Brill Nv, Leiden, 2019 | Doi:10.1163/9789004376878 005 150 Chapter 3 Fierce People Inhabiting the Northwestern Border Region

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Subtle Writing And Piercing Satire 149

Chapter 3 Subtle Writing and Piercing Satire

… Nor would any of our contemporaries put me on a par with those men who were able to die for their cause. They would just believe that my wis- dom had failed and that my crime had been extreme.

世又不與能死節者比，特以為智窮罪極。 “Letter in Reply to Ren An”1 … He was not a gentleman with a sense of rightness.

非誼士也。 Ban Gu 班固 (32-92)2 ⸪ In 110 BCE, Emperor Wu of the Han set out to perform the Feng 封 sacrifice, which according to legend was the most solemn imperial sacrifice to the cos- mic spirits of Heaven. For reasons unknown, he left behind an official who had expected to take part in the ritual: Sima Qian’s father, the Director-Senior His- torian Sima Tan. Sima Tan “poured forth his resentment as he lay on the point of death” (發憤且卒).3 From his deathbed he charged his son Sima Qian with the fulfillment of a great project, editing generations’ worth of historical materials collected by the Sima family and transforming them into a Classic worthy of comparison to the work of Confucius. Afterwards Sima Tan breathed his last. This was the first great tragedy of Sima Qian’s life, at least as told in the Shiji’s final chapter. The episode is sometimes overshadowed by the more terrible drama of the Li Ling affair. Recall that according to the account found in the “Letter in Reply to Ren An,” the general Li Ling fought a valiant battle against the Xiongnu, a

1 HS 62.2732. 2 WX 48.2158. 3 SJ 130.3295.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004376878_005 150 Chapter 3 fierce people inhabiting the northwestern border region. The Han had fought a prolonged but intermittent war against them and in 99 BCE was in a phase of more intense hostilities. Despite a heroic struggle, Li Ling was defeated and captured alive, which was considered a great betrayal and humiliation. Sima Qian spoke up to defend Li Ling, and the infuriated emperor had Sima Qian thrown in prison. The historian chose not to commit suicide, as would have been expected, and was instead punished with castration. This was the second great tragedy of Sima Qian’s life. It remains an open and much debated question how these two tragedies affected Sima Qian’s work on the Shiji. Comments stretching back to the Han dynasty allow us to reconstruct a history of how readers have seen this rela- tionship, including both mainstream interpretations and interpretations less well-known today. I refer to such comments as “autobiographical readings” be- cause they seek to interpret the Shiji based on what are generally assumed to be Sima Qian’s autobiographical materials. Among the Shiji’s readers, there has always been a range of responses to Sima Qian’s personal tragedy. First, readers varied as to how much sympathy or approval they evinced for Sima Qian: some condemned him while others seemed to identify with and admire him. Second, readers disagreed as what extent the Shiji actually criticises the Han dynasty, and as to the nature of that criticism: is it justified or not? Is it glaringly obvious or subtle and indirect? And is it appropriate? Third, they disagreed as regards Sima Qian’s underlying purpose and how it was affected by the tragic events: did he write from a desire for revenge? To relieve his feelings and justify himself? Or simply to attain tex- tual immortality for himself and those he admired? Where a reader stands on these three issues depends upon the era, the reader’s personal circumstances and character, and especially upon the context in which the opinion is ex- pressed. I pay particular attention to readers’ views of what actually happened to Sima Qian (they are not always identical), what they thought he was trying to do in the Shiji, and, insofar as it can be reconstructed, the contextual factors in their own time that could have played a role in shaping their interpretations.

Sources for Sima Qian’s Biography

As Burton Watson noted, “practically all we know of Sima Qian is what he chose to tell us …. Later readers have been able to do little more than mull over, and occasionally confuse, the evidence.”4 As discussed in chapter 1, two texts

4 Watson 1958: 40-41.