# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/sima-qian
# Generated: 2026-08-31T15:48:43.715Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/sima-qian"
name: "Sima Qian"
slug: "sima-qian"
description: "He chose castration over execution to finish a book. That book — the Shiji — became the template for how China would write its history for two thousand years."
tagline: "2nd-century BCE Chinese historian and writer"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Si_maqian.jpg"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "China"
  isoCode: "CN"
category:
  name: "Writers"
  slug: "writers"
profileType:
  name: "Writer / Author"
  slug: "writer"
birthDate: "-145"
deathDate: "-86"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           75.31
  momentum:             0.275726243229936
  historical:           24.947448
  currentAttention:     5.234736582964057
  sourceConfidence:     65
  profileCompleteness:  75
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  27
  category: 186
tags:
  - name: "Academics"
    slug: "academics"
  - name: "Writer / Author"
    slug: "writer-author"
  - name: "History"
    slug: "history"
  - name: "Poetry"
    slug: "poetry"
  - name: "Literature"
    slug: "literature"
  - name: "Philosophy"
    slug: "philosophy"
  - name: "Mathematics"
    slug: "mathematics"
  - name: "Astronomy"
    slug: "astronomy"
platforms:
  - platform:  "IMDB"
    url:       "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2691441/"
    handle:    "nm2691441"
sources:
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    title: "Wikipedia"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9372"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
  - url: "https://pantheon.world/profile/person/Sima%20Qian"
    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
    type:  "DATABASE"
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    title: "ሲማ ጭየን"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Sima Qian"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "سيما شيان"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "سيما شيان"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "سيما شيان"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ast.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sima_Qian"
    title: "Sima Qian"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://as.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE_%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BC%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A8"
    title: "সিমা কিয়ান"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "سیما قییان"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C4%B1ma_Syan"
    title: "Sıma Syan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bat_smg.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sima_%C4%8Cianis"
    title: "Sima Čianis"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Сыма Цянь"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Сима Циен"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE_%E0%A6%9B%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BC%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%A8"
    title: "সিমা ছিয়েন"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bo.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%BD%A6%E0%BD%B2%E0%BC%8B%E0%BD%98%E0%BC%8B%E0%BD%86%E0%BD%93%E0%BC%8D"
    title: "སི་མ་ཆན།"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://br.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sima_Qian"
    title: "Sima Qian"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sima_Qian"
    title: "Sima Qian"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://btm.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sima_Qian"
    title: "Sima Qian"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Сыма Цянь"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sima_Qian"
    title: "Sima Qian"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cdo.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%E1%B9%B3%CC%86-m%C4%81_Chi%C4%95ng"
    title: "Sṳ̆-mā Chiĕng"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ce.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D1%8B%D0%BC%D0%B0_%D0%A6%D1%8F%D0%BD%D1%8C"
    title: "Сыма Цянь"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sima_Qian"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://eo.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sima_Qian"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://it.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sima_Qian"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://ja.wikiquote.org/wiki/%E5%8F%B8%E9%A6%AC%E9%81%B7"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Sima Qian inherited an impossible ambition: his father, Sima Tan, had sketched the outline for a complete history of China but died before he could write it. As court historian under Emperor Wu of Han, Sima set out to finish it, producing a sweeping chronicle from the Yellow Emperor through his own time — more than two millennia compressed into one work. In 99 BC he spoke up for a disgraced general in the Li Ling affair and was given a choice: death or castration. He accepted the latter to keep writing. The finished Shiji became the model for every official dynastic history across East Asia until the twentieth century. In its postface, he linked his suffering to the great works that came from ruin — Qu Yuan's exile, Sun Bin's mutilation — as if personal catastrophe were the cost of lasting weight.