Sima Qian

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.