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Sima Qian painstakingly paints Hsiang Yu as a humane hero full of life, passion and contradiction – a complex figure whose eyes had double pupils. Sima Qian persuades his readers to view Hsiang Yu with a double lens, as both a sage king-warrior and a failure. ... My argument is based primarily on the stark contrast between the larger-than-life Hsiang Yu and the colorless, unnamed King of Han, which is a subtle and skillful portrayal of Sima Qian’s feelings about the Han empire’s inadequacies. ... However, Sima Qian is careful to toe the official line in his final remarks by conspicuously leaving out any mention of Han’s own dishonorable conduct or failings, while implying in a rather ironic tone that we, like Hsiang Yu, would be indeed deluded if we thought that capricious Heaven was wrong in destroying Hsiang Yu for his errors.
The structure of my argument begins with an examination of Sima Qian’s view about Heaven and the basis of authority for a dynasty in the light of Confucian idealogy as well as Han ideological propaganda about the mandate of Heaven. Secondly, I will attempt to deduce Sima Qian’s views about the nature of a Righteous King and a Sage King, and the extent to which the Han emperor and his empire fits either description. Finally, I will analyse the Grand Historian’s moralistic tone and equivocal remarks as a counterpoint to Sima Qian’s personal sympathies.
The Basic Annals of Hsiang Yu are one of thirty biographies of great men who can be considered to have ‘made’ Chinese history, indicating that Sima Qian saw the lives of these famous people as being emblematic of the spirit of the times.
Approximate Word count = 1424
Approximate Pages = 5.7
(250 words per page double spaced)
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