Dawson Raymond Stanley - The First Emperor: Selections From the Historical Records

OXFORD WORLDS CLASSICS

THE FIRST EMPEROR

SIMA QIANS Historical Records (Shiji), from which this selection is taken, is the most famous Chinese historical work, which not only established a pattern for later Chinese historical writing, but was also much admired for its literary qualities, not only in China, but also in Japan, where it became available as early as the eighth century AD. The work is vast and complex, and to appreciate its nature it is necessary to make a selection of passages concerning a particular period. To this end the short-lived Qin Dynasty, which unified China in the late third century BC, has been chosen for this translation as a key historical period which well illustrates Simas method. Sima himself lived from 145 BC to about 86 BC. He inherited the post of Grand Historiographer from his father, and was so determined to complete his work that he suffered the penalty of castration rather than the more honourable alternative of death when he fell foul of the Emperor.

RAYMOND DAWSON was an Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford. He was Editor of The Legacy of China (1964) and his other publications include The Chinese Chameleon: An Analysis of European Conceptions of Chinese Civilization (1967), Imperial China (1972), The Chinese Experience (1978), Confucius (1982), A New Introduction to Classical Chinese (1984), and the Analects (Oxford Worlds Classics, 1993).

K. E. BRASHIER is Associate Professor of Religion (Chinese) and Humanities (Chinese) at Reed College.

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OXFORD WORLDS CLASSICS

SIMA QIAN

Selections from the
Historical Records

Translated with an Introduction and Notes by
RAYMOND DAWSON

Preface by
K. E. BRASHIER

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP

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Translation, Introduction, Explanatory Notes Raymond Dawson 1994
Preface K. E. Brashier 2007

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Database right Oxford University Press (maker)

First published (as Historical Records) as a Worlds Classics paperback 1994
Published as an Oxford Worlds Classics paperback, with new Preface by
K. E. Brashier, 2007

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Data available

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Sima, Qian, ca. 145-ca. 86 B.C.
[Shi ji. English. Selections]

The first emperor: selections from the Historical Records / translated with an
introduction and notes by Raymond Dawson; preface by K. E. Brashier.
p. cm. (Oxford Worlds Classics)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-922634-4 (alk. paper)
1. Qin shi huang, Emperor of China, 259-210 B.C. 2. China History Qin
dynasty, 221-207 B.C. 3. China kings and rulers Biography. I. Dawson,
Raymond Stanley. II. Title.
DS747.9.Q254S56 2007
931.04092 dc22
[B]
2007007676

Typeset by Cepha Imaging Private Ltd., Bangalore, India
Printed in Great Britain
on acid-free paper by
Clays Ltd., St Ives plc

ISBN 978-0-19-922634-4

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Our modern era regards the First Emperor as the glue that brought Chinese culture together in terms of territory, currency, measures, roads, written language and more. Books and documentaries routinely dub him the man who made China, elevating him to creator status. Images of his cruelty may persist, but the warfare, the quest for immortality, and his exacting laws are now often treated as necessary evils and personal quirks leading to the much greater prize of unification, of fusing all under Heaven or tianxia.

We see the First Emperor of Qin through several different lenses. First, there is the self-projected image of the Qin ruler, an image now being reconstructed through the things he left behind, ranging from terracotta warriors to mountain inscriptions. Second, there is the lens polished by Sima Qian, the Grand Historiographer who lived a century after the First Emperor. For him, the First Emperor wasnt the founder of an imperial tradition that would last two thousand years; he was the unpopular Qin opportunist from a few generations ago whose brief dynasty was justifiably overthrown by the worthy Han, Sima Qians own court. Finally, there is our own lens transforming the First Emperor into the focal point of operas and video games, of films and theme parks. Why we choose to see the First Emperor today as epitomizing martial valour and cultural unity may tell us more about what we desire out of the present rather than the past. All three lensesthe First Emperors, Sima Qians and our owntell us what we want to remember and not necessarily what the Qin story actually was.