Editing Sima Qian (section)

=== Format ===
The ''Shiji'' totals over 500,000 [[Chinese characters|characters]] in length, organized into 130 chapters. While the style and form of [[Chinese historiography]] was not static over time, the ''Shiji'' created a permanent standard for quality and style for later scholars. Before Sima, histories focused on recounting particular events or the affairs of a specific region; his idea of a general history guided later historiographers, like [[Sima Guang]] and {{ill|Zheng Qiao|zh|鄭樵}} ({{zhi|鄭樵}}), authors of the  ''[[Zizhi Tongjian]]'' (1084) and ''[[Tongzhi (encyclopedia)|Tongzhi]]'' (1161) respectively. While the traditional format by which official histories would be organized was codified later by [[Ban Gu]] in the ''[[Book of Han]]'' (111&nbsp;AD), historians consider the ''Shiji'' to have informed Ban's work. <ref name="jay"/>

The ''jizhuanti'' ({{lang|zh|紀傳體}}) format divides a work into several different types of chapters, most prominently 'basic annals' ({{lang|zh|本紀}}; ''benji'') and 'ordered biographies' ({{lang|zh|列傳}}; ''liezhuan''). ''Benji'' contain biographies for each sovereign, ordered chronologically and organized by dynasty; ''liezhuan'' contain biographies of influential individuals outside the nobility, sometimes for one prominent individual, but often for two or more people who, in Sima's judgment, played comparably important roles. In addition to these namesake categories, there are chapters falling under the categories of 'tables' ({{lang|zh|表}}; ''biao'') collating graphical chronologies of royalty and nobility, and 'treatises' ({{lang|zh|書}}; ''shu'') giving historical accounts of topics like music, ritual, or economics. Most importantly, the 'house chronicles' ({{lang|zh|世家}}; ''shijia'') document important events during each ruler's reign for each [[ancient Chinese state|state]] within the Zhou dynasty, as well as histories of the noble houses established during the Han.

The ''Shiji'' includes 12 basic annals, 10 tables, 8 treatises, 30 house chronicles, and 70 ordered biographies; with the final ordered biography serving as the postface. This final chapter details the background of how the ''Shiji'' was composed and compiled, and gives brief justifications for the inclusion of the major topics, events, and individuals in the work. As part of the background, the postface provides a short sketch of the history of the Sima clan, from legendary times to his father Sima Tan. It also details the dying words of Sima Tan, tearfully exhorting the author to compose the present work, and contains a biographical sketch of the author himself. The postface concludes with a self-referential description of the postface as the 70th and last of the Ordered Biographies chapters.