Sima Tan (; 165–110

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

) was a Chinese astrologer and historian during the

Western Han dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a war ...

. His work ''

Records of the Grand Historian ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese hist ...

'' was completed by his son

Sima Qian Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years b ...

, who is considered the founder of Chinese historiography.

Education & career

Sima Tan studied astronomy with Tang Du, the ''

I Ching The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zho ...

'' under Yang He, and

Daoism Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the ''Tao'' ...

under Master Huang. He was appointed to the office of Court Astrologer () at age 25 in 140

, a position which he held until his death. An essay by him has survived within the ''

''. In this essay within the larger work, Sima Tan describes six philosophical lineages or "schools" (家 ''jiā''): *

Confucianism Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...

(儒家 ''Rú jiā'') *

(道家 ''Dào jiā'') * Legalism (法家 ''Fǎ jiā'') *

Mohism Mohism or Moism (, ) was an ancient Chinese philosophy of ethics and logic, rational thought, and science developed by the academic scholars who studied under the ancient Chinese philosopher Mozi (c. 470 BC – c. 391 BC), embodied in an epony ...

(墨家 ''Mò jiā'') *

School of Names The School of Names (), sometimes called the School of Forms and Names (), was a school of Chinese philosophy that grew out of Mohism during the Warring States period in 479–221 BCE. The followers of the School of Names were sometimes called the ...

(名家 ''Míng jiā'') *

School of Naturalists The School of Naturalists or the School of Yin-Yang () was a Warring States-era philosophy that synthesized the concepts of yin-yang and the Five Elements. Overview Zou Yan is considered the founder of this school. His theory attempted to explai ...

(陰陽家/阴阳家 ''Yīnyáng jiā'') (central figure

Zou Yan Zou Yan (; ; 305 BC240 BC) was a Chinese philosopher and spiritual writer best known as the representative thinker of the Yin and Yang School (or School of Naturalists) during the Hundred Schools of Thought era in Chinese philosophy. Biography Z ...

) The categorization of earlier philosophers into these six schools was fairly original. As for his assessment of these schools, it is rather biased towards Daoism, as Sima Tan was a follower of Huang-Lao, an early Han form of Daoism. Although Sima Tan began writing the ''

'' (''Shiji''), he died before it was finished; it was completed by his son,

. The year of Sima Tan's death (110 BCE) was the year of the great imperial sacrifice ''fengshan'' ( :zh:封禅) by Emperor Han Wudi, for which the emperor appointed another person to the rank of

fangshi ''Fangshi'' () were Chinese technical specialists who flourished from the third century BCE to the fifth century CE. English translations of ''fangshi'' include alchemist, astrologer, diviner, exorcist, geomancer, doctor, magician, monk, myst ...

, bypassing Sima, probably causing him much consternation.

References

* (pbk ed.) * * 160s BC births 110 BC deaths 2nd-century BC Chinese people 2nd-century BC Chinese historians Ancient astrologers Chinese astrologers Han dynasty historians Year of birth unknown {{China-historian-stub

Education & career

See also

References