Reading Sima Qian from Han to Song : : the father of history in pre-modern China / / by Esther Sunkyung Klein.

• VerfasserIn: Klein, Esther Sunkyung, 1975-
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, Boston : : Brill,, [2018]
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in the History of Chinese Texts 10.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (437 pages).

In Father of Chinese History , Esther Klein explores the life and work of the great Han dynasty historian Sima Qian as seen by readers from the Han to the Song dynasties. Today Sima Qian is viewed as both a tragic hero and a literary genius. Premodern responses to him were more equivocal: the complex personal emotions he expressed prompted readers to worry about whether his work as a historian was morally or politically acceptable. Klein demonstrates how controversies over the value and meaning of Sima Qian’s work are intimately bound up with larger questions: How should history be written? What role does individual experience and self-expression play within that process? By what standards can the historian’s choices be judged?

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Acknowledgements / Esther Sunkyung Klein -- Tables / Esther Sunkyung Klein -- Abbreviations / Esther Sunkyung Klein -- Introduction 1 / Esther Sunkyung Klein -- 1 A Record of Doubts and Difficulties 23 / Esther Sunkyung Klein -- 2 Sima Qian’s Place in the Textual World 77 / Esther Sunkyung Klein -- 3 Subtle Writing and Piercing Satire 149 / Esther Sunkyung Klein -- 4 Creating and Critiquing a Sima Qian Romance 206 / Esther Sunkyung Klein -- 5 A “True Record” 259 / Esther Sunkyung Klein -- 6 Finding Truths in the Shiji’s Form 333 / Esther Sunkyung Klein -- Conclusion 393 / Esther Sunkyung Klein.