Sima Qian Sima Qian (Szu-ma Chien; c. 145 or 135 BC C 86 BC) was a Chinese historian and litterateur of the Han dynasty. He was considered as the father of Chinese historiography for his work, the Records of the Grand Historian, a Jizhuanti-style general history of China, covering more than two thousand years from the Yellow Emperor to his time, during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. Although he worked as the Court Astrologer (Chinese: Tish Lng), later generations refered to him as the Grand Historian (Chinese: Taishi Gong or tai-shih-kung) for his monumental work.