Editing Sima Qian (section)

===Other literary works===
Sima's famous letter to his friend Ren An about his sufferings during the Li Ling Affair and his perseverance in writing ''Shiji'' is today regarded as a highly admired example of literary prose style, studied widely in China even today.<ref>{{cite book | title=The Letter to Ren An and Sima Qian's Legacy| first1= Stephen|last1= Durrant|first2=Wai-yee|last2= Li|first3= Michael|last3= Nylan |first4= Hans van|last4 =Ess
|author3-link=Michael Nylan 
 |date=2018 |isbn= 9780295743646 | publisher =University of Washington Press}}</ref> The ''Letter to Ren An'' contains the quote, "Men have always had but one death. For some it is as weighty as [[Mount Tai]]; for others it is as insignificant as a goose down. The difference is what they use it for." ({{lang|zh|人固有一死，或重于泰山，或輕于鴻毛，用之所趨異也。}}) This quote has become one of the most well known in all of Chinese literature. In modern times, Chairman [[Mao Zedong|Mao]] paraphrased this quote in a [[Serve the People|speech]] in which he paid tribute to a fallen [[People's Liberation Army|PLA]] soldier.

Sima Qian wrote eight rhapsodies (''[[Fu (poetry)|fu]]''), which are listed in the bibliographic treatise of the ''Book of Han''. All but one, the "Rhapsody in Lament for Gentlemen who do not Meet their Time" ({{lang|zh|士不遇賦}}) have been lost, and even the surviving example is probably not complete.