In ancient China, large canals for river transport were established as far back as the Warring States ( 481 – 221 BC ), the longest one of that period being the Hong Gou ( Canal of the Wild Geese ), which according to the ancient historian Sima Qian connected the old states of Song, Zhang, Chen, Cai, Cao, and Wei.

* Durant, Stephen W. The Cloudy Mirror: Tension and Conflict in the Writings of Sima Qian ( 1995 ),

The first systematic Chinese historical text, Shiji or Records of the Grand Historian, was written by Sima Qian.

Due to his highly praised work, Sima Qian is often regarded as the father of Chinese historiography.

* The Twenty-Four Histories, a collection of authoritative histories of China, including the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian and the Book of Han by Ban Gu.

Chan 1963: 35-37 ), by Chinese historian Sima Qian ( ca.

Sima Qian ( 145-86 BC ), a Prefect of the Grand Scribes ( 太史令 ) of the Han Dynasty ( 202 BC-220 AD ), is regarded as the father of Chinese historiography because of his universal history, the Records of the Grand Historian ( 史記 ).

The Donghu are mentioned by Sima Qian as already existing in Inner Mongolia north of the state of Yan in 699-632 BC.

Sima Qian ( ca.

Sima Qian was born and grew up in Longmen, near present-day Hancheng in a family of astrologers.

Due to intensive training by his father, by the age of ten, Sima Qian was already well versed in old writings.

At the age of twenty, Sima Qian started a journey throughout the country, visiting ancient monuments, and sought for the graves of the ancient sage kings Yu in Kuaiji Mountain and Shun in Hunan.

In 110 BC, at the age of thirty-five, Sima Qian was sent westward on a military expedition against some " barbarian " tribes.

Fueled by his father's inspiration, Sima Qian started to compile Shiji in 109 BC.

Three years after the death of his father, Sima Qian became the Grand Historian.

Portrait of Sima Qian

In 99 BC, Sima Qian became embroiled in the Li Ling affair, where Li Ling and Li Guangli ( 李廣利 ), two military officers who led a campaign against the Xiongnu in the north, were defeated and taken captive.

As Sima Qian himself explained in his Letter to Ren ' an:

Sima Qian wrote eight rhapsodies ( Fu 賦 ), which are listed in the bibliographic treatise Hanshu.

Before compiling Shiji, in 104 BC, Sima Qian created Taichuli ( 太初曆, which can be translated as ' The first calendar ') on the basis of the Qin calendar.

* Sima, Qian and trans.

Herodotus and Sima Qian: The First Great Historians of Greece and China.

Polybus and Sima Qian ( in French ).

* Stephen W. Durrant ( 1995 ), The Cloudy Mirror: Tension and Conflict in the Writings of Sima Qian.

Before Sima, histories were written as certain events or certain periods of history of states ; his idea of a general history affected later historiographers like Zheng Qiao ( 鄭樵 ) in writing Tongshi ( 通史 ) and Sima Guang ( 司馬光 ) in writing Zizhi Tongjian ( 資治通鑑 ).

In writing Shiji, Sima initiated a new writing style by presenting history in a series of biographies.

Sima adopted a new method in sorting out the historical data and a new approach to writing historical records.

Sima ’ s works were influential to Chinese writing, serving as ideal models for various types of prose within the neo-classical (" renaissance " 復古 ) movement of the Tang-Song ( 唐宋 ) period.

* Sima Qian starts writing his Shiji.

The reports of Zhang Qian were put in writing in the Shiji (" Records of the Grand Historian ") by Sima Qian in the 1st century BC.

The Chinese historian Sima Qian, writing a century after the First Emperor's death, wrote that it took 700, 000 men to construct the emperor's mausoleum.

Although court records and other independent records existed beforehand, the definitive work in early Chinese historical writing was the Shiji ( 史記 / 史记 ), written by the Han Dynasty court historian Sima Qian ( 145 BCE-90 BCE ).

There is a hint in the writing of the earlier Sima Xiangru ( 179 – 117 BC ) that the gimbal existed in China since the 2nd century BC.

The reports of Zhang Qian were put in writing in the Shiji (" Records of the Grand Historian ") by Sima Qian in the 1st century BCE.

The reports of Zhang Qian were put in writing in Shiji (" Records of the Great Historian ") by Sima Qian in the 1st century BCE.

A star catalogue is featured in one of the chapters of the late 2nd-century-BC history work Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian ( 145-86 BC ) and contains the " schools " of Shi Shen and Gan De's work ( i. e. the different constellations they allegedly focused on for astrological purposes ).

Unlike Sima Qian's list of Shang Dynasty kings, which is closely matched by oracle bones from late in that period, records of Xia rulers have not yet been found in archeological excavations.

The only account of the life of Zhuangzi is a brief sketch in chapter 63 of Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, where he is described as a minor official from the town of Meng ( in modern Anhui ) in the state of Song, living in the time of King Hui of Liang and King Xuan of Qi ( late 4th century BCE ).

The names of actors Cyrus Gorjestani and Sima Gorjestani, as well as the late Nematollah Gorji, suggest that they are / were ( at least from the paternal side ) of Georgian origin.

In late 234, Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi ( the Wei commander ) reached a stalemate at the Battle of Wuzhang Plains.

According to a secret report filed by the Hungarian political secretary in Bucharest in late 1940, three main factions existed: the group gathered around Horia Sima, a dynamic local leader from the Banat, which was the most pragmatic and least Orthodox in its orientation ; the group composed of Codreanu's father, Ion Zelea Codreanu, and his brothers ( who despised Sima ); and the Moţa-Marin group, which wanted to strengthen the movement's religious character.

Sima Lun restored the late Crown Prince Yu's reputation and had his son, Sima Zang ( 司馬臧 ), created crown prince.

In late 365, Emperor Fei offered the title Prince of Langye to Sima Yu and further created his heir apparent Sima Yao the Prince of Kuaiji.

In late 398, the magician Sun Tai ( 孫泰 ), a friend of Sima Yuanxian's, who had gathered great following due to his magic, was exposed as planning a plot to take over the central government, and Sima Daozi ordered Sima Yuanxian to trap Sun Tai and execute him.

In late 401, apprehensive of the growing power of Huan Xuan ( who had in late 399 defeated and killed Yin Zhongkan and Yang Quanqi, seizing their domains and now controlled more than two thirds of Jin territory ), Sima Yuanxian declared Huan a renegade and ordered an attack against Huan.

Sima Hui and Pang Tong sat below a mulberry tree and had a long discussion until late at night.

When Sima Yi planned a coup d ' état against Cao Shuang in late 248 ; according to Jin Shu, Sima Yi confided only in Sima Shi, with even his younger brother Sima Zhao excluded from the discussion ( although Sima Guang found this unlikely and, in his Zizhi Tongjian, opined that Sima Yi planned the coup with both Sima Shi and Sima Zhao ).