Is the principle of heaven righteous or not?;
天道是耶非耶 (in Chinese)
Contemplating that Boyi and Shuqi who were righteous and benevolent were starved to death, whereas Docheok who was famous for his outrageous plundering and robbery lived in splendor, Sima Qian wrote this sentence in his book ‘Records of the Grand Historian.’
Tears got sprung to my eyes with the thought that all deaths of numerous people who got unjustly killed seem to be appeased with this just one sentence.
Writing blogs for Wu Zixu and having talked with mom, I got a message from her referring to an image of a page of the ancient book which was Records of the Grand Historian.’ ‘The Seo (序 – preface) is the writing placed in front of the main body in writing and instead, the Bal (跋 - epilogue) is the writing placed at the end. Both are written by the author himself or another person.’ Mom is so cool. How correctly necessary remark she made way cooler than mine that were sentimentally self-indulgent!
The book in which Wu Zixu was described is the biographic history written as a part of Records of the Grand Historian. So, her interest and mine naturally and simultaneously went to the book ‘Records of the Grand Historian’ and its author ‘Sima Qian’ without each other’s knowledge of what the other was interested in. My interest in Sima Qian was already built quite high through the net surfing and readings thereof. Around that time, mom send me a message ‘Gooya, what about writing about Sima Qian next time? He is the author of Records of the Grand Historian. He lived at the time when Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty ruled China. You know the ruler who set the Four Han Administering Provinces in Korean Peninsula.’
‘Even though I don’t know about his personal details but know some of his backgrounds. His father was quite a figure. To elevate his son’s vision and knowledge, he gathered and brought lots of books to Sima Qian and made his son travel a lot too. Sima Guang traveled all around the corners of China to write a good book of history; Sima Guang was a historian at the time of the Northern Song Dynasty which was different from when Sima Qian’s father lived. Was she confused with this part? If she read this blog, she must be going to call me, explaining how it was.’
Two persons, one who lives at the western edge of Peninsular and the other at the eastern edge of it meet each other at Sima Qian. We were on the same wavelength.
Aha! Subsequently, mom’s explanation was followed. ‘Sima Qian was in Han Dynasty but Sima Guang was in the Northern Song Dynasty. You know already, right?’ Sure, I didn’t know that. ‘Even for Zizhi Tongjian, there have been numerous pros and cons about it in virtually all respects from the historians of the later generations. As I guess, Zizhi Tongjian must have copied Sima Qian’s book a lot. I found Tongjian more interesting than Sima Qian’s since Tongjian was written in a chronological form.’
I interfered ‘I found Sima Qian very extraordinary too.’
Mom added ‘Right! He got catastrophe due to his speaking righteously about the state affairs.’ She then continued with the chronology of Emperor Wu, how the Han Dynasty got collapsed by Wang Mang, even referring to the father of the general Li Ling. She was extraordinary; how did she even know the details of Li Ling’s father.
Just a few days ago, I had a fierce conflict with mom. No readers would want to know the details of it so I wouldn’t get into its miscellaneous development. Anyhow, she was so bewildered and hurt, and seeing her hurt, to that extent, I got surprised and hurt. Since we are so alike, my elder sister said ‘you are the one who knows mom really.’ as well as younger sister’s saying ‘much of mom’s gene went to you.’ though.
Startled mom pretentiously posed herself as strong and audacious but she revealed her most vulnerable gestures towards me very soon. At that, deep sorrow flowed down from my eyes to the bowels like a water stream.
Sima Qian is the one who made the vocabulary Ryeok Sa - 歷史, meaning history in English- exist. I know that fact today. I must have learned about Sima Qian in the class of world history during middle school days. Whatever, it was a long time ago. But then, his name was as boring as all other numerous names texted in the books. He didn’t inspire me at all. Tae Sa Gong Gi (太史公記), the original title of Records of the Grand Historian, covering the history of the time when the very first emperor Hwang Je (皇帝) governed China to the time when Emperor Wu around the 1st-century C.E. ruled was authored by Sima Qian. This book is now popularly called Sagi (史記) – Records of the Grand Historian.
Before the time of Sima Qian, the records about the facts in the past were called just records – Yeok (歷) in Chinese. However, in the memory of Sima Qian who wrote this book, people call the records of the past facts as History – Yeok Sa (歷史) in Chinese. This is an echoing anecdote, appropriately fitting the figure who is called the father of Chinese history.
Records of the Grand Historian was written in B.C. era. This book is positioned at number one on the list of 24 orthodox official books of Chinese history and Sima Qian authored that book. Surely I knew this too. But I knew it only as a physical sentence. How I came to know the true meaning and value behind this book was through the process of continuous research about Wu Zixu.
The biographical history of Wu Zixu belongs to all other biographical books in Records of the Grand Historian. Sima Qian revived, shed new light on Wu Zixu on the stage of history and made Wu Zixu worshipped and adored by people of later generations. Who on earth wrote this grandiose dramatic biographical history in this composed and sorrowful manner? Sima Qian did.
His life itself was as dramatic as the figures in his book.
When the general Li Ling, dispatched to defeat the Huns, rather defeated, at the court of Emperor Wu, all the subjects condemned Li Ling that he should be executed. It was because subjects realizing the Emperor was furious about Li Ling, tried to appease Emperor’s mood for them not to be harmed by his rage. However, Sima Qian sided with Li Ling, opinionating that Li Ling’s defeat couldn’t be helped considering the circumstances and the general was loyal and righteous in ordinary times so, punishing Li Ling must be unjust.
Due to this, Sima Qian got raged by the Emperor and was sentenced to death. For him to be exempted from death execution, there were two options; paying the fine with the amount that could keep five thousand soldiers operating for one year or getting castrated. The amount of fine was so outrageous that he couldn’t afford it. He was willing to die but his father’s testament that Sima Qian should finish the book of history that they worked on together, made him choose to get castrated. Because he needed to live for him to write a book of history.
It was a more painful and humiliating punishment than death since he chose to act for righteousness. How would he not blame and resent the world and people at that time? It was not unnatural that he would have wasted his life afterward just to console his bitterly humiliated heart. Instead what he chose was to write an immortal masterpiece ‘Records of the Grand Historian’, jumping two millenniums with ease to reach us.
I didn’t read this book. But its contents and stories were already smeared into the neurons of my brain through educations for twenty years of schooling; whenever it is in need, the knowledge and ideas of this book pop, out of a sudden. Gwan Po Ji Gyo (管鮑之交), Gyeong Guk Ji Saek (傾國之色), Soon Mang Chi Han (脣亡齒寒), Won Gyo Geun Gong (遠交近攻), To Sa Gu Paeng (兎死狗烹), all very famous ancient idioms seem to be originated from his book along with the background historical events. Since these were too familiar, his book almost felt like a book of daily life to me.
To me, it is a daily life book and to historians, it is a legendary masterpiece that is the ground how the vocabulary ‘History’ would even exist. It is an unprecedented one in history. Even now if you surf for ‘Records of the Grand Historian’ or ‘Sima Qian’, numerous netizens dedicate their homage with an adoring passion to him and his work.
While describing Wu Zixu in his book, the reason he was able to infuse the tragic spirit of hero's determination and valor was because Sima Qian’s life was the one that should endure gruesome pains and distress for what he believed as righteous. His sometimes ardent expression, sometimes composed and sometimes practical describing the people and the then events make my comments very sentimental and low taste. Likewise, his book is not just highly regarded as a history book but also as literature.
He was the first man who showed how the facts of the past could be interpreted and explained through the value of the present, which is a core value of history.
It is unnecessary to say more about it.
The name of Emperor Wu who oppressed and pained him didn’t leave the mark on history; his name is Yu Cheol though. On the other hand, Sima Qian, and his works not minding the significant gap between his time and now, still, leave a solemn resonance on us. What a stunning revenge it is!
While reading history, you can encounter the intelligence of the past. And you come to naturally be fascinated by it. History doesn’t give any provisions such as shelter, food, or garments that are necessary for human survival. But the catharsis resonated from the encounter of both minds from the past and present is incomparable to any other, which must be the only but still the purest reason for reading history.
Paying my deepest homage to Sima Qian, I will cut short my idle talk here.
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