Introduction: The Legacy of Sima Qian In his two-volume work of Shiji, “Records of the Grand Historian,” Sima Qian offers his perspective on the events that took place in China as the latter was ruled by the Han and Qin dynasties. Embracing the entire range of political and historical events in China on the given time slot, this paper is, no doubt, the cornerstone work in the Chinese historiography. Offering a fairly full, though often objective, interpretation of the reign of two dynasties, the Records of the Grand Historian are decent attempt to record the Chinese history. Shaping the Understanding of the Chinese History: Sima Qian and His Work Being the first work that provided a description of the period of Qin and Han Dynasties, “records of the Grand Historian” offers ample opportunities to explore the world of the ancient China. However, the question is, how well the elements of the Qin and Han world are introduced in the book. While historical correctness is essential, it is also important to understand what the book has to offer to the audience as readers. Diving into the atmosphere of the ancient China It must be admitted that Qian does his job of restoring the atmosphere of the Qin and Han dynasties’ reign very well. Qian gives many details about the Chinese customs and the everyday life in Qin and Han era: “From the chiefs of the tribe on down, everyone eats the meat of the domestic animals and wears clothes of hide or wraps made of felt or fur” (Sima Han Dynasty 129). Chronology and several inconsistencies: a time paradox Having the access to the entire range of historical documents within the imperial palace as the court historian, Sima Qian, on the one hand, was able to incorporate all the pieces of information concerning the Chinese history. On the other hand, the information in one source often contradicted the data in another one. Hence, some of Qian’s historical records are doubtful at best, incorrect at worst. As Durrant noted, “Sima Qian not only lacked a comprehensive and authoritative history for this [the Qin dynasty] period, […] he even lacked, so he tells us here, the basic annals necessary to piece together a complete picture of these critical centuries” (Durrant 100). Sima Qian and the Key Principles of the Traditional Chinese Historiography Despite the fact that the Chinese historiography is, in fact, a field with its own rules that were established long ago, it still offered ample opportunities to create several types of historiography traditions. Therefore, the work composed by Sima Qian bears clear characteristics of the works that appeared on the same time slot and deal with the related issues (Wang vii). However, in the light of the fact that Sima Qian was actually the first one to start the tradition of imperial historiography, every single element of Records of the Grand Historian can be considered the staples of the future historiography style, like the obvious fake yet colorful details, such as “every man raised himself up and wept” (Sima Qin Dynasty 231). What helped understand the specifics of the time period One might say that his writing does follow the key principles of the Chinese imperial historiography pretty closely. However, to Sima Qian’s credit, one must mention that before he wrote his work,