Translator's Preface to the Revised Edition
Translator's Preface
clear
Note

1.
Chronicles of the Five Emperors
2.
Summer Chronicles
3.
The Annals of the Yin Dynasty
4.
Zhou Benji (周本紀)
5.
Qin Annals
6.
Chronicles of the First Emperor of Qin
7.
Xiang Yu's Annals
8.
Chronicles of Gojo
9.
Chronicles of Empress Dowager Lü
10.
Hyomoon Bon-gi (孝文本紀)
11.
The Book of Filial Piety (孝景本紀)
12.
Hyomu Bon-gi (孝武本紀)

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History driven by 'humans'

The first historical record, 『Records of the Grand Historian』, consists of 130 chapters, including 12 chapters of Annals, 10 chapters of Tables, 8 chapters of Books, 30 chapters of Genealogy, and 70 chapters of Biographies, with approximately 526,500 characters.
These five parts—the main text, the table, the introduction, the saga, and the biography—are closely linked to each other, and because of the intricate relationships between the characters, there are many cases where similar content is included in multiple parts.
Sometimes the same event is depicted from different points of view.
This book records the history of dynasties and monarchs who exercised power in the world, from the Five Emperors of ancient legend to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
The 12 volumes are arranged chronologically, generally based on the dynasty.
The 2,600-year history from the Five Emperors established by Sima Qian to Emperor Wu is based on the consciousness that it is a process of transition from the absolute authority of Heaven to the world of human thought.
History is the flow of change that occurs as a result of the accumulation of human activities.
So, Sima Qian, based on thorough realism, took the risk of including Xiang Yu, the hero of the times and a loser, in the main story rather than the biographies, leaving aside Liu Bang, the founder of the Han Empire, and placing him before the "Biographies of Gaozu."
It also showed an unconventional structure by including Empress Dowager Lü, who actually controlled the world, in the main story, rather than Emperor Hui, who was weak, incompetent, and nothing more than a puppet.
It focuses on people who actually exercised power and moved history without being confined within the framework of a dynasty's system or institutions.

The story of the kings unfolds even more closely.

After completing the complete translation of the entire 『Records of the Grand Historian』 in 2011, Professor Kim Won-joong has been working on a revised edition of 『Records of the Grand Historian』.
The primary reason for the revision was the fact that there were translation gaps between the deeply interconnected chapters, such as the revised edition of the Records of the Grand Historian, which was published before the Annals of the Grand Historian.
Because the translation work took a long time, it was necessary to review the terms of the translation in the context of the whole and to satisfy both synchronicity and diachrony among them.
For example, the "Biographies of Qin Shi Huang" is closely related to the "Biographies of Lü Buwei" and the "Biographies of Li Shi," and the "Biographies of Xiang Yu" and "Biographies of Gaozu," which can be considered sister volumes, are closely related to the "Biographies of Liu Hou," "Biographies of Marquis Huaiyin," "Biographies of Li Sheng and Lu Jia," and "Biographies of Liu Jing and Shusun Tong," which deal with figures who played an active role in the Chu-Han conflict. Therefore, it was important to translate them while carefully finding the connections between them.

In addition, although the "Biographies of Qin Shi Huang," "Biographies of Xiang Yu," "Biographies of Emperor Gaozu," and "Biographies of Empress Dowager Lü" cover similar periods and repeat the same events, the writing style of Sima Qian, who describes them, also shows subtle differences as the main characters in each volume change.
In this way, the translation focused on preserving the delicate nuances intended by Sima Qian and conveying them to readers in a more realistic language.