In the last years of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, Sima Qian spent his whole life to complete the "Taishi Gongshu". He traveled south to Jianghuai, north to Wensi, visited Chun Shenjun's old house, visited Han Xin's mother's grave, sympathized with Jia Yi, who "did not meet Huaicai", and sighed for Jing Ke and Gao's "Xiangle has also cried".
However, due to his satire of the times, this masterpiece can only helplessly "hide the famous mountain". It was not until the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty that this historical masterpiece that had been sealed for more than 100 years finally broke out of the cocoon, and unfortunately ten of them were lost.
There are many controversies and unsolved mysteries in history about Sima Qian's birth and death years, and there is no record in the official history of Sima Qian's death. Some people think that this shows that Sima Qian died well, but it is rumored that he died unexplained, and the possibility of his death may be hidden behind the loss of life.
This made the "Book of Report to Ren'an", which is suspected of being written by Sima Qian, attract everyone's attention. The mystery of Sima Qian's death remains an unsolved mystery.
Sima Qian's "Book of Reporting to Ren'an" revealed many words of resentment, which made many people suspicious. Does the inclusion of a letter, if not in public circulation, in the Book of Han mean that he found it in official sources?
Or has the letter been exposed, or has it been turned over after Ren An's death? After all, this letter has more than 2,000 words, and it takes more than 100 bamboo slips to write, so it may not be easy to send it to Ren An in prison.
Such a letter would undoubtedly bring great trouble to Sima Qian, so how this reply would affect him became an unavoidable question. Some people believe that it was precisely because of the "Book of Reporting to Ren'an" that Sima Qian was killed, and even died in the year he wrote this letter.
The Eastern Han scholar Wei Hong mentioned in the "Notes on the Old Han Rituals" that Sima Qian was sent to the silkworm room because he recommended Li Ling, who defected to the Xiongnu, and complained in prison, and was finally executed.
According to Wei Hong, Sima Qian did not die well. However, Bangu and Wei Hong are almost the same era, if there is such a thing, why didn't Bangu record it?
This raises questions about the authenticity of the story.
Although Ge Hong mentioned it in the "Xijing Miscellaneous Records", this book is only a collection of historical notes, and many of the events of the Western Han Dynasty described in it are not credible. Guo Lao also mentioned Huan Kuan's views in "Treatise on Salt and Iron: Zhou and Qin", and the literati discussed it a lot.
According to records, during the reign of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, even if some people had reached a high position, they could still encounter accidents for various reasons, including going down to the silkworm room and being cut and sawed. The "Salt and Iron Conference" was held in the sixth year of Emperor Zhao of the Western Han Dynasty, not far from the era in which Sima Qian lived, and some people speculated that Sima Qian might also be one of them.
After Sima Qian was released from prison, he served as the Zhongshu Commander and was responsible for propagating the edict, so some people thought that he might have been promoted to the emperor's side. However, there were so many people who suffered similar encounters at the time that it seems far-fetched to explain Sima Qian's fate with this set of literati accounts.
In fact, "going down to the silkworm room" and "being cut and sawed" were common punishments at that time, and they were more used to mock the harsh punishment of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Therefore, Wei Hong believes that Sima Qian's "death in prison" is only an isolated evidence, and cannot be used as evidence that Sima Qian died in prison again.
Some people speculate that Sima Qian may have been a victim of the "witch prison" that occurred in the later years of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. This incident occurred in the second year of Zhenghe (91 BC), and the cause was that Jiang Chong had a holiday with Liu Ju, the prince of Wei, who was afraid that he would fall into the hands of the prince after the death of Emperor Wu and be retaliated against, so he created a witch case to get rid of the prince.
The prince rebelled, killed Jiang Chong and fought a fierce battle with the army sent by Emperor Wu in Chang'an, the result was that Prince Wei was defeated and committed suicide, but after Prince Wei's death, the witch Gu case was still spreading.
Emperor Wu shifted from an in-depth investigation of the Witch Gu Prison to an in-depth investigation of the Prince's unjust death. Sima Qian's friend Tian Ren was beheaded for letting the prince go; The Imperial Doctor also committed suicide because of dereliction of duty; Even Ren An was not spared, and was recognized by Emperor Wu as sitting on the mountain to watch the tiger fight, and was finally beheaded.
Until the fourth year of Zhenghe, I don't know how many people died before and after, and many civil and military ** were also involved in this disaster, that is, "the disaster of witchcraft is flowing to scholars" as stated in the "Book of Han".
Was Sima Qian alive when all this happened? Or is he also one of the victims of the case? There are also people who believe that Sima Qian died after Emperor Wu, because Chu Shaosun, a scholar in the Zhaoxuan period, once said, "The Taishi Gong Chronicle is all about filial piety."
You see that the places involving Emperor Wu in the "Historical Records" are all called "Emperor Wu", which is said to be posthumously sealed by descendants after Liu Che's death. If Sima Qian died in front of Emperor Wu, of course he would not know this nickname, and only after he died in Emperor Wu would he revise and use this nickname.
However, there were not only one or two people who revised the "Historical Records", the most famous was Chu Shaosun, and it is difficult to tell whether it was revised by Sima Qian himself or by later generations.
In short, there is no conclusive evidence whether Sima Qian was "complaining and died in prison" or was implicated because of the "witch prison", or whether he died a righteous death. The relationship between Sima Qian's death and the "Book of Reporting to Ren'an" is also the focus of everyone's attention.
Since the Qing Dynasty, some scholars have believed that the writing date of the Book of Bao Ren'an is an important basis for Sima Qian's death. But when the reply was written, there are different accounts.
However, a careful analysis of the "Book of Bao Ren'an" may be closely related to Sima Qian's fate. When did Sima Qian and Ren An first meet?
Sima Qian mentioned several time nodes in the letter: "曩" refers to the past, when Ren An was doing assassination in Yizhou, he wrote a letter to Sima Qian, asking him to recommend talents for Emperor Wu, but Sima Qian never replied to Ren An; "Huidong came up, and forced cheap things, and the meeting was shallow" shows that after Sima Qian's "eastward congregation" Emperor Wu returned to Chang'an, he was able to see Ren An often, but because he was in a hurry, he didn't have time to explain to him why he didn't reply, obviously Ren An had returned to Chang'an from Yizhou at this time and served as the envoy of the Northern Army; "Today's Shaoqing's unforeseen crime" refers to Ren An's "unforeseen crime", what is the crime?
Historical records record that Ren An was involved in the witch case and was imprisoned, and there was no record of capital crimes before this. Sima Qian also said, "In the month of October, the servant is thin from the top to Yong, and I am afraid that I will die", which means that in another month it will be close to the end of winter, and the date for him to go to Yongxian with Emperor Wu is also approaching, I am afraid that suddenly something unfortunate will happen to Ren An (Han Law executes prisoners in December every year), that is, it is euphemistic that Ren An's death will come in another month.
According to the "Historical Records: The Biography of Tian Shulie", when Ren An served as the envoy of the Northern Army, the crown prince Liu Ju once issued a festival order to him to send troops. However, Ren An closed his door after accepting the festival and did not take actual action.
When Emperor Wu of Han learned of this, he believed that Ren An's behavior was not rebellious, but out of prudence and justice. Therefore, he forgave Ren An and believed that he had not sinned. However, it doesn't end there.
Later, a small official of the Northern Army wrote to accuse Ren An of saying after accepting the prince's decree: "I hope you can give me the best." This remark aroused the dissatisfaction of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, who believed that Ren An was opposed.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty overturned his previous benevolent disposition, believing that Ren An was disloyal and watching success or failure. In the end, Ren An was imprisoned and executed. Ren An's case didn't happen from the beginning.
Before he was executed, he was involved in the case of Gongsun He's father and son. Gongsun Jingsheng, the son of Gongsun He, was punished for embezzling a huge amount of military funds from the Northern Army, and Ren An, as the envoy of the Northern Army, protected the army and failed to supervise effectively.
This may be what Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty called "unforeseen crimes". In conclusion, Ren An's case is a complex story that involves many events and characters. His actions and decisions were seen as rebellious and disloyal by Emperor Wu of Han, which ultimately led to his death.
However, this process also reveals the decision-making process of Emperor Wu of Han, as well as his political ideas and values.
Ren An may have been called a "death criminal" by Emperor Wu, and we do not yet know his circumstances in the case. It would not be impossible if he exposed Gongsun Jingsheng's embezzlement of military funds and thus escaped imprisonment.
After all, the Gongsun He father and son case and the Prince Wei case occurred one after another, and Ren An was still the envoy of the Northern Army before the outbreak of the Prince Wei case, so he was obviously not affected. As a Zhongshu order, Sima Qian, who was in charge of the edict, naturally would not be entangled in Ren An's situation because of this case.
In the "Newspaper", he mentioned Ren An's "unforeseen crimes" and "may be unavoidable" situations, and has already hinted that Ren An's crimes are serious enough to be sentenced to death.
Based on these signs, we speculate that Sima Qian wrote the Book of Reporting to Ren An in November of the second year of Zhenghe, when he learned that Ren An had suddenly been imprisoned, and he probably felt very uneasy in his heart, thinking that he would soon follow Emperor Wu to Yongdi, and if he did not explain to Ren An at this time why he did not reply, he might lose this opportunity.
Therefore, in the late winter of the second year of Zhenghe, that is, a month before Ren An was killed, Sima Qian wrote this "Letter of Report to Ren An". However, it was this "Letter of Resignation" that brought him death.
Why did Sima Qian not reply to Ren An's letter for months, two or three years after receiving it? What kind of predicament is Sima Qian in, and why can't he reply? Why are you reluctant to reveal your thoughts to anyone before completing the "Records of the Historians"?
Sima Qian said in the "Book of Reporting to Ren'an" that he was subjected to all kinds of **, how did the depression and grief in his heart backlog? Why did he not reply to Ren An's letter without any explanation after receiving it?
It wasn't until the late winter of the second year of Zhenghe that Sima Qian completed the "Taishi Gongshu" and settled the original and the fate of the copy, that he wrote the "Book of Reporting to Ren'an", calmly waiting for the imminent shadow of death?
So, did Ren An see this letter? The history books do not give us an answer, and perhaps, as the contemporary historian Mr. Lu Yaodong said, this is "not only a letter that cannot be sent, but also Sima Qian's last masterpiece, which can be regarded as Sima Qian's suicide note."
Does Sima Qian's death have anything to do with Baoshu? Why did Wei Hong say that Sima Qian "had a complaint and died in prison"? Is Sima Qian's death related to the Newspaper?
Sima Qian's chronology in the Records of the Historian is believed to be in 104 BC, but in fact he has already broken through this limit. He recorded not only the events of the second year of Zhenghe, but also the events of the third year of Zhenghe, but between the fourth year of Zhenghe and the second year of the Later Yuan Dynasty, that is, before the death of Emperor Wu of Han, many major events occurred, such as the death of Shang Qiucheng and the rebellion of the Ma Tong brothers.
These major events are not recorded in the Historical Records, which may indicate that Sima Qian has died. In addition, Sima Qian recorded various natural phenomena and astrological phenomena such as meteorites and ** from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Wudi period in the "Historical Records of Heavenly Officials".
However, similar events occurred in February of the fourth year of Zhenghe and in the autumn of the first year of the Later Yuan Dynasty, but these records are only found in the Book of Han, but Sima Qian does not record them in the Book of Historical Records of Heavenly Officials.
This could mean that Sima Qian had died before that. Combined with the political situation at that time, we can deduce that the cause of Sima Qian's death may be related to the "Newspaper Book" he wrote to Ren An in November of the second year of Zhenghe.
The letter may have been exposed, amounting to his charge of "complaining", so he was again thrown into prison to die. How Sima Qian was involved in this disaster is a question worth going deep into.
Of course, there is also the question of how Sima Qian was involved in this disaster. Since the second year of the conquest and the second year of the Wei prince Liu according to the defeat of the army after the suicide, the "witch curse" has not disappeared, the three years of the conquest, the insider ordered Guo Sui to report the prime minister Liu Quyu and the second division general Li Guangli "want to make the king of Changyi the emperor", Liu Quyu's whole family was executed, Li Guangli also surrendered the Xiongnu, the clan was destroyed.
According to the edict issued by Emperor Wu later, the case also evolved to the other side at that time, that is, "the misfortune and the scholars", and the court fell into a kind of fear, especially Che Qianqiu, who succeeded Liu Quyu and succeeded to the throne, and the first thing he did after taking office was to "dig Lantai to test Gu", this process of digging Gu Lantai has been lost at present, but we see that many officials in the DPRK and China, such as Taichang Li Zhonggen, Dahonglu Dai Ren, Yushi Dafu Shang Qiucheng, Jingzhao Yin Jian, etc., have died unexpectedly.
Imperial Shi Dafu, Taichang, etc., these official positions are either in charge of books and classics, or those groups in charge of blessing and sacrifice, since the upper and senior ** have been involved in the witch Gu case, can Sima Qian, who was Taishi Ling, be spared?
Whether the "Book of Newspaper to Ren'an" was exposed to Ren An's prison, or in the hands of Sima Qian, or "Lantai", since the "Book of Taishi Gongshu" was regarded as a "slanderous book" by some literati at that time for a long time, then the "Book of Newspapers" will inevitably be regarded as "complaints".
You look at the ending of Sima Qian's grandson Yang Yun, it was all in the period of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, Yang Yun wrote a "Book of Reporting Sun Huizong", whose writing style is exactly the same as that of his maternal grandfather Sima Qian, as a result, this letter was reported to Emperor Xuan of Han, Emperor Xuan of Han was furious after reading it, and directly ordered Yang Yun to be beheaded, it is conceivable that if the same situation happened to Sima Qian, what was waiting for him would inevitably be the end of the beheading.
As for why Ban Gu didn't remember the cause of Sima Qian's death and the year of death, I'm afraid that he couldn't find much relevant materials at that time, when Sima Qian was alive, he was just a humble little official, and of course his life deeds would not be paid much attention to, even if he was killed, he was not qualified to be on the same list with the princes and nobles at that time, so that in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Ban Gu had no clue, and he would not write it in the "Book of Han" without evidence, so he only said that he was "dead", and did not write the cause of death and the year of death.
What happened to Sima Qian, no one knows. However, after many years of being regarded as a "slanderous book" that "is not the same as the saints, and right and wrong are quite absurd", people from all over the world can finally read it together, which is probably the best consolation for Sima Qian.