We are going to discuss the Chinese Philosophy of History and historiography from the Grnd Historian Sima Qian and his letter to his dear friend Ren An.
Please read the followings for this week's discussion:
China's 'grand historian' from BBC
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19835484
AND
Sima Qian's Letter to Ren An from Columbia University East Asia Study
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/cup/sima_qian_letter.pdf
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The Records of the Grand Historian, also known by its Chinese name Shiji, is a monumental history of ancient China and the world finished around 94 BC by the Western Han Dynasty historian Sima Qian after having been started by his father, Sima Tan, Grand Astrologer to the imperial court. The work covers the world as it was then known to the Chinese and a 2,500-year period from the age of the legendary Yellow Emperor to the reign of Emperor Wu of Han in the author's own time.
The Records has been called a "foundational text in Chinese civilization". After Confucius and the First Emperor of Qin, "Sima Qian was one of the creators of Imperial China, not least because by providing definitive biographies, he virtually created the two earlier figures." The Records set the model for the 24 subsequent dynastic histories of China. In contrast to Western historical works, the Records do not treat history as "a continuous, sweeping narrative", but rather break it up into smaller, overlapping units dealing with famous leaders, individuals, and major topics of significance.