The First Emperor

Jonathan Spence

  • Records of the Grand Historian: Qin Dynasty by Sima Qian, edited and translated by Burton Watson
    Columbia, 221 pp, $50.00, June 1993, ISBN 0 231 08166 9

Educated Chinese and Western lovers of Chinese culture alike would have little trouble compiling a short list of the finest Chinese classical poets, but they would never be able to reach unanimity on who was the best; the same generalisation would hold true for philosophers, essayists, dramatists or painters. But with historians, there is no doubt they would soon agree that there was only one true candidate, Sima Qian (?145-?89 BC), author of the Shi Ji, or ‘Historical Records’.

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[*] Records of the Grand Historian: Han Dynasty (Columbia, two volumes, 499 pp., and 506 pp., $55 each, 22 June, 0 231 08164 2 and 0231 08168 5).