Framing the Qin collapse: redaction and authorship of the Shiji 史記

This paper explores the relationship between the Shiji’s authors and their sources by examining how they constructed the historical narrative of the fall of the Qin Empire. While Sima Qian and his father Sima Tan have been traditionally credited as the authors of the Shiji, their authorial voice was recently challenged by scholars. In response to the revisionist view, this paper discerns that the Shiji maintains a consistent narrative of the Qin collapse, which is generated through rigorous source redactions whereby Sima Qian and/or Sima Tan were able to incorporate their ideological agenda and personal opinions in subtle ways that are almost invisible to the reader. With such anonymity, the historiographers succeeded in establishing the authority of their historical narratives. Rather than simply juxtaposing the narratives of their sources, the Simas indeed authored their “patterned past” of the Qin collapse. However, the past constructed in the Shiji comprises various independent narratives whose plausibility is contingent upon the respective epistemic quality of their evidence rather than a harmonious discourse.

The Inner Tradition of Fuchai

This chapter talks about Fuchai, who was the last king of Wu. According to Sima Qian, Fuchai was a complicated and tragic figure who avenged his father's death, defeated Wu's long time rival Yue, extended Wu's influence to the north, and led Wu to become a political hegemon among the states. It focuses on the fall of the king of Wu by highlighting Fuchai's obstinance, his trust of dishonest words, his executions of loyal ministers, and the eventual decline of his state. It also omits the early successful years of King Fuchai and begins with the eleventh year of his rule, the year he ignored the most dangerous enemy Yue in the south and extended his power north by attacking the state of Qi. The chapter concludes with Fuchai's reluctant suicide that was preceded by expressions of remorse for killing Wu Zixu and Gongsun Sheng.