of the Taoist classic, the Dao De Jing, just as Sima
Qian hundreds of years later, was also a court historian and librarian. He filled this post at

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the Eastern Zhou court (Spring and Autumn era 770-476 BC) (Liu 2006 55). Historians
also worked in each of the kingdoms of the Zhou dynasty. Confucius is recorded having
said he had read 120 volumes of history books (Li 1982 3). Therefore, it seems that
already during the Spring and Autumn period there had been a great many historical
records available.
A court historian not only read the books and using this knowledge advised the
emperor regarding important decisions, but he also had to be a specialist in astronomy,
music, and the construction of calendars. These three fields in Chinese culture were
inseparable, as they were agents to assure the maintenance of universal harmony, for
which an emperor was ultimately responsible. Today’s Chinese calendar—as well as the
western 12 month calendar-- is based on the information from the Xia li=(Calendar of
twelve months), the Lu shu (=Book of Temperament [ twelve tone of musical scale]),
and the Yue shu (=Book of Music) as can be found in the Shiji.
Imperial court historians also recorded the events that took place daily in the imperial
court and the empire and was in charge of the imperial library’s archives and records. It
was also his duty to preserve books and collect historical materials from the local
historical offices (Sima 1965 2).

3 The times and life of Sima Qian

Before we can discuss the value and content of the Shiji, the first systematically
written history of China, we need to know more about the times and life of its author,
Sima Qian. We know the details of his life from the preface of the Shiji, and a letter
written by Sima Qian to his friend, Ren An (Sima 1965 10-45; 282-296).
Sima Qian was born in Hancheng county, Shanxi province, in 145 BC. The Sima
family was an illustrious one as far back as the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BC), the third
dynasty of China. The family gave the country a number of well-known court historians
and astronomers. Also from the same family emerged Sima Cuo, a general of the Qin
kingdom and Sima Chang, an officer of the Department of Iron in the times of the first
emperor of China, Qin Shihuang (259-210 BC). Sima Qian’s father, Sima Tan, continued
the family tradition. He became the imperial court historian, tai shi ling a position he held

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for seven years, between 140 and 135 BC, to Han Wu Di, the emperor of the Western
Han dynasty (reigned between 141 and 86 BC).
As a child, Sima Qian lived in the countryside among the common people. When
he was 10 years old, he followed his father to Xi’an, the capital of the Han dynasty, and
studied ancient Chinese from a famous Confucian scholar, Kung Anguo, who,
incidentally, was the descendent of Confucius.
Sima Qian was exposed to the imperial court life and contemporary imperial
political events at an early age. For instance, at this time, Emperor Han Wu Di sent
Zhang Qian as ambassador to the western territories (today’s Xinjiang and Central Asia)
to establish diplomatic relationships with these small kingdoms and persuade them to
joint the Han against the Xiongnu. This was a move on the part of the Han court to
wrench from Xiongnu control the lucrative trade route later known as the Silk Road,
leading from the Han capital, Xi’an, into Central Asia.
When Zhang Qian finally returned to the Han court after 20 years of Xiongnu
captivity, it was Sima Tan’s duty as official court historian to record this important event
and the details of Zhang’s report. Sima Qian therefore had first-hand and immediate
exposure to such political news.
Sima Qian was also inspired by what took place at court, and in 127 BC, when he
was 20 years old, he decided to travel the Han Empire. The records show that he traveled
to Zhejiang, Shandong, Henan, and Hunan and visited countless ancient sites (Sima 1965
16). Upon his returned to Xi’an, he was appointed as bodyguard to the Emperor Han Wu
Di, an office he held from 122 to 116 BC (Sima 1965 4). This meant he had very intimate
contact with the emperor and was exposed to the events that took place around him at
court at the highest levels. He accompanied the emperor on his travels to today’s Gansu
province. Soon after, in 111 BC, Sima became ambassador to Shichuan and Yunnan
provinces.
Between 113 and 107 BC, Emperor Han Wu Di traveled to Shandong province.
Sima Tan accompanied him in the capacity of court historian. Halfway through the
journey, however, Sima Tan died in 110 BC. Sima Qian replaced his father in this
position and continued the journey of inspection with the Emperor to Shandong, traveling

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through almost all the territories of the Han Empire. He amassed first-hand information
about the lives of people as well as the problems and issues of political life.
In 108 BC when he was 38 years old, he officially became imperial court
historian. This position provided him with complete access to the books and documents
of the imperial library and its archives, as well as to the intimate inner workings of the
Han political system and its policies. Four years later, in 104 BC, he started to write the
great history of China, the Shiji (Records of the Historian).
In 99 BC, his friend, General Li Ling, was captured by the Xiongnu, and he
defected from the Han Empire. During the council meeting led by Emperor Han Wu Di
and his ministers, discussing the actions of Li Ling, the decision was brought to
exterminate the entire family of Li Ling as punishment for his treachery. This was
common dynastic policy when top military officials went over to the enemy or failed in a
military campaign. It was designed to promote loyalty and have the military do its best
for the interests of existing dynasty.
In the face of opposition, Sima Qian defended Li Ling and objected to the
family’s extermination. The enraged emperor decided to arrest and execute Sima Qian as
a traitor. However, according to Han law, a fine, or the ordeal of castration could
commute a death sentence. Since he did not have the money to buy his life, the only
other alternative was to suffer castration. Those receiving this sentence usually resorted
to suicide rather than undergo the humiliation. The sentence of castration was carried
out in the same year. Sima Qian was imprisoned for a total of three years but was
allowed to have correspondence. In a letter to a friend he considered suicide. However,
he preferred humiliation to honorable death because he wanted to write the Shiji, a
promise he had made his father on his deathbed (Sima 288). He was finally released from
prison in 96 BC.
In 93 BC the Emperor reinstated him into court life as zhong shu ling (=imperial
private secretary), a high position only castrated men could hold, but he lost his post as
imperial court historian. As secretary, Sima Qian was again able to gather first-hand data
on current political and social events. It was he who gave the emperor’s command to the
various ministers and handed the ministers’ report to emperor (Sima 1965 7). Since his
position required him to be constantly with the emperor, it is likely he was present when

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the foreign envoys and ambassadors arrived at court. As zhong shu ling he must have
read the correspondence of the emperor, including those written to rulers of other
countries, such as the Xiongnu. In Volume 110, he quotes contents of letters from the
emperor to the Xiongnu shanyu and the shanyu’s letter to the Han emperor.
While holding this post, he continued to write the Shiji. The final work consists
of 130 volumes and 526,500 Chinese characters.

4. The origins of the Shiji

Although Sima Qian finished the Shiji, it is believed his father Sima Tan had
already started to write this work. According to a Sui Dynasty (600 AD) history book,
Sima Tan had started to compile the Shiji on the basis of many ancient documents.
Because of his untimely death, he did not finish the work and his son took up the task
when he became official court historian to Han Wu Di.
Sima Tan’s plan for the great historical work contained the following divisions:
12 benji, which are dynastic histories and include the biographies of
emperors and empresses.
10 biao, are chronicles and yearbooks
8 shu are books on music, customs, and calendars
30 shijia, are histories of the most illustrious families, such as the families
of Confucius, Manfucius, and other imperial and royal families.
70 lie zhuan are chronicles of different nationalities, (for example,
Koreans, Vietnamese, and other minorities who at that time lived
in the southwest areas of the empire. This part also contained lists
and activities of occupations (famous actors, comedians,
philosophers, famous and infamous people, and outlaws, similar to
Robin Hood).

5. The content of Sima Qian’s Shiji.

According to contemporary Chinese scholarly research (Li 1982 117), Sima Qian’s
Shiji has four sources:

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 1. The first source is Sima Tan’s original work. He compiled a lot of historical
materials from the pre-Han period.
2. The second source is based on Sima Qian’s notes from over thirty references
cited, though it is suspected many others may have been omitted.
3. Sima Qian also used the imperial archives of the Han court. His position and
duties as grand historian, and later as private secretary to the emperor, provided him free
access to the archives. The archives contained the records of the correspondence
between the Emperors and other kingdoms as well as other official records. As private
secretary to the Emperor, which was a higher position than that of a court historian, it was
his duty to write documents and imperial correspondence for the emperor, to dispense the
written imperial orders to the ministers, and to give the ministers’ report to the emperor
(Sima 1965 7). This experience exposed him to further information, which he
incorporated into the Shiji.
4. The fourth source is fieldwork data collected by Sima Qian himself. As
mentioned above, he traveled extensively all over the Han Empire. He visited the Great
Wall to the north, Gansu to the west, Yunnan and Guaizhou, Zhejiang, and Henan to the
south and Shandong to the east. He traveled to check on historical data, visited historical
sites and met local people: In Hubei he visited the hometown of Qu Yuan (340-278 BC)
and wrote his biography. Qu Yuan was an outstanding poet and a minister of integrity of
the Chu kingdom. Today the popular Dragon Festival is held in his honor.
Sima Qian also went to the Confucian temple where documents on Confucius
were housed and wrote the history of the family of Confucius. He traveled to the Great
Wall to talk to the people there and gather data on the Qin general, Meng Tian, who
fought against the Xiongnu in that area. This provided him with factual and first hand
information on the lifestyle, customs, and traditions of the Xiongnu. If nothing else, this
experience alone makes volume 110 of immense importance and must be considered to
be the most accurate first-hand information on the Xiongnu to have ever been amassed.
No other historian ever been recorded to have gone among the Xiongnu to gather field
data.

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 It took Sima Qian 19 years to complete his work. The Shiji begins with the most
ancient times when the legendary Chinese emperors lived, and ends in 100 BC, during
the reign of Emperor Han Wu Di.

6. The Value of the Shiji as an example of accurate historiography and credible

source of Xiongnu history.

We can sum up in 6 points the features of the Shiji, which demonstrate the best
practices of history writing.
1. Sima Qian is credited with having established a simple, clear, and elegantly
written biographical style, as early as 100 BC. Due to the fact that Chinese writing has
changed little through time, even today it is possible for well-educated Chinese to read
the original Shiji, though a modern version with simplified characters is more popular,
and easy to understand.
The Shiji has come down through the ages in its entirety. Even today, anyone can
buy the complete 130 volumes from any big bookstore in China (Fig. 2). Chinese
historians have continued the systematic historiographic methods established by Sima
Qian and thus a corpus of continuous dynastic historical records exist in China that is
second to none in the world in accuracy and thoroughness, spanning a period of over
2000 years. This is a storehouse of immense value for humanity, but so far available only
to those who can read Chinese.
2. Sima Qian also initiated a scientific fieldwork method of history writing,
which has been followed by Chinese historians ever since. He collected material for his
work for over 20 years:
a. He interviewed many people for verification, recorded what he heard, and
compared it to existing records. He made notes of the discrepancies, saying much
information in the imperial library was mere legend, not facts.
b. He also gave attention to the lives of common people, not just of rulers and
the nobility. Daily events were recorded in the Shiji based on his personal
observations.

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 3. The Shiji also has extensive data on the social, political, and economic relationship
between the Han Empire and other neighboring states, among them the Xiongnu. He
discusses the origin, military prowess, social and political organization and social habits
of the Xiungnu. Moreover, he visited the northern frontiers by the Great Wall, where
much of the fighting between the Han and Xiongnu took place, gathering first hand data.
Because he worked in the imperial court where he needed to be present when Hun
envoys and ambassadors were regularly sent, he had access to data regarding the political
events between the Huns and the Han court.
4. Although the Xiungnu were the enemies of the Han, Sima does not speak
disparagingly of them. His tone is objective and matter of fact. He relates the events and
relationship between the Han and the Xiungnu as events that happen between empires
that struggle for supremacy, and he accepts this as a matter or course. He neither faults
nor exonerates either the Xiungnu or the Han.
This attitude is in sharp opposition to the stance of many western historiographers of yore
whose writings often betrays cultural prejudice. The much-quoted Ammianus
Marcellinus (325-391?) is an example of such prejudice, or at best credulity or ignorance
regarding his account of the Huns (Rolfe 1939 Vol. III. 383 –387).
To illustrate Sima’s objective attitude, in the 110th Volume of the Shiji, Sima never
refers to the Xiungnu as “barbarians”. The terms of reference he uses for the Xiungnu
are “northern enemy”, “northern neighbor”, or “Xiungnu”. The pejorative term
“barbarian” commonly used in the English translations, exemplified in Watson’s (Watson
1960), among others, is not to be found in the original text of the Shiji.
5. Sima Qian also analyzed the data and made conclusions as to the motivations
for the historical events. He put forth the conclusion that throughout history historical
events were precipitated mainly by people’s desire for economic benefits. Sima Qian’s
work established the criteria for future Chinese historiography of not just recording
events, but also for analyzing the data and drawing conclusions for motivations behind
the recorded political and social events, as results of human behavior. We could count
him among the first sociologists.
6. But most importantly, Sima Qian dared to criticize his society according to
moral values. He may even be the first historian upholding the values of human rights.

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His loyalty to his friend Li Ling even at the cost of his own life is an eloquent
demonstration of his integrity. He criticized the rule of Emperor Han Wu Di, and other
emperors and queens. In his work he included accounts of the lives of people whose
behavior exhibited a noble, moral character, even though they had been condemned by
existing governments. One such man was Xiang Yu of the Chu kingdom, who lost a
battle to the Han and was branded the “enemy” of the Han. Regardless, Sima considered
his behavior, motivations, and actions honorable and heroic, worthy of admiration and
respect.
We can safely assume that as a historian Sima Qian brought the same level of
honesty to his writing as that which characterized his own life.

7. Final words

Sima did not publish his work in his lifetime, most likely fearing retaliation for
his own family. In the Han Shu (Han dynasty chronicle) it is written that this task was left
to his grandson (Sima 1965 67). However, the work is widely available in China and has
been so since its first publication. It has never been translated into other languages in its
entirety. However, selected chapters have been rendered into Japanese (1932-34), English
(Watson1958), French (Chavanne1895-1905), and for the first time the entire 110th
chapter into Hungarian (Du/Horvath 1997).
Some western scholars doubt the accuracy and credibility of the Shiji regarding
the history of the Xiongnu, offering far fetched speculations about some of the events,
even going as far as suggesting it to be a work of fiction, or invention, falling short of
accusing Sima Qian of lying (DeCosmo 1991). However, these allegations lack factual
support. They do nothing more than simply reject the data, saying “it’s not so”. Rejecting
the data in the Shiji without foundation is not scientific, nor does it constitute scholarly
practices. Such attitudes spring from neglecting to realize the significance of the Chinese
tradition of historiography, and the Chinese social system and mindset. Recently, events
and locations mentioned by Sima Qian regarding the Xiongnu have been verified by
archeological excavations (Tian and Guo 1986; Minyaev 2009).

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 Sima Qian’s rigorous methodology in writing the Shiji compels us to conclude
that he had done as honest and as accurate a job as his position and the resources
available at that time allowed him to do. He had let the data speak to him, without
prejudice, or without forcing the data to fit an a priory theory. He had done the most that
can be expected from an honest historian.
Therefore, we can safely trust the veracity of his data on the Xiungnu. If any
thesis of it is to be disputed, it should be supported by archeological facts and concrete
data, rather than speculations based on second-guessing. Sima Qian can serve as an
outstanding example of how to write history. He teaches us rigorous methodology and the
desire to tell the story objectively even at great peril to one’s own life.

Acknowledgement:
I would like to thank the two Chinese historian colleagues, Cheng Dao Hong, the
director of the archives of the Hulunber League of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous
Region, and Xue Chang Nian, retired secretary general of the government of Jiayuguan
City, Gansu Province, for their help. Their personal communications added significantly
to this work. My special thanks goes to my husband, Yaxiong Du, for his tireless
encouragement and invaluable help in translating and explaining the Chinese sources as
well as contributing valuable suggestions to this article. Without his help this paper
would not have been possible.

* In this article I use the contemporary Chinese pinyin transcription for all names

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Reality. Ithaca, London.

Chavannes, Edouard (1895-1905) Les memoires, Historiques de Se-Ma Ts’ien, Vols.

I-V.. Ernest Leroux. Paris.

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Two photos to be included (attached as Figure 1 and Figure 2)

Figure 1. The author in front of a stela of one of

the Confucian classics in the newly renovated
Temple of Confucius in Hangzhou. March 2009.

Fig. 2. Author in Hangzhou bookstore holding a copy

of one of the volumes of Sima Qian’s Shiji. March, 2009.

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