SIMA QIAN - Notes detailing QinShiHuang\'s rise to power, his personality, career, tomb, PDF

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Notes detailing QinShiHuang's rise to power, his personality, career, tomb, servants, mercury poisoning and annotations regarding critics on his life...

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SIMA QIAN VALUE IMPORTANCE AS A SOURCE The Shiji is a primary example of the importance of past eras, ancestry, and filial piety to the Chinese. Although some of his claims are dubious (especially the extent of Qin tyranny—execution of scholars, the “burning of the books”), archaeological finds have borne out much of his writing, and are of much use in the archaeological practice itself (esp. in reference to the Tomb of Qin Shihuangdi). LEARNING ABOUT THE CYCLICAL CHANGE OF DYNASTIES IN POWER Zhou was a good illustration of a theory Sima Qian had about dynastic change, as Frances Wood, curator of the Chinese collection at the British Library, explains. "He introduced the idea… that dynasties begin with the very virtuous and noble founder, and then they continue through a series of rulers until they come to a bad last ruler, and he is so morally depraved that he is overthrown." No surprises - Zhou was the last of the Shang dynasty. Sima Qian thought the purpose of history was to teach rulers how to govern well. USED A VARIETY OF SOURCES If a writer uses credible sources and incorporates them well into the essay, the writing becomes better and more credible. Additionally, the greater the amount and variety of sources used in an essay, the more reliable, thus useful information can be extracted from it adding to its overall value as a source. HIS MOTIVE BEING AN OBJECTIVE, DETERMINED TO BE OBJECTIVE Sima Qian’s extreme care with the information he gathered and the weighing of available evidence was an attempt to convey an objective portrait of the Chinese Past. In order to not dishonour his father, Sima Qian's ultimate motive was to provide the world with an objective source of information in which Chinese History would be read for years to come. This determination of being objective is driven by his father's dying wish. So we expect his history to be careful and honest, out of duty to his father’s memory to write something excellent, something that would make his father proud. A dishonest history would dishonour his father. Thus this asserts the notion of Sima Qian’s objectivity in order to not dishonour his father's memory and dying wish. Historians

Nylan; “They hail Sima Qian’s even handed and unsentimental treatment of historical figures” “His scrupulous care and apparent objectivity in handling the source materials that he had at his disposal to transmit”

Bang Gu

Nylan; “Sima Qian’s writing is direct with the deeds brought home, he does not exaggerate the admirable points of view (of his subject), nor does he conceal the evils. Therefore we call Shiji a true record”

Izabella Horvath

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 Qian’s rigorous methodology in writing the Shiji compels us to conclude that he had done as honest and as accurately 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. CORROBORATION IN SHIJI WITH ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE Mercury

Recreations of rivers and oceans filled with mercury, people doubted his descriptions of burial chambers, but recent studies have found high amounts of mercury at the site. Scientists used modern remote sensors and spectral analysis machines to inspect the burial site, the level of mercury found in the soil at the sight measured twenty times higher than in the area surrounding the site. This corroboration between modern day scientists and Sima Qian shows the veracity of his info, elevating his ever doubted reliability as a source, though this one can slo say the source has a higher value and is useful to those studying Chinese History. As this was proven through studies, the other information held in the Shiji in turn has a higher chance of being accurate too, asserting Shijis usefulness as a source.

METICULOUS COLLECTION OF INFORMATION - JUDGEMENT When Sima Qian collected evidence, he carefully sifted through them for reliability. When evidence was abundant ; he formed judgements concerning the actual course of events and eliminated evidence that appeared to be fabricated. His perception of fabricated evidence may have been biased by his Confucian attitude and being one of the Han Dynasty When evidence was scarce; he brought together all available traditions, alerted readers to his own uncertainty and left judgement to the future . Sima Qian had this judicious skepticism, as he was willing to put aside what was of a doubtful veracity and leave blanks in their accounts, eliminating permutation of fake gossip which would hurt the memory of the deceased individuals Sima Qian visited historical sites in his early life: he gathered written materials, surveyed the local topography, and canvassed local authorities on their knowledge of past events. At the same time, the Shiji reproduced several variant traditions, “where the traditions cannot be easily reconciled.” This suggests that Sima Qian was committed to the principle of objectivity that “in doubtful cases, one transmits the doubt.” Sima Qian’s attempt to write objectively would contradict his romantic motive for writing. As leading Han classicists like Ban Gu noted: “[Sima Qian’s] Fearing retaliation for his own family, Sima Qian did not publish his work in his lifetime indicating him fearing any punishments for those in power such as Han Wu Di who might have not been portrayed as he desired. He teaches us rigorous methodology and the desire to tell the story objectively even at great peril to one’s own life. 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 behaviour 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 behaviour, motivations, and actions honorable and heroic, worthy of admiration and respect. Bang Gu

“writing is direct, with the deeds brought home; he does not exaggerate the admirable point [of his subject], nor does he conceal the evils. Admired Sima Qian “for his being good at ordering events and principles, him being insightful yet without being extravagant, and his remaining stylistically simple yet without being vulgar in his writing” Its composition is straight, its events accurate and does not leave out the good, nor does it hide the bad; fo this reason people consider it a dependable record” Therefore, we call his a “true record.”[27] Additionally, considering that it was impossible for Sima Qian to have access to all available sources (an issue which historians struggle with to this day), one then ought to admire his “willingness to reproduce true events from disparate sources,” whether it was out of “romantic” motives or not. This adds to the credibility of Sima Qian as a source positively, in turn elevating its reliability and thus value and usefulness as a just source.

BBC NEWS

Here is his verdict on an emperor from the Shang dynasty 1,000 years earlier: "Emperor Zhou's disposition was sharp, his discernment was keen, and his physical strength excelled that of other people. He fought ferocious animals with his bare hands. Sharp judgements, wanting readers to understand the dao, instead of fearing for his life in writing such description.

LIMITATIONS MOTIVES - The desire to express the ‘highest form’ of filial piety through acts were intended to ensure that the family name will be revered through the ages and the family line accorded the appropriate offerings. - The painstaking reaffirmations of the sacred origins, predestined greatness, and enduring order of the Central States culture would benefit his family. - To achieve this he might’ve painted such people, or people related to this in a positive light to gain their approval, thus taking away from the objectivity of the text. Whilst his superior motive was to maintain objectivity, he also wanted to express the highest form of filial piety and through this action it would have successfully been achieved. This influences the reliability of Sima Qian as a source negatively as whilst he is trying to gain favour with such individuals, as a result he might write about events untruthfully, or slightly altered in order to gain their favour, reducing the objectivity once again. However this theory that is presented in Nylan’s writings can be disregarded as such individuals include Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi in which Sima Qian writes as barbaric and tyrannical.

Nylan

By restoring life to an array of remarkable men and women who inhabited the Central States had major contributions to its distinct culture, the pious hope of these particular potent spirits would choose in return to confer benefits on Sima Qian as long as the Shiji continued to be read. “In his literary celebration of the Central States joined the living and the dead in a single imagined community, whose members owed him and his family a debt of gratitude for perpetuating their memory through eternity”

BIAS CLOUDING JUDGEMENT IN DESCRIPTIVE WRITING His bias as one with a Confucian way of thought, and distaste towards the Qin with the narrative style he wrote Chinese history in would've meant that figures that he disliked would be illustrated poorly. INFO MISSING There is information missing, for particular events leading many to speculate on the reliability of Sima Qian however the information missing is majorly due to the fragmented sources of information Sima Qian gained through his journeys in the quest to form the Shiji. Following the Confucian attitude he left further judgement to the future if he was unsure about a particular event. This confucian outlook on writing history enabled Sima Qian to understand that if fake information was written wrongly, this would diminish the text’s objectivity thus dishonouring his father. -

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Sima Qian wrote of the problems with incomplete, fragmentary and contradictory sources. For example, he refers in the preface to chapter 15 that the chronicle records of the feudal states kept in the Zhou dynasty's archive were burnt by Qin Shi Huang because they portrayed criticisms and ridicule of the Qin state, and that the Qin annals were brief and incomplete. In his 18th chapter, Sima Qian writes, "I have family down only what is certain, and in dubious cases left a blank."

RELIABILITY - The presentation of the history of the state of Qin and its place within theWarring States system, one of the most ideologically sensitive issues in pre imperial history. - Han being the precedent of the imperial rule, Qin became the ultimate “mirror” for Han rulers, so that conflicting approaches toward policy making were usually shaped in the form of criticism of the Qin, or conversely support for their politics. - The legitimacy of Han Rule was ultimately based on Qin’s legacy, inheriting many of Qin’s practices and institutions, ruled from former Qin heartland and partly owed its initial legitimacy to the success of the dynastic founder, Liu Bang. This would explain the reason as to why Sima Qian wrote about Liu Bang more than about Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi. BIAS CLOUDING JUDGEMENT Sima Qian sifted out the elements of the supernatural and fantastic which seemed to contradict their existence as actual human monarchs, and was therefore criticized for turning myths and folklore into sober history.

Joseph Needham

Sima Qian's accounts of the kings of the Shang dynasty c. 1600–c. 1050 BC: It was usually maintained that Ssuma Chhien [Sima Qian] could not have adequate historical materials for his account of what had happened more than a thousand years earlier. One may judge the astonishment of many, therefore, when it appeared that no less than twenty-three of the thirty rulers' names were to be clearly found on the indisputably genuine Anyang bones. It must be, therefore, that Ssuma Chhien [Sima Qian] did have fairly reliable materials at his disposal—a fact which underlines one time more the deep historical-mindedness of the Chinese—and that the Shang dynasty is perfectly acceptable. While some aspects of Sima Qian's history of the Shang dynasty are supported by inscriptions on the oracle bones, there is, as yet, no clear corroborating evidence from archaeology on Sima Qian's history of the Xia dynasty. There are also discrepancies of fact such(a) as dates between various portions of the work. This may be an effect of Sima Qian's ownership of different source texts. This limits the text reliability as there is no evidence to thoroughly support his work, however one can't say it is a completely useless source as a result, this just limits the source as reliable.

NOT OBJECTIVE BUT TRYING Sima Qian did not attempt to compose “objective” history but rather belonged unmistakably to the didactic Chinese tradition of history. He makes moral judgments on his characters. He also attempts to characterize them in types, recording an individual's exemplary deeds in one chapter and his misdeeds elsewhere.

EVALUATION BIAS/CONTEXT Resulted from being misled by his sources, which coupled with the widespread eastern prejudices against Qin, created in his mind a flawed picture of Qin’s past Pro Han, Anti Qin; Sima Qian wrote his often unflattering history of the Qin Dynasty for the greatest Han Dynasty Emperor, Hand Wudi. The Han dynasty is the dynasty that revolted against, and overthrew the Qin. So the Qin was Han's enemy. Qin died around 210 BCE, Sima Qian wrote his text in the decades between 145 and 90BCE. Because of this systematic Confucian bias on the part of Han scholars, some of the stories recorded about Qin Shi Huang are doubtful and some may have been invented to emphasize his bad character. Some of the stories are plainly fictitious, designed to tarnish the First Emperor's image, e.g. the story of a stone fallen from the sky engraved with words denouncing the emperor and prophesying the collapse of his empire after his death. This makes it difficult to know the truth about other stories. For instance, the accusation that he had 460 scholars executed by having them buried with only their heads above ground and then decapitated seems unlikely to be completely true, but we have no way to know for certain. Sima Qian indicates that the success of this state was based on its ability to overcome the inborn barbarism.

Raymond Dawson

The Qin were notorious for several episodes that made them synonymous with tyranny in the eyes of their successors. One event stood out among all the others as the target of vilification and ‘burning of the books’. The purpose of this destruction of literature was to monopolize learning for the benefit of the court. This episode provided rich material for anti Qin propagandists in later decades and centuries

Jonathan Clements

To Han it was vital for them to establish a clear ideological distance between themselves and the dynasty they had supplanted.

Andrew Schonebaum

The Han Dynasty may have targeted Qin Shihuang as a victim of political propaganda looking to tarnish his reputation + discredit the Qin dynasty and elevate their own dynasty

Possible Emotions, Motives; To complicate things Emperor Wudi ordered the death or castration of Sima Wian after her angered him by disagreeing with his punishment of a loyal Han general who surrendered on the battlefield rather than fighting, as expected, to the death. Normally, in China, a man faced with the choice of death or castration would choose death - castration other than being a big humiliation, meant no children. In a family valuing China, thats the ultimate disgrace. Its possible as a result that Sima Qian felt no love for Emperor Han Wudi since he punished him with the ultimate humiliation, this might have tempted him to make the Qin look good. No Bias, only truth; Whilst Hun Wudi gave Sima Qian a reason to be anti han, we have to remember that Sima Qian chose castration out of filial piety for his own father, who begged him on his deathbed to finish writing his unfinished Grand History of China from its beginning to the present day.Sima Qian did finish that history, and did so to honours his father. So we expect his history to be careful and honest, out of duty to his father’s memory to write something excellent, something that would make his father proud. A dishonest history would dishonour his father. Thus this asserts the notion of Sima Qian’s objectivity in order to not dishonour his father's memory and dying wish. SOURCES HE GOT INFO FROM -

Sima Qian struggled with disparate contradictory and flawed sources. He seems to have been selective in his choice of material to illustrate his theme about the First Emperor; that he was an opportunist; viewed him with suspicion.

The sources in which he got information from consisted of the annals/imperial decrees of other states which were often incomplete and contradictory, information from personal interviews, information from visits to places where historical events had occurred, commentaries by Jia Yi, the First Emperor’s account of his reign in the form of stone inscriptions, Han court archives and archives of the Qin state that were brief and incomplete due to the destruction of the capital of Xianyang. Whilst the variety of sources he gained knowledge from can add to the credibility of his writing, the large amount of fragmented views would’ve also caused Sima Qian to become thoroughly confused, and thus he would have to rely on his own thoughts when writing the Shiji. This writing added with the influence of a confucian attitude against the thoughts and written records of dynasties before him with schools of thought that did not just predominantly focus of confucius, would have led to his perception on the events to change thus a slightly altered viewpoint and a risk of fake information. This idea of his

perception on such historical events being altered by his own thoughts and ideal can further be strengthen by the interviews he personally held with individuals that in that present time and Era also had the confucian attitude, thus diminishing the reliability of their accounts of historical events before them, due to clashing morals and ideals of different religions. CONFUCIAN ATTITUDE INFLUENCING PERCEPTION Purpose of writing: Fulfillment of filial duties, a notion deeply influenced by Confucius’ ideas, His father implied here that their family was in decline, thus compelling Sima Qian to write about the glories of the past so as to restore his family’s reputation.This motive for writing as a means to restore former glories of his family is further supported by Hardy, when he argues that even the Grand Astrologer (or Scribe) title kept by the Simas was but “for the amusement [of] the Emperor… and made light of by the vulgar men of his day.”This implicit humiliation of Sima Qian and his father’s inherited occupation also likely propelled his desire to write history, especially in a predominately Confucian setting when intellectuals sought inspiration from the past. Effect: Growing up in a Confucian environment, he regarded his historical work as an act of Confucian filial piety to his father. The chinese historical style was to preserve traditions rather than to get at the truth, in Confucius the tradition claimed he had viewed history as a means of conveying the ‘way’ or ‘path’ rather than as a means of preserving facts. Sima Qian's negative, disparaging attitude towards the Qin (barbarism, coarseness and lack of culture) and defamation of the First Emperor originated in the Han distaste for the Qin’s legalist philosophy. To reiterate Confucius’s influenc...