Title:
China: Sima Qian, Father of Chinese historiography and 'Grand Historian' of China, c. 145-135-86 BCE
Caption:
Sima Qian (???, simplified ???; Wade-Giles: Ssu-ma Ch'ien) was a Prefect of the Grand Scribes (???) of the Han Dynasty. He is regarded as the father of Chinese historiography for his highly praised work, Records of the Grand Historian (?? or ??), a 'Jizhuanti'-style general history of China, covering more than two thousand years from the Yellow Emperor to Emperor Wu of Han. His definitive work laid the foundation for later Chinese historiography.