Sima Qian's Records of the Historian

On the train back up from Portland I read my new book, Selections from the Records of the Historian. There is just something wonderful about reading a history book that is two thousand years old! It was fun, as the edition I bought is dual language and I frequently found myself looking over at the chinese pages and finding the words I knew and figuring out ones I didn't. It was exciting and made me think I'm remembering more Chinese than I think I am. (It also made me think I need to get the full versions.)

A lot of the stories were familiar to me, which I found a bit surprising at first, but then remembered how many stories about ancient china I had read. The selections seemed to mostly be from the Qin histories. Though the fist one was the downfall of the Qin. I thought it a bit odd that they didn't put their selections in chronological order but I was able to figure it out. The tale of Guo Jie born of a fortune teller and a gallant was very funny, and insightful. Yuo Rang whose talents went unrecognised I felt kinship with. But I particularly loved the tale of Jing Ke, which I first saw in the movie, The Emperor and the Assassin, which I totally fell in love with. At the time I had no idea of the story or history that it was based on, and was routing for the assassin and very sad when he didn't win. Oh well I'm sure many people will make the same mistake when they go and see Hero this weekend. But this version mentioned Jing Ke's drinking, which made me particularly happy. They said how he spent much time with drinking companions but was quiet thoughtful and studious too. I hope someday people will say that about me!