Sima Qian was born in Longmen on the bank of the Yellow River. He grew up watching the rolling Yellow River roar from the dragon gate, and he was very excited to listen to the stories of ancient heroes told by the villagers. His father, Sima Tan, was an official in charge of compiling history in the Han Dynasty. He is determined to write a history book, recording the 2600-year history from the Yellow Emperor to the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Influenced by his father, Sima Qian studied hard and greatly enriched his historical knowledge. He also traveled around, made many friends and accumulated a lot of historical materials.

On his deathbed, Sima Tan held his son's hand in tears and said, "After my death, the imperial court will let you succeed to the throne. You must not forget the history books I have to finish in my life! " Sima Qian kept in mind his father's entrustment and was busy studying historical documents every day, sorting out the historical materials left by his father and the materials collected by traveling around the country in his early years.

Just as he was absorbed in writing historical records, an unexpected trouble suddenly fell on his head. It turned out that Sima Qian offended Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty by defending a general and was imprisoned and tortured. Sima Qian was sad and angry, and tried to splash blood on the wall several times, which killed him. But I gave up the idea when I thought that Historical Records had not been completed. He thought: "People always die, some are heavier than Mount Tai, and some are lighter than a feather. If I die like this, wouldn't it be as light as a feather? I have to live! I must finish writing this history book! " Thought of here, he tried to restrain himself, buried his personal shame and pain in his heart, unfolded a smooth bamboo slip again, and wrote a neat line of official characters on it.

In this way, Sima Qian angrily wrote and spent 18 years. At the age of 60, he finally finished a brilliant masterpiece of 520,000 words-Historical Records. This unprecedented work almost exhausted his life's hard work, and he wrote it with his life.