This book, the achievement of Sima Qian in his lifetime, takes 15 years to be completed and 20 years if preparation taken into account. The book records the history in about 3000 years starting from the legendary Emperor Huang to the years of Taichu of the Emperor Han Wu. Most of the biographies are developed about figures and families with logical plots and outstanding style of writing, therefore, it is regarded as the pioneer and sample for biographical literature development of later generations with great impact. Sima Qian for his personal experience thought more about human beyond the acceptation of people in that year to really demonstrate his people-oriented thought, which is rare and precious.
Sima Qian (Szu-ma Chien; 司馬遷 c. 145 or 135 BC – 86 BC) was a Chinese historian of the Han dynasty. He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his work, the Records of the Grand Historian, a Jizhuanti-style (纪传体) general history of China, covering more than two thousand years from the Yellow Emperor to his time, during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. Although he worked as the Court Astrologer (Chinese: 太史令; Tàishǐ Lìng), later generations refer to him as the Grand Historian (Chinese: 太史公; taishigong or tai-shih-kung) for his monumental work. (Wikipedia)