May 1
History Guest Lecture Dr. Byungjoon Kim
Title: How People Misread Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji): The Memoirs of the
Ferghana Valley (Dayuan)
Synopsis
Confucius’s Spring and Autumn Annals has sparked much debate due to its use of compressed tone and terse tenor. In contrast, Records of the Grand Historian contain many detailed accounts of events, using straightforward language that makes the work accessible to both experts and general readers. However, perhaps because of the abundance of intriguing anecdotes, readers tend to focus more on individual incidents or stories, with less efforts devoted to understanding the overall structure of the “Memoirs.” The tendency to misunderstand the composition of Records of the Grand Historian began as early as the Book of Han (Han Shu) by Ban Gu, which was completed only about 150 years after Sima Qian’s death. Subsequent historical texts, primarily modeled after the Book of Han have
solidified misunderstandings of the Records of the Grand Historian. This lecture aims to explore how the process of misunderstanding occurred, with the focus on “The Memoirs of the Ferghana Valley (Dayuan)” in the Records of the Grand Historian.
from History