《史记》的影响是巨大的，多方面的。作为人类宝贵的精神财富，它的影响更已越出了诞生它的中华大地。其中的一些篇章早被译成多种外语，并且国外也有不少著名的研究者。1956年司马迁被列为世界文化名人，受到各国人民的纪念。这一切都说明，司马迁的《史记》是我国传统文化中民主性的精华，是宝贵的文化遗产，继承这份文化遗产，让它不断发出新的光辉。

The Collection of Critical Biographies of Chinese Thinkers, under the general editorship of the late honorary president of Nanjing University, Professor Kuang Yaming, is the largest-scale project of research materials on Chinese thinkers undertaken since the beginning of the twentieth century. Standing on the shoulders of this great man and other 200 well-known Chinese professors, this collection of concise Chinese-English version is not only based on a profound academic foundation, but also exhibits a brand new feature which is the virtue of explaining the profound in a simple way, hence leading readers to mastery of the contents; it also incorporates a refined principle of selection, a simple mode of evaluation and commentary, and a moving narration of the stories and their wisdom.

Sima Qian, the Prefect of the Grand Scribes of the Han Dynasty, is regarded as the father of Chinese historiography because of his highly praised work--Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), a general history of China covering more than three thousand years from the Yellow Emperor to Emperor Wu of the Han. His definitive work laid the foundation for later Chinese historiography.

一 故乡，童年

二 二十漫游

三 由郎中到太史令

四 李陵之祸

五 刑余的史臣

六 史家之绝唱

七 无韵之《离骚》

八 光照千古

译后记